The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1905-02-17
tobattanoOGa News, Friday,

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scIibable beauty. of appalling devas-
tation and truly marvellous do mon
ztratlon OF the quiet, but terrific ana
oweIful manner in which nature oc-
asIonally opeIates-such an oppor.
unity that rarely comes into the Iife
f the average man, especially res
dent of the Southland. There is
probably but one place in the whole
United States that can furnish, during
the winter season, such a sublime
spectacle of the beauty and grandeur
of natural forces, and that Is Niagara
Falls Perhaps never again in the
history of the present generation will
there occur such rare and peculiar
combination of mist and rain, with
the temperature just at the proper
point to result in the dampness, In the
atmosphere pIecipitating as rain in
stead of snow OF Shetland Immediately
n freezing upon whatever object it might
aight; ,,f.tf-tI- fs-.Ne..t A. ert)
On approaching Lookout Mountain,
by the street car st. Elmo; one beheld
that massive pile, securely and power
fully bound in the clutches of the ice
king from its summit down to within
about two hundred yards OF the station
at the foot of the Incline At the base
for about one-thlId the distance M the
mountain, was one vast stretch of the
green pines and other trees extending
as far as the eye could see but at the
end of this distance the line of green
eased abruptly and the territory
where the reign of devastation had
been supreme as abruptly began.
Passing mp the incline the line OF
demarcation between the beautiful
1een of the perfect trees almost hid
den by the trees and foliage surround
ng same, now stood out alone as mute
and sorrowful witnesses of their
present loneliness and their former
beautiful seclusiop.
ICE, ICE. EVERYWHERE.
Giant oaks reared their gaunt forms
as bare of limbs and adoInment as
though stripped by the practiced hand
If a timber cutter, and sheathed IN
coating of ice three and four inches
thick. Ice. ice. everywhere, all
around; upon whatever object the eye
would rest was nothing but the cold.
desOlateness of Ice. None OF the SOFT,
eautiful forms and drifts of snow.
nothing but the solitary desolation OF
glaTing ice remained. Telephone ana
. NoiCkIdpu WlIOb hIiu POlOC 10y AoS NRCA
the ground, unable to Withstand the
terrific burden imposed upon them by |
the fIest king. Hickory trees, foot
and more in diameter, and twenty five |
feet In height. proudly refusing toll
break under the white monarch g
burden, were bent prone to the ground. |
irrevocably twisted ~out of shape. as
though mutely. but proudly. remini-
ing the spectator that such stout hearts
rs theirs could not be broken by what |
ever calamity might befall. When |
the sun touched the scene il were as
though the visitor was in the midst or
sea of diamonds, every one of which |
glinted and scintiliated in manner |
not within the capacity of the minds
OF man to believe as possible.
Little scrub pines and evergTeens
had their ceatine of ice and appeared
as gigantic conical white bee hives, |
with inimitable convolutions and
delicate forms, The water, as ii had |
started to overflow the edges of the
massive and rugged palisades had been
caught in the clutches of the Ice king
and formed into sold waterfalls of
cleaning white, completely hiding
the cold, bare and somber chilling
lonesomeness of the ruined forest, was
rs sharp and distinct as though planned
and executed by a master landscape
gardener with ak, saw apd fire. I'm
mense trees as large as three feet in
diameter were stripped OF their i'm
mense boughs; torn and twisted out
Of shape. bent SO completely that their
tops tonched the ground OF were laid
fiat with their roots uprooted and
stripped OF their earth as completely as
No., a. k.., &unr 0vnI i
telephone and trolley wires were in
cased in monster sheeting OF ice
three and four inches IN diameter and
all broken and twisted into an indie
scribable confusion. Giant telephone
poles had been snapped of by the
weight of the ice upon the wires as
though they were plpestems, and as
shaIp and clean as though cut with an
NJ UP THE ROCK GORGE.
Wasting up on the car through the
immense rock gorge, just before enter
ing the station at the top. the scene
became one of ,ndescribable heaute
and grandeur. The sharp. jaggey.
edges of the immense bolders werd
covered with beautiful ice forms o
inconceivshle beauty and intricacy OF
form, until the ODSetNtL~s-omou " 10
passing through an immense ice gorge,
through which a way had been blasted
out as with Titanic forces and then
carved and chiseled under the direction
and by the hand of n master aculptor.
Upon the summit as far as the eye
could see there was naught but one
passive sheet of ice, with the white
scene only relieved by the bare black
stumps of what had once been massive
and beautiful oaks. elms and pines,
which in the summer cast circle OF
shade 40 feet In diameter. The esst
side of the massiyeeipn appeared "a
'hongh carved from the most beautiful i,
white marble, With the most delicate
and beautiful lines and forms traced
thereon that could ne conceived. III
. W. tss &SsE IL
|SnhSnriha fnr thaHnrald |,