The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1886-12-23
WINTERS WEALTH
A Beautiful and Graphic Pen
picture.
Magnificent Description of a Winter
Scene by the Ornate and Gifted
Word Painter of the "Wilson Mirror"
[W. IL, Blount.l

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The Snow began to fall on Saturday
and at this writing, Monday morning,
we find the feecy fakes again falling,
the earth robed ina glittering mantle,
and the trees all jewelled with spark
ling gems. The scene is almost as rich
in icy splendor as it was two years
ago when we attempted to picture it
in the following article, which IS re-
printed at the request of numerous
friends:
On Fridayit began to rain and sleet,
and soon thereafter every tree began
to robe itself in that stainless ermine
50 radiantly woven with winters shut
tie in Arctic looms, and to place
around its branches shining necklace
of those glittering jewels dug only out
Of the bosom of frozen climes. The
weather was extravagantly lavish and
profuse in adorning every object with
its wealth of splendor, and when Sat
urday dawned Wilson looked like some
crystal forest full foliaged with the
dazzling leaves of the most sparkling
brilliancy. Every housetop, every Gu
pola, every spire, every tree, every bush
sparkled with a lustre brighter than
the flashes of sunbeams shot from the
we'll poised bow of couldless noon-tide,
while drainless streams of shimmering
pillows of throbbing radiance poured
food after flood through glittering
channels on every twig, and left veil
of silvery spray of glittering splendor.
1t was a scene tinted with the drip
pings of sublimity and was gloriously
grand and beautiful, and beyond the
pens delineation. 1t was wordless. 1t
was awe-wrappcd. 1t was God-like,
for it was perfect. In its stainless
purity there was nothing ofearth about
it, and it reminded us of the simmer
ing spires on those Celestial temples
on high which lift up there white robed
SUBMITS, and point the spirit of adora-
ton to higher scenes in worship. But
the trees could not bear up under such
burdens OF splendor and live unhurt !;
and ever and anon, a terrible crashing
of a limb was heard a magnificent
shower of crushed, and broken jewels
would fill the air with their corruscant
brilllancies, and by nightfall every
street in town was strewn with shining
branches of dismembered trees. And
as night began to weave its shadows
around the earth the scene changed
from that of matchless beauty to one
of appalling gloom, for those ice-wrap-
pen trees seemed like white and pas
sionless monuments standing over
cold and pulseless world. Even the
stars, like timid children afraid of
every ghost-like thing, hid themselves
behind intervening clouds, and not one
of them dared to look out and smile
upon the awful scene below. 1t was
dismal night, but morning dawned at
last, and the scene of the day before
grown in beauty and splendor, and the
glory of God was stamped upon every
thing. Every >twig caught the radiant
smile of an approving Angel, and held
it trembling there. 1t was matchless
in its brilliancy. Even the luminous
God of Day, fre-eyed as he is, and
whose burning channels of light send
warmth and glory to millions of worlds
in space, seemed as if his own vision
was dazzled by the flashing sheets of
blazing streams of brilliancy which
were sparkling beneath, and all day
long he wore his spectacles of clouds
to shed his vision from the comming
ling corruscations of the world below.
How magnihcently grand, how ex-
quisitely sublime, how entrancingly
lovely, how thrillingly radiant must
Heaven be when the glitering spectacle
was only little shadow flung down
from the everlasting temple of light,
.snot built with hands, eternally in the
Heavens.
Laying aside now the prismatic hues
of enthusiastic metaphor, and donning
the homespoun robe of sober fact, We
will proceed to say in all candor and
truth, that no spot on earth ever looked
prettier than Wilson did on Saturday.
AS we said above, many limbs had
been torn from the trees. and, scattered
here and there in magnificent inter
mingling, that shimmering mass Of
blended icicles presented a glittering
line of impossible "chevaldefrise," and
over which nothing but the snow w-nursed
winds ofHeaven were allowed to creep
The scene beggars description and
language limps away, unable to beal
such glories up. The steeple of the
Methodist chuch looked like a long
bony fngner of some icy monarch
and as the eye followed it to it:
sharpened summet its dazzling shee
of radiance looked as if it was trying
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