Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-08-14


gust during your travels you make
two acquaintance with whom you are
particularly pleased. The first is man
not without attractions of person and of
mind, but Of few words and fewer ideas.
A mOurnful interest attaches to his
earlier and his later history, but the
poverty of his thoughts and the plain
ness OF his speech are such that, despite
his efforts to please, he soon wearies
you. How different the other
acquaintance A brilliant talker, his con-
versation is a succession of sparkling
pictures, as vivid as original. By turns
he is poet, painter, sculptor, historian,
wit, humorist. and man of the world.
His innumerable ideas are clothed in
flowing and varied words, which fasci.
nate and instruct but never sadden you
His career from beginning to end has
been grand success, and his future
promises such fortune as has seldom
fallen TO the lot of man. You can but
be delighted, and if fatigue comes much
sooner than you expected, it is the fatigue
that attends Sheridan's plays-the safety
of Overabundant good things.
That was the contrast that entered nv
mind as | sat on the upper deck of the
Mary Powell (swiftest of the North river
steamers) and drank in the pure, cold
breeze of the highlands. The first &C
quaintance is the James river; the second
the Hudson. How mOurnful the success
sion of slightly elevated shores, clad with
pines or left in open "old fields" on the
James. Here and there the gold of low.
lands burthened with wheat shocks
shows off the emerald of the thick stand
ing corn; but the historic homes are
miles apart, and from Richmond to
Norfolk-as far almost as from New
York to AlbAny-there is but soil
tary hamlet of perhaps a hundred
souls at City Point and the city-in.the-
egg at Newport News. On the Hudson
how crowded, how varied, how gay
From the wharf at Twenty street
to the landing at Cranston's there is a
tumult of sights on land and on the wa
ter that produces kind of distraction,
very bearable after the monotony of the
James. Anxious to lose none of the
beautiful scenes on either shore, your
face involuntarily turns this way and
that until you are in danger of sharing
the fate of the owl who twisted his head
off by following the man who walked
around him.
Take the lower James, or better still
the York river, prolonged one hundred
and fifty miles, thrust it up into the
heart of the Alleghanies, fill it with craft
of every kind, from the majestic Albany
steamer down to the smallest sloop: sow
its shores thick with towns, villages,
country seats, cottages, etc. let a rail
nah rT1F oil to h.
both sides for the Western Shore road
on the Hudson is rapidly being pushed to
complexion, and you have some concep
ton of that great river, which is Justly
the pride of the greatest American State
But even in the Alleghanies there is
nothing comparable to that Cyclopean
wall OF columnar basalt, the Palisades,
which, beginning a short distance above
New York, stretches for fifteen miles.
presenting an unbroken precipice from
three hundred to five hundred feet high
crowned with forests and here and
there hotel or villa. We have nothing
like this in the South, nor have we in
the South, not even upon the James,
quite such wealth of historic association
as the Hudson presents, beginning with
its discoverer Hendrick Hudson, and
continually through the Revolution down
to the present time. Least of all have
we the charm that literature has thrown
upon this noble stream. To the lustre
given it by the names of Washington,
Sir Henry Clinton, Arnold, Andre, and
Anthony Wayne. is added the romantic
interest with which the pen of Washing
ton Irving has invested t. May we ever
hope to see our Virginia river made Illus.
trious by native genius?
1t was Saturday afternoon. The week
had been one of intense heat, the Mary
Powell on all her decks was crowded
with tagged out souls flying to the noun
taIns for relief. Other steamers equally
laden with human beings were hurrying
towards the Highlands. but our good
boat steady as die and swift as a swal-
low, Outstripping them all, in a little
more than two hours made her first land
ing at CranstOn's wharf, one mile below
West Point.
A very pretty little house in the Queen
Anne style. recently built by Mr.. Grams
ton, receives the crowd of passengers
and their luggage, and the Mary Powell
is off again like race horse Standing
on the wharf mass of granite $50 feet
high, smooth aud sheer almost as if it
had been hewn and polished by human
hands, cOnfrOnts you. How to surmouut
it is puzzle. But behold a road of
easy grade, cut years ago by General
Wedges, shaded by trees and adorned by
trailing vines. Midway the ascent
pretty spring bubbles out from the
very heart of the rock, tempting you to
leave the carriage and quench your
thirst, but you hasten on to the hotel,
an imposing brick edifice, situated upon
the brow of the precipice, with a park
of forty acres behind it, abundantly
shaded by forest trees and adorned with
gay parterres of foliage plants and rare
flowers. The situation is most inviting,
the hotel being so placed that every room
in it commands beautiful view. You
cannot stop to enjoy it, but hasten to
your room for bath and a change of
clothes.
You have ample time, if you choose,
to take cnrriage and go to the Acade-
my to witness the dress parade. The
drive is delightful one, shaded most of
the way, with glimpses on the right of
the rivsr far below you, and on the left
the mountain, rising sleeper and sleeper
to its summit, 1000 or 1900 feet high,
with tempting, delightfully."- graded roads
leading into far seclusions. But YOU
may prefer, as l did, not to take the
drive, but to seek the little Octagonal
pavilion on the crest of the hill, there to
feast your eyes on enchanting scenery as
varied and beautiful as this wonderful
river anywhere affords. Fancy the Ma
tural Bridge fifty feet higher than it is, the
streamlet below liver nearly a mile
wide, the wall on this side naked and
perpendicular, but on the other sloping
boldly upward OF 800 or 900 feet, robed
in forests, with openings adorned by
country seats or farm hous es,
and on the left, far up on the
mountain side, a pretty little gothic
chapel, built, it is said, by wealthy
parents in memory of their son, who
lost his life in the river a few years
ago. Fortunately for me, during none
of my repeated visits TO this little pavi-
ion was l interrupted by any one.
Scenery, like music, must be enjoyed
alone. Rapt in silent worship l
watched the rosy tints of sunset
die away, and fastening FROM the seven
o'clock supper, which was, in fact,
superb dinner, | returned in time to see
the moon, nearly full, rise in majesty
above the heights of Putnam county, sill
vering all the heavens, and throwing the
river into deep shadow, save where it was
illuminated by the express train on its
bank laundering past at the rate of
forty miles an hour, or by the slowly
toiling steamboats,, dragging after them
whole fleets of heavily laden barpes and