The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1889-10-04

Alexandsr. and the next thousand years
will not sbatter their sceptsr. 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 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 connagra-
tion of the planet
The valley of the Yosemite 10 eight miles
long and half mile wide and 1000 feet
deep. II seems a. il Il had been the mean
ing Of Omnipotsnce to crowd into ~ small
| Q place as possible some Of the most stu.
pendcus scenery of the world. Some Of
the cliffs you do not stop to measure BY
| feet for they are literally Q mile high.
Steep, 90 that neither foot of man nor
beast ever scaled them, they stand in
everlasting defiance. II Jehovah has q
| throne ON earth these are its white pillara
Standing down in this great chasm Of the
valley you look up and yonder is Cathe-
dral rock. vast, gloomy minister built for
the silent worship of the mountains
Wonder 10 Sentinel rock, 8 270 feet high
bold, solitary, standing guard among the
ages its top seldom touched until bride
one Fourth of July mounted il and plsntei
the National standards and the people
down in the valley looked up and saw the
head of the mountain turbaned with the
stars and stripes Yonder are the Three
Brothers, /" 4, 600 feet high; Clouds Rest I"
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 flanked by mount.
aims Mountains split Mountains
ground Mountains fallen. Mountains
triumphant. As though Mont Blanc and
the Adirondacks and Mount Washington
were here uttering themselves in one
magnificent chorus of rock and precipice
and waterfall.
Sitting and dashinR through the rocks
the water comes down. The Bridal Vail
Falls, so thin you can see the face of the
mountain behind it. Yonder is Yosemite
Falls dropping 1884 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
ascending in robe of mist seeks heaven.
Yonder is Nevada falls. plunging 100 feet,
the water in arrows, the water in rockets,
the water in pearls, the water in anne
thysts, the water in diamonds. That cas-.
cade 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 for
ever and ever. +afl sAgFE
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 for
ever After all poetry has exhausted it
self and all the Morans and Bierstadts
and other enchanting artists have COM
pleted their c,nvas, there will be other
revelations to make and other stories of
its beauty and wrath, spiendor and agony,
to be reci'ed. The Yellow ,ne Park il
the geoloeist's paradise. By cheapening
of travel may it become the nations play.
groundl In some portions of it there
seems to be the ansrchy of the elements.
Fire and water, and the vapor born of
that marriage, ter. ifc Geyser Genes or
hills of crystal that have been over five
thousand years growing In places the
earth, throbbing sobbing, grooming quak.
ing WIN dqucOus PAL suSs-
At the expiration of every sixty.fve
minutes one Of the geysers tossing its
boiling water lS5 feet in the air and then
descending into swinging rainbowa
Caverns of pictured walls large enough
for the sepulcher of the human race.
Formations Of stone in shape and color of
Gala lily, of heliotrope, of rose of cow
slip. of suniower and Of gladiola- Sui
Il. -
their delicate pencils turning the hills
into q Luxembourg or Vatican picture
gallery. The so-called Thanatopsis gey.
sey, exquisite 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 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 five hundred
degrees only little below the surface.
Wide reaches of stone Of intermingled
colors, blue as the sky. green as the foli-
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
in stalagmites. Here and there are petri.
fed growths, or the dead trees and vege.
tation of other ages kept through pro.
cess of natural embalmment In some
places waters as innocent and smiling as
a child making a first attempt to walk
from its mothers lap, and not far of as
foamfng and frenzied and ungovernable
as a maniac in murderous struggle with
his keepers
But after you hay wandered along the
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 grand.
eur-the Grand canyon. 1t is here that it
seems to me-and speak it with rever.
ence-that 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 and sea and sky. Up.
holsteriDg Of the Lord God Almighty.
Best work of the Architect Of worlds.
Sculpturing by the Infinite. Masonry by
an omnipotent trowel. YellowI 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 BAN
ners of color. In a cathedral Of basalt
sunrise and sunset, married by the setting
of rainbow ring.
Gothic arches, Corintbian capitals and
Egyptian basilicas built before human
architecture was born. Huge fortified.
tons Of granite constructed before war
forged its first cannon. Gibraltars and
Sebastopols that never can be taken. Al
hambras, where kings Of strength and
quee ms of beauty reigned long before the
first earthly crown was empearled.