Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1889-10-04

FOR Ii and bring up from beneath thos'
unproductivc surfaces coal and iron ant
lead and copper and silver and gold
. God speed the biologists and the sur
vevors. tie engineers and the senatorial
commissions and the capitalists and the
new settlers and the husbandmen'whc
put their brain and hand and heart to
, this transformation of the American
continent,
But while l speak OF the immensely OF
the continent. | must remark it is not
an im.ncnSity OF monotone or tameness.
The larger some countries are, the worse
for the world. ibis continent is not
more wonderful for its magnitude than
for its wonders of construction. What
a pity the United States Government did
not take possession OF Yosemite. Cali
fornia us it has of Yellowstone, Wyom-
ing. and of Niagara Falls, New York.
Yosemite and the adjoining California
regions! Who that has seen them can
think of them without having his blood
tingle. Trees now standing there that
We're old when Christ lived. These
monarchs of foliage reigned before Cn,
sar or Alexander. and the next Thousand
Years will not shatter their scepter.
They are the masts of the continent,
their canvas spread on the winds while
the old ship bears on its way through
the ages Their size, of which travel
ers often speak, does not affect me SO
much as their longevity. Though SO
| old now. the branches of some of them
/ will crackle in the last conhagration of
1 the planet.
That valley of the Yosemite is eight
miles long and a half mile wide and
three thousand feet deep. 1t seems as
If it had been the meaning Of Omnipo-
tence 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
everlasting defiance. If Jehovah has a
thro..e of earth these are its white pill
lars. 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. Yonder is Sentinel Rock,
1920 feet high, bold, solitary, standing
guard among the ages, its top seldom
touched until bride one Fourth of
July mounted it and planted the ma
tional standards and the people down
in the valley looked up and saw the
head of the mountain turbaned with
stars and stripes. Wonder are the
Three Brothers" four thousand feet
high; Clouds Rest" North and South
| Dome and heights never captured save
by the fiery bayoncts of the thunder
storm.
No pause for the eye, no stopping
place for the mind. Mountains hurled
on ~ ountains. Mountains in the wake
of mountains. Mountains f1anked by
mountains. Mountains split. Mount
aims ground. Mountains fallen. Mount
aims triumphant. AS though Mont
Blanc and the Adirontlacks and Mount
+; Washington were here uttering them
selves in one magnificent chorus of rock
and precipice and waterfall. Sitting
and dashing through the rocks, the wa
ter comes down. The Bridal Veil falls,
SO thin you can see the face of the
mountain behind it. Wonder is Yose-
times greater descent than that of Nj
agara. These waters dashed to death
on the rocks, SO that the white spirit of
slain waters ascending in robe of mist
seek She heaven. Yonder is Nevada
falls plunging seven hundred feet, the
water in arrows, the water in rockets, the
water i'll pearls, the water in amethysts,
the water i'll diamonds. That cascade
filings down the rocks enough Jewels to
array an the earth i'll beauty, and rushes
On unt1 IL drops intoa worry bell of wa
tiers, the smoke of their torment ascend
| ing forever and ever.
But the most wonderful part of thi
American continent is the Yellowstone
Park. My visit there last month made
upon me an impression that will last
forever. After all poetry has exhausted
itself and all the Morans and Bierstadts
and the other enchanting artists have
completed their canvas, there will be
other revelations to make and other
stories of its beauty and wrath, SPLEEN
dor. and agony, to be recited. The Yell
lowstone Park is a biologists paradise.
by cheapening of travel may it become
the nations playground! In some por-
tions of it there seems to be the anarchy
of the elements Fire and water, and
the vapor born of that marriage, terrific.
GSeyser cones or hills of crystal that have
been over five thousand years growing.
In places the earth, throbbing, sobbing,
grooming, quaking with aqueous par
oXysm.
At the expiration of every sixty-five
minutes one of the geysers tossing it's
boiling water 1856 feet in the air an d then
descending into swinging rainbows.
Caverns of pictured walls large enough
for the sepulcher Of the human race.
oiu.ttlons OIL stone IN shape ana color
of calla lily, of heliotrope, of rose, OF
cowslip, OF sunhower, and of gladiola.
Sulphur and arsenic and oxide of iron,
with their delicate pencils, turning the
hills into Luxembourg or Vatican pic
ture gallery. The SO called Thanatopsis
geyser, exquisite as the Bryant poem it
was named after, and the so-called
Evangeiine geyser, lovely as the Long
fellow heroine it commentaries. The
so-called Pulpit Terrace from it's white
elevation preaching mightier sermons of
God than human lips ever uttered. The
So called Bethesda geyser, by the
warmth of which invalids have already
been cured, the Angel of Health con-
tinually stirring the waters. Enraged
craters, with heat at five hundred de-
grees, only little below the suface.
| Wide reaches of stone of interminpled
colors, blue as the sky, green as the foil
age, 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
stalactites, i'll stalagmites. Here and
there are petrifed growths or the dead
trees and vegetation OF other ages kept
L l. -~-l.