New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1878-12-04
SNATCHED FROM NIAGARA.

''Yes, stranger, it is & mighty fine fall.
I guess Niagara be- ats creation for bigness-
You curiosity hunters can't find a dip of
water better worth cycling over in all
your jaunts any where. Well. you see,
It's Just an ocean, as it were, rolling over
that limestone ledge. Foam, spray and
thunder--one dull, eternal, awful roar,
spanned by shifting rainbows-that's it.
II hate it, but I calculate the sights
nuts to you. You think that Natures
got it fine up for you to stroll down. to
after breakfast at Forsyth's.
"It's like an entertainment provided
for those who house at our hotels; some
thing to draw customers and tot up jol-
ly return for the capital invested. That's
it, isn't it? 1t gives you q pleasure to
talk about and pay for, and brings dollars
to those that let you lodgings. Come, it
is up to your notions, is it not, stranger?"
The dollar-giving uses Of this sublime
cataract had not, must own, occurred to
me. I looked with some natural wonder
at the speaker who took this view Of per-
haps the most marvellous scene that this
world of ours has to show. Indeed, with
its deep, dread roar throbbing through
my very brain and blood, I heard the
suggestion with no little disgust. The
spray. clouds ever steaming up from the
abyss which received the plunging sea,
the overflow of the vast American lakes,
failed altogether in my mind to associate
themselves with cash calculations. The
twenty miles OF river, rolling the drainage
of continent, to its giant leap did net
bring with their mighty mass of doomed
waters ideas of profit that better suited a
New York counting house than the shud-
dering surface of Table Rock.
My manner, as I replied, I dare say
smacked Of surprise and candor, but my
American friend took it with that self
possessed GOODNESS which showed him to
be quite careless of my estimate OF his
want Of what our fine old Sou ptor Mol
lekens used to call 'entusvmusy."
sCan't you see some' hing beyond dol
lars and cents in this wonder Of won
ders?" I said. "l know familiarity
breeds contempt towards most things,
but rather expected to find Niagara be-
yond this customary result.
swell, to say the plain truth, Britisher,
I don't goain for any outlandish bowling
about this roarer; but when you talk Of
my having any sort of contempt for it, l
tell you my fancies about Old Thunder
are something particularly different to
that. Shall tell you why2 Are you in
a listening ft2 Yes? Then for once I'll
let out story have in my memory,
and no living man, native or foreign, has
anything to pair of with it as respects
this tumbler below u.s." So, with the
dread music in my ears of this mighty
mass of flashing down waters, listened
to tale that has ever since formed part
Of my recollections of Niagara.
"Why do ! get savage at travellers
spooney raptures about this sWfulest
work that the power Of God Almighty
has turned out? This is why: They are
SO much Brummagem tinsel-not cot up
well. You come here not just to feel as
this would naturally make any creature
feel, but to froth and fuss about what
you do feel and what you don't. That
rifles me. I like to sheer down such bosh.
This thing was not made to be talked at.
1t wasn't made to be raved over. It's too
darned real, too horribly grand for tnat.
You're quiet one-not one Of the mouth
ing sort, see; my dander isn't riz by
you. You're genuine, you are. I saw
that; that's why |. mean to give you q
real scare with this tale of mine. Hyour
wool doesn't straighten before I've done
you're acooler card than give you cred
it for being.
aI'm toughish still, you see. oldish
rather, for sixty odd years I've lived
hereabouts, for here I was born. know
this place pretty we'll, Iguess; every foot
Of every rock, of every track for long
miles awau-un To Erie and down 70 On