Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1874-07-16
TIE Annual ..June Risop OF Missouri.

The following able article On the
subject above, which we clip from
the Inter Ocean originally appeared
in the Press and Dakotian, of Yank-
ton. Perhaps many of our readers
have recognized it as coming from
the pen of Mr.. a w. Barber who is
at present managing editor Of the
latter paper:
Down along the longest valley in
the world, past our very doors, says
the Yankton Press and Dakotldn
comes the annual messenger, cours'
ing with haste, yellow with mud
aud spotted with foam, with tid'ngs
from the snowy peaks and inaccessl-
BILE cliffs of the Rocky Mountains.
Starting months ago from uninhabit-
ed mountain regions rich in precious
metals, it has just reached the land
of prairie cities and farms, and goes
rushing on, unchecked by storm or
night, to bear its message months
after this even to the tropic shores
of the Cult. Never pause does the
mighty torrent know, in the whole
| four thousand miles of its course.
What is the news that this Won
derful courier brings every year out
| Of the hidden Businesses where 1t has
birth? 1t tells US that the great an
nual change has once more been
completed; that the snow-clad peaks
have felt the reviving force of the
spring sunshine, aud that snowdrifts
deep enough to bury the mountain
pines are turned to pure mountain
rills, laundering cataracts along trib-
utary streams, and at last to "a river
that is known throughout the world.
1t tells us again the marvellous tale
that "all the rivers run into the sea,
yet the sea is not full )" and sets US
to thinking of the mighty power OF
natures silent and imperceptible
forces, waiting distilled waters from
the salt sea, crystalIizing it on the
tops, and setting it free to run once
more its pearly race and mix again
with the briny ocean. 1t tells US to
never fear lest the supplies of nature
and the streams Of Gods bounties
may fail for that eternal power
which lifts this whole river from the
ocean TO the realms of perpetual ice
will guard even tho sparrow trom
want. And it tells the story of
THAT strange
Perpetual round of change
birth IN oath
From earth 70 heaven, from heaven to earth'
as described by the American Bard
of Nature.
And so the great river goes roar
ing down its winding track, full to
to the banks, bearing the evidences
of the country and people along it's
course. The pure llmpid snow
water soon falls into bad associations
and after running for weeks with the
clay hills of Montana it comes out
contaminated and corrupted to tur-
bid brawling mass OF mud. The
| hills, to be sure, were also the suffer
ers from the companionship, for the
rivers ceaseless energy undermined
them and tumbled them INTO the
depths but the purity is gone never
| TO return, even soiling the character
Of its future consort, the clear Mis-
sissippi. So much tor the corrupting
effects of bad company.
Sailing on its boiling surges go
floating lost dugouts of Indians, dead
carcasses of buffalo that dropped
through the ice last winter, small
logs of cottonwood, pointed al both
ends as gnawed off by the myriad
beaver that line all it's shores, and
fragments of red, and blue, and urp-
pie lava from the volcanic rocks and
Scoria of the Bah Lands. And tall
steamers float like swans on the sur
face, their fiat bottoms secure from
the hateful sand-bars below, BOW
buried and forgotten.
Once year The wheels of Ma
lures clock turn slowly This an
nua food is but single tick Of IT'S
pendulum in the long night of time.
Nay, rather, it is 8 single pulsatlon
of the great heart OF Nature, forcing
the life-curront with bound through
its longest artery The long halt
year of winter was the moment OF
| inaction and of rest to earths vital
forces, followed by the period of life,
heat, and activity lasting till winter
again The season of deathly still
ness has given place to the Ieaping
streams and warm vital forces OF
spring, and in midsummer comes the
June rise, telling US the heart OF the
Rocky Mountains has given another
beat, and sent it's pulse thrilling
through the nation to the Gulf to
proclaim it. Slow beatings, to our
impatient minds and brief span OF
life yet to Him who alone has
counted them through the ages, they
mark the flight ofyoars till time shali
be counted no longer, even as our
fevered pulses tell US there comes q
day when the beating shall at last
be still.
| River Transportation.
Hon q Z Thomas of Prairie du