The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1897-11-19
LEGEND or THE III SfELE

Legend or THE III SiELE.
TO the lover of curious scenery tie
AtriondaCks present an infinite Yarje-
Il. The region abounds in lakes.
large and small. surrounded bv NOM
tains or embowered in forestg; and
the rivers which find their way be-
tween the mountains seem, in some
places, to have cut their way through,
leaving the sheer precipices OH either
hand TO mark their pathway. The
most famous of these Sor1es is the
-Au Sable chasIr, which is not far
from where the Au Sable river flows
into Lake Champlain. The galleries,
caves and castetlated columns attract
thousands of tourists yearly; but
! seventy years ago it was comparative
ly unknown. In those early days the
precipitous cliffs were spanned by a
wooden bridge, over which the far
mers had to pass on their way to Au
Sable Forks. The bottom OF the
chasIu at this point was a sheer de
scent Of l2j feet. Ii those early days
the pioneers were not skilled in the
art of bridge building; and SO one
night, when Il fierce storm Numbered
| through the mountains, the bridge
! was swept away, with the exception
| OF the main striuger, Il beam of about
| eighteen inches square. The bridge
was never rebuilt, and another road
| to the little village of Au Sable Forks
was utilized. The old stringer, how
ever, still stretched across the cliffs
above the An Sable chasm.
One pitch black night, about ten
years after the storm that had de-
moiished the bridge, a stranger drew
| up his horse in front of the tavern at
n 90 OH fan
o'clock, and the tap-room was we'll
! filled with villagers, drinking, smok-
ing and playing cards. The entrance
of a stranger caused the usual commo-
| ton, and as he sat in one corner eat
ing hastily prepared supper he was
| the cynoSure of all ewes After the
meal the host, as was the custom, en-
gagged the stranger in conversation.
Dark, nasty night outside, eh?''
"Ges, pretty black"
"Have any trouble in finding your
| way"
"Oh, no; used to live in this neigh
borhood twenty years ago"
80? Well, you'll find things pretty
well changed since you left.n
Yes, l expect so; the old bridge is
still standing, though, and | ain glad
of that, for | helped to build it."
tavernkeeper, and every one in the
room looked up in amazement.
why, yes,n reioined the stranger,
1.-The bridge across the chasm down
the road half mile
What are you crazy" shouted the
host. There is no bridge across the
Au Sable: there has been no bridge
there for the past ten years"
But you are mistaken, my friend
| rode my horse across it not three
quarters of an hour ago"
Impossible, sir: tell you that the
bridge blew down ten years ago."
Again l tell you, my friend, that
| rode across it this very night was
the imperturbable answer. 1T was
too dark for me to see, but / heard
the CHATTER of my horses feet on the
planking, and the noise of the water
in the chasm below
The argument waXed warmer and
warmer, until the stranger said that
they would wait until the next morn
ing, when it could easily he settled if
there was bridge or not. He made
a wager with the landlord that it was
still standing across the chasm.
The next morning every man, wo-
man and child in An Sable Forks was
at the chasm. Sure enough, in the
soft sand of the road there were the
footprints of horse, ana the trail
led from the stringer across the chasm
up to the tavern porch. One young
daredevil walked across the narrow
stringer, and made a startling discoTe-
ry.
There was similar trail on the
other side.
The stranger had told the truth
I,n Il RI SNft ln.AT Job In hf
had crossed the chasm on single
beam.
But that is not the strangest part
of the story. When, that forenoon,
the stranger rode down to the Au
Sable chasm to settle his wager with
the keeper of the tavern and he saw
the perilous path over which he had
travelled the night before, it is said
that he was stricken with trembling
that never left his limbs until death
and that within the space of sixty
seconds his hair turned from a jet
black to the color of the driven snow.
THE COLOR OF SOAP BUBBLES.
The extreme thinness of the bubble
is indeed wonderful 1t is estimated
that the film in some places is only
Que three millionth of an inch in
mess. iTODdDIy lie" Vi US Cdn
conceive of such thinness. Let Inc
express it in another way. The old
and New Testament contain some
three millions of letters. Now one
three-millionth is such Il part of an
inch as the first letter of the Bible is
part of the sum of all of its letters.
The bubble, however, is not of equal
thickness at all points, and it is for
this reason that it has the various
colors. For instance, wherever the
film is orgauge-red it measures about
three one-millionths of an inch; where
it is blue, eight one-milionths of an
inch; and at point where lemon
yellow is prominent, about twenty
one millionths of an inch. Perhaps
you wonder why the colors change
from one part of the soap-bubble to
another This is because the film of
the soap-bubble evaporates and grows
thinner, but unequally SO at different
portions. A greenish blue with
pale rose-red spot near it indicates an
extreme Ihinness, and at such point
the film is ready to give way at the
least jar. You will be glad to know
the source of the beautiful colors.
Every one is delighted with them,
even if not interested by the eXplana-
ton OF their origin. We may say that
they come from the light. Light gives
color to all objects, but not exactly as
it does to the sOap-bubble. White
light from the sun can be broken into
the seven colors which we have seen in
the rainbow. In that instance the
raindrops separate it into its parts.
\ glass prism will do the same, as you
may prove by looking through glass
pendant from a hanging lamp. When
the light reaches the surface of the
soap bubble Il part is reflected from it,
and we see images on its surface as if
it were curved mirror. Another
portion of the light, however, enters
the film and is separated so that a
part of the seven colors are thrown
into the bubble, and we can see them
at various portions of the opposite
surface. Another part of the light,
after being broken by the film is re-
Elected by its inner surface. back to our
eyes, so that we see colors at the point
where the light enters.
VARIETIES.
Mama tolls Of in