The Thibodaux sentinel. (Thibodaux, La.) 1905-1912, 1911-02-04

( "a AE denied to them in the soft
w er seasons, the Wintel
Alps rear themselves alof
more grandly self-revealee
than at any other time-still with
their brave and ancient pretence Of
being unconquerable. The black and
white becomes them best; and they
know it: the savage, iron black that
seems pitiless, and that shining, sill.
very white that dazzles so piercingly
They are really not summer things
at all, but creatures of the winter
the short. brilliant day of icy keen
ness, an dthe long night of tempest,
wind and drifting SHOWS. Then, at
least, clothed SO simply in their robes
of jet and ermine, they stand in some
thing of their old true majesty.
solemn, terrible and great Summer,
IS 1t were, over-dresses them almost.
with its skirts of emerald bright med
doWs and fringe of purple forests, and
all its flying scarves of painted air
and mist The colors are so brilliant,
the skies SO soft, the flowers climb
so high. Then winter comes, undress-
ing them slowly, from the head and
shoulders downwards, till they
emerge. austere in black and white,
naked and unashamed to the skies.
| The associations of summer, of
course, help very largely to empha-
else the contrast. Those stubborn
peaks that lie in January beneath
forty feet of packed and driven snow,
| on many morning in July and Au-
gust carried twenty tourists prattling
to one another of the sunrise, suck
Ing thermos TASKS, giggling of the
hotel dances to come not few hav-
ing been bodily dragged up, probably
by guides and porters overburdened
with the latest appliances for com
fort and ease. And the mere thought
OF them all somehow makes the Alps
dWindle little. But in winter they
become free again, and hold uninter-
rupted converse with the winds and
stars. Their greatest characteristic
becomes manifest-their silence For
the silence of the Winter Alps is
genuinely overwhelming. One feels
that the whole world of strife, clam
our and hustle, and with it all the
clash of vulgar ambitions among men.
has fallen away into some void
whence resurrection is impossible. |
Stand upon one of the upper slopes
in mid-winter and listen: all sound
whatsoever has fed away into the re- |
hottest corners of the universe. It
seems as though such a thing had |
never existed even, the silence is so !
enormous. yet at the same time more /
stimulating than any possible music,
more suggestive than the sweetest in
strument ever heard 1t encom-
passes the sky and the earth like an
immense vacuum
In summer, there would be bells,
bells of goats and COWS; voices, voices
OF climbers, tourists, Shepherds; peo-
pie singing. pipes playing, an occa-
sional horn, and even the putting and
whistling of at least several funic1,
laires in the valley But now all
these are hushed and gone away
dead. Only silence reigns Even
above. among the precipices and
ridges, there is no crack and thunder
Of falling stones. for the sun has
hardly time to melt their fastenings
and send them down; no hiss of slid
ng snow. no roar of avalanches. The
very wind, too, whirring over this IN
per world too softly cushioned with
,hick snow to permit ''noise"-even
he wind is muted and afraid to cry
aloud. | know nothing more impress
'ive than the silence that overwhelms
he world of these high slopes. The
aint "sishing" of the ski as one flies S
'ver the powdery snow becomes al /
most loud in the ears by comparison.
Md with this silence that holds true \
I'VE comes that other characteristic {
# the Winter Alps-their immobility: /
hat is. mean, of course, the immo- Id
,ility of the various items that crowd a
heir surface in summer with move
nent All the engines that produce I
movement have withdrawn deep with v
n their frozen selves. and lie smoth- t
red and asleep. The waving grasses t
re still. beneath three meters Of u
now: the shelves that in July so bus. c
y discharge their weights of snow Il
lto the depths stand rigid and fas. i,
ened to the cliffs by nails of giant a
e. Nothing moves, slides, stirs or "
ends; all is infiexible and fixed
he very trees. loaded with piled-up
lasses of snow. stand like things of
tel pinned motionless against the +.
background of running slope, or blue h
lack sky. Above all, the tumbling
alters that fill the hollows of all -
lese upper valleys with their dance NJ
foam and spray, and with their
;hoing sweet thunder, are silent and :,
visible. One canont even guess a,
e place where they have been. Here
t Silence and Immobility. terrifcal- NJ
enthroned and close to heaven "
The Alps, tinged and tainted in
Immer with vulgarity, in winter are
t free; for the hordes of human be-
gs that scuttle about the fields at m
cir base are ignored by the upper
gions. Those few who dare the big th
'aks are perforce worthy and the sa