The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1910-03-22
Carson ate. watched the triumph

Carson ate, watched the triumph
ant test. and forgot to frown.
Save for wisps of cirrus clouds
miles above them. the sky was
clear. Peak after peak, range
after range. village after village
and occasionally a big, smoke
less town about the national pow
er plants of the Leighton reser-
voirs-came hurrying toward
them from the northeast, passed
beneath like visions, and fell be-
hind into the wake of vanished
things. The great features of the
Landscape, the Iake-like reservoirs
in which were stored the waters
that in former years had desolated
the valleys with floods. but now
were stored to immunize the riv-
ers from low water and to turn
the laboring wheels of busy cities;
the bright green areas of young
trees where the old washed-off
mountain sides had been reforest-
ed, the far-off farming lands.
brown in the unverdured spring,
or green with the emerald of win
ter wheat; the valleys, ranges,
and plateaus, which lay as distinct
as on relief-map-all these i'm
pressed themselves on the yoyag-
ers as the streets of a village on
the mind of stranger.
II used to think it quite
trick" said Craighead, "for the
birds to find their way north in
spring; but, pshaw! l can do it
in the night. A continent is as
simple as a quarter-seetion. The
goose isn't as much wiser than /
as l always thought. If Mr.. Bry-
ant had come with us, he'd never
have written ITO a Waterfowl"
There'd have been no mystery in
the goose's certain flight up here
where he can see things"
'See that big stratus cloud?"
asked Carson. "Shall we go over
or under it,"
Personally" replied Craig
head, 1--WE been under a cloud
long enough"
The stratus was an immense
vapor sheet half a mile above the
earth. Underneath were the
gloom and dullnes of cloudy
weather; but above it the sun
shone with a brightness augment
ed by the brilliancy reflected from
the upper surface of the cloud as
from a great glittering plain of
snow. The sun was past the me-
ridian, and shining warm; but on
the wing, over that great expanse
of pearl, the air felt-not cold,
but caller" and they put on their
topcoats. Fields of cirro-cumulus
clouds five miles above the vapor-
GUS plain we're duplicated on it'll
by their own notified shadows,
like great clusters of foliage sill
houetted ON an illimitable ground
of wool. The shadow of the Vir-
ginia ran with her across the |
cloud, like black bat, haloed in |
the unspeakable glory of a triple |
rainbow which ringed the seud-
ding shadow about in concentric |
SO bright, so refulgent in
dye, SO glorious in their mingling
lines, that the voyagers, glancing
from radiance to radiance, low
cred their voices to the thrill of
a beauty too intense for speech.
The immense engines were NOV
ing more regularly than clock
work, keeping the pledge of their
makers that, if supplied with
fuel and oil, they would run with
out single stop until worn out
the perfection of the internal COM
bustion engine, once SO untrust-
worthy. Craighead, past the
first surprise of the beauty of the
claudscape, looked down at the
three rainbows which trailed be-
hind them now like rings of lam
bent fire, and criticised the out
look.
This is, to coin a phrase" said
he, rotten, rotten! Where are
those right angles that make up
the peculiar allurement of the
landscape? Where are
the straight lines that constitute |
real beauty? And not a patent |
medicine or breakfast food sign as
far as we can see-rotten! When |
we own these lanes, we must have
mprovements. Instead of those
rings OF color, we
must lay everything off in rect
angular blocks, and put up signs
advertising nice, airy lots-mag.
nificent view-in Stratus Addition
to Nimbusville. We must estab.
lish the Strato-Cumulus Club
House at the Sign of the Hail-Fel-
Observation-Disclosures to high
the accommodation of
exalted personages, including, of
course, the Air-Apparent of the
Raining Dynasty. We must open
the Alto-Stratus Opera House
there being, l believe. no Soprano
the Cumulo-NimbuS