The Livingston enterprise. [volume] (Livingston, Mont.) 1883-1914, 1890-02-22
THE PEAKS OF EMIGRANT.
BY JAMES BOYD NEsBIT

By JAMES BOYD NEsBIT.
II Immigrant Peak stands, q central figure, in th
Snowy range of mountains, bordering tn,
valley OF the Upper Yellowstone. 1t is abou
Il 0O feet In height, and owing to its altitude
has been given prominence enjoyed by M
other peak of the range. There are, prop
erly speaking, three distinct peaks, trendiH!
i north and south, but all spring from on
4 base and are known under the name of Emf
grant,
In days primeval when the earth was young,
And natures forces with strange might pre-
vailed:
When vaporous elements around her cung
And hid the SUMS bright beams in darklin:
Z shade
Wreathing in shadows mystic hills and wales
That, like old oceans waves were flung
Dashing on unknown shores. Thus in that un
known past,
|Earth's crust uniformed, she rolled shapeles
mass.
Then long night intervened, the night of change
When time in cycles rolled-a moments span
The vista of those tleetin years, whose range
Unmeasured by the history of man,
Shines on us through theoretic lens.
Then was earth formed-nought as tits today,
Erosion's power long since has changed her face
Yet still in mountain s range her earlier form W.
trace.
Then thou vast formed, old Emigrant wht
rear'st thy mighty head,
swelling in volumes grand above thy fellow
peaks,
Rising above the rolling clouds that spread
Ia E:ssty wreaths about thy breast; and seeks
To dde from mortal gaze thy varied charms,
As .nrkish ladies hide their dimpled cheeks
Behind the impenetrable yashkmat. Yet,
Ia seen but once, can never be forgot.
Ages have rolled about thy hoary head,
Iiat in the carboniferous time was crowned
With verdure from the tropics Latitude;
Wien trees and plants luxuriantly bloomed
Ami vines entwined around the limbs
Of baobabs. And giants of the forest grew
apace,
And deadly Upas there, with perfumed breath,
LG.ed prehistoric man to shade, and Jared hin
to his death.
Then YateveO did Its arms unfold,
And patiently await its lawful prey,
As Siren Lorlei in the days of old
EMiced each mariner who wandered by
With sweet songs of the power of her god.
And lured them on distinctions 8 fatal road
Then, like poor, blinded man, the temptress
voice heed gave,
nameless grave
Another change swept DER the face of earth,
And far from Boreas' icy regions came
A frigid blast that, with resistless force,
Changed the topography of mount and plain
Annihilating every living thing,
And leaving desolation in its train
Taen Zero 8 face did from the north appear,
And Winter 8 reign had come-the Glacial Age
was here.
With lightnings force, and with tempestuous
power:
AZ Hercules upheld the sky of heaven
Upon his shoulders, cen tho but an hour:
50 glaciers force prevailed, and on thy Sides
oEmigrant! thy lofty crags have riven.
And thy tall peaks, serrated, silent stand,
Examples OF Its awful power ast swept DER Sc;
and land.
Everything beginning hath, and end
80 salth the law OF nature, and It's true,
Iho theorists who dispute the fact pretend
Peipetuality in life for me and you.
Yet let them pause little while and view
Ihe stern enforcement of her great command;
The immutability of her laws, that saith,
That which today is born to life is born today fol
death.
The little flower, unfolding when the sun,
In GazZilng splendOr rises in the east,
Closes Its petals when the day is done
And lights bright orb is fading in the west
hxem iihes the truth OF which speak.
mat nothing, under Heaven, corroding time can
brook.
There is no variance to this stern decree,
b en- rock ribbed hills must 80, like you and me.
True to great natures law the storm king loose(
his hold
And icebound rivers were once more set free,
And fields with flowers bloomed in blue an(
gold,
And mountain ranges, in their majesty,
Barred their tall peaks t. catch the passing
breeze
King DIttIsa SaelitsE aae;fE J54aia{l ,aad, f5me,
The Reindeer Epoch passed. the Age of Man has
come.
With scarce effect upon thy massive form,
Save where the broken, shattered crag has told
The lightning crash, the fury of the storm,
That with terrific power. ever and anon,
u n4G
SO the aged patriarch, after years of strife,
Shows on his scared and furroWed brow the con
l1icts OF lis lie.
The vale of Paradise along thy base
Stretches in quiet solitude alone,
Through which in winding suyery thread W.
trace
The madly rushing, restless Yellowstone,
Whose volume, fed from snow fields of thy dome
Increases as it rolls toward oceans home,
Till the small rIvulets that form its source
Swell in the tidal Hood of Mlssissippis course.
The treasures locked beneath thy frowning crest
Hath lured the genus homo to thy feet,
Whom tickle goddess Chance hath oft caressed
While fear anu hupe-the bitter and the sweet
Ot life short span-his reigned within theI
breast
Tho few have f>und the golden metal bIest
Through mans o'erweaning love OF worldl
things:
blind to what sorrow it hath wrought, what mis-
cry from it springs.)
The glinting sun that bathes thy towering form,
Dispelling from thy face the caverns gloom;
Breathing the incense of a summers morn,
Glistening the snow fields of thy lofty dome;
Clothes thee in wondrous glory all thine own;
Crowns thee in splendor parsileled by mono,
Cleaying afar the ethereal vault of Heaven,
Yet near to natures heart, child by natur
given.
In after days when ages long have passed,
Existing nations bloJted from eartns s page,
Thou 1t tell Utopia's people-come at last
Thy memories OF prehistoric age,
When mankind lived on the delusive stage
Himself erected. Shouldst thou then engage
The thoughts of those who afterward shall come
And seek the mysteries OF the past, locked closel
in thy tomb
Tell them of how we sought the precious dust
And bartered all for riches and for power;
Revered the false and finite, scorned the just,
And, like the unbelieving Giaour,
Who tramples brute-iike on the sacred flower,
Tho changes heart with every changing hour,
To Mammon s sway we humbly bent our knees,
Then passed away unsung, like to passin
breeze.