The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1876-02-06
on MONT BLANC.

From Grace Greenwood Letter to N. Y. Times. ]
The following extract is written IN the hap
piest vein of this talented lady's excellent
style, and is a beautiful piece OF word pencil
ling, descriptive of ascene which must have
been grandly picturesque and sweetly sub
lime:
There is an inn on the Col de Blaine, yet
We did not take our incoming in its sdHe-d-mdn
ger, but out on the breezy declivity in face OF
Mont Blanc. Seated quite by ourselves, under
the brow of the mountain, We seemed utterly
alone in mighty upllfled solitude, shut IN
by sublimities and awesome forms OF beauty.
We had need to wrap ourselves well, for the
cir, most unlike the fine, electrical vital.
whey air of our Rocky Mountains, had in it
. rude and savage chiil-someshing that
seemed to tell of age and dea,h--sweeping as
It did over eternal SHOWS, where no life was.
The very sunshine was brilliant without
glow, as it had q soul of frost instead of fire.
To the right Of the Col de Baime towers the
Aiguille Dc Balme, sharp. rocky point very
difficult Of ascent, but which some adventu-
rous tourists climb for the sske OF grander
view of Mont Blanc aud of the Bernese o be-
land. A cross on this point marks the spot
where rash young German lost bis life. Such
melancholy memorials meet one everywhere
in the Alps. Everywhere the heart is bar
rowed by stories of these sad and useless mar
tyrdoms, and the Imagination is haunted by
tragedies which partake of the awfulness and
stupenduousness OF their scenes.
The first martyrs of the Matterhorn are for
ever taking their plunge Of four thousand feet
down its horrible, jagged sleeps; and awfully
visible to US still are Mont BiaDc's many mar
tyrs. though folded deep in the SHOWS Of its
summit-every winter adding q new winding
sheet-or lying in the ghas,ly green graves OF
it, crevas ;es . thousand feet down, frozen TIL
the resurrection. So TO these stern, pltlless
shapes is attached q pathetic human interest,
which all their SHOWS can not chill. which
their immensely can not annihilate. But
nature has, at best, on high Alpine SUBMITS,
harsh and alien aspect.
There is something appalling In their very
immutability-th rise and set Of suns, the
planetary influences, ths changing seasons
touch them 80 little. In their shining tram
quillity they betray no outward trace, no
memory OF the ,ime before time, when from
the earth's mysterious dep hs under the sea,
propelled by central fires, they battled their
way through darkness and wild CONFUSION,
bearing destruction to thousand forms of
lite, up to where they now stand serene and
supreme. They are like some hard natures,
which, after youth OF fiery passion, Of tu-
wv huu StIIlc, htthAu " al OAA go " ~ ASiu
virtue and rigid calm.
To me Heaven seems further off from the
Hottest mountain than from the profoundest
valley, and the love and mercy Of God seem
on the heights resolved into cold and dread
iufnity. His omnipresence is there lost in
His omnipotence, and it is nj ways with glad
and grateful remembrance that come again
upon trees and waving green fields and
human habitations, and would rather at any
time have my feet among the flowers than my
head among the stars. So we were not sorry
when our guide informed Us that it was time
to move on. We declined the mules for the
first mile or two; but taking to our sure, we'll
shod feet, and cutting across the endless g.
Gags of the brldle- path, went plupging down
toward Chamounix.
As an illustration OF the way in which le-
Rends arise and harden into facts, that cycle