The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1886-07-24
A FANTASY IN STONE,
coLoRADo's WONDERFUL garden
OF THE GODS"

Charles Warren Stoddartl's Story of the
Marvels of DTanitou-A View of Pixies
Peak-Wonderful Contrasts of Color
A Terrestrial Paradise.
Only think of It! We were scarcely three
hours by rail from Denver, and yet here, in
Manitou, were the very elements SO notice
ably lacking there. Nature in her natural
state-primitive forever; the air seasoned
with the pungent spices of odoriferous
herbs; the sweetest sunshine in abundance,
and all the shade that makes sunshine most
agreeable
Manitou Is a picturesque hamlet that has
scattered itself up and down the deep ra-
vine, regardless Of the limiting lines of the
| surveyor. The railway station at Manitou
might pose for porter's lodge in the pref
test park in England. Surely there is hope
for America when she can so far curb her
vulgar love of the merely practical as to do
this sort of thing at the right time and in
the right place.
Loungers lounge at the springs as if they
really enjoyed it. An amiable booth-boy
displayed mis- welldrsssed and handsomely
mounted foxskins, his pressed flowers Of
colorado, his queer meteorological -jewelry
and his un5 outh geological specimens in the
shape OF hideous bric-a-brac, as If he took
pressure In thus entertaining The public;
While everybody has the cosiest and most
soclable time over the counter, and buys
only by accident at last There are rock
gorges in Mauitou, through which the In
dian tribes were won't to noiselessly defile
when on the warpath in the brave days of
old; gorges where currents of hot air
breathe in your face like the heath of some
fierce animal There are brilliant and noisy
catsracts and cascades that silver the rocks
with spray; and huge winding caverns
filed with mice and filth and the blachnsss
of darkness, and out of which one emerees
looking like a tramp and feeling like-weil
There are springs bubbling and sleeping
anu stasnating by the wayside springs
containing carbonates of soda ithia, lime,
magnesia and iron; sulphates of Iotassa
anu soda, chloride OF sodium and silica, in
various solutions. Some Of these are
sweeter than honey III honeycomb; some
Of them smell to heaven-what more can
the panpered palate of man desires
Let all those WHO thirst for chalybeate
waters bear in mind that the Ute Iron
spring of Manitou is 500 feet higher than
st. Catarina, tie highest iron spring in
Europe, and nearly 1000 feet higher than
st, Morit@, and that the hracing air at an
elevation of 6,i00 feet has probably as much
to do with the recovery OF the invalid as
has the 5udicious quafiing Of medicinal
waters. Of pure iron springs the famous
Schwa: back contains rather more iron than
the lrol Ute, and Spa rather less. On the
whole, Manitou has the advantage of the
most celebrated medicinal springs in Europe
and has climate even in mid winter pref
ernb.e to all CT them. In the edge of the
pretty hamlet at Manitou stands a cottage
hali hidden like a. bir,ls nest among the
i. eos L saw only tho peaks of gables under
green boughs, and wondered when | was
itii ormed that the lovely spot had been lony
untenanted. and wondered still more when
learned that it was the property Of good
Grace Greenwood Win she ever cease
wandering and come back to weave a new
chaplet OF greenwood leaves gathered be-
meath the caves Of her mountain home2
RARE ATTRACTIONS
At the top of the village street stands /
Pixies peaks least it seems to stand there |
when viewed through the telescopic air. 1t /
is Ill reality dozen miles distant, but is
easily approached by a winding trail oven. /
which ladies in the saddle may reach the
glorious snow-capped summit and return to |
Manltou between breakfast and supper.
From the signal station the view remind,
one OF map Of the world 1t rather dazes
than delights the eye to roam so far, and
itself grows weary at last and
is glad to fold lis wings Manitou's chief
attraction lies over the first range of hills
she veritable Garden of the Gods You NAV
walk, or ride, Or drive to it, in any case the
surprise begins the moment you reach the
'ldge's top above Manitou. and ceases not
'lu the back is turned at the close of the
sxcurslon-nor then either, for the memory
u that marvel haunts one like childish
irean. Imagine softly undulating land
wooded and with many an orna-
mental shrub, that composes so well one
an scarcely assure himself that the artist
II the landscape gardener has not had
land in the identifying of the whole
Out of this lonely, silent land, with cloud
hadows floating across it, at long intervals
ire bird voices, or the bleating of distant
locks, charming the listening ear. Out of
his wild and beautiful spot spring CycIo-
ean rocks, appalling in the splendor of
heir proportions and the magniticence of
heir dyes. Sharp shafts shoot heavenward
rom breadths of level sward and glow like
wing flames; peaks of various tinges over
ook the tops Of other peaks that, in their
urn, lord it among gigantic powders piled
pom massive pedestals 1t is Ussa upon
elton, in little; vastly impressive because
the exceptional surroundings that mag
aiy even these magnificent monuments,
n!que in their design and almost unparal- (
led in their picturesque and daring out
ne Some OF these nlonoliths tremble and ,
way, or seem to sway. for they are bal l
ncei edgewise, as if the gods had amused
i'll some infanti!e game, and
rowing weary OF this little n1anet hSd
I'd and left their toys in confusion. The
'p-heavy and the tottering ones are almost
ithin reach, but there are slabs of rock u
lat look like slices out of a mountain-i Il
Id almost said Like slices out of red hot a
olcano. These stand up against the blue u
y and the wide-spreadins background in c
if1iant and astonishing perspective v
doubt if any where else in the world the II
ntrasts in color and form are more vio- "
Mt than in the Garden of tie Gods They II
o not always agreeable to the eye, tor II
re is much crude color here: tut there "
. points OF sight where these columns, n
nnacles, spires and obelisas, with base Ii
ID capital are so groupetl, that the mass te
g is as tantasIical as cloud picture, and II
Q whole can only be compared to petri- il
d a:terglow. | have seen pictures OF the tt
arden OF the Gods that made me nearly W
rst with laughter; mean color studies d!
at were supramely ridiculous in my eyes, |
had not then seen the original: but tt
ne OF these make me laugh any longer. CO
icy serve, even the widest ana worst of II
am, to remind me of morning drive, in J"
, best of company, through that grand ST
rden where our combined voca bularies of il
light and wondernient are exhausted i'll |
a mir r,1o r,f