The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1872-11-22
VOL. VIII.
AMID THE ALPS.

"By the way, Rawdon, what be-
come OF that meerschaum of yours ?
I asked him, rs we sat one night over
the campfire.
'W hat meerschaum ?"
THE one you bought of the old
German general at Holstein. | Sc
cured its twin"
II may answer your question by
asking what became of yours" re-
turned Rawdon, putting out the
smoke.
mine! That pipe of mine did a
vast amount of travelling, il you care
to know. 1t looked with its fry eye
askance at the pyramids; dipped with
me along the serpent bordered waters
of the Nile; burned its small pile of
incense along the storied Rhine. 1t
yearned pensively and dropped an
ash by the ashes of Herculaneum and
Pompeii. 1t wended it's way past the
lighthouse of the Mediterranean
Ii lowered about Mecca and Medina,
and at last, when in poetic mood by
the Captain, immortalized by Moore $
LIQUID verse-my lips relaxed their
hold aud my pipe fell into the sea-
Quite history" remarked Raw
don. Mine committed suicide
LARGO laughed.
Truth" said Rawdon. GAS
stood on London Bridge, my hereto
tore faithful pipe leaped from my lips
into the TameS. 4 clear case of vol
untary suicide"
You had quite an adventure after
l left the party, Fitzhugh wrote me. d"
Had /? Let me see: it was soon
after you left the party that we made
the ascent attempted it, rather
of Mont Blame
YES, that was what Fitzhugh spoke
of in his letter. What about it all"
Zone can hardly hope to do Justice
to anything which one tells OF Swi,z-
erland," began Rawdon, after a pause
OF thought. The country must be
seen to be appreciated, and it must he
seen by an artist eye and appreciated
bv soul endowed with deep re-
ligious seuse of the miracles which
God alone could create, 10 get the
faintest conception OF its wild, won
deriul, and magnificent scenery. So
sudden and greatly varied are the
changes which the eye heholds. that ii
seems more like fairy land floating
in the unreal mirage OF dream than
like anything real"
Ave"
''The great height and magnitude
of the mountains. glisiening with eler-
nal snow: the awful chasms opening
between them; the bolt upright prec-
pices; the dark raviues, with here and
there shadowed pool or lake aud the
fertile valleys blooming N luxuriance.
combine 10 make picture OF rare cx-
cellence, aud of unsurpassed Won
drous beauty.
We'll! go on, Rawdon."
"Secn on a cloudless dav, the spark
ling glaciers, piled up and pointed in
rare and fantastic form, dazzling the
eve and filing the soul with wonder.
Here snow-white city lifts It's Spires
and glistening pinnacles in frozen 81
lence, like mighty petrification.-
There, huge columns, like leaning
towers of marble. catch the suns glare
on their polished surfaces. Again,
one sees groups of marvellous statuary
figures standing, leaning, anything
and seemingly in death like reposc.
But about our adventure, Raw
dom"
"It was not much of an adventure"
he retorted. I'VE had passed the
winter at Geneva, small few OF
us. finding it possessed among its
citizens many of the most learn.
ed and scientific men Of Europe
From this place the view of the Alps
/ is unsurpassed. Toward Spring. par
ties of travellers going through the
place made us restless, and we also
started. AS our party moved on to-
ward the hamlet where we were in.
tending TO tarry few days and awai,
propItious time for ascending Mon,
Blanc, | was so unfortunate as to get
mounted on the most treacherous
steed in the lot. Never did Pegasus
throw his rider with less warning than
my beast of horse threw me. | es
capped with, as l thought, the trifiing
injury of sprained wrist. But | got
deceived in Judging that a sprained
wrist was but trifie, for my hand
began to swell and grow discolored
as for my thumb, it might as well
have been pine knot, for all the feel
ing there was in it; twas my righ,
hand, too. The rest waited severa
days for me to make the ascent with
them; but finding that my hand
mended so slowly, they grew impa
tient, and went on without me- Ii
did not much matter, for parties were
coming up every week or two, and
should not lack company. The tedi
business of my stay at the Inn wa.
very much frightened by the kind at
tentions of my hosts daughter, pretty
Jennie Dessonard."
Rawdon paused.
i 81 became impatient of the delay, :
he continued, "just as you, LARGO, arr
getting impatient because | don't tali
quicker. No sooner did cautious peo
pie suggest the impracticability of my
attempting the ascent at all, urging al
objections the dangerous season Of th'
year, and the inconvenient stiffness o
my wrist. that | made up my mind t.
risk the undertaking at all hazards
This unhappy trait OF character lie
dormant, or is active, in every nature.
| "What do you mean about tn,
/ dangerous season ?"
"Well, was detained by the illness
longer than you think for, LARGO; th'