The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1895-10-10
Sunset on the Mississippi.

in life. We have read descriptions
of the ancient ruins in The Old World
as they appeared while bathed in the
soft white smile of the moon-their
crevices made deeper by the shadows
as grief deepeds the wrinkles on the
face of age, the broken columns
looming grim and strong, like half
blasted hopes that still persist in re-
naming in our hearts when troubled
by deep sorrow, the ivy browsing
in the hushed air as if dreaming of
the trysts, the loves and hates, and
the sadness and longings of the Gen.
turies past. We have listened to
stories of sunrise on the Alps, when
the day-king kissed the sleeping
world, the shades crept away among
the hollows, the chamoise arose and
stretched itself among the cliffs, and
the far-off snow-capped mountain
tops cleaned like the roofs of the
ages. We have dwelled on the ac-
count of the travellers sunset in
Egypt near where the Sphinx stands
gazing with unblinking eyes into
eternity, where the red rays hovered
about the pyramids, as tenderly as a
| blush-rose on the bosom af beauty
tenderly as they hoyered that first
evening after their completion, and
the slaves of 5000 years ago paused
wearily at their bases and looked
with sigh of relief on the stupen
dous handiwork. We have seen and
heard and read of these things. But
we have also seen a sunset on the
Mississippi river from the custom
house tower in Memphis; and it ex.
celled anything we think we have
seen or imagined. The pen cannot
do it justice; the brush of an arch
angel and a canvas as broad as the
heavens might be adequate!
The view from the tower is sweep.
ing and grand. Near the Tennessee
bank the boats (modern Leviathans
of the waters) hover near the wharf
motionless, wrinkled and massive
Further out on the stream, cleaning 6
in the sunshine like molten gold
skiffs appearing in the distance nc
larger than water spiders pass to and
fro OF drift idly about with theil
human freight. Northwest the river
snatches at the horizon forty miles
away, the mouths of Wolf and Hach.
chic rivers yawn, the lighthouses idly
rock, while now and then tiny sail
boat moves out and enters the great
er body of water. On the East the
smoke from Memphis's three hundred
factories floats upward and loses
itself like ga prayer in Gods immen
sity," shaded streets mystyfy them
selves among the piles of art and the
great trees under which the savage
five hundred years ago made love te
his dusky sweetheart or rested after
a raid upon neighboring tribe
beautiful cottages CLEAN, elegant res
licences tower, and stupendous bust
ness houses lift their tawny roofs
and one imagiens that Tennysor
must have looked on such a scene
when he was inspired to sing
"The splendor falls on castle walls,
And snowy SUBMITS old in story
From the bridge which binds Ar
kansas and Tennessee in wedlock
the trestles extend westward like {
huge serpent with ten thousand legs
extends three miles into the swamps
where the fisherman alone stalks ant
the vultures perch and wait ane
watch for an overflow and a destruc
ton Of fish. A mile south, observ
able beneath the bridge-"a hoar.
eyebrow to the stream" to chang
the .fgure-the greenery of Presi
dents Island juts out into the river
Just north of that is the supposed
point from which DeSoto, in May