St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1882-02-24

ment that, beyond being a waste of
waters of considerable extent, the At
lantic was hardly worth while; the
accounts of it had been greatly exag-
gerated. To the reporters, who knew
that the Atlantic Ocean had been on
trial, as it were, and had hastened
down the harbor to meet Mr.. Wilde
and learn its fate, this judgment was
something of a surprise. They had
never heard that large and important
body of water spoken of in such dis
paraging terms, and it is not to be de-
MED that the entire American people
felt something like shock at hearing
so much water so lightly spoken of by
such man. Lord Byron had entirely
different views. He was quite struck
with the ocean. He said that ten
thousand fleets swept over it in vain /;
that mans control stopped with the
shore; that the ocean arose and shook
him, and did various other rather pow
and dark blue" said he loved it, and
begged it to roll on" which it has
been doing ever since.
Our people have always taken great
pride in the Atlantic Ocean. 1t was
for many years the only ocean we had
to speak of-and we have tried to
make the most of it. OF course we did
not consider it quite up to the Great
Lakes, or Niagara Falls, or the Natur
al Cave in Kentucky, which are exclu
sively our own but we knew it to be
much damper than either of those, and
that it showed more bead when shaken
up by nOrtheaster. And of course
we did not like to hear that we had
been call at sea- about it heretofore !;
that as a matter of fact it was not
what it had been advertised to be.
Still, we may say this for ourselves,
that after the first feeling of diSap-
pOintment passed we accepted the
Judgment and dismissed the Atlantic
Ocean from the category of natural
phenomena. We yet had hopes that
we should he able to furnish something
to call forth the poets wonder and ad-
miratiOn. The effort of the Harvard
students to impress him seems to be
confessed Il failure on all hands. In
the coarse but expressive phrase of the
street, he ''got away with the boys"
instead of their getting away with him.
Mr.. Walt Whitman was more fortu-
nate than the Atlantic Ocean; it is re-
corded that Mr.. Whitman excited his
admiration, and that the heart of the
poet of the lily went out toward the
poet of the arm-pitS. 1t was reserved,
however, for our Niagara Falls to eX
cite his profoundest wonder. The
business agent who accompanies him
and keeps an anxious world informed
as to his impressions, telegraphs from
the Prospect House, under date of Feb
ruary 9, that on that memorable morn
ing Mr.. Wilde "breakfasted early and,
wrapping himself III his long fur coat,
stood on the veranda of the hotel for
nearly an hour, steadily gazing at the
scene before him." Impressive tableau !
Here, Oscar Wilde, ''in his long fur
coat ~ there, Niagara Falls! What
Mr.. Wilde thought of the Falls is told
later ON. What the Falls thought of
him will probably never be known.
But, obviously, this was no "Daniel-in-
the-lions'-den" show, where 'Daniel
didn't care ii darn for the lions, nor the
lions tinker's darn for him" There
must have been reciprocal emotion.
But the Falls, so far as we know, kept
on falling.
At first Mr.. Wilde was disappointed
in the outline "The design" it
seemed to him, twas wanting in gran
deur and variety of line" But the
edge of this criticism is turned by the
confession which he Immediately
makes that ''the Colors were beautiful" :"
So much we may set down to the cred
it of Niagara as it first impressed the
poet. The outline" lacked "gran
dem," but the ''cOlors were beautiful y
What finally swept him away was the
view from underneath the Falls Mt Ia
bic Rock 1t was here, he says, that he
''realized the majestic splendOr and
strength of the physical forces of Ma
ture." "The sight" he says, ''was far
beyond what had ever seen in Europe.
1t seemed IA sort of embodiment of pan
theism." And then he permitted his
emotions to overflow into the Prospect
House private album, which is set to
catch such things, in the following
beautiful remark, which, as we scarce
ly need to point out, is equally compli-
mentary to our great waterfall and our
democratic form of government:
"The roar of these waters is like the
roar when the mighty wave of democ-
racy breaks on the shores where kings
lie cOuched at ease
Having recorded this favorable iudg-
ment of Niagara, which sets it definite
ly ahead of the Atlantic Ocean as a
phenomenon, the poet proceeded to
Chicago. Having seen the embodi-
ment of pantheism at Niagara, he may
find the embodiment of altruism at
Chicago. n. Y. Tribune.