The Idaho world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1864-1918, 1874-11-28

80 -.
umnarEed graveyard, ard . P1e 81
looking chapel stands at one SIDE: %
low the valley il wooded without s'g''
of habitation-perhaps because amour,
er suspiciously steep mountain Is t'ele
but q mile or two beyond that arc
farms. Other moantains twice o. n'gu
as these, 5000 to I 900 feet, arise on
leither side, behind, in picturesque peaks
and outlines; and on the opposite sloe
of the Mara is one Of the most Deautl'
FIJI cascades in the world, entirely I'M.
heard Of in books or in travel, for augh!!
| I know: II falls over . succession q
lIaa1aess.iin- four bread. thin Sheets each,
60 to 100 feet wide and about as deep.
The valley is banked up by a snowy
range at the north. Such was IN,
landscape to the eyes Of the people 0,
Pleurs, except the FIRST part OF lt-ano
such it is, first part and all, to the few
who have heard Of Pleurs, and turn
aside an hour or two from going down
into Italy from the Splngen pass, 70
stand upon the melancholy scene-t"e
vast grave Of :, 900, people. 1t was
called Pleurs, or Tss-s-
THE TOWN OF TEARS"
Because, strange TO think OF. 1t was
situated upon the broad, earthly tomD
Of another village. which had 'tse'f
been overwhelmed by ike catastro-
phe! But that was many hundred years
earlier and / am told there are no re-
naming accounts Of it; only the bare
fact is known, and the record borne ny
the name Of the town that succeeded A.
Yet the mountain from which that an
cient avalanche slid away displays the
ruin wrought upon it more distinctly
than Monte Comic, which overwhelmed
Pleurs. Instead Of leaving generally
a surface of earth, which could become
converted into soil and spring into veg
citation, as Oh Monte Conto, this noun
tain on the other side was of remarSa'
bly, different formation. Its steep. tow
ering wall is mass Of broken, haky
rock, in thin, horizortal layers. Tins
gives its vast brpkeit front a Compare
lively flesh appearance as viewed with
the other, and the visitor would sup
pose that the avalanche which buried
Pleurs came from that side; but the
fact is clearly known TO the contrary.
srxMsn RESORT OF rHs oLpEy rr1E.
1t seems singular that in those old
times-,he beginning Of the seventeenth
century-rich gentlemen AMI mobiles.
fashionable people and successful mer-
chants, should have had the same way
we have of going with their families to
summer resorts. But the old Romans,
we well know, had their country villas;
Cicero speaks Of retiring to his subur-
ban abodc-to his books, and tablets
and literary leisure;;' and perhaps We
have very little that is new in our
ways Of life. Bnt wclI-rccordcd cir
cumstaaees relative t. Pleurs sl.sw that,
on .hat 4th of 1Sep semtpr, 1915, ttIscre
were few hundred more people in
town than the resident population, and
they were summer visitors. A party
of these, residents of Milan. had gone
down to Cbiayenna two ". three days
before. On account Of excessively
stormy weather, intending to return to
Milan if it continued. But the 4th Of
September was
A CLEAR, CHARMING DAY,
Giving proaniseiof prolonged pleasant
weather, and they set out in the after.
noon to 60 back to, Plenrs.. On an.
preaching the town they were alarmed
at seeing several slides of gravel and
rocks to the rear of, it, and finding that
some of the, vineyards had been buried
from the same cause. Fearing a gen
eral avalanche, most of them returned
to Chiavenna, but some kept on. There
were also hsrdsmep Of. the valley. Iv.
ing on the high past lures Of The mouk-
tains to the rear, attending the cattle,
as they do to this day in the summer
season. Some ofTth9n started tocune
down to the town the sAhe;1aftefnoou
to dispose of dairy produce that had
accumulated, but, on approaching it,
fastened away, having seen strange
mpvements taking paace. md ninMisg |
symptoms of some great convulsion. |
From such sources the premdnhoty
movements toward the catastrophe &C.
came atferwapd known ( catastrophe
that spread mourning to the region