Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1880-08-19
Mark Twain on the Aims.
Mark Twain gets off the following In
lis new book. "a Tramp Abroad -

Mark Twain gets off the following In
his new book, "a Tramp Abroad :"
We were mt the Rigi-Kulm hotel on
the Alps. 1t was night. We waited TO
see the sun rise in the morning. We
curled up in the clalnmy beds and went
to sleep without rocking. We were 30
sodden with fatigue that we never
stirred nor turned over till the booming
blast Of the Alpine horn aroused us. It
may well be imagined that we did not
lose any time. We snatchedrop n fe "
odds and ends of clothing, cocooned our
selves in the proper red blankets, and
plunged along the halls and out into the
whistling wind bareheaded. We saw Il
tall wooden scaifolding on the very peak
OF the summit, a hundred yards away,
and made for 1t. We rushed up the
stairs 10 the top OF this scaffoiding, and
stood there above the vast outlying
world, with hair flying and ruddy blank
cts swaying and cracking in the fierce
breezes.
Fifteen minutes too late. at last ="
said Harris, in vexed voice. "The
sun is clear above the horizon"
No matter" ] said, 'it is most
magnificent spectacle, and we will see
1t do the rest of its rising, anyway"
In moment we were deeply alb
sorbed in the marvel before US, dead TO
everything else. The great cloud-barred
DISK OF the sun stood Just above q limit
less expanse OF tossing white-caps, so TO
speak-a billowy chaos of massymou n
tain domes and peaks draped in imper-
ishable snow, and flooded with an
opaline glory of changing and dissolving
splendors, while through riffs in black
cloud-bank above the sun radiatiag
ances of diamond Just shot TO the
zenith. The cloven valleys of the lower
world swan in a tinted mist which
veiled the ruggedness of their crags, and
ribs, and ragged forests, and turned all
the forbidcing region into soft, and
rich, and sensuous paradise.
We could not speak. Wecould hardly
breathe. We could only gaze in drunken
ecstacy and drink il in. Presently Hgr-
ris exclaimed: why, it's going
DOWN.
Perfectly true. We had missed the
morning horn-blow. and slept all day.
This is certainly very amusing,
though tolerably steep" but the per-
iormance the next morning got away
with it by large majority. Thus:
The next morning, however, we were
up before daylight. Fully clothed and
wrapped in blankets we huddled our
selves up TO the window with lighted
pipes and fell into n chat, while we
waited in exceeding comfort 10 see how
an Alpine sunrise was going 10 look by
candle light By-and-byc a delicate,
spiritual sort of effulgence spread itself
by imperceptible degrees over the lofti-
est attitudes OF the snowy wastes-but
there the effort seemed TO stop. said,
presently:
There Is hitch about this sunrise
somewhere. II doesn't seem TO go.
What do you reckon is the matter with
il?
II don't know 1t appears to hang
fire somewhere. never saw a sunrise
act like that before. Can IL be that the
hotel is playing anything on us ?"
"Of course not. The hotel has merely
a property interest in the sun, snd b as
nothing to do with the management Of Il.
II Is a precarious kind of property, too i;
succession of total eclipses would prob
ably ruin this tavern. Now. what can
be the matter with this sunrise F'
Harris jumped up and said. I've
got Ii i know what's the matter with
It ! We've been looking at the place
where the sun set last night ~
1t was perfectly true" and when
they turned around to look the other
way they were too Late, the sun was
already up.