Daily globe., 1878-11-24
sNATCHED FROM NIAGARA.

SNATCHED FROM NIAGARA.
Eyes, stranger, it is mighty fine fall.
] guess Niagara beats creation for bigness
You curiosity-hunters can't find dip Of
water better worth eyeing over in all
your launts 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 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 a jol-
ly return for the capital invested. That's
it, isn't it? 1t gives you a pleasure to
talk about and pay for, and brings dollars
to those that let you lodgi1 gs. 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. looked with some natural wonder
at the speaker who took this view of per-
hsps the most marvellous scene that this
world OF ours has to show. Indeed, with
its deep, dread roar throb5ing 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 nct
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.
Ny manner, as I replied, I dare say
smncked 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 scu ptor Mol
lekens used to call ''entusymusy''
''Can't you see somel hing beyond dol
lars and cents IN this wonder Of won
ders!" I said. 81 know familiarity
breeds contempt towards most things,
but | rather expected to find Niagra be-
yond this customary result
"Well, to say the plain truth, Britisher.
don't 60 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 fancies about Old Thunder
are something particularly different to
that, Shall / tell you why? Are YOU in
a listening ft2 Yess Then for once I'll
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
so much Brummagem tinsel-not got up
we'll. You come here not just to feel as
this would naturally make any creature
teel, but to froth and fuss about what
you do feel and what you don't. That
rifles me. I like to sneer 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 I 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
itfor being.
'I'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, 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.
''When was thirty, or thereabouts, I
hut.ed up this river some four miles or
50 away. You've tracked it down may
be to here. You'd hardly think we were
coming upon this. The country up river
is tlattish. The river slides along quiet
enough, too. No crags, no precipices,
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, duh, awful, everlasting, that has
sounded on from creation, and will out
last you and me, stranger, and thousands
of genations yet to come.
"Where I 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. It tastes pur-
gatory. It's all foam and dash, and
splutter and growl, through the frothy
rapids that roughen it for awhile. Then
it settles for steady work. 1t braces it
self for endurance, and then pluckily
smooths itself TO face its fate.
"How 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 it
looks, its deep enough and strong enough
to astonish weak nerves, or iron ones, as I
know we'll, and you'll know before I've
done if my tongue does its duty.
.'Just look across the fall. You see it
best from the British side. Run your
eye round the great horseshoe near you,