The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893-03-20


They Suggest sprites and Nymphs, De.
light the Eye and Soothe the Mind.
Every waterfall has its water sprite. I
am believer in water sprites, mermalds
and wood nymphs. and I am not entirely
certain that I do not retain q small
amount of my childhood belief in fairies
good fairies. like to believe In nice
things, and water sprites, mermaids.
fairies. wood nymphs and other sprightly
fantasies appear to me to be things just
about As nice ~ any one would wish to
believe in.
l know there was . nymph at the
falls when was there the other day. She
was tall and graceful, with light gray
eyes, peachy cheeks and cute little bangs.
could give q much better idea OF how
the falls looked if she had not been there,
for my attention was continually attracted
to tho attendant nymph. much to the
detriment of my inspection of the falls
themselves.
The lower falls at Tumwater are tho
only ones worth studying. The beauty of
the others is spoiled by the river being
damned to provide power for a water
wheel. feel like doing the same thing by
the men who have been at work there that
been at work at the lowee falls, but it must
have been prehistoric man, for the works
that he has left are so old that they have
ceased to be useful. The old sluices and
dams are moss-grOwn and vine-covered,
and have been SO long part of nature
now they really. add beauty to
the scene. The old sluices are full of
rents and breaks, through which the water
pours in little cascades, which trickle over
the rocks and fall into the rushing waters
of the river as though glad to make their
escape from the threatened toll of the mill
wheel. SO evidently useless are the old
sluices that the idea of workaday useful
ness il entirely taken from them, and the
jarring note they would otherwise lend is
entirely lost.
The fall is not sheer. The water pours
through shelving, rocky little gorges. and
in its downward course goes plunging,
splashing, .eaping, rumbling, fOaming and
roaring into q rock-bound pool, which it
reaches In a state of milky whiteness
Jets Of water shoot out and are caught by
the breath of the falls and blown out in
white clouds that resemble showers Of
tine snow.
that when you stand on the little bridge
above them they will allow you to think
of nothing else but them. Ii you try and
talk they grumble and roar at you and
drown your voice until you give up the
attempt. If you try to think of aught else
save them, their din enters your brain
and sets il in such a whiri that you
are glad to let your mind return to q con-
temptation of their beauty. With their
swiriing, rushing waters they drown care
and the trials and troubles of the world
are washed away in the hurrying stream
that races along beneath you. While you
watch them your heart is washed as free
~S bot osv b,s hA 80
ner's soul of stain by the waters of the
holy river.
The falls are neither grand nor awe-in-
spring. They are pretty-ave, really
beautiful. Their rocky banks are covered
with bright, green ferns. and when the
warm winds OF spring blow over them are
bright with flowers and grasses, kept
dewy by the mists and spray from the
falls. The rocks over which the water
flows are Of fiery origin. and are full of
little holes and wells which are kept full
of clear limpid water. and l suspect that
il Is to these wells OF crystal water that
the sprite who dwells in the falls comes
on moonlight nights to sit and comb her
colder. hair while she admires the beauties
of her home.
have discovered where this merry
sprite abides when idling humanity in
yades her domain. At one corner of the
falls the water leaps clear of the rocks
Antl. AHeu u OF Iiits an edge OF
| the veil of iace-iike mist which covers il,
| dark opening like the entrance to
| . cave may be seen behind the wall
| of water. One almost imsgines that he
| can see the hand o. the sprite herself eau
| tious!y turning back . corner of the gauzy
curtain that hides Der retreat, that she
may peep out and s3e who it is that i. try
ing. with prying eyes. to gain q glimpse Of
| her place of repose.
know that the nymph I saw on the
bridge above the falls does not live there.
for l am afraid that one dash of diving
spray would lesve these taking little bangs
limp and detected; and am certain tina.
il would entirely ruin the little bonnet set
SO jauniily above them. Ii would, how
ever, only brighten the peacnv bloom
upon her cheeks L. l. kKLLoGS.
Doa's fail to ses The grand display Of millinery