St. Paul daily globe., 1888-05-05
The WONDERFUL MIRAGE
As Seen in Dakota and Related to the
Eastern Bl8ckaded Travellers.
MEN WALKING IN THE SKY.
The Aerial Visions But Reflections of
the Marvellous Realities of the
Earth Below.
Special Letter to the Globe.

DANoh ~ nIdy
ing one of our late blockades several
gentlemen from different parts of the
country were huddled together in the
reception room of hotel here, talking
about prairie life, spicing their remarks
with lively jokes meant to discount the
West. Seated in one corner was gen.
tleman who was apparently reading a
daily. He was attired in coarse, rough
garments, slouching hat bagging down
and hiding his brow, but setting off his
classic face in bold relief. The CONVEX
sation intensified almost to white heat,
when, thoughtlessly dropping the paper
from his hand, he said:
You curse our Winds" addressing a
New Yorker, "but if you could sniff
their double-distilled oxygen a few
months and bask in their electric vital
ity, think you Down-Easters would
change your stereOtyped tune. IT'S
funny, tell you, to hear old Boreas
blow his horn and be pelted with gen
uine blizzard from his polar palace"
''Where do you iye?" asked the New
| Yorker.
''In Dakota was the reply; 'a Maine
lll6lil DCCll w CSU DIX yCttlS,
| long enough to make a comparison as to
| soil. climate and ideal perspective. Da-
| kota, sir, is close to the fountain of the
ELIXIR OF LIFE"
! A comic smile played upon the face
| of his listeners, but he had their atten-
| ton. ''You say the prairie is monoton-
Gus, having nothing to excite beautiful
| ideal OF awaken a feeling of content
ment. Why, sir, our almost daily mir
| age casts your pent-up Utica in the
| shade.
'''Distance lends enchantment to the view
''It certainly does so on the open prai
| rie. As we see things embossed on the
| sky, they seem to tell us we are almost
| there. One f0rgetS WEAKNESS in the
contemplation of a variegated panorama
pinned upon the blue vault-an aOrial
landscape of refreshing waters and flo
raj gardens. Whatever poetry's born
| in us then begins to grow"
''Do you mean to say" asked his in
terrogator, ''that you have real
MIRAGE IN DAKOTA"'
''That is what | am talking about"
was the response. 1.-The best defined
generally occurs just after the air has
been Sifted from dust, and the vapOrS
have been cooled down into transparent
mist, and the solar heat, warming the
10 lHIU
SpeculR. Then turn your back to the
| sun and watch the breezy bank of hui
midity. 1t looks whitish, like clean
smoke. Is not the prairie grass on fire?
How it tOsseS, and curlS, and gliStenS!
You see waving lines of liquid silver,
| drifting, drifting you know not whittier.
StoOp lower; the undulating plain
sinks. Regardless of the angle of OBJ
servation, the phenomenon is the same.
| 1t looks like innumerable tiny water
wheels, rolling, trembling, receding far
away, lost to view in the dim haze. How
| difficult then to diSrobe the imagination
of the idea that you are standing on the
shore of the sea, and then some white
sails must soon heave in sight,
'Never heard of so wonderful mir
age" said the New Yorker, "beats the
East out of breath''-with sarcastic
twist of the voice that strained the mus
cleS of his capitalistic mouth.
did not claim it is mirage, SIR" lift
ing his hat and throwing it careleSSly
upon the floor; '.was only promising an
outline of its philosophy, SIR fitting
his words for emphasis. Isn't it some
atmosphere playing hide-and-gO-seek?
That's the vestibule to the aerial picture
gallery, sir. Look through, sir, look
through the diverse strata of air, diverse,
sir, in deSiSity and temperature; what
do you see, SIT, actually lifted up from
the earth? Objects, sir, afloat on that
undulating humidity. Cattle, sir, and
horses, sir, greatly magnified, are seen
| WALKING IN THE SKY.
That's DakOta'S mirage, sir!"
''How do you account for it?' asked
another gentleman as the New Yorker
collapsed into silence.
| s.PprhanC can't IN alya III alpar Como
here" changing his position. ''Stoop
little, and sGuint across the top of this
hot stove to the face of the gentleman
from New York; See-diStOrted, not as
handsome as ordinary This phenom-
enon's not due to Kaleidoscope dis
position of the man, but to the rays of
light coming from his proboscis." Here
the philosophical explanation was
checked by an uproariOuS laugh, in
which the New Yorker took a con-
| spicuous part, gleefully eXpectOrating
! ing you, gentlemen" said the Dakotian,
| edging in his talk at length, ''that when
| the rays of light pass from the luminous
nose of the gentleman across the stove,
that is, from a denSer to rarer
medium, or the reverse, they, the rays,
are bent in their course, bending the
| whole face, as you observe, and widen
ing his otherwise symmetrical mouth"
| II fully comprehend the philosophy"
exclaimed the New Yorker, enjoying
the fun. ''Go on, Dakota, go on"
''All right" resumed the mirage de
| fender; "a proper knowledge of optics
will prove to us that we are not always
| what we SEEM"
But the mans face appears en-
| larged," remarked the aforesaid gentle
! man.
Exactly so of our mirage" was the
reply. Il have often seen man OH
the prairie ten miles off-in life size. 1t
| is like our Western business, ever ell
larged and enlarging. l have seen a
distant lake that lies between bluffs
200 feet below the general level rise up
! to inspection in vaSter proportions,
trimmed round only by the horizon, and
brought so near that it seemed l was
standing on its pebbly shore. Little
shanties and mud huts, seen afar, ap-
pear as massive castles, imposing as the
| real ones of chivalrous days. Hillocks
are transformed into mountains, stones
into pyramids, pools into lakes,
trailing willows into giant trees.
Meadow larks are large as elder ducks
and jack rabbits, as deer flying before
some hunting Goliath. When not ac-
customed to such scenes, recollet what
a disappointment felt OH one occasion
while riding over prairie one forenoon
in June. Apparently at short distance
ahead was a mountainous activity with
here and there great messy rock and a
deep shaggy ravine covered with a
dense, high shrubbery under which gilt
tered sparkling rivulet. Eager to in
spect the enchanted place, ] pressed for
ward, and to my chagrin, found myself
riding over a slight swell of the prairie
on which were few white and gray
stones about as big as half-bushel meas
ures, and
THE WONDROUS RAvINE
| was q moro sac Of the prOuDd i'm yvhi oh