Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-01
And Columns of Glittering Diamonds
That Rose Before Kipling in
Yellowstone Park.
STEAMING BATHS FOR COLLINS,
Cauldrons That Spewed Up Dore-Like
Mud, Sheets of Sapphire and Beryl
and Pools of Crystal.
THIN AIR THAT MAKES ONE DRUNK.
Sitting guth-unsd Amid Clouds Of Sunset Spirits Sit
IN Pictures
WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPATcH.I
Letter No, a.

Once upon time there was q carter who
brought his team and friend into the
Yellowstone Park without due thought.
Presently they came upon few of the
natural beauties of the place and that carter
turned his team into his friends team, howl
ing, "Get out O. this, Jim. All hell's
alight under our noses" And they called
the place hell's half acre to this day to
witness if the carter lied.
We, too, the old lady from Chicago, her
husband, Tom and the good little mares,
acres in extent, and when Tom said:
"Would you like to drive over it?" we said:
Certainly not, and ii you do we shall re-
port you to the park authorities.
There was a plain, blistered and peeled
and abouinable, and it was given over to
the sportiRgs and spoutings of devils who
threw mud and steam and dirt at each other
with whoops and halloos and believing
curses. The places smelt of the refuse of
the pit, and that odor mixed with the clean,
wholesome aroma of the pines in our
nostrils throughout the day.
Laid Out Like OIIendorf.
This Yellowstone Park is laid out like
Ollendorf, in exercises of progressive diff
cultv. Hell's half acre was prelude to 10
or u miles of geyser formation, We passed
hot streams boiling in the forest; saw whlffs
of steam beyond these and yet other whiffs
breaking through the misty green hills in
the far distance; we trampled on sulphur ia
crystals, and shifted things much worse than
any sulphur which is known to the upper
world; and so. journeying bewildered with
the novelty, came upon a really park-like
place where Tom suggested we should get
out and play with the geysers on foot
Imagine mighty green fields spattered
with lime beds; all the flowers of the sum-
mer growing up to the very edge of the line
That was our first glimpse of the geyser
basin. The buggy was pulled up to n
rough, broken, blistered cone of spe1ter stuff
between 10 and 20 feet high. There was
trouble in that place-moaning, splashing
gUrgling and the clank of machinery. A
spurt Of boiling water jumped into the air
ard wash of water followed.
Looking 1t in the Mouth.
l Iremoved swiftly. The OLD lady from
Chicago shrleked. "What wicked waste"
said her husband. 1 think they call it the
Riverside Geyser. Its spout was torn and
ragged like the mouth of a gun when she'll
has burst there. 1t grumbled madly for a
moment or two and then was still. 1 crept
over the steaming line-it was the burning
mari on which Satan lay-and looked fear
fully down its mouth. You should never
look gilt geyser in the mouth. l beheld a
horrible, slippery, Shiny funnel with water
rising and falling ten feet at time. Then
the water rose to lip level with a rush. and
an internal bubbling troubled this DEVILS
Bethesda before the sullen heave of the
n fha odu md
made me run.
Mark the nature of the human soul.
had begun with awe, not to say terror, for
this was nv first experience of such things
1 stepped back from the fanks of the River
side Geyser. saying: Pooh! Is that all it
can do?' Yet for aught 1 knew the whole
thing might have blown up at minutes
notice; she, he or it being an arrangement of
uncertain temper.
The Vision That Opened
We drifted on Hp that miraculous valley.
On either side of us were hills from loco
or 1.5OO feet high, wooded from
crest to heel. As tar as the eye could
range forward were columns of steam in the
air. misshapen Jumps of lime, mist-like pre-
adamite monsters, still pools of turquoise
blue, stretches OF blue corn flowers, a river
that coiled on itself 20 times, pointed bould-
ers of strange colors and ridges OF glaring,
staring white.
The old lady from Chicago poked with
her parasol al the pools as though they had
been alive. On one particularly innocent
looking little puddle she turned her back
for a moment and there rose be-
hind her a 20-ioot column of water
and steam. Then she squealed and
protested that 'she never thought it
would ha' done it." and the old man
i l. IL
for steam power wasted. / embraced the
whitening stump of middle-sized pine that
had grown all too close to a hot POOLS lip,
and tue whole thing turned over under my
hand as a tree would do in a nightmare.
From right and left came the trumpetings of
elephants at play. II the long-haired man.
moth of the science primers Che that was
etched by primitive MANI had broken out
from the underground ] should not have
been In the least surprised.
Wonders of Natures Chemistry.
Perfectly natural, too, was it that /
should step into pool of old dried blood
trimmed with the nodding cornfowers; that
the blood should change to ink even as 1
trod; and that ink and blood should be
washed away in a squirt of boiling sulphur
Gus water spat out from the lee of the bank
OF flowers. This sounds mad, doesn't il? A
moon-faced trooper of German extraction
never was park so carefully patroled-came
up to inform US that as yet We had not seen
any OF the real geysers; that they were all
a mile or so up the valley and tastefully
scattered round the hotel in which we would
rest for the night.'
America is free country, but the citizens
lDok down on the soldier. had to enter
tain that trooper. The old lady from Chi
cago would have more of him; so we loafed
along together, now across half rotten pine
logs sunk in the swampy ground. anon over
the ringing geyser formation, then pounding
through river sand or brushing knee deep
through long grass. We rounded and
limped over low spur of hill and came out
upon field of aching snowy lime, rolled in
sheets, twisted into knots, riven with rents
and diamonds and stars, stretching for more
than half a mile in every direction.
The Bath of the Goblins.
On this place of despair lay most of the
big, bad geysers who know when there is
trouble in krakatoa, who tell the pines when
there is a cyclone Oh the Atlantic seaboard,
and who are exhibited to visitors under
pretty and fanciful names. The first mound
that L encountered belonged to a goblin who
was spIdshing IN mis- tub. heard him kick,
pull shower bath on his shoulders, gasp,
crack his joints and rub himself down with
a towel; tEen he let the water out of the
bath, as thoughtful man should, and 1t all
sank down out OF sight till another goblin
arrived.
Yet they called this place the lioness and
the cubs. 1t lies not very far from the lion
which Is sullen, roaring beast, and they
say that when it is very active the
other geysers precisely follow suit. After
hrakatoa all the geysers went mad together,
spouting, squirting and believing till men
feared that they would rip up the whole field.