Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1892-05-19

gradually gives way to one of awe and
subliInity
There is something so terrific and APP
paling-you feel yourself so atomless
in comparison-that You would speak
in whispers if the roar could suddenly
ease. You are an onloolSer; if assist
ing to work a gun, physical activity
would take away from the mental
strain. When Admiral Porter got his
twenty mortar boats. each armed with
an Sl4-ton mortar and thirty-pound
rifle cannon, at work against the forts
below New Orleans. and the big guns
in both forts had opened in reply, there
was something akin to the sound of
heaven and earth coming together.
The mortar shells weighed over two
hundred pounds apiece, and the rush
of them through the air made ones
hair feel as if ii crawled. The venom
aus hiss of big slSyrocket was magni-
fed thousands of times, to be followed
by crash which seemed to split the
sky open into cracks and crevices.
When the firing had continued until
all reports had been merged into one
steady roar there was little short Of an
earthquake on land or sea for ten miles
around. The earth shook as if a great
steam hammer was pounding it few
yards from your feet. II standing near
a tree, you could feel the roots letting
go of the soil with sound like bug
crawling over dry leaves. On the water
great mud spots rose up here and there
to show where the earth forty feet be-
low had been disturbed. In the Missis-
sippi river itself hugh catfish leaped
above the surface in fright and pain or
fioated belly up and We're carried along
with the current, gasping for breath
Out on blue water air bubbles as large as
dining plates floated TO the surface and
bursted with snap, and fish of all
kinds exhibited the greatest confusion
and alarm.
Thirty miles away the roar was like
that of gale sweeping over a pine for
est. Horses and cattle sought to hide
away. birds flew about uttering cries of
and dogs pointed their noses
toward the sky and howled dismally.
Birds and fowls felt the air and earth
waves long before human beings did,
and their actions were so queer as TO
become alarming. The coming of the
-oar to those afar off was preceded by
! jarring of the earth and a moaning
n the air. Springs overflowed, and the |
water in wells circled around as in
whirlpool The widest species OF birds |
eft the woods and thickets and came |
lying about the houses. and rabbits de- |
erted their burrows and sought the /
of domestic animals !
The thunder storms of score of years |
could not have rent the heav-
ms nor disturbed the solid earth as that /
did.
If the beginning was painful and ex- /
the ending was something TO
Ne remembered for its grandeur One
mortar after another. one great gun
fter another. was silenced by order
The reverberations had travelled through
ir and earth and water distance of
fifty miles. They now seemed to re-
urn back TO the guns. The rent and
iven skies had kept up a constant
loaning and complaining. These
ounds gradually died away. as man
a pain finally drops off to sleep. The
arth resumed its solidity again, the
IN shone forth in its old familiar way.
nd the bank of clouds piled up in the
7est and tinged with gold all along
heir lower edges seemed proof TO the
ye that the world still stood as we had
we'd in it the day before those monsters
woke and demanded human blood and
'reck and destruction as the price of
heir silence.-N. Y Sun.