Milford chronicle., 1889-09-27


and the next thousand years win not shatter
their scepter. They are the mastsof the con-
tinent, their canvas spread on the wind while
the old ship bears on its way through the
ages Their size, Of which travellers often
speak, does not affect me 50 much as their
longevity. Though so old now, the branches
Of some Of them viii crackle in the last con-
hagration of the planet That valley Of
Yosemite Is eight miles long and a half
mile wide and three thousand feet deep.
It seems as if it had been the mean
ing Of OmnipOtence to crowd into as
small place as possible some of the most stu
pendous scenery of the world. Some Of the
cliffs you do not stop to measure by feet, for
they are literally a mile high Steep so that
neither foot OF man nor beast ever scaled
them. they stand in everlasting defiance If
Jehovah has a throne on earth these are its
white pillars. Standing down in this great
chasm Of the valley you look up, and yonder
is Cathedral Rock, vast gloomy minister built
for the silentworshipof the mountains Yon-
der is Sentinel Rock, 3,210 feet high, bold,
solitary, standing guard among the ages, its
top seldom touched until a bride one Fourth
Of July mounted It and planted the national
standard, and the people down in the valleys
looked up and saw the head of the mountain
turbaned with Stars and Stripes. YOnder
are the ''Three Brothers," 1000 feet high;
Clouds Rest" North and South Dome
and heights never captured save by
the fiery bayonets Of the thunder storm. No
pause for the eye, no stopping place for the
mind. Mountains hurled on mountains.
Mountains in the wake of mountains. Noun
tains fanked by mountains. Mountains
split Mountains ground Mountains fallen.
Mountains triumphant. As though Mont
Blancand the Adiroudacks and Mount Wash
iBgton were here uttering themselves in one
magnificent chorus of rock and precipice and
waterfall Sitting and dashing through the
rocks the water comes down. The Bridal Veil
falls, SO thin you can see the face Of the noun
tain behind it, Xonder is Yosemite falls,
dropping 2,G34 feet, sixteen times greater de-
scent 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, plunging 100 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 tor
ment ascending forever and ever.
THE YELLOWSTONE PARK.
But the most wonderful part Of this Amer
lean continent is the Yellowstone park. Ny
visit there last month made upon me an i'm
preston that viii last forever. After all
poetry has exhausted itself and all the No
rams and Berstadts and the other enchanting
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 a biologists paradise. By cheapening Of
travel may it become the nations Playground
In some portions Of it there seems to be the
anarchy of the clements. 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, groan-
ing, qualiing with aqueous paroxysm. At
the expiration of every sixty-five minutes one
Of the geysers tossing its boiling water 1856
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 heliotrOpe, of rose,
of cowslip Of sunAOwer, and Of gladiola
Sulphur and arsenic and oxide of iron with
their delicate pencils turning the hills into a
Luxembourg or a Vatican picture gallery.
The so called 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 Terrace, from its white ele-
va ion preaching mightier sermons of God
than human lips ever uttered. The so called
Bethesda geyser, by the warmth Of which in
valds have already been cured, the angel OF
health continually stirring the waters; en-
ragged cratcrs, with heat at five hundred de
grees only a little below the surface. Wide
reaches Of stone of intermingled colors, blue
as the sky, green as the foliage, crimson as
the dahlia, white as the snow, spotted rs the
leopard, tawny as the lion, grizzly as the
bear, in circles, in angles, in stars, in coro-
nets, in stalactites, in stalagmites Here and
there are petrified growths or the dead trees,
and vegetation of other ages kept through a
process of natural embalmment In some
places waters as innocent and smiling as a
child making a first attempt to walk from
its mothers lap, and not far OF, as foaming
and frenzied and ungovcrnable as a maniac
in murderous struggle with his keepers.
THE GRAND CANYON.
But after you have wandered among the
geyserite enchantment for days and begin to
feel that there can be nothing more of inter
est to see, you suddenly come upon the pero-
ration of all majesty and grandeur, the
Grand canyon. It is here that it seems to
me-and ! speak it with TSverence-Jehoyal
seems to have surpassed himself. Il seems a
great gulf let down into the eternities. Here,
hung up and let down and spread abroad, are
all the colors OF land and sea aud SKY, Up
holstering Of the Lord God Almighty Best
WORK Of the Architect of worlds Sculptu-
ing by the Infinite Masonry by an oninip-
otent trowel Yellow! You never saw vel
low unless you saw it there. Redl You
never saw red unless you saw it there Vic
lett You never saw violet unless you saw il
there triumphant banners Of color. In a
cathedral Of basalt Sunrise and Sunset mar
ried by the setting OF rainbow ring. Gothic
arches, Corinthian capitals and Egyptian
basilicas built before human architecture was
born Huge Notifications of granite con
structed 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 imperiied. Thrones
on which no one but the King of heaven and
earth ever sat Fount OF waters at which
the lesser hills are baptized while the giant
cliffs stand round as sponsors For thou
sands Of years before that scene was unveiled
to human sight, the elements were busy, and
the geysers were hewing away with their hot
chisel, and glaciers were pounding with their
cold hammers and hurricanes were eleaying
with their lightning strokes and hailstone,
giving the finishing touches. and after all
these forces of nature had done their best, in oui
century the curtain dropped and the world
had new and divinely inspired revelation. the
Old Testament written on papyrus, the New
| Testament written on parchment, and nov
this last Testament written on the rocks
/ Hanging over one Of the cliffs looked of
until could not get my breath, then retreat
ing to a less exposed placed loo ed dowr
again. Down there is pillar of rock that il
/ certain conditions of the atmosphere look
/ like pillar Of blood. Yonder are fifty fee
! Of emerald on base Of five hundred feet o
/ opal Wall of chalk resting on pedestals o
beryl. TuTrets Of light tumbling on floors 0
darkness. The brown Frightening into golden
Snow of crystal melting into fire Of carbuncle
NJ fffa1I la