Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-09-23

larger some countries are, the worse for thi
world. This continent is not more remark.
able for its magnitude than for its wonders
of construction. What a pity the United
States Government did not take possession
of Yosemite, California, as it has of Yellow
stone, Wyoming, and of Niagara Falls, New
York. Yosemite and the adjoining Califor
MIA regionsl Who that has seen them car
think of them without having his blood tin
gle? Trees now standing there that wert
old when Christ lived, These monarchs o.
foliage reigned before Caesar or Alexander
and the next thousand years Will not shattel
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 traveller:
often speak, does not affect me so much as theil
longevity. Though so old now, the branches
of some of them will crackle in the last con-
fagration of the planet.
That Valley of the Yosemite is eight
miles long and a half mile wide and 5000
feet deep. 1t seems as if it had been the
meaning of Omnipotence to crowd into as
small space as possible some of the most
stupendous scenery of the world. Some ot
the cliffs you do not stop to measure by feet,
for they are literally mile high. Steep SO
that neither foot of man nor beast ever
scaled them, they stand in everlasting det-
ance. 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 silent worship
of the mountains. Yonder is Sentinel Rock,
3,270 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 STANDARD
and the people down in the valley looked up
and saw the head of the mountain turbaned
with stars and stripes. Yonder are the
''Three Brothers, 4, 600 feet high; "Cloud's
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. Mountains fanked by mount
aims. Mountains split Mountains ground.
Mountains fallen. Mountains triumphant.
As though Mont Blanc and the Adiron-
dacks and Mount Washington 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 mountain
behind it. Yonder is Yosemite Falls, drop
ping 2,634 feet, 16 times greater descent
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 200 feet the water in arrows,
the water in rockets, the water in pearls,
the water in amethysts, the water in dia-
monds. That cascade filings down the rocks
enough jewels to array all the earth in
beauty, and rushes on until 1t drops into
very hell of waters, the smoke of their tor
ment 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 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 can
vas, there will be other revelations to make
and other stories of its beauty and wrath,
splendor and agony, to be recited.
AMERICAS PLAY GROUND.
The Yellowstone Park is the geologist's
paradise. By cheapening of travel may it
become the nations Playground In some
portions of it there seems to be the anarchy
of the elements. Fire and water, and the
vapor born of that marriage, terrific. Geyser
cones or hills of crystal that have been over
5000 years growing. In places the earth,
throbbing, sobbing, groaning, quaking with
aqueous paroxysm.
At the expiration of every IS 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 calla lily, of heliotrope, of rose,
of cowslip, of sunfower and of gladiola
Sulphur and arsenic and oxide of iron, with
their delicate pencils. turning the hills into
a Luxembourg or Vatican picture gallery.
The so-called Thanatopsis ceyser, exquisite
as the Bryant poem it was named after, and
the so-called Evangeline geyser, lovely as
the Longfellow heroine it commentaries.
The so-ealled Pulpit Terrace from its 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 continually stirring the
waters. Enraged craters, with heat at 500
degrees, only 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 as the leopard. tawny as the lion,
grizzly as the bear, in circles, in angles, in
stars, in coronets, in stalactites, in stalag-
mites.
IN STRIKING CONTRAST.
Here and there are petrifed growths, or
the dead trees and vegetation of other ages,
kept through a process of natural embalm-
ment. In some places waters as innocent
and smiling as a child making first at
tempt to walk from its mothers lap, and not
far off as foaming and frenzied and ungov-
ernable as a maniac in murderous struggle
with his keepers.
geyserite enchantment for days and begin
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 I speak it with reverence-Jeho-
yah seems to have surpassed HIMSELF 1t
seems great gulch let down into the eter-
mites. Here, hung up and let down and
spread abroad, are all the colors of land
and sea and 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 cathe-
dral of basalt, sunrise and sunset married
by the setting of rainbow ring.
Gothic arches, Corinthian capitals and
Egyptian basilicas built before human
architecture was born. Huge Notifications
of granite constructed 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