The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1889-10-09
crackle in the last contagration Of the

long and half mile wide and three thou
sand feet deep. 1t seems as If 1t 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 neither foot Of man nor beast ever
scaled them, they stand in everlasting de-
fance II 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. Yon6er is Sentinel Rock,
S,270 feet high, bold, solitary, standing guard
among the ages, its top seldom touched un-
til bride one Fourth Of July mounted 1t
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. Yonder are the "Three
Brothers, four thousand feet high;
Clouds 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 placer Tor
the mind. Mountains hurled on mountains.
Mountains in the wake Of mountains. Noun
tains fanked by mountains. 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 precl-
pice 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. Yonder
is Yosemite Falls, dropping 1854 feet, six
teen times greater descent than that OF Nj
acara. These waters dashed to death on
the rocks, so that the white spirit Of the
slain waters ascending in robes Of mist
seeks the heaven. Yonder is Nevada Falls
plunging seven hundred feet, the water in
srrows, the water in rockets, the water in
pearls, the water in amethysts, the water
in diamonds. That cascade 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 tor
ment ascending forever and ever.
But the most wonderful part Of this Amer
lean continent IS the Yellowstone Park. My
visit there last month made upon me an i'm
preston that will last forever. After all
poetry has exhausted Itself and all the
Morans and Bierstadts and the other en-
chanting 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. The Yel-
lewstoue Park is the geologist's paradise
By cheapening of travel may it become the
nations playground! In some portions OF
it there seems tybe the anarchy OF the ele-
ments. 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, throb-
bing, sobbing, groaning, Quaking with aque-
Gus paroxysm.
AT the expiration Of every siXty-fre min
utes one of the geysers tossing its boiling
water 1S5 feet in the air, and then descend
ing into swinging rainbows. Caverns OF
pictured walls large enough for the sepul-
cher OF the human race. Formations in
stone in shape and color of Gala lily, of hell
trope, Of rose, Of cowslip, Of suntiower and
of gladiola. Sulphur and arsenic, and
oxide of iron, with their delicate pencils,
turning the hills into Luxembourg or q
vatican picture gallery. The so-caiied
Thanatopsis geyser, exquisite as the Bryant
poem it was named after, and the so called
Eyangeline geyser, lovely as the Longfel-
A%~~
called Pulpit Terrace from its white eleva-
ton preaching mightier sermons of God
than human lips ever uttered. The so-called
Bethesda gey ser, by the warmth Of which
invalids have already been cured, the An
gel Of Health continually stirring the
waters. Enraged craters, with heat at FIVE
hundred degrees, only little below the
surface.
Wide reaches Of stone OF intermingied
colors, blue as the sky, green as the foliage,
crimson IS the dahlia, white as the snow,
spotted as the leopard, tawney as the lion,
grizzly as the bear, in circles, in angles, in
stars, in coronets, in stalactites, in stalag-
mites. Here and there are petrified growths,
or the dead trees, and vegetation Of other
ages, kept through process Of natural en-
balmment. In some places waters as lnno-
cent and smiling as child making first
attempt to walk from its mothers lap, and
not far off as foaming and frenzied and un-
governabie as maniac in murderous strug-
gle with his keepers.
But after you have wandered along the
geyserite enchantne1t for days and begin
to feel that there can be nothing more Of in
terest to you, you suddenly come upon the
peroration of all majesty and grandeur, the
Grand canyon 1t is here that it seems to
me-and speak it with hreverence-Jehovah
seems to have surpassed Himself. 1t seems
a great gulch let down into the eternities.
Here, hung up and let down and spread
abroad areall the colors Of land and sea and
sky. Upholstering Of the Lord God Al
mighty. Best work of the Architect Of
worlds Sculpturing by the Infinite. Mas
sonry by an omnipotent trowel. Yellow!
YOU never saw yeiow uniess you saw II
there. Red! You never saw red unless you
saw it there. Violet. You never saw vio-
let unless you saw it there. Triumphant
banners Of color. In a cathedral Of basalt,
sunrise and sunset married by the setting
Of rainbow ring.
Gothic arches, Corinthian capitols, and
Egyptian basilicas built before human arch
itecturs 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
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 baptized while the giant cliffs stand
'
before that scene was unveiled to human
c1Cue1rus OUs.7'
sers were hewipg away with their hot
chisel, and glaciers were pounding with
their cold hammers, and hurricanes were
cleaving with their lightning strokes, and
hailstones giving the finishing touches, and
after all these forces OF nature had done
their best, in our century the curtain
dropped and the world had rev and di-
vinely inspired revelation, the Old Testa
ment written on papyrus, the New Tes-
lament written on parchment and now
shis last testament written on the rocks.
Hanging over one Of the cliffs looked OF
until I could not get my breath, then re-
treating to less exposed place looked
down again. Down there is pillar of rock
thatin certain conditions of the atmosphere
looks like pillar Of blood. Yonder are
fifty feet Of emerald on base Of hve hun