Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1889-10-04

themselves in one magnificent chorus
of rock and precipice and waterfall,
Sitting and dashing through the rocks, the
water comes down. The Bridal Veil
of the mountain behind. Wonder is Yose-
mite Falls, dropping 1884 feet sixteen
times greater descent than that of Niagara.
These waters dashed to death on the rocks,
so that the white spirit of the slain waters
ascending in robe Of mist seeks the heaven.
Yonder is Nevada falls, plmging seven hun
dred feet, the water in arrows, the water IN
rockets, the water in pearls, the water IN
amethysts, the water in diamonds. That
cascade filings down the rocks enough jewels
to array all the earth in beauty, and rushes
on until it drops into a very hell Of waters,
the smoke of their torment ascending forever
and ever.
Bnt the most wonderful part of this Amer
ican continent is the Yellowstone Park. My
visit there last month made upon me an inn
preston that will last forever After all
poetry has exhausted itself, and all the
Morans and Bierstadts and the other enchant-
ing artists have completed their canvas,
there will be other revelations to make and
other stories of its beauty and wrath,
splendor and agony, to be recited.
The Yellowstone Park is the geol
travel may it become the nations play
ground! In some portions of it there seems
10 be the anarchy Of the elements. Fire and
water, and the vapor born of that marriage,
terrific. Geyser cones or hills of crystal that
have been over five thousand years growing.
In places the earth, throbbing, sobbing
groaning, qualing with aqueous paroxysm.
At the expiration Of every sixty-five min
utes one of the geyssrs tossing its boiling
water 1855 feet in the air and then descending
into swinging rainbows. CavernS of pictured
walls large enough for the sepulcher of the
human race. Formations of stone in shape
and color of Gala lily, of heljotrope, of rose,
of cowslip, of sunflower and Of gladiola.
Sulphur and arsenic and oxide of iron, with
their delicate pencils, turning the hills into
a Luxembourg or Vatican picture
gallery. The so-caled Thanatopsis
geyser, exquisite as the Bryant poem it was
named after and the so called Evangeline
geyser, lovely as the Longfellow heroine it
commentaries. The so called Pulpit Ter
race from its white elevation preaching
mightier sermons Of God than human lips
ever uttered. The so called Bethesda gey-
ser, by the warmth of which invalids have
already been cured, the Angel Of Health con-
tinualy stirring the waters. Enraged era
tiers, with heat at five hundred degrees only a
| little below the surface.
| Wide reaches of stone of intermingled
coiors blue as the sky, green as the foliage,
crimson as the dahla, white as the snow,
J
| grizzly as the bear in circles in angles, in
stars, in coronets, in stalacites, in stalag-
mites. Here and there are petritied growthS,
or the dead trees, and vegetation of other
ages, kept through process of natural EN-
balmment. In some places waters as inno-
cent and smiling as a child making first at
! tempt to walk from its mothers lap. and not
far Off as foaming and frenzied and ungov-
ernable as maniac in murderOus struggle
with his keepers
But after you have wandered along the
| geyserite enchantment for days and begin to
feel that there can be nothing more Of in
terest to see, you suddenly come upon the
| peroration of all maiesty and grandeur, the
! Grand canyon. 1t is here that it seems to me
and l speak it with reverence-Jehovah
seems to have surpassed Himself. 1t seems
| q great gulch let down into the
eternities. Here, hung up and let
down and spread abroad are all the
colors of land and sea and sky. Upholster-
ing of the Lord God Almighty. Best work
of the Architect Of worlds Sculpturing by
the Infinite. Masonry by an Omnipotent
unless you saw it there. Red! You never
saw red unless you saw it there. Violet!
You never saw violet unless you saw it there
| Triumphant banners of color. In cathe-
| dral of basalt, sunrise and sunset married
by the setting of rainbow ring
Gothic arches, Corinthian capitals and
| Egyptian basilicas build before human archi-
lecture was born Huge Notifications of
granite constructed before war forged its
first cannon. Gibraltars and Sebastopols
that never can be taken. Alhambras, where
kings of strength and queens of beauty
reigned long before the first earthly crown
was empearled. Thrones on which no one
but the King of heaven and earth ever sat.
Fount of waters at which the lesser hills are
bon 1xrlila bo tSlip
sponsors. For thousands of years be-
fore that scene was unveiled to human
sight, the elements were busy, and the gey.
sers were hewing away with their hot chisel,
and glaciers were pounding with their cold
hammers, and hurricanes were cleaving with
their lightning strokes, and hailstones giving
the finishing touches and after all these forces
of nature had done their best, in our century
the curtain dropped and the world had anew
and diyinely inspired revelation, the Old
Testament written on papyrus, the New
Testament written on parchment, and now
this last Testament written on the rocks.
Hanging over one Of the cliffs locked Off
until l could not getmy breath, then retreat
ing to less exposed place | looked down
again. Down there is pillar of rock that
in certain conditions of the atmosphere looks
like q pillar Of blood Yonder are fifty feet
Of emerald on base of five hundred feet Of
opal. Wall of chalk resting on pedestals Of
beryl Turrets Of light tumbling on floors
of darkness. The brown frightening into
golden. Snow of crystal melting into fire of
Carbuncle. Flaming red cooling into russell
Cold blue warming into saffron. Dull gray
kindlin= into solfcrino Morning twilight
flushing midnight shadows. Auroras crouch
ing among rocks.
Yonder is an eagles nest on shaft of
basalt. Through an oyegiass we see it among
the young eagles, but the stOuteSt arm of our
group cannot hurl stone near enough to
disturb the feathered domesticity. Yonder
nre heights that would be chilled with hor-
ror but for the warm robe of forest foliage
with which they are enwrapped. Affairs Of
worship at which nations might kneel.
Domes Of chalcedony on temples of por-
phyry. See all this carnage of color up and
down the cliffs, it must have been the bat
tie field of the war of the clements
Here are all the colors of the wall of
heaven, neither the sapphire nor the
chrysolite nor the topaz nor the
nor the twelve gates of twelve pearls, want
ing. If spirits bound from earth to heaven
could pass up by way of this canyon, the dashoI
heavenly beauty would not be SO overpower
ing. 1t would only be from glory to glory
Ascent through such earthly scenery IL
which the crystal is so bright and the red 81
flaming would be fit preparation for thu
'tsea of glass mingled with fire"
Standing there in the Grand canyon o.
the Yellowstone Park ON the morning o
August O. for the most part we held oul
peace, but aftcr a while it flashed npon mt
with such power ] could not help but say t.
my comrades: 'What a Hall this would b.
for the last Judgment~ See that mighty
cascade with the rainbows at the foot Of it
Those waters CONCEALED and transfxed will
the agitations of that day, what place they
would make for the shining feet Of a Judg
Of quick and dead. And thos
rainbows look now like the crowns
to be cast at his feet At the