The Arizona sentinel. [volume] (Arizona City [Yuma], Yuma County, A.T. [Ariz.]) 1872-1911, 1888-12-22

name of the State in letters of solid
silver set into the block, flush with
the surface. On this same level is a
stone from Salt Lake City, with the
characteristic beehive carved on the
front The tablets extend to halfway
up the shaft, The last ones are on the
two hundred and forty-foot level. OF
these the highest is that from Wales,
a handsome black stone, highly pol
ished, and bearing an inscription in
the outlandish tongue of the land of
the Cardiff Giant.
The car has long ago passed through
the old portion of the shaft, and is run
ming as smoothly az at the start
through the neat, exact masonry of the
new work. The dark surface of the
granite is checkered with white
squares, the faces of marble blocks
that extend entirely through the walls
acting as a bond to the masonary. The
corners of the shaft in this portion are
neatly rounded instead of being square,
as below. AT every fifty feet from the
floor to the roof there is an elevator
landing, the Roors of levels being ex-
tended TO meet the car, and guarded by
a high latticed gate. These occur on
alternate sides, and, The car having a
door in beth the east and west sides,
exit from the car is thus provided in
either direction. At four hundred and
sixty feet the smooth walls are broken
by the projection of twelve buttresses,
three on each side. These are the rib
stones which support the roof Of the
monument, AT the bottom they extend
about six inches, leaning out more and
more as they go up, until at the top
they project about five feet. The mid
die ones on each side are a little in ad
Vance of the others, narrowing more
rapidly to form an arch for the sup
port of the Gapstone. The light from
the incandescent carbon is by this time
beginning to be dimmed by that from
the outside, drifting down from the
windows in the roof. The great wheels
that have been devouring the cables
seem to be falling upon the car, and
suddenly the conductor gives a long
upward pull on the hand-rope and the
car comes to q stop in the midst of a
sheet-iron cage. The air is chilly; and
as the passengers step timorously over
the threshold they button their over
coats and turn up their collars.
This upper landing is a cold, lonely
place, the abutting ribstones cutting it
up into angular spaces, and the bare
floors and shining white walls tending
to give it a lonesome air. On each side
two oblong windows give views into
the atmosphere and down upon the
fattened earth. The world looks big
ger than one thought it to bel it
stretches away on every hand to melt
ing blue horizon, family outlined, with
here and there hilltop intruding its
sharp point as if in claim of recOgni-
tion as a part of the scene. On the
south side the Potomac reaches down
toward the sea; silent and steadfast,
Immediately beneath lie like map the
flats of the river front, with dredges at
work here and there. A steamer is
crawling down stream at slow pace,
and the shipping thinly scattered along
the wharves is silent, as if ashamed of
its scarcity.
From the west windows a magnif-
cent view is obtained of the Virginia
shore, with Arlington showing like a
yellow spot.to mark the resting place
of the soldier dead. The Potomac
drifts out of sight around a bend, and
a flash. The haze that softens the
horizon makes it almost impossible to
discern the peak of Sugar Loaf, thir-
ty-eight miles away in the northwest
ern sky, but after moments search it
appears, the summit seemingly float
ing in the atmosphere. The northern
view is first mass of houses, dull red
in tone, enlivened by patch of white
or light brown here and there, with
certain streets shooting straight out
from beneath until their cOnvergipg
lines lose themselves. Beyond the
houses are the heights, marred at in
tervals by great red patches of exposed
earth, marking the course of the Aque-
duct tunnel. Off to the right, Just be-
low the Soldiers Home, is a large
patch, the walls and banks of the new
reservoir. A country road some miles
out suddenly climbs hill and shows
itself through the tees, like steady
column of yellow smoke.
The city proper is best seen from the
east. From the base of the shaft to the
Capitol, standing like a Chinese wall,
the mall stretches in charming sue
cession of groves, graceful pathways
and ornamental structures. The
Smithsonian Park is gorgeous. Here
and there some more forward tree has
decked itself in gaudy array and flames
out in the midst of the softer green and
brown of its neighbors. The picture
is marred, however, by line of smoke
and steam from the railroad cutting
across the middle of the park.
The spectators are awed, surprised,
chilled into silence, and they OCCASION
ally glance upward at the maze of
stones in the roof, the converging
arches, and the seemingly light, airy
mode OF construction, and then shud-
der slightly and hurry into the car.
Some. take off their hats and put their
heads through the windows, exclaim-
ing at the dwarfed appearance of the