Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-10-12

'oAtr ~ WohAA toh0 ~ kcaJuCWiss CuiOEcu
TO play tag? Life seems O very serious
thing, hard and joyless thing,
to these people who work so hard
aud so continuously. The children work
too; there is no play time for them; even
the baby has to be carried on mothers
back to the hay feel to lie under tree
and watch the work till he Is big enough
| to help gather or spread the hay hims self.
We once gave up the ascent of O hill be-
cause of its exceeding steepness and the
| fact that our shoes slipped. In descend
| Ing we met family, mother and child
rem, coming up 10 gather hay on this
| very slope. The mother had the baby on
her back ana were curious to see how she
was going to get rid of him without let
ting him roll down, but tree trunk was
an easy solution-the baby was bolstered
up against it, aud the children ran up
and down the steep slope like goats while
we were crawling down.
One day We visited the upper glacier,
the one near the Wetterhorn, the clean
one. 1t is three-quarters of IN hours
walk, and such wnlk
A WALK IN SWITZERLAND
means SO much, any way. One is in an
atmOsphe- of walking here; everybody
, walks; the talk is about walking, aud
sHS -SoAh" " WIN 10 1ucu
the air is delicious; there is dazzel
OF snow above, and rich bright
green beneath; the path be-
fore you was made for walkers;
there are no carriages passing to tempt
you with the idea of driving; the little
smooth worn way coaxes you on by en-
ticing turns, and coquettish conceal
Inent'; every step shows you new COM
binations of loneliness and grandeur;
here Is gorge and u bridge over q tumb-
ling torrent; bit OF fresh, sousie wood;
hay feld-so full of daIicing, swaying
delicate wild tiowers-fifty varieties that
perhaps you never saw before, you stop
to gaze in wonder aud delight. So you
walk and walk for miles, aud before you
know 1t have taken quite respectable
tramp. On our way that day TO the
glacier, as we came where the Wetter-
horn doomed to tremendous height
above US, suddenly there was roar
like thunder, only more mufled. That
was no cannon! We looked up to the
Wetterhorn, and saw, passing down be-
tween 10 punacles near the su mint, and
shooting over the precipitous side almost
TO the base, what looked like
ATHIN WHITE WATERFALL.
1t fell so continuously we wondered II
- A1A DSCu iuSic ull luo llulb, DuL IL
struck Us that waterfall of two or three
thousand feet would not escape notice,
then gradually the fall grew lighter and |
llghter, the steady roar ceased; we |
noticed large white patch of snow near |
the base of the mountain, and knew
that we had seen q real, live avalanche
The noise was much the most impressive !
part OF 1t. Far more impressive was !
the near sight of the glacier, that body
OF ice framed by trees, with grass and
MOWERS growing almost to its very edge.
There Is cave cut in It, so wonderfully,
transparently blue! Looking up from
the cave through one of the obliQue
assures, the sky appeared delicate
violet pink. We wanted to STAY in that
magic cavern of illumined blue for hours;
1t was like being in the sky, If the sky
were that solid blue thing it looks to be,
but the top of the cave persisted in rain
ing on US.
And now l have omitted to mention
what gave the most subtle charm to that
walk and the visit to the glacier, some
thing that seemed to express the
VERY ESSENCE OF THE SCENE,
its wildness, sweetness and grandeur;
that is, the echo. Two men along the
way alternated in blowing two of these
grent Alpine horns, the big end of which
rests on the ground. The horns give
forth sweet, full tone, that is most
but what OF the Alps them
selves as au instrument that takes up the
notes and sings them back wilder,
'weeter, clearer than before, now from
one cliff, now from another, faster and
-nster, further and further away, till
he notes join in chord so far and faint,
ret so wide-spreudiDg, that all the air
md all the peaks around seem full of it,
And 1t never seems to die away; either
he impression of it is so strong that IL
'epeats Itself within the thought, or It is
rue that the farther peaks are still
Yhispering the notes. Never was q
'hord from organ, orchestra or chorus of
uch vibrating sweetness, of such celes-
ial harmony. s
We have made an ascension. We
AVE been up the Wengern Alp, and, {
what most tourists do not do, have been
lp the Lauberhorn Us well, which means [
a ascent of 8
SEVEN THOUSAND FEET, s
oughly calculated, the valley itself be- q
ng 5000 feet above sen level. Stopping {
t all the stations for your mule man or ;
our chaise-a porteuro to drink beer, il {
axes over three hours to reach the | C