The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-12-22
TOP OF MOUNT BLANC
PROFESSOR JANssENs OBSERVABLE
RY AMONG THE CLOUDS.
PerfIs ana Labor Through which
This Marvellous Achievement Was
Brought to Pass.

Chamouni (switxerlanD Letter, In New
York Morning Journal
The iron hand of winter is swiftly CROP
ing down the shoulders and the sides of
Mount Blanc into the uttermost valleys. Up
wonder. beyond those sullen leaden vapors,
hemmed IN by immemorial SHOWS and the
turmoil OF stupendous elements. Professor
Jansen and his brave lieutenants are Sc
ouestered from mankind until far into the
spring. They are alone with nature-their
friend and their foe; nature In her most
IMPLYING mood. Not utterly are they Sc
ouestered. Science, whose servants they are,
whose chief votary Jansen Is. has strung
for them a wire--a mere contemplate thing.
invisible almost-so that from their house.
which is builded on the SHOWS OF ages, they
may talk to the men below them and to
men beyond. at a time when no man might
venture to them without perishing as a
tropical bird would.
Professor Jansen Is seventy years old.
Therefore, aside from the dangers incidental
20 his self-chosen mode Of life. he will be a
very old man IL he lives twenty years longer.
II may be fifty years, or 1t may be hum
dred years before the world viii know his
greatness. He will be honored then for the
discoveries he will have made. The work
tAASoC
discoveries possible will not be thought OF
because-well. because he will have made 1t
20 easy.
But to one who has known and worked for
him he Is loved for himself, and revered for
the home he built on the awful, white sum-
NIT OF Mount Blanc That. in itself. involved
q discovery-a simple one. IL Is true, but
fraught with vast Importance. 1t was that
rfled fah 6atf fn~
building. Before Professor Jansen ascer-
tanned this fact 1t might have been supposed
that the man In the parable who built his
house upon the sand was less OF fool by
At least one degree than a man who would
attempt to build his house upon the snow.
IL was here, In peaceful Chamouni. that
we began the work Looking upon the fifteen
tons OF building material piled in the market
place, and then straining our eyes upward
at the mountain. the attempt seemed almost
there 10 shame scepticism and inspire cour-
age. No man who looked into his mild eyes
rejoice - try for such man, even II trial
meant failure
THE PERILOUS ASCENT.
The means were near at hand. From the
homes OF Chamouni. from neighboring ham
lets. from chaIets on the slopes, trooped
men-lithe Savoyards. their muscles as hard
as iron and as supple as silk. their faces
tanned TO a rich brick red. There were
eight hundred OF them. The materials fol
the observatory were divided into that man,
loads. OF about forty-two pounds each, anc
the work OF ascent began.
For the first three thousand feet II was
steady. toilsomo climb through the fores
belt. where a carpet OF pine needles dead
eneS the footsteps. After that the rocks be
gan II was then that what had been
IfF4R pa N MI Il
side split asunder and became an apparently
demoralized aggregation OF units struggIin,
desperately against adverse conditions. Blu
In this seeming chaos there was order. and