Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1880-07-15
Vol. XVI. Whole Nc. 1929. No. g.
An Alpine Sunrise.


The guidebook says that the distance from
the village Of Waggis to the summit of Rig
hi Kuhn is only about three and half
hours walking Accordingly, when Twain
and Harris reached Waggis they thought
there was no particular occasion to hurry,
and so they proceeded leisurely to travel to
the top Of the Righi Kuhn. They stopped
the first evening at the first inn they met
and resolved to be up early the next morn
ing to see the full effect of an Alpine sun
rlse from !,. TBS sbe sSSmRt a6xtver. GReir hsn
past eleven, and they set out once more, at
noon, quite resolved to reach the top that
same evening. At six, however, they felt
tired. and as they were close to a comforta-
BILE hotel, they entered it, saying to them
selves II would be quite easy to get up the
next morning and walk to the summit to see
the sun rise. They did not, however, awake
until half past three the next afternoon.
They started. again disappointed. but still
hopeful of reaching the summit at half pas,
four They lost their way and climbed and
climbed, and got wet amid fog and wet
grass. Close upon midnight they at last
struck" the Righi Kuhn Hotel. in which =
man blows a horn early in the morning to
awake all those who wish TO see the sun
rise from the adjoining summit. Twain was
delighted with this arrangement, for now
there would be no chance OF oversleeping.
I'VE curled up in the clammy beds, and
went to sleep without rocking We were so
sodden with fatigue tina, We never turned
over till the booming blasts of the Alpine
horn aroused US. 1t may well be imagined
that we did not lose any time We snatch
1 g.. IL. E Il
cooned ourselye. in the proper red blankets,
and plunged along the halls and out into the
whistling wind bare headed. We saw = tall
wooden scafolding on the very peak Of the
summit, hundred yards away and made
for it. We rushed up the stairs TO the top Of
this scafold. and stood there, above the vast
outlying world, with hair aying and ruddy
blankets waving and cracking in the fierce
breeze.
Fifteen minutes too late, at least said
Harris in a ,exed voice. The sun is clear
above the horizon
"'No matter | said, 1t is a most magnif-
icent spectacle, and we will see il do the
rest Of It's rising, anyway
In moment were deeply absorbed in
the marvel before US, and dead to everything
else. The great cloud barred disc of the
sun stood Just above limitless eYpanse Of
tossing white caps, so 10 speak-a billowy
chaos Of massy mountain domes and peaks
draped in imperishable snow, and flooded
with an opaline glory Of changing and dis
solving splendors, while through riffs in
black cloud bank above the sun, radiating
lances Of diamond dust shot To the zenith
The cloven valleys of the lower world swan
in a tinted mist which vailed the ruggedness
of their crags and ribs and ragged forests,
and turned all the forbidden region into a
soft and rich and sensuous paradise.
We could not speak. We could hardly
breathe. We could only gaze in drunken
ecstacy and drink it in. Presently Harris
exclaimed
why its going down"
Perfectly true We had missed the
morning horn blow, and slept all day This
was stupefying. Harms SAID
Look here, the sun isn't the spectacle
its us-stacked up here on the top Of this
gallows, in these idiotic blankets, and two
hundred and fifty we'll dressed men and wom-
en- down there gawking up at US and not caring
straw whether the sun rises or sets, so long
as they've got such a ridiculous spectacle as
this 10 set down in their memorandum books.
They seem to he laughing their ribs loose,
and there's one girl there that appears to be
going all to pieces. never saw such aman
as YOU before. think YOU are the very last
possibility in the way Of an ass
What have done? answered, with
heat
What have you done9 You've go, Us
up at hali-past seven in the evening to see
the sun rise, that's what you've done
And have YOU done any better, I'd like
to know? | always used 10 get up with the
lark, till came under the petryfying infu-
ence Of your turgid intellect
''iou used TO get up with the lark oh,
no doubt you'll get up with the hangman
one Of these days But YOU ought to be
ashamed to be jawins here like this in a red
blanket, a forty foot ,eaffold on top of
the Alps, and no end of people down here
TO boot This isn't any place for an eKhibi-
ton of temper
And so the customary quarrel went on.
When the sun was fairly down We slipped
back 10 the hotel in the charitable cleaning,
and went to bed again. We had encounter
ed the hornblower on the way, and he tried
10 collect compensation, not only for an
the sunset, which We did see, but
for the sunrise, which We haa totally missed
but We said no; We only took our solar ra-
tons on the European plan'-pay for what
you get. He promised to make US hear
his horn in the morning, if We were alive"