New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-08-21
MISUNDERSTANDING FOR Fun


The most foolhardy mountain-climbers IN
Switzerland this Summer are Yankees. The
first ascent OF Mont Blanc was made, this
season. by DR.. Bryant, OF Bostonj and few
weeks after the village of Cham0uniX had
been Illuminated in honor of the event, an
other physician from the same city scaled the
snow-line of the Matterhorn, the most dan
gerous of Alpine adventures. Dr. Mosey
was destined TO share the fate Of Lord Fran
els Douglas and his two English companions,
who led the way to the crest fourteen year,
AGO. Like them he bad clambered TO the sum
nit and waved his handkerchief in an ecstacy
of triumph, and like them, on retracing his
steps down the walls of the mountain, be
plunged over a precipice and was caught on
glacier many thousand feet below the cabin
on the eastern face where he had halted for
breath. Lord Douglass body was never re
covered. Poor Mosely's mangled corpse lying
on ledge of ice opposite the Mhel can be
distinctly seen from below.
Beau Brummel. when asked by an inquIs.-
tive bore his preferences in regard TO Scot
fish scenery, turned to his valet and
drawled out, ado you happen to remember
what it was | liked bcstW II was in the
same spirit of cyuicsm that Lord Chesterfield
counselled his precious son not TO take the
trouble to go down into q coal pit, but TO say
that he had done it, which would answer all
practical purposes. These two worthless did
not think that a travelled MANI must per-
force have adventures and experiences, or in
dulge IN such luxuries as emotions. If they
were alive to-day they would nonchalantly
advise Young Boston to be content with its
little loating o. the Common, and to make the
most of the Monument, new Trinity and
the Providence depot Why, they would ask,
should sensible people incur the risks OF sea-
sickness and the discomfort of foreign diet,
and go tramping up and down the Continent
staring the MadOnnas Out of cOuntenance
and swearing at walters and railway porters
in such broken dialect as they can command,
when they can stay at home, read standard
works Of travel and buy photographs of the
most remarkable scenery and good prints OF
castles and cathedrals Why should they
cad about from Dan to Beersheba for the
sake of getting personal experiences, when
they can travel so comfortably III their own
rooms We do not say that this advice
would be wholly judicOus, but we are quite
sure that If Young Boston had more of the
hard sense for which this Yankee land justly
prides itself, u would not ape the fOllcs of
the English Alpine clubs. The ascent of the
Matterhorn, frequently as it has been made in
recent years, is still so peTilOus an under
taking that it will not do for one to take Lord
Chesterfield at his word and say that he has
done it, for the lie would soon find him out
but the sensible course for an American to
adopt is to stand by and see somebody else
make a fool of himself.
Mountain climbers who have serious ends in
view are justified in risking their lives above
the clouds. Elisha Mitchell lost his way in
the North Carolina mountains and persisted in
an abyss, but he was making survey of
the peak that bears his name, and estab-
fishing the fact that it was the highest
point east of the Rocky range. few years
ago James Bryce went alone to the top of the
Great Ararat, and after overcoming obstacles
that seemed insuperabe, had one of the grand
est prospects that ever opened before the eye
of man, and everyone who scans his glowing
pages knows that he did not 90 on fools
errand. This very Summer another English
man, equally brave, has assembled to the crown
of Sikaram, which is the highest crest of the
Sufeid Koh making the last four thousand
feet by following out steps in the rocks with
an Afghan knife but he was acting under in
structions of the Indian Survey Depart
ment, and his pilgrimage sheds light upon one
of the oldest of Mahometan traditions. Such
quests as these are very different from the
" climbing for fun " prompted by personal
vanity and the petty rivalries of Alpine clubs
he recElessness that faces death for the sake of
little talk first i'll the mountain hostel
res. and alterward in the club-rOOms across
the sea, is criminal folly unworthy of Amer
leans.