Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1878-11-28

nearer to Us. But it's amightys respect
able watershed, too. Twelve hundred
feet in the breadth, a hundred and fifty
feet high. Your knowalls guess tha
every passage minute some seven hun
> bred thousand IONS of good fresh rive
roll over that rock into sprays and foam
in the dim gulf below. ~, sss *z:=ss 8.
GAS a boy, used to see beauty as vel
as wonder in all this. Where it's not bic
white with foam see what a clear sea
green the flood is as it shoots over. YOU
can measure the force of the rush of wa
ters, for the curve of the shining sheet il
fifty feet from the wall of rock it slips
down. =.
CHOW does it strike you2 You see it,
dare say, as I saw it two score years ago
To you it is terrible, but not all terror
It's lovely too. And to me9 we'll, to m
it is horror only; it has been so since tina
day when I hung on its very brink fol
hours, and thought CT it as one Nigh
think in nightmare dream Of some
hideous thing, uncomfortable, unutterablt
that held one iii it's awful grasp. Blu
mine was no vision Of the night to laugh
at when awakened. Those hours grizzleG
the then brown of my young head int
the iron gray you sec it now. Their iror
entered into my soul, as they say. 1t ha.
lived there ever since, night and day
season and season. There it will stay til
the death rattle kills the memory Of al
this side of ny coffin.
II hunted and tished then. That's how
I lived. Visitors then came pretty plen
tiful to see this wonder. I could get
ready sale for what 1 caught, whether il
was fur or fin. I had canoed it from
when I could recollect any thing, ane
was pretty spry, tell you, with the pad
dies, and pretty venturesome, too, be
came, till l thought was strong enough
and skilled enough to run risks here
abouts that others would have shuddereC
from.
II thought I knew Niagara too we'll Il
be in any danger from it, I was 80 famil
lar will. it, thought of it with zone o
the scare newcomers found in it. I use6
to laugh at their genuine fears at the yer,
sight and sound oft, l know it by night
when the calm moon. light poured dow1
light through the silvered spray cloud!
that hung over it; by day, when the glac
sun danced rainbows above its flashing
floods. Then it was too old a friend o
nine to be dreaded by me.
Zone day changed all this, and knew
it for the hungry monster that it is
pitlless, craving for its human prey.
sit was one Wednesday In August: The
hotels were full. Fish was in request, az
much as I could bring. Price lidn'
matter. Pleasure seekers bleed freely.
was paid we'll for what could be charged
for as they liked. I had found that the
nearer the rapids got the finer seemed
what caught, and the more freely the
bait was taken. I had so often gone
where most were too timid to venture
that l had come to believe 1 could skim
any where.
Even now think, had my paddle
been sound, I should have come off safe
"WeIl, that morning I was out at sun
r.se, md pretty successful I was. l
steadied my course, letting the canoe
drift little by little toward the rapids that
frothed and raved some miles below.
felt at any moment I could shoot it out
OF the strength Of the current into the
smoother waters by the shore.
II got fully employed with my lines
for, as glided down stream, my take
was rapid, and that of the finest. Sc
eager was I that failed to pay that at
tention to the drift of my canoe which
was so needful.
"It was with start at last felt was
far too much in the full deep current OF
the river, and that its strength would
need my utmost efforts to escape from
its grasp. For the first time I felt real
dread, for the boiling and hiss Of the
seetIing waters could almost be heard
below me. piled the paddles strongly
and for while had hopes of safety,
though I had never known the need OF
the exertions was now using to draw
myself out of the mighty force of the
flood that sped onward to its fearful fall
Inch by inch I fought my way up
stream and towards The shore where !
was to sell my mornings takings. Every
inch was won by strain that made the
.perspiration start from every pore II
was for life I fought, for dear life. II
was death that I pulled against and
such death! fol- it was as it a curtain
was suddenly withdrawn to show me
all the danger had so long been run.
ming unconsciously. It flashed into my
thoughts how I had played in the very
jaws of destruction chat now seemed t
hunger for me.
''As I toiled frantically against the
rushing waters, they were living thing.
whose clutch sought to drag me with
them to share their awful doom. I had
grown so used to the roar of the catarac
Gas I now recollected, 50 nearD that my
thoughts had ceased tc be cognizant O
it; now it almost stunned me.
81 talk stagily, don't II I tell you
stranger, if you want to wake up you
fancy really we'll, just try an hours pull
against Niagara, with the feeling tha
perhaps fate is against you. You'll b.
far from cool and commonplace il
thought or speech, if you think or ut
ter any thing
"Minutes that had seemed hours ha6
passed, and still I was struggling franti
cally, steaming with my frenzied exer
tons. I had won some way. I had
edged some distance from The centra
rush of the river, and safety would b.
found in the slower waters that skirteC
the bank, could I but reach them.
II bent still more madlv to the effort.
In a moment had lost my hold on ex
istence, and was rushing, helpless and
hopeless, to the dreadful fate had been
fighting against. One of my paddles
overstrained, had broken, and, at the
mercy Of the mighty food, I was speed
ing every minute more swiftly to what
knew so well-what I saw as plainly
with my mind s eye as I had thousands
OF times seen it with my living sight. ,
"How I saw all we arc looking
down on here! Not sis hit, not sound
we are seeing and hearing, but was in
that moment heard and seen by me more
wildly than now. I was literally be
wildered with the roar l now hear sc
calmly. 80 ~.
II shrieked aloud in my agony as
claspcd my useless hands over my sight
vainly, to shut out the smooth slide of the
inland sea, as saw it flashing back the
mOrnino am az H. leanr into tho misrv