The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1879-01-09
SNATCHED FROM NIAGARA,

SNATCHED FROM NIAGARA.
YES. stranger, it is mighty fine
fall. guess Niagara beats creation
for bigness. You curiosity hunters
can't lind a dip of water better worth
syeing over in all your iaunts 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,
sranned by shifting rainbows-that's it.
Il hate it, but l calculate that
sights nuts to YOU. You think that
Natures got it up fine for you to stroll
down to, after breakfast at Forsyth's.
Its like an entertainment provided
for those who house at our hotels;
something to draw customers and tot
npa jolly return for the capital in
vested. That's it, isn't it? 1t gives
You pleasure to talk about and pay
for and brings dollars to those that let
you lodgings. Come, it is up to your
notions, is it not. stranger?'
The dollar-givinguses of this sublime
cataract had not, must own, occurred
to me. l looked with some natural
wonder at the speaker, who took this
view of perhaps the most marvellous
scene that this world of ours has to
show. Indeed, with its deep, dread
roar throbbing through my very brain
aud blood, l 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 associ-
ate themselves with cash calculations.
The twenty miles of river rolling the
drainage of the Continent to its giant
leap did not bring with their mighty
mass of doomed waters, ideas of profit
that better suited New York counting
mouse than the shuddering surface Of
Table Rock.
Ny manner, as l replied, dare say,
somewhat smacked of surprise and
candor, but my American friend took
it with that self-possessed GOODNESS
which showed him to be quite careless
fine old sculptor Nollskens used to call
"entusymusy.'
Cant You see something beyond
dollars and cents in this wonder of
wonders?' | said. 81 know familiari-
ty breeds contempt toward most things,
hut rather expected to find Niagara
beyond this customary result
"Weli, to say the plain truth, Brit
Usher. don't 60 IN for outlandish howl
ings about this roarer; but when you
talk of my having any sort of con-
tempt for it, l tell you my fancies
about old thunder are something par
ticularly different to that. Shall l tell
YOU why? Are you in listening fit?
Yes? Then for once I'll tell you a
story have in my memory, and no
living man, native or foreign, has any
thing to pair off with it as respects the
tumble below us" So with the dead
music in my ears of this mighty mass
of flashing down waters, l listened to
tale that has ever since formed part of
my recollections of Niagara.
"Why do get savage at the travel
ers' spoony raptures about this awful
est work that TIE power of God AL
mighty has turned out? This is why:
They are so much Brummagcm tinsel
hot got up well. You come here not
just to feel rs this would naturally
make any creature feel, but to froth
and fuss about what you do feel, and
what you don't. That rifles me. like
to sneer down such bosh. This was
not made to be talked at. 1t wasn't
meant to be raved over. It's too real,
too horribly grand, for that. You're
quiet onc-not one of the mOuthing
sort, see; my dander isn't riz by you.
You're genuine, you are. saw that;
that's why l mean to give you real
scare with this tale of mine. If your
wool doesn't straighten before I've
done, you're cooler card than l give
you credit for being.
"rm toughish still, you see. Oldish
rather, for sixty odd years I've lived
hercabouts, for here l WAS born. l
know this place pretty well, 1 guess;
every foot OF every rock, of every track,
for long miles away, up to Erie and
down TO Ontario. Field and forest
know my shoe leather all through these
parts.
"When was thirty, or thereabouts,
l hutted up this river some four miles
or SO away. You've tracked it down
maybe to here. You'd hardly think
we were coming upon this, the coun-
try up river is flatt:sh. The river
slides along quiet enough, too. No
crags, no precipices, no dark forests,
all is fertile and good to eye of man
Just peace and plenty. 1t is different,
though, as the sound of thunder ahead
grows upon you, dull, awful, everlast-
ing, that has sounded on from cpeation,
and will outlast you and me, stranger,
and thousands of generations yet to
"Where lived was, as l said, but q
few miles above this. Farther down
the calm dow of the river swirls into
ripples, and whirls and grows scared
like of what's before it. Then it exer-
cises itself Tor the hell il is. To- pass
through. 1t tastes purgatory. It's all
foam and dash, and splitter and growl,
through the ffOthy rapids that rouglfefl
it for awhile. Then it settles for steady
work. 1t braces itself for endurance.
and then pluckily smoothes itself to
face its fate. ---
:.~~ es-..!! =. a.ii..s, .1ss,s i:s,.,,i "a,
that pcurs along without stay or hur-
~, that YOU can see, to IT'S awful
plunges But, stranger, smooth, and
peaceaele AS II sooks, it's deem. enough
and strong enough 10 .astQnis6 weak
nerves or iron ones, know we'll and
sor'n kecs. hefon Eve. .donA,. t. ~
IoSgus dees iss duty. .s
~!sss lcel semaa the ta.h You eee