The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-12-22

over IL all bent the keen eye and guiding
mind of the indomitable Jansen. for whom
no fatigue was too great no hardship too
severe.
The bearers, as they clambered painfully
upward-sometimes slipping, sometimes fall
ing-were interspersed with small groups or
men drawing and pushing sleds, laden with
planks and beams and instruments. Where
the bearers, with the aid of their 2lpen-
stocks, their knees, and their muscular toes,
scaled almost vertical declivities OF the cal
careous rock that tanks the central mass
of the virgin mountain. the sleds were
obliged to take circuitous routes, undiscov-
cradle save TO the mountaileer's eye, there
by achieving a few yards OF ascent after
hours OF hard travelling.
Sometimes men were stationed on steep
overhanging lodges. where they constructed
as we'll as they might under the circum-
stances. cranes and pulleys wherewith to
hoist the heavier pieces to their own level,
thence to pass them higher up the bleak
mountain sides.
Still further up II was found necessary to
adjust strong rope ladders in such positions
as 20 enable the bearers to mount ascents
that would have defied the transportation
OF the material by any other means.
All this can be told In few sentences. To
obtain an idea OF the magnitude OF the labor
the reader must allow month OF toll for
each sentence, and catastrophe for each
word Ice assures of unknown depths
rocks. that looked bold TO sublimity from
afar. became cruel, tyrannous monsters,
mean enough to excoriate the flesh and
to perdtion. Beneath them lurked soft snow
in quagmires that no man might fathom.
The mountain itself did not offer the
worst obstacles. Famine and disease lay In
wait for the bold Savoyards and smote
them. The writer was laid low with a
species OF scurvy. with which was mingled
a horrible nostalgia-the sickness OF the
cruel, white mountain; the yearning OF the
flesh for the plains and for home. And he
will never forget how Professor Jansen
nursed him back to health-nursed him as a
woman might.
sAvoYARD GOES MAD.
One man went mad. He arose at night
when the rude camp was still. The summit
of the mountain shone with q faint light,
while all else was wrapped in a gloom re-
| lieved only by the sheen of snow. To the
| simple Savoyard who had never climbed SO
| high before-he was only a lad-it seemed
something ineffable. celestial. He was i'll OF
a fever. but he did not know it. He strapped
his pack upon his back and started onward
onward to that lovely light on which his
! straining eyes were fixed-onward for thir-
| ty forty, fifty yards. and then
| A crevasse awaited him. He fell headlong
| When his comrades found him in the morn.
ing they marveled that he was still alive.
"The light-the light-on the white noun
| tain top" he stammered.
And so he died.
That weird light. caught in Mount Blanc.
bonnet OF vapor from the sun that had lon.
| since sunk from sight, cleaned through
many and many a weary night in those
| times. And Jenssen's mild eyes were otter
/ turned upward TO II with radiant CLEAN
unfaitering as its own.
Ii was a bitter fight. Another Of our bold
comrades fell into a crevasse, but il was il
| broad daylight. when We were on the climb
| And the crevasse was deeper than the frs
| one. Poor fellow. AS he lurched downward
| he cried "Babette." and the name Of tn
| simple Savoyard maiden in some villag,
down below was echoed from aiguille I,
| bowlder. and from bowlder to glacier. On,
would fancy that she must have heard II a
| she tended ner little flock.
We lowered two of his comrades down Il
him, but they shouted that he was dead
| Jansen wept. You see companionship witt
the white mountain sharpens the sensibili
| ties. We recovered his burdep-instrument
that could not easily have been replaced
and left him TO sleep in his white grave.
There were other white graves left I'm on
line OF march. And IL took two summer
to carry Janssen's observatory to the ex
treme summit OF Mount Blanc, where IN,
hurricanes are sporting with IL to-day. Her
Is how the Professor spoke OF his TRUMP
in his first message from mis- cloudland hom
sixteen thousand feet above the level OF tn
sea:
II feel as II a great burden had been take
from my shoulders, which, until then ha
chained and weighted down my mind
feel as II henceforth could grappIe with tn