The Russellville Democrat., 1889-10-03

ScepteT. IneY are the mhStS or the con tinent. their canvas spread on the winds while the old ship bears on it's way through the ages. Their sizo, of which travellers 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 the planet.
 That Valley of the Yosemite is eight miles long and half mile wide and three thousand feet deep. It seems as if 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 mile high. Steep so that nsither foot of man nor beast ever scaled them, they stand in everlast ting defiance. If Jehovahhas a throne on earth these are it's pillars. Standing down in this great chasm of the valley, you look up and wonder is Cathedral Rock, vast gloomy minister built for the silent worship of the mountains. Wonder is Sentinel Rock, three thousand two hundred and seventy feet high, bold, solitary, standing guard among the ages, its 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 'gThree Brothers" four thou sand feet high; "Cloud's 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 hanked 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 the rocks, the water comes down. The Bridal Vail Falls, so thin you can see the face of the mountain behind it. Wonder 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. Wonder is Nevada Falls plung- ing seven hundred feet, the water in arr rows. the water in rockets, the water in pearls, the water in amethysts, the water ill diamonds. That cascade fings 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
 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 all 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 its beauty and wrath splendo and agony, to be recited. The Yellowstone Park is a geologist's paradise. By cheapening of travel may it becoms the Nations 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 cones or hills of crystal that have been oyer five thousand years growing. In places the earth, throbbing. sobbing grooming, qualiing with aqueous parox- ism.
 At the expiration of every sixty-fve minutes one of the geysers tossing it's 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- tions of stone in shape and color Of calla lily, of heliotrope, of rose, of cowslip, of and of gladiola. Sulphur and arsenic and oxide of iron, with their deli- cate pencils, turning the hills into a or Vatican picture gallery. The so called Thanatopsis geyser ex- quisite as the Bryant poem il was named after, and the so called Eyangeline geyser, lovely as the Longfellow heroine it comme morates. The so-called Pulpit Terrace from it's white elevation preach ing mightier sermons of God that human lips ever uttered The so called Bethesda 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 intermingled colors, blue as the sky, green as the fo- liage, 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 corOuets, in stalac- tites, in stalagmites. Here and there are petritied growths of the dead trees, and vegetation of other ages kept through process of natural embalmment In some places water as innocent and smil- ing as child making first attempt to walk from it's mo ther's lap, aud not far of as foaming, and frenzied and ungov- ernable as a 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 the Grand Canyon. lt is here that 1t seems 10 me-and speak it with ehoyah seems to have sur passed Himself. It seems great guloh let down into the eternities. Here, hung up and let down and spread abroad, are all the cOlors of land and sea aud 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 1t there. Redl You never saw red unless you saw 1t there. Violet! You never saw violet unless you saw it there. Triumphant banners of color. In cathedral of ba- salt, Sunrise and Sunset married by the setting of rainbow ring.
 Gothic arches. Corinthian capitals aud Egyptian basilicas built before human architecture was born. Huge fortifca- tions of granite constructed before war forged it's first cannon. Gibraltars and Sebastopols that never can be taken. Alhambras, whore 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 bap- tized while the giant cliffs stand round as sponsors. For thousands of years before that scene was unvailed to human sight,