The Arkansaw traveler., 1883-09-15
THE MIDNIGHT SUN
London Daily News.1


 Nature IS, indeed, very often skillf,l i, her. arrangement of shows. She b,s me sense of contrast, and knows how =. set on one thing by another. So at No,.s cape the splendor of the sea and sky :. heightened by dull and un;n,eres,,,. land. The spectator stands upon 4 hs,s and gloomy moor, and his vision ran.,.- along broken but monotonous ross. attractive only when its highest porjo-s catch and throw back the rosy ligh, ,b .. falls upon them from the glorious heavens' Nothing, therefoEe, draws the mind aa,s,. from contemplation of the expanse ., water and sky ever which the sun lo,d. in its strength Many a trayeler bss sought to paint in words the we,-s spiendor of the scene when, at the mic. night hour. the orb hangs above the horizon difnsing over all a rich y,, mysterious light. We may say mys,er. ous light, for this uncanny glow hss about it a sort ofnight effect indescribab1e in words. The light is that of day bs. It IS not day, and all nature seems .o sleep as though shrouded in darkness
 True, Lord Dufferin's celebrate rooster did not perceive the fact. A nnreneeiive stranger in high latitudes
 the unhappy bird was deceived into ,. idea of perpetual sunrise, and havir
 proclaimed the morn for thirty.six hour, died a victim to impulse, combined w,b ignorance ofphysical geography. Chan. ueieers experience, notwi,hstandin
 there IS. over the whole scene, and in the mnd of the observer, consciousness q, night which makes the more wonderful simultaneous vision of the orb of day
 Inc impression cannot be communicated but the mere picture has been again anc again limned for us by skillful pens. an by none more successfully than ,ha, oi hayard Taylor, who speaks of the "ed dies of returning birds, gleaming golden Tn the nocturnal sun, like drifts of beech leaves Tn the October air. and continues ar to the north the sun lay in a bed Of saffron light. over the clear horizon of the Aruc ocean. A few bars of dazzline orange cloud liberated above him. and, shIi higher Tn the sky. where the saffron melted through delicate rose color into blue, hung like wrea,hs ofvapor, touched with pearly. opaline fiushes of pink and golden gray.' He describes the sea as a web of pale slate color. sho, through with threads of orange and saffron" and inc ar as "nlled with soft mysterious giow. while between the headlands stood the midnight sun shining on IS with sabdued tires, and with the seor- Seous eoloung ot an hour, for which We nave no name, since i, Is neither sunrise nor sunset, but the blended loveliness c, ooih-out shining at the same momen; Tn the heat and splendor of noonday OF the Pacific isles.' Even on paper ,he magnificent picture excites admiration and awe. We are all sun-worshppers more or less. We go up uncomfortable mountains 10 watch the luiainar, rise and his setting on sea or land. on neigh, or in valley. IS often q spectacle grand enough to justify Jean Paul Kieh,ers eutoarSt, see the sun standing amid roses Tn the western sky, into which he has thrown the raybrush wherewith he had all day been painting the earl" <" These spectacles are viewed for the mos. par. however, under ordinary conditions. and lacks the wonder of that upon which Herr Stoll has recently been gazing. Far deeper than any made by physical beauty must be the impression due the though, ot the dark and sleeping world out of which the traveller has come to Hook through golden vistas into heaven. This IS the idea upon which Carlyle seized when making his Teufelsdrockh stand at the farthest northern limit of the continent. Silence as of death, foi midnight even. m the Arctic latitude has its character nothing but the granite cliffs, ruby-tinged. the peaceful gurgle of that slow, heavy Polar ocean, over which. Tn the utmost north, the great sun hangs low and lazy. as if he too were slumbeI- ing. Yet in his cloud-couch, wrought ef crimson and cloth of gold yet does h,s light stream over the mirrors of waters. like tremendous hre-pillar shooting downward 10 the abyss, and hide itself under my feet. In such moments soli- tude also is invaluable for who would speak or be looked upon. when behind him lies all Europe and Africa, fast asleep. except the wa,chmen, and before him the silent lmmensity and Palace of the Eternal, whereof our sun is bu, a poreh-lamp 2" We know not whether Herr Stoll had thoughts like these, our information being limited to the state ment that he found two spots on the suns face: but in such spirit. which scars far above science, should worshipers penetrate to the holy places of nature.