Omaha daily bee., 1889-05-05
THE POINT NEAREST HEAVEN
Among the Cloud Capped Peaks Of
the Himalayas.
A LAND OF FEMALE sAMsoNs.
One OF Them Carried a Cottage Piano
For Twelve Miles Up n Noun
tain--The Wonders
OF India.
Mountain Climbing i'm Asia.

perpetual SHOWS gisten like diamonds under
The rays Of the tropical sun, with oceans Of
clouds below me, 1000 feet above the jungle
where the tiger hides, and almost within the
sound of the gun of the English troops, who
are fighting on the borders of Thibet, write
this letter for my American readers. From
my window can see the snow on Kanchan-
anga, 5000 above the sea, and upon a
Thibtan pony l gallopcd this morning
twelve miles higher up the mountain to
Tiger Hill, and saw the sun gid the snowy
summit Of Mount Everest, which is n full
thousand feet higher. The top of Mount
Everest is, of all the world, the nearest point
towards heaven. Fugiyama, tho sacred,
snow-c capped mountain of Japan, is not half
as high as Mount Everest and, if my memory
serves me, the SHOWS of Mount Blanc are at
least 10000 feet lower. Go to the top of
Mount Blanc, ascend in a balloon straight up
about for two miles, and you have about
reached the altitude of this highest of
the Himalaya mountains. 1t dwarfs every
thing in the Andes and the Alps,
and it is n fitting king to this noblest
range Of mountains in the world. Himalaya
means the abode of snow and thousands of
the peaks are crowned with eternal frost
n you could, by rubbing the miracle lamp of
nature have her genii construct mountain
range from New York to Denver, Col, and
make this range as wide as the distance be-
tween New York and Washington, extending
it points to double that width you would
have base somewhat like that of the Hima-
layas. On this base must be built two high
ranges Of mountains with vast valleys be-
tween them making double wall between
the north and the south. You must through
out the distance have the mean elevation OF
your hills about as high as Mount Blanc,
and forty of them must extend more than
one mile higher. Every one of these forty
will kiss the sky above any summit of the
Andes and in manyof these vast valleys you
could
DROP THE WHOLE OF THE ALPINE RANGE,
and at a distance of ten miles from the place
where they fell there would be no percepti
BILE change in the face of nature Talk about
the glaciers of Switzerland There are gla-
cers in the Himalayas which are from thirty
to sixty miles in length and there is one
thirty y-three miles long which is fanked on
either side by two giant peaks over twenty
ii 5even thousand feet high
Has any one ever reached the top of the
highest OF these mountains i should say
not An American attempted it few months
long as himself and enough provisions to last
him month. He came back four weeks
later ard clai.ued that he had spent the night
on Kanchanjanga.
sit was as easy" said he, ''as falling Off a
log. 1t takes an American to do thing that
you English fear to attempt" And he then
went on to describe the glaciers in spread
eagle colors. He told of mountain bears and
polar wolves and discoursed for hours in the
language of Jules Verne. The English resi-
dents of Darjeeling cooked their one-eye
glasses at him, and some believed and some
did not, About week after he had left the
Hmalayas a wealthy English tea planter
came to the station and asked the people
there If they had heard anything ofan
American named Jones. They replied that
Jones was the wonderful man who had
ascended Kanchanjanga and they described
his tour Upon comparison it was found
that the date of jones' starting up
the mountain was the day before he
came to visit this tea planter. The planter
said, "He talked nothing of the mountains
to me- but l found him good fellow and
he stayed with me full four weeks. We
played poker three fourths of the time,
drank whisky and soda during the intervals
of the game and the remainder of the days
Jones spent in reading up my library of
mountain literature. He was at this time
doubtless thinking how he would take in
Darieeling and was making up the Mum
chausen story which he told you"
Most Americans are satisfied with Dar-
ieeling. II is one mile and a half
STRAIGHT UP IN THE AIR
above the sea, and IL you could pile seven
towers like the one just built at Paris, one on
top Of the other, or fasten thirteen Washing
ton monuments into one long, iron cage and
run an elevator through the whole you would
just about reach this altitude. [ doubt
whether there is village in Switzerland
80 high as Darieeling, and l am certain there
is nothing in the Alps to compare with the
grandeur of its surroundings. The plains of
India send up moisture to the Hiamalayas
clouds where the Alps have one,
and here you see clouds of all kinds
and shapes chasing each other over the hills
below you. You see them crawling up the
steep sides of the valleys and climbing to
your very feet when they envelope you and
for ten minutes the mist is so thick that you
cannot see the horse on which you are rid
ing. A moment later the cloud has passed
and 1t floats onward toward the SHOWS
above. AT times there are clouds above and
below you. You see ghost'y masses of
vapor resting In little hollows in the sides of
the mountains as though they had squatted
down there for siesta At times they take
the form of men or beasts and in single file
seem to chase one another through tho air.
In the morning the sun glds them so that
they are masses of fire and at night the am
orous moon throws her bright tropical rays
around them. The cloud effects and the
snow effects OF the Himalaya mountains are
indescribably grand. They are different
from anything have seen in travels Of hun
dreds of miles through the Alps and they are
IN many respects more interesting. From
where l write the mountains form a
semi'circle about me and there are
twelve mighty peaks of snow, each of
which is more than twenty Thousand feet
high. AS for mountains of two miles and
more In height can see dozens of them. l
nm IN the very midst of the Himalayas and
ut what the world says is the best point to
view them.
Man here is fully as interesting as nature
ana we have servants and guides who are
more like the people OF Thibet than India.
There is no seclusion of women here and
GREAT sTRArPiNG GIRLS
dressed In the gaudiest OF colors go about
with Hat plates of gold hanging to their cars,
each OF which Is as big as O trade dollar.
They have gold on their ankles and bracelets
OF silver running all the way from their
wrists to their elbows. Their complexions,
originally as yellow as those OF the China
men, are bronzed by the crisp mountain air
. until they have now the rich copper of the
American Indian. Both men and women
look not unlike our Indians. They have the
same high cheek bones, the same semi flat
noses and long, straight black hair. II you
Will take the prettiest squaw you have ever
seen you may have fair type of the average
l.nI nf tI. A.