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

Der yonder roof they're murky;
1beg you'll send my drumsticks there,
And please the martyred Turkey.
-Harper's Weekly.
sNATCHED FROM NIAGARA.
eyes, stranger, it is mighty fine fall.
guess Niagara be ats creation for bigness.
You curiosity hunters can't find 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.
81 hate it, but calculate the sights
nuts to you. You think that Nature 8
got it fine up for you to stroll down to
after breakfast at Forsyth's.
"lts 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 it9 1t gives you a pleasure to
talk about and pay for, and brings dollars
to those that let you lodgi1 es. Come, il
is up to your notions, is it not, stranger2"
The dollar. giving uses of this sublime
cataract had not, must own. occurred to
me. 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 throbjing through
my very brain and blood, I heard the
suggestion with no little disgust. The
spray clouds ever stcaming up from the
abyss which received the plunging sea.
tho overflow Of the vast American lakce,
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 n;
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 l 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 ptcr Mol
lektns used to call ':entrsvmusy"
Cant you see some hing beyond dol
lars and cents in this wonder of won
ders9" said. 81 know familiarity
breeds contempt towards most things,
but rather expected to find Niagara be-
You'd this customary result
"Well, to say the plain truth, Britisher,
don't 20 in for any outlandish bowling
about this roarer; but when you talk of
my having any sort of contempt for it, I
tell you my fancics about Old Thunder
are sometl ing particularly different to
that. Shall I tell you why2 Are you in
listening fit? Yes2 Then for once III
let out story I have in my memory,
and no living man, native Or foreign, has
anything to pair off 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 recollectlons of Niagara.
"Why do I get savage at travellers
spooney raptures about this awfulest
work that the power OF God Almighty
has turned out? This is why: They are
80 much Brummagem .tinsel-not got ur
we'll. You come here not just to feel as
this would naturally make any creature
feel, but to fro,h and fuss about what
you do feel and what you don't. That
rilcs me. like to sheer down such bosh
This thing was not made to be talked at
It wasn't made to De raved over. It's too
darned real, too horribly grand for t0at
You're quiet onc-not one OF the mouth
ing sort, see; my dander isn't riz by
you. You're genuine, you are. saw
that; that's why mean to give you a
real scare with this tale of mine. If your
wool doesn't straighten before I've done
you're cooler, card than give you cred
it for being.
"l'm toughish still, you see. Oldish
rather, for sixty odd years I've lived
hereabouts, for here was born. I know
this place pretty we'll, l guess; every foot
of every rock, of every track for long
miles away-up to Erie and down to On
tario. Field and forest know nv shoe
leather all through these parts. I J
when was thirty, or thereabouts,5 l
hut'ed up this river some four miles or
80 away. You've tracked it down may
be to here. You'd hardly think we were
coming upon this. The country up river
is fattish. The river slides along quiet
enough, too. No crags, no preciplces,
no darksome forests; all is fertile and
good to the eye of man just peace and
plenty. 1t is different, though, as the
sound of the thunder ahead grows upon
you, dull, awful, everlasting, that has
sounded on from creation, and will out
last you and me, stranger, and thousands
of genations yet to come.
"Wbere lived was, as said, buta few
miles above this. Further down the calm
flow of the river swirls into ripples, and
whirls and grows scared like of:whats be.
fore it. Then it exercises itself for the
hell it is to pass through. 1t tastes pur,
gatory. It's all foam and dash, and
splutter and cgrowl, through. the frothy
rapids that roughen it for awhile. Then
it settles for steady work. It braces it
self for endurance, and then pfuckily
smooths itself to face its fate. 4 = %'i:3iF
GLOW grand that calm deep flood is
that pours along without stay or hurry
that you can see,. to its awful plunge
But, stranger, smooth and peaceable as il
looks, its deep enough and strong enough
to astonish weak nerves, or iron ones, as
know we'll, and you'll know before ".
done if my tongue does its duty. So.
.,Just look across the fall, AYou see i
best from the British side. Run you
eyeround the great horse shoe near you
That curve is some two thousand fee
broad, and some hundred and fifty fee
deep. Then there's Goat Island, snug il
the midst eof the mighty Plunge
Can you see small, fat speck Of rocl
not so many yards offsits shores7 No7
know it, as you'll hear. Our American
fall beyond knuckles under q little to thi