Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1882-09-21
No. A..

JOHN MCCULLOUGH.
Tells Of his $50 Mile Trip Through the
National Park with Gen. Sheridan.
Extracts from interview in Pioneer Press
The great tragedian spoke earnestly, and
evidently meant it to the full when he said:
1T was the pleasantest five weeks of my
life-this last vacation. l debated whether
1 should 60 with Sheridan or to Europe, as
has been my custom. l am exceedingly glad
l stayed in America.
THE NATIONAL PARK IS THE GRANDEST
COUNTRY
spectaclarly God Almighty has made. Shak-
speare's dictum, Nature is greater than art
is here verified again and again. confess
that was skeptical. I had read the most
exaggerated l then thought accounts. of
the park and its wonders, and was as hereti-
cal as could be. The half was not told. The
half? Not the thousandth part, nor can it
be. Pages of description are all too faint
though the strongest superlatives in the Ian
guage are used unstintedly. Why, to sit on
the edge of Hell's half acre and watch the
Sheridan geyser is to have lifetime men,
ory 1t is twice as big as this hotel and the
|
feet. 1t is indescribably grand to watch it
first sending up cloud of steam then water
higher and higher until the stupendous mag
nitude of full eruption is reached. Then
the Beehive, the Fan Old Faithful, the
Giant and Giantess, the Paint Pots-I laugh
ed for an hour at these queer mud buildings
and all the rest. Pshaw, I can't tell the
tithe. The grand caf1on is marvel of the
world; and the falls! why, what is Niagara
to them? When l tell you that vast body
Of water leaps down precipice 800 feet high
you can gather faint idea of what it is. 1
crawled around the jutting angle in the
cafion from which Moran took his view and
saw it all, from top to bottom, in its
ENTIRETY AND GRANDEUR,
and the remembrance will linger as long as
life does. The mammoth springs at the en-
trance of the Park, the Yellowstone lake and
the hundreds of smaller gems should be re-
counted, but who can properly describe
them? forgot to tell you, to give you some
idea of the volume of water thrown up by
the Sheridan geyser, that when it runs into
the Fire Hole river, distance several hundred
feet, it changes the temperature from that of
icy GOODNESS to that of actual heat. You've
heard that story about cooking your trout
where you catch 'em. It's true. 1 did it.
caught fish in an ice cold stream, and
walking not farther than across this room,
plunged it in a stream in which, in an
inconceivably short time it was boiled
through and through. But could go on for
hours telling of the wonders. One of your
newspaper men should 60 to the Park and
spend month or two there. I have never
seen really well written description of its
wonders. A book wouldn't be read, but
90 Il, IL
fully. 1 mustn't forget to speak of the ex-
hibitions of vandalism which abound. Relic
hunters have Clipped off huge pieces of the
into the cauldrons, which, when elected, tore
huge pieces from the symmetrical sides.
There's no harm in throwing small articles
in, of course. deposited pair of pants in
one crater. They were thoroughly washed
when they came out, I can tell you"
Sheridan is the most indomitable man I
ever knew, and he has the faculty of con-
vincing men that to follow him is the best
thing to do. He concluded he would cross
the Wind River mountains by pass hither-
to untrodden by man or domestic animal,
and he did. We had Indian Dick and Camp
bell, the famous United States scouts, for
guides, but they had never been over the
pass-Sheridan called it Lincoln pass after
he had crossed it-and their value arose
only from their knowledge of woodcraft and
the plains and divide generally. They had
given me the best horse I ever knew. got
to love that fellow as if he was human. Go
ing down the Teton mountains-where we
saw those grand three Teton peaks, the most
awe inspiring sight ever granted to
mortal eyes-we often had to crawl
to crawl backward, mind you, on
onIc o,,l I'll l..
necks. My horse would watch me as if I
was child and would poise his foot carefully
for fear he would tread on me. Every now
and then, when would rise and catch the
branch of a tree to aid in my descent, he
would lay his velvety muzzle on my neck
as If to say,
GALL RIGHT, OLD FELLOW,
I'll look after you." ......
Il can't begin to tell of all the pleasures
went for good time and had it, and every
one in the party was so thoroughly congenial
as to make it all the more enjoyable. slept
80 soundly that the orderly had to shake me
every morning to waken me. We rose at 5.
breakfasted at $50 in the big dinner tent, as
we called it, and were always en- route at 6.
The way the packers got that big train in
notion excited my wonderment every day.
but in less degree to that caused by the
mules themselves, who were as well drilled
IS soldiers. l am convinced any one of them
could have climbed tree if necessary. They
we're never more than ten or fifteen minutes
behind our party, and the lunch mule was
'lways in the front rank and on time when
le was wanted. When we got to Mammoth
springs, at our exit from the Park, Gen.
'herldan had an ambulance waiting for me
rom Fort Ellis. He didn't know how far
Qcf fho ro.1r lrI
might miss my engagement. We had come
cross ex-Congressman Fort of Illinois in the
ark, and he and a companion had strayed
rom their outfit and lost it, was able to
i've thep lift in the ambulance to a place
here they heard Of their missing wagon"
Satan in the Clock.
milwaukee News
Superstitious people on the South Side