The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1888-07-20
NUMBER 2I.

promise OF ever getting there"
We start and have not rome far
when the ascent begins along the
mountain sides. From now on beg.
gars description. Rising higher
and still higher, our foot path get
ting narrower and still narrower MS
it. winds around the peaks and
spurs, which rise high above our
heads, while beneah us, oh, how
frlghtful! | cast a glance down
ward now and then, and it seems
It's three hundred feet to the bot
tom; now its quarter, and now a
halt mile TO the bottom, while our
horses are treaCing Il narrow path
with, perhaps, moi more than eight
or ten inches margin for fhelr feet.
II he stumbles and lose his footing,
then horse and rider may land
somewhere bel ween three hundred
feet and a half mile Ny head
swims-its like q nightmare. [
look up while our horses move
along like mountain goats.
Along the way we hear the roar
OF water, now we see the sparkling
stream from the melting snow
above, as it leaps over rocks, rush
ing On 10 gladden. man and beast
in the valleys beneath. After an
ordeal of couple of hours of such
frlghtful experience we reach the
hallway house," where the re-
treshments are served, and here
we rest our weary animals for
twenty minutes. We are above
the world, but our guides tell us,
Its yet seven miles to the top"
Forward we 60, and our path winds
around like the thread of a screw.
Bye and bye we reach the top of
the timber line (spruce, pine and
aspen J and from now on its a bar
rem bleak rocky way. We approach
The snow drifts, and now we hear
the whlstling wind and feel its cold
blasts coming from The bosom of
frozen snow. We pull on ourover-
coats, and now reach the snow
drifts, and Just here one of our
party has fainling sensations, but
like mOuntalneer, he falterS not.
Crossing the drifts our horses break
through here and there, and not
knowing the depth, we tremble.
We pass The snow line, and now
our way leads oyer a mile Of brok-
en- rocks of every size and shape
over which our horses pick their
way, till at last, weary and worn,
hey plant their feet on the summit.
It's IL o'clock, and the pulse of the
writer and others beat wild and
apid, and bellows like we must
Jump fast to supply our lungs,
While pain shoots across my chest,
nd peculiar feeling takes pos
ession of me. Here on the sum
nit we find a signal service officer
nd a boy, who inhabit a rock
abin. They serve us with coffee,
1arm us at their stove and take
ur photographs in a group.
Our faces bear the appearance
/ melancholy, while we look to
he north, south, east and west.
'ehold did we ever dream of such
ghts. Higher than the highest
fountain We look over them all,
nd see very clearly the dividing
Inge OF a hundred miles away,
ayond which the Pacific slope
7gins. We are not disposed to
Tx much. We look down to see
e towns from whence we made
e ascent, but our visions can dis
IN nothing more than something
,e the playthings Of wee, wee
ildren, We look to the eastward
d the plains stretch farther and
'ther TIL like a boundless sea we
to discern the line that separ-
IS the blue sky above, from the
cen earth beneath. Oh, noun
n! symbol of theS Eternal One!
~ we learn a lesson from thee.