The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-09-26
On Mountain Heights,

on the maintain grass.
The air was clean, the sky blue, the
snow brilliant. AS one breathed, a sense
Of reshness, of purity, and Of life thrill
| ed through ones whole being and tingled
to the finger tips.
On the height Of Dent jaime a gun
sounded; signal enthusiastically echoed
in the villages below. Dent jaime Is
rarely attempted. The ascent Is most
crumbles under the climbers feet and
/ breaks away from his bleeding fingers. 1t
| has only been scaled four times within
record. But Saxon Harvard had now done
it, succeeding in the first effort that had
| been made this season. The eyes Of
those who were early astir were centered
upon the stern and jagged summit where
the hero and his two guides now stood,
| visible only, however, to those below
| through a powerful glass.
High Up in the heavens the early sun
lit the tips of the bare rock. Not even
a patch Of yellow lichen nor spot of moss
could live on the barren crags, but their
| felspar formation impaired to them a
marvellous brilliance, and their detritus
and gravel shimmered and glittered as
though they had been sprinkled with the
| dust Of diamonds. A sense of gayety
and pride, the satisfaction that accom-
panies a great success. possessed the
youthful climber He looked around at
/ the infinite width of view, at the innu-
merable peaks white with eternal snow,
at the thousand SUBMITS of Switzerland,
which appeared to arise out of a sea
of cloud, flushing in their awakening and
glorified by the first shafts of morning
| Since Saxon Harvard left Harrow.
climbing had been his sport. He had
scaled the Jungfrau, the Matterhorn,
Mont Blanc, and a dozen others of less
| renown, but this ascent of the Dent
| jaime gave him a keener pleasure The
! feat was rarer one, the risk of life
was greater, and though the peak was
not of great height its ascent was most
difficult. Then he had luck in the wealth
| er; ne had never seen the world before
under the influence of such a glamour.
Below, all was yet lost and dim, the
| lower world was in mist and drapery of
| cloud; but as he looked. this planet earth
seemed gradually to become born into
! being under his eayes. The clouds melt
ed. Day. moment by moment, stole lower
| down the heights; the mountain peaks.
| snoW-clad, appeared to grow up out Of
the gloom and mystery of the neither
world THE cathedral emerged in ST.
| IChI MAJESTY CUT Oh disappearing clOOQ.
Dent Noire doomed like a gaunt specter
in the dawn. The Dent du Midi, crisp
and white, stood out in the blue. Above
him, beyond, afar, the multitudinous
peaks of snow-white mountains; immedi-
ately about him the naked rocks with
their marvellous morning hues, and ey-
erywhere the scintilation and glitter of
the felspar. Every cloud now vanished.
The visible earth was green in the val
ley; the hundred chaets of the villages,
the wineding roads, the sombre gorge,
the cascades foaming from the mountain
sides and falling by many a cataract into
the yet lingering gloom in the valley,
where the main torrent pursued its tur-
bulent course, became continually more
and more distinct; a vast landscape
| spread beneath his vision
From Bonaveaux party was ascend
| ing to meet him. He discerned them as
cending like a stream of ants. Taking
his ak, he Clipped upon smooth surface
| of the summit one name-Eva.
Then he descended.
Some of his relatives then visiting
! Switzerland, his father, his sister, legiti-
mately proud of his feat, were labori-
ously climbing the zigzag mountain path
above Bonaveaux. With them were por-
tiers carrying luncheon baskets and some
( people from his hotel-people whom he
/ had never seen before and never desird
to Sc again. Thy had organized a picnic
/ in his honor. He was to be lionized.
AS modest as he was plucky, nothing
could be more disagreeable to him than
| to be feted He decided to avoid this
party who had organized a mountain
| breakfast in his honor, and instructing
| his two guides to continue their descent,
/ The struck a path which led him a little
way up again toward the glacier.
Skipping along as nimble as a channels,
! tie traversed a narrow path until he
! approached the Caverne verte.
| From it's depths reverberated a song.
The voice was unmistakable-it was
| Eva's. Rounding the crag which formed
one Of the sides Of the cavern, he saw
her as she sang. 5She was alone, as she
thought, in stiffness.
Eva, always beautiful, was yet more
| lovely when she sang. Then her whole
! soul was made visible upon her face Her
eyes put on the splendor of genius. her
complexion became transparent, and her
| spirit was made luminous upon her She
! looked ike a nymph of the maintains In
that green ap1 lofty solitude. He was
| awed by this apparition of beauty. Should
! he speak or pass?
! He listened. The melody ceased. and he
! entered the cavern, each to welcome the
other with a Juvenile shout of Joy.
They talked at once and together in
! the glory of the morning, of the attitudes
of all that was high and noble and ex-
allied, of the aspirations OF life, of its
opportunities for duty. She-of his he
roism, Of nobility, of bravery, and Of the
/ grandeur Of a courageous life; he-of her
/ beauty, of the loneliness of art and of
/ the sweetness of song, of the unattempt-
| ed heights in the domain of thought, Of
ambitions that enter only the dreamland
| Of youth.
/ Eva fixed upon him her great, ardent
/ eyes. He was the hero Of ali her reve-
ries. and she said simply: Everything
! is possible to man who has climbed
| the Dent jaime"
Yes, Eva" he repeated. as he took
/ her hand and held 1t throbbing In his
/ own Scared and swollen palm. every
I thing. But there Is a height higher than
any I have attempted yep-the highest.
/ the hollest altitude OF all We VIII climb
/ that pinnacle together"
What do you speak of" asked Eva.
/ softly. struck by the seriousness Of his
/ tone.
"Of love. Eva" he replied. "Of the
! highest altitude. The height OF all IS
/ love. ILLUSTRATED London News.
/
Decline OF Corporal Paaishment.