Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1879-06-12

vines that lead out from its shore.
and bring down the limpid waters
from their inland sources. the gray
grand old towering bluffs, their
granite wallis built By no human
hands and painted by the rains and
Winds of centuries. standing silent,
solitary and impending--Deei no,
be told that here are views more
wild and enchanting, more males.
tically grand than ever greeted The
eye OF the most enraptured limrcS
of pallisaded Hudson, or fortress
studded Rhine.
Wandering alone, few years
since, through this lovely soli,ade
of nature and reaching the site OF
this lovely city Of the valley, oil
which nothing now remains butte
secular and . name" | was foreibly
reminded of Byrun's beautiful de-
scription 1.-THE meeting OF the wa
ters of the rivers of Avon and
Avoca.
"There ia not In the wide world q valley 70 sweet,
As that vale 10 whose bosom the bright waters
OH the last ray OF feeling and life must depart.
Ere the bloom Of the valley sh all fade from my
| heart"
Seated upon an eminent rock,
overlooking the dethroned and de.
serted city, the shadow of the past
slowly steals up the valley and falls
upon the enchanted vision. Before
me rises up the scenes that were
enacted, the characters who partici-
pated in thcm, now gone and for
gotten like the place they inhabited;
the dark veil that covers the mem.
DRY of fifty years of time, is with
drawn, and ! see once more the
sturdy, laughter loving Frencbman,
Tou lie Jon and his swarthy COM
panlons, as slowly cordalling up the
stream the prov Of their heavily
laden bateaax, for the first time
enters its quiet shades and breaks
the mirror of it's maiden beauty.
The deer, alarmed at i,s unwonted
sight and sound, rise from their
grassy couch, turn and gazs for .
moment at the strange approaching
object, then throwing back their
lofty sntlers, with precipitous
bounds move off through the tall
grass to gain the denser forests that
crown the adjacent bluffs and hills
Reaching some safe and elevated
spot we'll up the steep ACTIVITY, they
stop and turn again, and tor mo-
ment more, fix their bright, dark,
wondering eyes upon the approach.
ing craft, then shifting imminent
danger in the wind, Chamber up the
rugged heights and are soon far
away in the deep recesses of the
wood. The wild ducks, playfully
swimming and diving in the placid
waters, skim away and hide within
the dense brakes that line the shore
or, on rising wing, in wood envi>
roned pond or slough, sock more
secluded place Of safety. The gal.
linacious pheasant, disturbed in his
gentle wooing with hen and chicks.
whirrs away through the thick I'm.
derbrush and alighting behind some
fallen log are seen no more. The
afr lighted squirrel with a chat err
and a:flirt of its bushy tail, takes
to its rolrest of safety in the
branches of some tall tree and
squatted within the crotch of some
high limb above and beyond the
reach of danger quiets its auttering
heart. Thus flee in terror the weak
and timid denizens of stream and
forest at the first approach of man
and are despoiled of the natural
retreats and sweet congenial places
which q benefcent Greater had be-
slowed upon them for home and
an Inheritance. Tou Lie Jon con-
templates with q smile these swift
retreats of the animal kingdom be.
fore his presence and moves on
slowly up the river till no comes to
the place Of its separation. Casting
off line and making it fast to q
large cottonwood, the boats crew
60 ashore, and while they are busi-
ly engaged in preparing their first
meal in the wood, Tou LIE Jon has
surveyed the ground, mapped out
the place and commenced the work
of founding a city. A few months
pass; the ungainly cotton woods are
removed, the branching oaks and
stately ash have fallen beneath the
cleaning axe of these sturdy men
la clearing.is made; streets, public
squares and grand avenues are
staked off and defined, log shanty
or two are built, and Paris on the
Platte becomes an hist orical fact. A
small fact with short history, it is
true, but every place has it's history
however brief and unimportant, and
Paris has had its, some parts oil
which | propose to notice and tran
scribe, however trivial and unim-
portant to the great world at large.
From this date, 1928. We mark
its rise, progress and decline, com.
passing period of scarcely two
decades. Tou LIE Jon had money
Ian important item in all underta-
kings-and under its quickening
influence Paris soon grew into
respectable proportions and noto,
riety. A smelling furnace, store
q two-story frame hotel, . public
boarding house built from hewn
logs, with long porch in front, were
among the few noticeable buildings
which supplied for a time IN the
Frenchman's busy brain, the place
of the Tuilleries, the Louvre, the
Hotel de Meurice and other noted
buildings which he hoped one day
to reproduce with more than orig
inal grace and splendor. II some
ancient survivor ofthis place shoult
char CO to read this sketch and take
exceptions to it's topography,
beg leave to remind him here thal
all history is involved more or les'
in doubt and obscurity, and when i
depends upon oral traditions fol-
fact, few discrepancies and an
acbronisms are unavoidable, how
ever much the writer may aim Q
accuracy and truth. There ar,
but few living even now who hav,
carried the early history ant
events of the mi,es so freshly II
their memory that they can relat
/. tLoun x~.th 60 A~--n- &c c>-k~snt