Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1894-09-24

morning looking at the harbor The
window OF my room in the Australia
hotel takes in the enchantment, and
watched the coming of the day into the
harBor. The whole sky first took Oh a
pallor not sickly, but healthful, as
though there were white wings from
the other side shining through. Then
there came coruscations, and deep indi-
goes, and lrradiations, and sad .leSsaS OF
color, and unrolling scrolls PIC phctic of
more light, and somber and holy gle9ms,
and rhapsodies Of advancing day. and
then banners Of victory over tie dark
ness Then in this wall of heaven the
gates began to swing open. L was no
sudden swinging back of the panels Of
fire. There was no grinding Of the gates
on the amethystine hinges; there was
no clang Of bolts hurled back from the
imperial portals, but q slow and grad
ual and overpowering movement that
made me feel there was more to come,
| and [ wondered if [ could endare the
expanding vision. AS / looked into the
gate I saw what described to nay sen
| afterward as scepter, a scepter of great
! length and brilliance such q scepter as
no earthly emperor ever had in his
throneroom. The handle Of the scepter
had all the colors Of the prism. The
edges of it were translucent. The point
Of it was tipped with q waving light all
the time changing. Yet what q scepterl
| What king would dare to handle it?
! What monarch would dare to lift it?
But while [ wondered the question was
answered The king Of day, the rising
sum- took hold Of it, and the scepter
which I had seen few seconds before
| lying on the shelf of heaven was first
hoisted, as though to command the hid
den gIories Of the skies to come down,
and then it was pointed to the hArbor
as the place Of their destination, and ON
that sapphire of the waves both the
scepter that I had seen and the crown
of the king who took it were put down,
and from green island to green island,
and from beach to beach, and all up and
down the promontories, and from SKY to
water, and from water to sky, it was
morning in Sydney harbor.
Have you ever realized that there is
only one being in the universe who ccn
scoop out and mold and buttress and
build harbor? At Napier, New Zea-
land, where we sailed in and staid
only long enough for an hour and q
half's address, hundreds of thousands
of dollars were expended i'll building Il
breakWater. And so at Osborne and at
different points on the Australian coast
harbors have been constructed by hui
man hands, but the storms looked at
these defiant ramparts, and in the night
tumbled the costly works into the Pa
Hay bI1i1 n 10
right of the heavens Gates of palaces
and gates of fortresses may be turned
out from earthly foundries or pounded
together by hammers of human mechan-
ism, but an ocean gate like that near
which l am now seated needs omnipo-
tence and omniscience and infnity to
plan and construct it.
No one but the Eternal knows where |
such a gate is needed. He sees the his
tory of continent before it is popElat- |
ed, and he only can decide where it's |
front door ought to be hoisted and |
swung. Besides that the gate must cor
respond with the size and greatness of
the main building. The door of the
Madeleine church would be absurd at
the front of a Quaker meeting house.
Bronze and gold would make an map
propriate entrance to a roolzery Such
an entrance to Australia as Sydney har-
Dor would be something for all time
and eternity to jeer at ii the country
thus entered We're not something i'm
measurable for wealth, resource and
grand opportunity. Had / known moth
ing of the history of Australia what ]
saw between the doorposts of this har-
Dor and the wharf of our disembarlla-
ton would have convinced me of the
present and coming opulence of this
fifth continent of the world.
With such an ocean gate am not sur
prised that Australia is IA times us large
as France and 33 times as large as Eng
land, Scotland and Wales It has been
estimated as capable of supporting 100,
900, 900 people. All wealth of mining
and agriculture and commerce and art
and scenery are here. Caves larger than
the Mammoth cave of Kentucky; lakes
like Como, Lucerne and Geneva; bot
any SO rich in flowers that Captain
Cook called one Of the entrances Bot
my bay; whole Pennsylvania of coal
mines, discovered by q shipwrecked sail
1r i'll 1897, but now defying the crow
oars of the earth to take one-half Of
heir treasures and having enough ma
erial to warm a continent and keep
aglow the steamship furnaces of an
ocean; enough sheep pasture in the wales
and OH the hills to clothe with their
WOOL whole nations These sheep, kill
ID and frozen in refrigerators here, are
transferred III carts which are refrigera-
ors into ships which are refrigerators
md carried across the seas TO the refTir-
rators of Europe and Asia, SO that
While | write this letter, almost within
ound Of the bleating flocls of this sheep
aising country, the legs of Australian
mutton hang in London markets, and
loo L.