The Brookhaven leader., 1889-10-03

HVeu. 1neSe mOnarchS OF Foliage Telgned
before Cesar or Alexander, and the next
thousand years will not shatter their
scepter. They are the masts OF the con-
tinent, their canvas spread on the winds
while the old ship bears on its way
through the ages. Their sizN, of which
travellers often speak, does not affect me
so much as their longevity. Though so
old now. the brapches of some of them
will crackle in the last conhagration OF
the planet.
That Valley Of the Yosemite is eight
miles long and a half mile wide and three
thousand feet deep. 1t seems as IL it had
been the meaning OF Omnipotence to
crowd into as small place as possible
some Of the most stupendous 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 everlastin defiance.
II Jehovah'has throne on earth these are
its pillars. Standing down in this great
chasm of the valley, you LOOK up and
yonder is Cathedral Rock, vast, gloomy
minister built for the silent worship of
the mountains. YondeAis Sentinel Rock,
three thousand two hundred and seventy
feet high, bold solitary, standing guard
among the ages, it's top seldom touched
until bride one Fourth of July mounted
it and planted the National standards
and the people down in the valley looked
up and saw the head of the mountain
turbaned with Stars and Stripes. Yon-
der are the Three Brothers," four thou
sand feet high; Clouds Rest" North
and South Dome, and heights never capt
ured save by the fiery bayonets of the
thunderstorm.
No pause for the eye, no stopping place
for the mind. Mountains hurled on
mountains. Mountains fanked by
mountains. Noun tains split. Mountains
ground. Mountains fallen. Mountains
triumphant. AS though Mount Blanc
and the Adirondacks and Mount Wash
ington were here uttering themselves in
one magnificent chorus Of rock and
precipice and waterfall. Sitting and
dashing through tho rocks, the water
comes down. The Bridal Vail Falls, Sc
thin you can see the face of the mountain
behind it. Yonder is Yosemite Falls,
dropping two thousand. six hundred and
thirty-four 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
descending in robe OF mist seeks the
heaven. Yonder is Nevada Falls plung-
ing seven hundred feet, the water i'll ar
rows, 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 very hell of waters. the
smoke of their torment ascending forever
and ever.
But the most wonderful part OF this
American continent is the Yellowstone
Park. My visit there last month made
upon me an impress sion that will last for
ever. After all poetry has exhausted it.
self and ell the Morans and Bierstads and
the other enchanting artists have COM
pleted their canvas, there will be other
revelations to make ald other stories of
it's beauty and wrath. splendOr aud agony,
to be recited. The Yellowstone Park is
biologists paradise. BY cheapening
of travel may it become the n atoms
playground! In some portions of it
there seems to be the anarchy Of tho ele-
ments. Fire and water, and the vapor
born of that marriage, terrific. Geyser
over FIVE thousand years growing. In
places the earth, throbbing, sobbing,
groaning, quaking with aqueous parox-
ism.
At the expiration of every sixty-live
minutes one of the geysers tossing its
boiling water one hundred and eighty
five feet in the air and then descending
into swimming rainbows. Caverns Of
pictured walls large enough for the
sepulcher Of the human race. Forma-
tons of stone in shape and color Of Gala
lily, of heliotrOpe, of rose, of cOwslip, of
sunfOwer and Of gladiola. Sulphur and
arsenic and oxide of iron, with their deli
cate pencils, turning the hills into
Luxembourg or Vatican picture gallery.
The so. called Thanatopsis geyser, ex-
quisite 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 elevation preach
ing mightier sermons of God that human
lips ever uttered. The SO called Bethesda
geyser, by the warmth OF which invalids
have already been cured, the Angel of
Health continually stirring the waters.
Enraged craters, with heat at five hun
dred degrees, only little below the sur
face.
Wide reaches of stone of intermin gled
colors, blue as the sky, green as the TO-
iage, crimson as the dahlia, white as the
snow, spotted as the leopard, tawny as
the lion, grizzly as the bear in circles, in
angles, in stars, in coronets, in stalac-
tites, in stalagmites. Here and there are
petrifed growths of the dead trees, and
vegetation of other ages kept through a
process of natural embalmment. In
some places water as innocent and smil-
ing as a child making a first attempt to
walk from its mo theirs lap, and not far
off as foaming, and frenzied and ungOv-
ernable as maniac in murderous strug-
gle with his keepers.
But after you have wandered along the
geyserite enchantment for days and be-
gin to feel that there can be nothing more
Of interest to see, you suddenly come
upon the peroration of all majesty and
grandeur, the Grand Canyon. 1t is here
that it seems to me-and | speak it with
everence-Jehovah seems to have sur
passed Himself. 1t seems a great gulch
let down into the eternities. Here, hung
up and let down and spread abroad, are
all the colorS OF land ana sea ana SKY.
Upholstering of the Lord God Almighty.
Best work OF the Architect of Worlds.
Sculpturing by the Infinite. Masonry by
an Omnipotent trowel. Yellow! You
never saw yellow 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 a cathedral of ba-
salt Sunrise and Sunset married by the