The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1879-01-10
SNATCHED FRoM NIAGARA,
''Yes. stranper. dis miehtv fine fall.

| y es, stranger, itiIs a mighty fine fall
| guess Niagara beats CT, alton for bigness
You curiosity. hunters cau't find dip Of
water better worth eyeing over i'm all your
an ocean, as it we've, rolling over that
! limestone ledge. Foam, spray and thun
der-oue dull, eternal, awful roar, spanued
| by shifting IaiEbows-ihat's il.
Il hate it, but calculate the sight new
to you. You think that Natures got il.
| fine up for you to stroll down to, after
breakfast at Forsyth's.
''lt's like an entertainment provided for
those Who house.st our hotels something
to draw customers and trot up Jolly re-
| turn for the capital invested That s IT,
isn't it? IL gives you a pleasure to talk
/ about and pay for, and brings collars to
those that let you lodgings. Come, il is
| up to your notions, is it not, stranger ?''
The duilar-giviug uses of this sublime
| cataract had not, | must own, occurred TO
n,e. / looked with some natural wonder
at The speaker ~hO took this view of per
| hdpg the most marvellous scene thai this
| world OF ours has to show. Indeed, with
its deep, dread roar thro5bing through my
very brain and blood, | heard the sugges
tion with no little disgust. TIE spray
| clouds ever streaming up from the abyss
| which received the plunging sea, the over
! flow "f the vast American lakes, failed al
/ together i'm my mind in associate them
/ selves with cash calculations. TIE twenty
| miles of river rolling the drainage oF a con
tinent To it's giant leap did not bIing with
! their mighty mass of doomed waters
ideas of profit that better suited New
| York counting house thar the sbudderiug
surface of Table Ruck.
Ny manner, as | dare say, smacked of
! surprise and canGor, but my American
| fIieud took IL with that self possessed coUl-
! ness which showed him to be quite careless
IF my estimate Of his want Of what our
fine old sculptor Nolleaeas used to call
''entusymusy."
"Can you see something beyond dollars
ana cents in this wonder of wonders ?''
said. II know familiarity breeds CON
tempt toward most things, but | rather ex
pected To find Niagara beyond this custom
airy result"
"Well, to say the plain truth, Briiisher,
| don't 90 in for outlandish how lings about
this Toarer but when you talk of my fan
cies about old thunder are something par.
ticulatly different to that. Shall tell Won
Why? Are you in a listening ftp Yes?
Then for ouce I'll let GU. story have in
my memory, aud no living man, native OF
foreign, has anything to pair off with it as
respects this tumbler below us" So with
the dIead music in my of this mighty
mass of flashing down waters, | listened To
tale that has ever since formed par, of
" a.
why do | get savage at travellers
spoony raptnres about his awfulest work
that the power Of God Almighty has turn
ed out? This is why They al e so much
Brummagem tinsel-not got up we'll. You
come here not just to feel as this would
naturally make any creature feel, but 20
frOth aud fuss about what you do feel and
what you don't. That riles me. / like to
sneer down such bosh. This ching was not
made to be talked at. 1t wasn't made to
be raved over. LIS too darned real, too
horribly grand for that. You're a Qniet
one-not one Of the moutbing sort, | see
my dander isu't riz by you. You're genu
inc, you are. I saw that; that's why |
mean 20 give you real scare with this tale
of mine. If your woOl Doesn't straigh:en
before I've done you're a cooler card than
gave you credit for being.
I'm toughish still you see. Oldish
rather, for sixty odd years I've lived here
aSOuts, for here | was born. I know this
place pretty well, [ guess every foot If
every rock, of every track for long mile,s
away-up to Erie aud down to OntariC
Field aud forest know my shoe leather al
through these parts.
Nv ben | was thirty. or Whereabouts,
hutted up this river some four miles or so
away. You've tracked it Gown may be to
here. You'd hardly think we we're com
ing upon this. The country up river is
hattish. The river slides alung quie:
enough. too. No crags, no precipices. no
daI Iksome forests all is fertile aud good to
the eve of man-jusi peace and plenty. 1t
is different, though, as the sound Of tue
thunder ahead grows upon you, dun aw-
ful, everlasting, that has sounded from |
creation, ana will outlast you aud me,
stranger, and thousands Of generations yet
to come.
~ here lived was, as said, but few |
miles above this. Further down the calm !
How of the river swirls into ripples, and /
whirls and grows scared like Of what's be |
fuTe it. Then it exercises itself for the |
hell il is to pass through. IL tastes purga-
tory. It's all fUam aud dash, aud splutter |
aud gro~l, through the frothY rapids that /
ruuRhen il for awhile. Then it settles for |
steady work. 1t braces itself for eudur- |
ance, and then pluckily smooths itself to |
face it's fate.
"lIow grand that calm deep food is that
pOuTs along without stay or hurry, that |
you can see. to it's awful plunge But,
stranger, smooth aud peaceable as it hooks.
its deep enough aud strong enough To-
tOnish weak nerves, or iron ones, as know |
WE'LL aud you'll know before I've doI.e If |
my tongue does i,s duty
"Just look acroSs the fall. You see il |
bes. from the British side. Run your eye /
round the great horseshoe near YOU That /
some hundred and fifty feet deep. Then
there's Goat Island, snug in the midst of
the mighty plunge. Can YOU see small
fiat spcck of rock not many yards1sff it's
shores? No? ! know il as you'll hear
Our American fall beyond knucties under
a little TO this nearer To us But it's
mighty respectable watershed, too-
Twelve hundred feet in breadth, hundred /
and fifty feet high. Your know alls guess
that every passing minute some seven bun
ed Thousand tons of good, fresh river roll
over that rock into spray and foam in the
dim gulf below.
''As buy / used to see beauty as well as
wonder in all this. Where it's not hid
white with foam see what a clear sea. green
he fioOd Is as it shoots over. You can
measure the force of the rush of waters.
for The curve OF the shining sheet is fifty
eet from the wall Of rock IL slopes down.
''How does il strike you? Ynu see il, !
iare say. as ] saw il two score years ago
70 yoa IL 10 terrible. but not all terror. It's
lovely too. And to me ? veil, to me it is
BoTror only iii has been so since that day