The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1891-01-02

wall 10 the bed or the river. Every look l
met with fresh piece of grandeur, bu
your eyes are constantly drawn from tn,
beauty of it all to the terrible precipice OF
the very edge of which you are rollins
along and your mind is about evenly divid.
ed between admiration of the scene and ap-
prehension of the danger. There is no rea
danger, of course, barring accident, or an
unruy horse; and the scenery-that is past
all description. Its magnificent silences; il
Is grand-horribly grand.
After leaving the canon, came a broader
road, less picturesque, but more COM
Portable, which lead past Ironton, quiet
little village, past the yankee Girl" one of
the famous mines of that region, past the
two Red Mountains which give the district
its name, and whose SUBMITS are masses of
crimson and orange and red. At q turn in
the road we left the stage and took trail
leading down into dense pine woods and
after about half mile of scrambling over
pole bridges and rocks, we came suddenly
upon little clearing in the midst of which
stood the cabin where we had been invited
to take dinner, provided we could eat with
iron knives and forks" 1t was very nice
cabin as cabins go, just a little log house
where two sisters, two brothers and guest
were summering. Iron knives and forks
we found. to be sure, but menu which
fairly took us by storm. We really had eX-
pected something plain, in that out of the
way place, but the meal was not only APP
petizing but elegant, three or four kinds of
fruit being served at dessert and an explain
alton that If one of the family had not been
sick the day before, we would have had ice
cream. After dinner we went to tiny
lake high above the cabin, almost to timber
line, in fact, but all exploring was suddenly
cut short by heavy shower, for it was i'm
the ''rainy season" and we babe regretful
adieu to the little cabin and its occupants
and hurried away on the return trip. We
found the stage waiting for us in the rain
and the driver with murder i'm his eye and
blasphemy OH his tongue, declaring he was
just on the point of leaving us. And right
here let me warn the unnitiated to beware of
mourning the wrath of mountain stage
driver for he has it in his power to wreak
such summary vengeance, he can guage to
such nicely the courage of a ''tenderfoOt"
and he knows so well what the refinement
of cruelty" is. This one bundled us in with
a look that forbade all argument and whrl-
ed us off at a breathless pace to IrontOn
where he calmly drew up in front of the
hotel, alighted and walked into the bar
room, where in full view of his helpless
passengers he proceeded to pour several
drinks of something down his throat. A
man sitting near made horrible joke about
his running some of those ladies off the
hill If he drank any more" at which the
old timers smiled, but the hair of the I'M
sophisticated ones nearly turned white.
The journey resumed and the canon
reached, that man seemed bent on distin-
niSbinO hnlGalf n a Huhtninn hrix rba
grade was down, the brake set, the smooth
rock road slippery as glass with the rain
and ten long miles between us and Ouray.
No looking at scenery now, no enthusiasts;
only an involuntary closing of the eyes and
a prayer that we may all die before we
strike bottom, as the stage swings around
each outward curve, for you know to
certainty that the outside wheels
are in the air, and you vow in your con-
science smitten heart that you will never
take another trip on Sunday-over such
narrow road. But it was all over at last and
Ouray reached-''blessed Ouray" the i'll
habitants call 1t. Ouray, with its gorgeous
crimson walls, its cascade and hot springs,
its electric lights and tlne hotel, and its
western bluffs over which the
sun sets early, leaving the little town to a.
long sweet twilight. Ouray has history,
too, highly favored with romance and you
are told of negro prisoner burned alive in
a Jail and shown tree whereon the first
woman lynched in the United States was
hung, but that was in Ourays young days
when it probably felt under obligations to
make name for itself The ghosts are
laid now and the visitor carries away only
pleasant impressions.
The population, like that of all Rocky
Mountain towns, is cosmopolitan and one
finds people from nearly every state in the
Union. Most of the teachers found board
ing places in private houses and kind fate
led me into the home of lady who had
spent nearly all her life in the south; an
ideal hostess, who treated her boarders as if
they were guests, putting her house, her
flowers, her saddle horse at their disposal
and even throwing in her husband for an
escort. All, typical southern woman is
one her guest never forgets.
When the institute ended and Ouray with
all its charms was memory, found the
return trip to Telluride, one of its best
features of the whole affair. An early
morning drive down the Uncahpahgre Val
ley, where prairie dogs wink an inquisitive
eye at you, through the rich alfalfa fields of
Pleasant Valley where dinner was waiting
in a cherry ranch house, whose hospitable
walls welcome many an Ouray and Telluride
guest, and then the long climb 'over the
range" Up hill, always up and still an
other hill before you until the mesa land is
reached, then miles and miles of rolling
meadow; hills again until you are at the
very top and then scene SO superb that
any attempt at description is but mockery.
The bright green mesas are just behind
you and away to the west, line beyond line
of blue hills, faint and fainter until they
and the sky are one. You are told that
those hills are in Utah, you take one linger-
ing look and you are lover the divide" and
going DOWNTOWN the beautiful "Schmeck
road," past grand Mt. Wilson, one of the
highest peaks in the state, which never
dotfs its powdered wig, still down, to the
San Miguel Valley and Telluride. charm
ing, picturesque Telluride, nesting between
two lines of hills. Younger than Ouray it
is, but in many things its equal and in
beauty of location its superior, for the val
ley opens toward the west and the sun
fingers late with Telluride beaming bene-
diction upon the bald heads of the peaks
that almost surround it, long after the little
city lies in the shadow, and even flinging
few indulgent rays down into the cherries
basins, where the patient miner, turning his
hack IN tbp plaooant tbiY,Uo NJ life cpands