The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-07-07

straight shelf, rolls smoothly over, and
like huge inverted rocket smashes
itself INTO a million stars of spray on
the rocks more than 300 feet below. Yet
that Is only slight descent, for as we
look outward fearful gulf yawns be-
fore us, roaring with the echo of the
tali' WITH spray clouds surging through
1t. Ihls chasm Is over LOCO feet in
Gepth, rs slop-ng walls are yellow and
studied with crags that lift themselves
In semblance of ruined castles, monu-
ments and cathedral towers Eagles nest
upon their TOPS. Matted woods line the
edge OF the canyon, and as the river
unrolls it dwindles to a green ribbon,
streaked with white and seeming to be
slightly shaken. The color effect is
overwhelming. Ochre is the prevailing
tint, but the spires and turrets, which
have resisted the avalanches, are red,
gray, dull purple and brown of every
shade, while there are spots and streaks
of snow White, scarlet, sulphur yellow
and crimson, and at one point I found
delicate rose. Although the rim Of the
water is green of moss as rich as
malachite, fed by the spray. The col
ors of October woods, of summer fields,
Of frozen streams, streak the sides of
chasm so profound that imagination
does not realize its depth even while
you bend shuddering over the brink.
Its sublimity does not come till after
hours of gazing. Yet we measure-on
paper-the distance of the stars! Brooks
that spray into the depths are lost in
as fine a vapor as the Staubbach, ana
as you walk along the canyons rim you
see, on turning backward, the Great
fall focus of the view, hung like
green curtain against the yellow preci-
pice, the river streaming outward from
chaos of rock and foam at it's foot,
far mountains in the background, and
all about painless wilderness of wood.
No spectacle in the world more puZz.cs,
fascinates and entices the beholder Its
brightness stuns in sunlight. AS evening
shadows gather, its mystery almost APP
pals. More and more It's influence grows
The spectator tears himself from 1t by
an effort, or he does not tear himself at
all, but sinks on its rim and let's the
mighty picture work into his imagination
and ingram itself into his being. 1t is
the sphinx mouth of the eternal hills,
opened to deliver message, and he falls,
unconsciously, to watching and listen
ing for the immortal secret.
Yet perhaps the finer experience Is, there
is not one eye Of man that sees the
twinkle Of your fire, away up there at the
sky's edge. Above, below, around are
silence, though now and again a sound
arises that you know to be the roar of
wind In the pines The sky is your only
tent, and never has 1T seemed so mag
nificantly jeweled. nor has 1t been so
spanned and webbed by .meteors. Boreas
is mastering his forces in the north, and
as his Titan armies pass his shining
spears irradiate the heaven. Now the
snow fields, just above, begin to shine
with pallid phosphorescence, a blue light
is growing in the east, the stars in that
quarter are less brilliant; then the moon
wheels up, Its disk of gold outlining the
goblin shapes of the Hoodoo fountains.
The fire flickers dies; the chill Is biting;
still you are wrapped in the contempla-
ton Of the skies. Light roofs from pole
to pole; the wind and cataracts begin to
speak In human voices; the planets swing
nearer to the earth, and their choiring
falls through space. Louder and deeper
comes the song Of the worlds. Its tones
arouse you.
Rising with shiver, you find that you
have slept and the world is afiame with
the glory Of a new day. the air so full
Of life that you leap ami shout like
child. The world is young again and you
seem to have lived none butts an Arcandian
life, yet so old that you have lived 1t for
centuries,