Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-10-28
The Garden or the God.

A two mile drive on the right bank of the
rushing river brings us TO the gateway of the
garden.
No description which l have ever seen gives
a correct idea of the impression produced by
these tremendous stones. Rising directly from
the plain, of red color unsurpassed in vivid
ness by the brightest cOTnelian, stand two
powders three hundred feet high--at once ma
ieStic and graceful in outline, and leaving just
space enough between them for fine natural
The idea of a Systematically planned
architectural effect is irresistible, "Who nut
them there2 when? how? we ask involuntari-
"; for, in position, shape and color they are so
artistic that our minds revert at once to such
ruins as Luxor and Baalbec, rather than TO any
purely natural objects.
At the right, just before we pass through the
grand portal, is a shining mass of gypsum, as
white as the sandstone is red, and
perhaps half as large as the column nearest to
il. Once past the entrance an overwhelming
impression overtakes us of being in "a gigantic
temple, whose sculptured columns and majestic
images are crumbling TO ruin before our eyes
All around, rising abruptly from the light soil,
are sandstone obeiSks, fifty, seventy FIVE and
even a hundred and fifty feet high; so narrow
so tall, and so bafingly intentional in their
shapes and groupings, that ones fancy runs
riot in thousand vagaries. These frowning
monsters, surrounded by uncouth forms of ami
mails which seem to fawn at their feet, repre-
sent to us the degraded heather deites who,
Milton tells us, never cease TO lament over their
lost empire; here they stand, petrifed by the
neglect and contempt of the ages.
So we wandered slowly through what seemed
to be the remains of a forgotten worship, more
picturesque than the Egyptian, more solemn
than the Greek, but partakiOg of the symbols of
each. We crept into 4 low-browed cavern on one
side of the gateway, whose huge bosom contain
all the oracles ever uttered from Delphic times
to the last meeting of the Spritualists; but we
were glad to hurry out again, as the possibility
of being punished for our irrcverence by the
shutting of its narrow jaws oyercame even the
proyerbial Stolidity of a nineteenth century
seems to Guido itself in honor to the genii of the
place.
FIVE stde our vagrant fancies, still science
asks nearly the same questions as ignorance
How did these separate red and white rocks
come MP or down, within twenty feet of each
other, on a soil unlike either stone and totally
unlike the soil of Pixies Peak, of which they
might otherwise seem to be debris? If they
were the result of the same uplift, why are they
not geologically contemporaueous If of differ
ent ages, why do the strata show such similarity
of tilt and direction? In vain! The solemn
figures keep their secret well, turn up their noses
yisibly at our childish Ignorance of facts which
they must know as the Yankee knew his father,
''JuSt as easy u
The traveller rides shudderiugly beneath the
overhanging masses, which generally appear as
Indifferent to the requirements Of gravitation as
the leaning tower of Pisa, and wonders to what
storm each will finally succumb and what flee.
ing pleasure party will be caught by the fearful
destruction. These sensations cause the exit
from the garden to be hailed with q feeling of
relief, and we drove out upon smooth road
which leads us between rich stones, crowned by
old castles.
At a sharp turn in the road our feudal castle
hppamp a n mo eI,.,,
q beautiful modern Italian villa. Here is a
rustic work gate, tlanked by picturesque vine
covered porter's lodge, a winding stream bOr--
dered by willows, and at the end Of a park road,
in the very pocket OF romantic glen or bower,
handsome and new enough for a show pa lace
on the Hudson river. Our surprise was in
tense, but glance at bona fde eagles nest
perched half way up on tremendous rock near
the gate convinced us that this was the 'tGlen
Eyrie' of which we have heard so much, and
the house and grounds those of General Palmer
who has chosen this unusual sight for hand
some and hospitable country home. 1t is sin
gular position-yet beautiful: the park is shut
in on every side but one by precipitous rocks,
or almost equally PERCEPTIONS hills: three re-
markable obeliSks like those in the garden of
the Gods, actually overhang the dwelling. They
are called the Needles, bat to our ewes they
much more nearly resembled gigantic alder
man, his tub shaped wife and their obese dauph-
reception-they looked so stiff and uucomforta.
BILE, and were so outrageousy fail In addition
to these strange neighbOrs, the house has one of
the widest canons in Colorado stretching out
at one side, and forming an extension of the
pleasure grounds.
The interior of the villa evnces the same
eccentric but noble taste as its environment
The hall has deep fireplace, over which stares
the head of gigantic buffalo, SO large that it
takes ones breath away, and seems more like
some monster of an extinct species than any
animal that can have survived to these times
The hearth is formed of choice selection of
all the stones found in this gem bearing re-
gion, while across the face Of the carved mantel
piece runs a graceful design in natural leaves
fastened there by some ingenious process. A
buffalo calf, head, feet, skin and ALL is fashioned
into luxurious chair, so contriyed that an
appearance of life is preserved to the clumsy
but powerful beast. Failed and tattered flags
won in battle for the Union, hang over superb
elk horns. In short, time would fail TO tell of
all the ways in which love and admiration for
this paradise of country have been Shown bv
the owner of this unique country seat. OF the
more easily appreciated taste shown in a fine
library and well used grand piano, we forbear
to speak, as we iorbore to lnger in their neigh
borhood, and tore ourselves away, because as
strangers we were ashamed to trespass any
more, and also because the famous Queens
canon tnamed after Mrs Palmer) was still TO be
visited.
To this gorge nature has cunningly framed an
entrance so narrow that no impertinent vehicle
can ever disturb her sacred music, and we gladly
dispensed with all carriage but our own feet in
those enchanting shades. Imagine
perpendicular walls Of rocks many hundreds of
feet high, full Of inviting caves and prottoes
hung provOkingly out of reach of ANYBODY but
bears aud catamOunts, and holding close roar
ing torrent so full OF resonant motion that it
seems TO bear away ones breath upon its seeth-
ing loan, and so even in its force that the basins
which it caryes in the solid stone are as circular
as a watch crystal.
what poet,wh word cOnqueror shall vet arise
to fifty describe Colorado mountain brookI Cold
as ice, clear as diamond, fostering the lovelest
FERNS, MOSES and creeping plants on its rocky
norders; Swallowed by solemn white pines, whose
pictured trunks shoot up one hundred feet, and
then spread Misunderstanding branches; and above
an an ocean ofdeepest, tenderest blue, sprinkled
with Uninterrupted waves of cloud that ebb and
now onedient TO the tides Of upper air. This is
queens canon in Glen Eyrie, and we reverentlv
thanked God that we had seen it.
monument park was the next wonder on the
programme. may as well confess at once that
the result of that visit was to fix certain nm.
romantic alternatives firmly on my mind. The
sight of those funeral-draped sand-fgures with
chockolate-coored caps awake neither awe nor
enthusiasm. | was convinced either that the
ways OF the preAdamite era once collected all
their fashionable neighbors' chimneys together
and illed this valley with them for fun, or else
mat all the queer, long-necked, Stiff-skirted old
MAIDS OF the same period were at some time
suudenly turned into stone, and were thus con.
demned 10 present this ludicrous but instructiye
spectacle TO future ages. To me this set of form
ailonS Is not solemn except at distance. when
they certainly mimic Greenwood or Mount
Auburn very creditably, but when you stand in
ne midst OF them they are simply funny, |
l1lrm that ii some Of the tall slender females of
the days of fitting hoops had been suddenly
petil1ed by an outraged Providence, they would
nave looked exactly so, and the large dark ton
"hlch invariably crowns their little heads Is
exceedingly like the portentous sun-bonnet
affected by worthy matrOns in some of onr
rural districts. These caps are said nv The
guide books to be made Of "back hematite:"
Dnt at moderate distance they would represent
Dlack gingham distended BY pasteboard very
wei. do not know what black hematite
means; never met anybody who did; but |
conclude that 1t is a kind of tossilized calico
very much the worse for wear. The bodies of
The suppOsable Lots annts are Of sand. appar-
entity stuck together just enough to stand up, all
as round as though turned in a lathe, and full
d little pebbles which appear to have no neces-
'ary connection with the parent stem.
regret to say that we spent our time in Monu.
meat park entirely In naming the columns
after different acquaintance whom we tbougbt
they resembled, which base advantage taken of
the absent may have been the reason why we
were canght in thunder shower and Obliged
10 take refuge in neighboring ranch
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A DEADLY lNsEcT.-A traveller in South At
RIGA thus speaks Of peculiar fly whose bite is
fatal ia t,ogt d,., oc.ta o..s..-..t.