The age-herald., 1898-09-11

great mountain stands out warm anu Hei- low with the bloom of a damson plum upon 1t known as Cheyenne Mountain Fur ther south yet, in the dim distance, stre cl- es a shostly, glimmering range o1 snow mountains, while between the hills stand out in a sort of deep navy-blue. At tne base of Cheyenne mountain are the en> frances ts two canons, known as South canon and North canon. Then around Cheyenne mountain, winding near its sum- init in perilously narrow roadway is the old stage coach road to Cripple Creek.
 The old coach still runs for the delecta- tion of those visitors who adore things primitive and old. The South canon is the more popular, as every visits the Seven Falls" How little names convey to the mind of a person! "Cheyenne can on' paper Is a vastly different thing from Cheyenne canon" in the memory of who has passed within it's hallowed walls. From the mouth of the canon one goes over a mile and a half, along the smooth upward winding road before the falls are reached. Upon each sd of the road rises the most stupendously solid rocks one can imagine. The pillars of Her cules stand like gigantic sentinels at height of over eight hundred feet. As one looks up this perpendicular height the sky was visible like a blue roof spanning the internal. Surely Rocky mountains' is an appropriate name, the significance of which had never appealed to me before
 And most remarkable of all is the way the beautiful and most charmingly pictur- esque blue-green fir trees seem to grow out of Assures in the solid rock with no pos, sible evidence of Sustenance. They leno wondrous beauty to the canon, so differ ent are they from ones accustomed foli- age and so suited to the wild, rugged as- pect of the natural scenes. Finally, though, one rises even above timber line and then only the rocks survive. Then Seven Falls" are reached, which are form fhn ,tpit, rtr in, ifG n plague down the rocky gorge sometimes fifty feet sometimes an hundred and fifty. Besides these falls one climbs up nearly three hundred steep steps to the top of the canon where the altitude is so great 1t takes about three pants to make one good deep breath; and the ozone in the air almost proves too much for Alabama folks" who are not accustomed to such goodly supply Here we found a widen ing of the canon, where a cloisteral group of trees made natural resting place, and we sat down to drink in the grandeur and magnificence of the scene, and surely we ought to have been content. But to the right, narrow trail-for it was nothing smore-wound up the most precipitous rocky side of a mountain you could possibly i'm agine. We were told it led to Helen Hunts" grave some quarter of a mile above and our longing hearts led us onward and upward. It was a perious climb. Had one lost by no means sure foothold, noth- ing would have stopped a sure descent hundreds of feet below. Many years ago when Helen Hunt Jackson lived in Colo rado Springs she could often 1be seen in her little trap with milk white ponies wind ing around the roadway of Cheyenne mountain up to this spot among the fra grant spruce pines, where she loved dearly to sit and write. And surely inspiration must come clearer and surer as one as- cends to such a height. I cant speak au- thoritatively upon this point, but I do know that old 'Sol'' shines about 1C0 per cent hotter and a quiet little fainting spell up this steep climb is very usual occurrence. From her favorite spot, between the pill lars of Hercules, which rise even higher, one has a narrow glimpse of Colorado Springs and the prairie land beyond for miles and miles, forming most certainly an inspiring touch of the haunts of men. Here we found her grave. Her only wish for a monument was that each visitor should add rock to the pile above her resting place. Well, rocks were cheap enough, but placing them on the grave is as Kipling would say-quite another sto- ry. After so romantic visit to her grave one naturally wished to see the home of the popular author in Colorado Springs
 All of the poetry and sentiment of this pill grimage was spoiled, however, by first see ing at her home whole lot of dirty-faced children belonging to MT. Jackson by second wife Somehow it broke the spell of hallowed association.
 Did I say that Pike's Peak improves on acquaintance? Well, I didn't put it half strong enough, for on intimate acquaint- ance it becomes absolutely fascinating. Sometimes in his grandest mood, glitterng white in the sunshine with warm, dark shadows in the deep ravine, the sky a delicious deep blue over it all, again 1t Is dark and sullen and lies bathed in solemn protest When I leave I can't tell which I'll miss the more, Pike's Peak or the de- licious iron water. Colorado Springs seems to be a misnomer, for it is at Manitou. nestled in a deep ravine at the base of Pike's Peak. that the world famous springs of mineral water are found. There seems to exist an immense amount of ri- valry between the two places. but there can hardly be a comparison. to my mind as a resort; Manitou Is infinitely preferable. The narrow ravine admits of but one street along which runs the electric line. Then vehicles and pedestrians scramble along on either side as best they may, while the houses have to vertically take to the woods" and have climbed the hills on eith- CT side until I often wonder how their occupants ever find their way down. Mani tou is a daintily pretty place at night, when the twinkling lights dot the hillsides with merry gleams and the cordial hues from the great variety of little oriental shops gives warmth and color to the road way. I presume everyone who visits Col orado becomes more or less ensnared by the spell of Cripple Creek gold" But the enthusiastic small boy succumbs entirely and wanders from shop to shop viewing "specimens' and longing for pocket full of gold which people from Birmingham somehow do ''not' possess. Simply be- wiIdering in its gorgeous beauty is a grand collection of Colorado minerals at the Iron Springs pavilion which was re- gently purchased by Anna Held" of dra- matic fame, for s13OO0. She will have 1t carefully packed and shipped. sometime in October, and sent to Paris to be exhibited at the fair in 1900. It will be a great loss to Manitou: though. happily future visit ors will not know what they have missed