St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1884-05-01

apart that tho inmate may watch the
crusader with the cross on his shoulder
"To battle riding lightly down" And
dropping over all is the Angels snowy
wing as if it would gather under its
! shadow, alike heather and Christian
that they learn war no more. Giants
Hall is filed with colossal statues
The monster stalactites of the Organ
startle us with the clear notes of the
scale as the guide taps them with his
stick. They ring out sweet and full in
the lofty room and die away echOing in
the gloomy hOllows that lie on every
hand.
DOWN IN SKELETON GULCH
imbedded in the solid rock, is one of
the bits of humane interest of the cav
ern-a human skeleton held fast in the
stone. Whence it came, no man knows,
but that the little people, the good
people who inhabited the caves before
these degenerate days, bound him in
adamantine chains for his temeritv in
visiting their abode, who can doubt 2
Where are the little folks nOwP
Hark, is that the sound of the elm
hammer we hear, the click of the busy
shuttle flying through the loom, that
weaves these draperies Lay your ear
against the wall. You hear the water
trickle, trickle slowly through the
lime stone just as it has trickled for
thousands of years, and there is all the
secret of these wonderful. weird orea-
tiOns. A drop hangs from the ceiling
The carbOnic acid escapes, the water
evapOrates, the lime is left and the
stalactite grows; the drop that falls to
the fOor is the beginning of stalag-
mite that rises to meet its brother
hanging from above.
All the marvelS rise from common
cause. If one watches the different
forms ice assumes under various condi-
tions, he will get the idea, for the cav
ern is only filed with
ICICLES IN STONE.
But the innumerable multitude In
the ball room, where the jOcund lads
and lassies of the country dance
the night away, they rise in immense
columns from floor to ceiling, in all the
passageways they hang in all shapes,
sizes and lengths, tiny things the size
of lady's finger or monsters larger
tiaih thN bA iIo Ntili NietoDs <AlIu ONCl ali
the electric light sheds its brilliant
glow, throwing an additional white
ness on the Frozen Fountain and the
Spectre, solemn and pale by Pluto's
Chasm, and leaving all the shadows
darker and deeper by the contrast.
In the beauty of this furnishing as
we have already said, Nature has done
more for Luray than for the Mammoth
Cave or the wonderful WyandOtte
cavern in Indiana. The age of the
cavern is supposed to be the same, the
temperature, So, the same but no
other cavern boasts these fairy like
carvings, the wonderful tintiugs, a har-
mOny in brown, says an artist, these
tall pillars, these scarfs and drapcries,
the little statue of Roscoe Conkling,
complete, even to the curl on his head.
the Wet Blanket with its red striped
border, hanging in the disconsolate
folds wet garment always assumes,
and all of cold, silent stone We call
not comprehend it. Let the crowd
pass. One should stand here alone.
Idle chatter is as out of place as in u
cathedral, for here, too one walks and
talks with God. ExclamatiOnS of won
der and delight die unuttered on the
lips. Words are dead-One can only
feel, but the feeling is what we carry
with us. Words at best can never half
express our thoughts and the written
words are even more unsatisfactory
than the spoken. So we must leave
Luray, after all, to our readers imag
ination until they are happy enough
to dream away, themselves, the hOnrs
in Natures tabernacle where the cum
ningest ARTISAN will stand with uncOv
cred head and wonder reverently
"What is man p