Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1880-08-14

Mark Twain gets off the follow
ing in his new book, ga Tramp
Abroad :"
We were at 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
clammy beds and went to sleep
without rocking. We were so sod
den with fatigue that we never
turned over till the booming blast
of the Alpine horn aroused us. 1t
may well be immagined that we
did not lose any time. We snatch
cd on few odds and ends OF cloth
ing, cocOoned ourselves in the prop
er red blankets, and plunged along
the halls and out into the whistling
wind bare-headed. We saw a tall
wooden scaffolding on the very
peak of the summit, a hundred
yards away, and made for 1t. We
rushed up the stairs to the top OF
the scatiOlding, and stood there
above the vast outlying world, with
hair flying and rudy blankets wav-
ing and cracking in the fierce
breezeS.
Fifteen minutes too late, at lastr"
said Harris, in vexed voice. "The
sun is clear above the horison. +" 4
mo NATTER" said, sit is most
magnificent spectacle, and we will
see it do the rest of its rising, any
way" " nr
In moment were deeply alb
sOrbed in the marvel before us, and
dead to everything else. The great
clOud-barred disc of the sun stood
just above the'limitless expense OF
tossing whitecaps, so to speak-a
billOwy chaos OF massy mountain
domes and peaks draped in imper-
ishable snow, and flooded with an
Opaline glory and changing and
dissolving splendors, while through
ritts in black cloud-bank above
the sun radiating lances of diamond
dust shot to the zeninth. The
clOven valleys of the lower world
swan in tinted mist which yelled
the ruggedness of their crags, and
ribs, and ragged forests, and turned
all the fOrbidding region into soft
and rich, and sensuous paradise.
We could not speak. We could
HhAuly BEGdlHCs we COuiu OulN
gaze in a drunken ecstacy and
drink it in. Presently Harris ex-
claimed: "Why, its 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
performance next mornining 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 ourselves up by the
window with lighted pipes and fell
into chat, while we waited in eX-
ceeding comfort 20 see how an
Alpine sunrise was going to look
by candle light. BY and by a deli
cate, spiritual sort of effulgence
spread itself by inlperceptible de-
grees over the loftiest attitudes Of
the snowy wastes-but there the
effort seemed to stop. l said pres
emily: ..-... 3D..
"There is hitch about this sun
rise somewhere. 1t doesn't seem
to go. What do you reckon is the
matter with it ?"
81 don't know. 1t appears to
hang fire somewhere. / never saw
a sunrise act like that before. Can
it be that the hotel is playing any
thing on us ?" eI..I tsEIE-
"Of course not. The hotel has
merely property interest in the
sun, and has nothing to do with
the management of it. 1t is a pre-
carious kind of property, too;
succession of total eclipses would
probably ruin this tavern. Now,
what can be the matter with this
sunrise ?"
Harris jumped up and said:
"I've got it! / know what's the
matter with it! We've been look
ing at the place where the sun set
last night" ErE..
1t was perfectly true,' and
when they turned around to look
they were too late, the sun was
already up.