Rocky Mountain husbandman. [volume] (Diamond City, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1878-06-27

All, then, to see the play Of the lightning
about the edges of this field of impenetrable
gloom that seems like the solid foundation
of the floor of heaven itself, while the crash
ing and roaring of the batteries of the AL
mighty amid the convulsive struggles of the
weary combatants fairly shakes the earth.
Suddenly the heaving battle ground is
split from rim to rim, straight across, again
and again is it rent .asunder, again and
again, from east to west and from north to
south, Anon, a fiery spot opens in the very
center of this throbbing field, now widen
ing, now contracting, until a space that
looks hundreds of feet in diameter is opened,
the interior of which seethes and bubbles, a
glowing furnace alta white heat, an invert-
ed volcanic crater, that seems filed with
molten wrath about to be poured in de-
struction upon the earth,;and all the while
the lightning is playing in fervid streams
about the rim of the blazing, kissing fur
mace, and myriad fiery serpents dart hither
and tllither with inconceivable rapidity.
the dense mass OF gloomy blackness that
but an instant before had looked like a cell
ing OF inky marble is now a robe of surpass-
ing richness, liteup with an overwhelming
glorious radiance, and the warning central
cloud resembles a vast altar cloth OF trans
cendently gorgeous %colors, most exanisitely
blended, wrought by the plastic hand of
omnipotent power" an altar clothsdesfgned
by Celestial intelligence, woven in the loom
of intinity and broideredfhy angelic artists.
The edges seem fringed with a silken vapor
of airy flame possessing all colors shat i'm
agination ever dwelt upon, most rapturous-
ly interviewer, and with the ever recurring
changes of the kaleidoscope. Between the
lodges of this stupendous work the fabric
seemed shot.with gold and silver and flash
ing gems that wed with each other in beau
ty, while silvery serpents, with lightning
tongues and. flaming eyes, chase and strive
ito Guido each other in their rapid eyolu-
ions over the: glowing surface OF this thing
of terrible magnificence. 1t needed but the
exalted, the snpereminent form of Divini-
ty, with a Chimberazo for pulpit and the
people of the earth Tor congregation, to
complete the picture, and there broke
through.my lips, swelling up from the Meth
esmost recesses Of my heart. 'sMine eyes
have seen the glory of the coming of the
Lord" and even while | gazed with dilated
eyes, awe-stricken and breathless and with
sweat-bedewed brow, the mighty panorama
vanished, leaving only the black aud war.
ring mass, torn and broken, that had never
for an instant ceased its awful struggles.
Again and again was this scene enacted and
re-enacted, and again was the field wrapped
in a darkness ''that might be felt" AT
length luminous yapors tore themselves
from the strife, like wounded stragglers,
and fleeing upward, rested on the bosom of
the heavens.
''And now from. forth the frowning sky,
From the heavens topmost height,
i heard a voice, the awful voice.
of Jehovah in His might. Again looked,
'sand a mighty wind had swept" the place
a breath from the nostrils of the All Pow
ertul-that seemed to come from the very
center of the heavens, for the late striving
combatants were driven earthwards and
scattered to the four quarters of the uni
verse. Away they fly like the broken and
disordered ranks of a routed, panlc-stricken
army, ever pursued by the destroying wind
that overtakes and rends the frightened fu-
gitives, scattering the misty vapors, like
dust through space.
The wind passes, leaving its work ineom-
plete, tor once more the quarreisome clouds
begin to send forth angry mutterings of dis
content, gathering into small knots which