The Savannah morning news., 1901-08-04

a dash into the woods, apparently into
the very haunts of Nature; and pres
emily the flying wheels slacken speed
and we rub our eyes at the sudden
transformation scene. Walls like those
of medieval castle, with battle
ments high in the hush of the air and
the turrets thereon" and great stone
buildings stretching back into leafy
recesses proclaim Glen Echo. This
fairy-like place was first built up for
a summer ChautauQua, with vast am
phitheater, pavilion, cottages and all
the rest; but somehow it failed of sue
cess-possibly because too remote from
Washington, and therefore too expen-
sive for the usual patrons OF such
place. After a few years of desertion,
it became a gay resort" with cafes
and dancing pavilion, summer theater
and merry-go-rounds; and prospered
amazingly until tickle fashion, always
in search of something new, went lit
tie farther on, to Cabin John Bridge.
Nowadays, though Glen Echo is still
a charming place and most of its cot
tages are occupied by permanent
jewellers, the pleasure-seeking throngs
pass it by. Its chief point of interest
in the public eye is as the summer
headquarters of the American National
Red Cross and the home of Miss Clara
II.
the farther edge of the little. settle
ment-a very large, yellow-p painted,
wooden structure, with stone towers at
each corner, standing away back in
the fields on top of a knoll, reached by
a long, long stretch of wooden side
walk, is Miss Barton's mansion. Its
cool and spacious interior is all that
could be desired for a quiet retreat,
and its back windows overhang a cliff
cfo 70 Tiu
amid splendid trees and tangled green
cry.
Cabin John Bridge, a mile or so be-
yond Glen Echo, is unique as being the
largest single-span stone arch in the
world. The little stream it crosses. an
affluent of the Potomac, is haunted by
the memory of an old hermit called
Cabin John" who lived here many
years; and hence the name of the
mighty bridge. The arch has a clear
spring of 220 feet. The whole great
structure is 4S0 feet long. built of
granite, with a coping of reddish SEN
eca stone along the roadway; and its
total cost, when materials and labor
were much cheaper than now, was a
little more than two hundred and
thirty-five thousand dollars. There is
are loftier than the bridge, a grand
electrical display at night, palm gar
den, theater, gypsy fortune tellers, and
all the other characteristic features of
such place; and yet more attractive,
are woodland paths leading off to quiet
hooks along the river bank, where
family parties may picnic to their
hearts content. Here you must leave
the car and get to Great Falls as best
rrNTYC t. II @I.s IL -.
waiting-a rickety sort of cross be-
tween a Concord coach and a Black
Maria; but by far the better plan, if
you are anything of a walker is to
make the rest of the distance on foot.
The scenery along the banks of the up
per Potomac is surprisingly beautiful
becoming astonishingly wild and pic
turesque where the river tumbles over
its rocky beds. Great Falls is less
than eighteen miles from the national
capital-yet for solitary grandeur il
might be hidden in the innermost re-
cesses of the Sierra Nevadas. Imagine
If you can, an immense chasm, two
miles long and half a mile wide, with
! perpendicular sides from one hundred
to three hundred feet high. Every
where are messy rocks, piled above the
angry waters. Sheets of snow white
foam rush through narrow passages
hurting themselves over bOulderS that
block their path, or plunge down dizzy
preclpices to form furious whirlpools
beneath. Some of these cliffs are sheer
| descent of hundred feet,and the large
volume of water that rushes over
clothes them with beauty as with 8
garment. Far as the eye can see are
cascades, rapids, .whirlpools, hundreds
in number. with waters everywhere
surging, leaping, bounding, in widest
revelry. Over the larger cascades
mists constantly arise and double rain
bows blend their prismatic arches. The
wooded hills on the Maryland side form
an appropriate background for the
rugged picture, while the foar of the
water fills the air with a volume OF
sound and wakes the echoes in the
surrounding forest. 1t seems like a
hallelujah anthem. in some grand
temple dedicated to natures god