Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-10-12
TEXAS GIRL ABROAD
SoiOurning at Grindewald, Under
the Shadow OF Snow Peaks.
Switerland's Beautiful Scenery-A Tour
Among the Alps-An Air of Mys-
tery-An Avalanche"
The Wonderful Eeho-Its Vibrating Sweet
ness and Celestial Harmony Unt Qualed
by Orchestra or Chorus.

GRINDEwALD, Aug. lone day we
were corkscrewed around through the
! mountains by means of that wonderful
ST. Gotthard railroad, and found our
! selves sailing on the lake of Lucerne, in
an atmosphere and scenery as different
g.. from that we had left as IL we had come
half way across the globe. From dreamy,
soft haze aud fertile, rounded country,
we came into bright, clear, inv igorat-
ing mir, fresh vivid colorings and wild.
rocky land. Since leaving England we
had gradually forgotten how green 1t is
! possible for grass to be. 1t was like
TONIC TO THE EYES,
| those bright, green banks of the lake,
| coutrasted with dark, pine woods and
| many creamy crags and cliffs. There IS
a wild tumble of peaks about lake Lu-
| cerne. but they are toned down and made
lovable hv the dowDy green fields. We
did not know how weary we were of
square, fiut topped houses until We saw
the brown chalets, fitting so snugly 10
the hillside, and realized with delight
! that we were in the land of picturesque
houses. The great, comfortable roofs Of
the chalets ,sloping down in widespread
ing caves, seem like sheltering wings. l
should like TO indulge in q little poetic
rapture about the chalet, but the trouble
is it has been done before. Everything
has always been done before. You want
TO write little ode to the Bridge of
Signs, and there Is Byron IN your way;
you long TO write q disquisition on Vene-
tian architecture, but Mr.. Ruskin has
been and exhausted the subject; and
when your thought swells with chnlets
and mountains and old CASTLES some
body quotes something, and you
know 1t is all up with you.
AMONGST THE ALPS.
Now we are really amongst the Aims.
Lucern was lovely, and so was Inter.
laken, but it ia far more interesting at
GriDdewald, right under the shadow of
the snow peaks, and with glacier in our
front yard, so TO speak. We drove over
here from Interlaken with O party Of
friends, arriving in a rain. There was
little thrill of delicious excitement about
arriving In place like this, and to have
mountains partly hid did not detract
from the pleasure, for 1t added an air of
mystery; and then there were our rooms
to be chosen, and our valises TO be uu-
packed, and to have had all the peaks
aud glaciers disclosed right then, would
have been like having the curtain rise on
the play before one has found ones seat.
We liked the feeling of stealing into the
mountains; of creeping up under their
majesties' very noses when they could
not see us, and then to watch the curtain
rise AID fiud ourselves in kings court |
of mountains2 That evening, as we
we're settling ourselves and tiuttering in !
and out of each others rooms 1--WE occu-
pied nearly whole floor of the Grand |
riger) there was great
CRASH IN THE MOUNTAINS,
followed by long, reverberating roar,
echoing from peak to peak all around. |
"Avalanche!'' we shouted in delight, |
and felt as If we were really in the heart |
OF things. We have heard it many times |
since, and now know that it is q cannon |
fired off for fifty centimes that some Wis
ltor to the glacier may enjoy the echo,
but that evening it answered all the pur-
poses of an avalanche for US, and added |
an untold element of interest to our then
unknown surroundings.
There is a mountaineering atmosphere
about Grindelwald that is frequent and
delightful. Everybody is going some
where, either on foot, or on mules or in
chairs borne by men. What q wild SEN
sntion of adventure we had, when we
hrst saw men starting out with guides,
and ropes, and ice-aXes to climb snow
or cross Il glacier! All day
there is a train of tourists passing by the
hotel, through the one street of GrIndel-
efsHd and we have general impression
mat we are making a great many diff
cult ascensions. aud seeing a great deal,
when the fact Is that it is such endless