The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-10-28

gathered in great NEUROLOGICAL basins
Will produce as much Is fifty acres
from he downpour Of rain as seen in
our regions. We have our freshets n
our ~droughts, but in those lands which
are to be scientifically irrigated there
will be neither freshet nor droughtS.
AS you TAX a pitcher and get it full
OF water, and then set it on a table
and take a drink out Of it when you
are thirsty and never think of drink
ing a pitcherful all at once, so Mon
tana and Wyoming and Idaho will
catch the rains Of their rainy season
and a k up all the waters of their
rivers in great pitchers Of reservoirs
and refresh their land whenever they
Will.
The work has already beer grandly
begun by the United State govern
ment. Over 400 lakes have already
been taken possession of by the nation
for the great enterprise or irrigation.
Rivers that have been rolling idly
through these regions, doing nothing
on their way to the sea, will be lassoed
and corralled and penned up until such
time as the farmers need them. Under
the same processes the Ohio, the Mis-
sissippi and all the other rivers Will
be taught to behave themselves bet
ter, and great basins will be made to
catch the surplus Of waters in times of
freshet and keep them for times of
drought. The irrigating process by
which all the arid lands between the
Atlantic and Pacific oceans are to be
fertilized is no new experiment.
JEHOVAH's THRONE.
1t has been going on successfully
hundreds Of years in Spain. in China,
in India, in Russia, in Egypt. About
800, 900, 900 of people of the earth today
are kept alive by o raised on irri-
gated land. And here we have allowed
to lie waste, given up to rattlesnake
and bat and prairie dog, lands enough
to support whole nations of Industrious
population. The work. begun will be
cOnsummated. Here and there excep-
tiOnal lands may be stubborn and re-
fuse to yield any wheat or corn from
their hard fists, but if the hoe fail to
make an impression the miners pickax
Will discover the reason for it n
bring up from beneath those unpro-
ductive surfaces coal and iron and
lead and copper and silver and gold.
GOdspeed the biologists and the sur
| veyOrs, the engineers and the senato-
rial commissions, and the capitalists,
and the new settlers, and the husband
men, who put their brain and hand and
heart to this TRANSPORTATION of the
American continent. Streams in the
desert!'
But while I speak of the immensely
of the continent / must remark it is
not an immensely of monotone or
tameness. The larger some countries
are the worse for the world. This con-
tinent is not more remarkable for it's
magnitude thai for it's wOnders Of con
struction. Yosemite and the adjoining
California regions. Who that has seen
them can think of them without hav-
ing his blood Jingle? Trees now tand-
ing there hat were old when Christ
L 1iuad' ThnCo ronporphc of fn1ia oo rpion-
ed before Caesar or Alexander, and the
next 1000 years will not shatter their
scepter. They are the maStS of the
continent, their canvas spread on the
winds. while the old ship bears on it's
way through the ages.
That valley of the Yosemite is eight
miles long and a half mile wide and
| 5000 feet deep. 1t seems as if it had
been the meaning of Omnipotence to
crowd into as small a place as posi-
| BILE some of the most s~tupendous seem
cry of the world. Some of the cliffs
you do not stop to measure by feet,
for they are literally a mile high.
Steep so that neither foot of man nor
beast ever scaled them, they stand in
everlasting defiance. If Jehovah has a
throne on earth, these are it's white
pillars. Standing down in this great
chasm Of the valley, you look up and
yonder is Cathedral rock, vast, gloomy
minister built for the silent worship OF
the mountains. Yonder is Sentinel
rock, 1920 feet high, bold, solitary,
standing guard among the ages, its
top seldom touched until a bride one
Fourth of July mounted it and planted
the national standards, and the people
down in the valley looked UP and saw
the head Of the mountain turbaneC
with stars and stripes. YOnder are the
Three brothers, 1000 feet high; Clouds
rest, North and South dome, and the
heights never captured ave by the
fiery bayonets of the thunderstorm.
HE TOUCHETH THE HILLS.
No pause for the eye, no stopping
place for the mind. Mountains hurled
on mountains. Mountains in the wake
of mountains. Mountains thanked by
mountains. Mountains split. Noun
tains ground. Mountains fallen. Noun
tains triumphant. AS though Mon
Blanc and the A~dirondacks and Noun
Washington were here uttering them
selves in one magnificent chorus of rocl
and precipice and waterfall. Sitting
and dashing through the rocks the wa
ter comes down. The Bridal Veil fall
so thin you can see the face Of tn
mountain behind it. Yonder is Yosemi
te falls, dropping 1884 feet, siXteel
times greater descent than that Of Nj
agara. These waters dashed to deatl
on the rocks, so that the white spiri
Of these slain waters ascending in rob
of mist seeks the heavens. YOnder i
Nevada falls, plunging 700 feet, the wa
ter in arrows, the water in rocks, tn
water in pearls, the water il
amethysts, the water in diamonds
That cascade filings down earth il
beauty and rushes on until it drops in
to a very hell of waters, the smok
of theiI ascending forever an
ever.
But the most wonderful part of thi
American continent is the YellowSton
park. My two visits there made p
me an impression that will last forever
&C in by the Moneida route as W
did this summer and save $50 miles Q
r~allroading, your Stagecoach takin
you through a day of scenery as CAP
tivating and sublime as the Yellow
stonepark itself. After all poetry ha
exhausted itself concerning Yellow
stone park. and all the Morans an
Bierstadts and the other nchanti
artists have completed their canva.