The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1914-01-22

a book written by Judge q. =. Goodwi.
scne rs years ago. 1t was r.1sl fay
cinating story and contained many
literary gems. Among these was q
description of Shoshone falls Of the
Snake river in southern Idaho. Many
of the readers of this paper have seen
the wonderful cataract and felt the
sensations the gifted writer describes
but without his genius to put them in
words. Recently Senator Borah read
this description in the senate AMI II
is here reproduced in full:
They are the rivals Of Niagara
Never anywhere else was there such
a scene; never anywhere else was sc
beautiful picture hung in SO crule
a frame, never anywhere else on q
back ground so forbidding and weird
were so many glories clustered.
Around and beyond there is moth
ing but the desert--sere, silent, life
less, as though Desolation had builded
there everlasting thrones to sorrow
and despair
Away back in remote ages, over
| the withered breast of the desert a
river of fire 100 miles wide and 4O
! miles long was turned. AS the fiery
mass cooled its red waves became
transfixed and turned black, giving to
the double desert an indescripably
blasting and forbidding place. But
while this river of fire was In flow a
river of water was lighting its way
across 1t or has since made the war
and forged out for itself a channel
through the mass. This channel looks
like the grave of a volcano that has
been robbed of it's dead
But right between its crumbling
and repellent walls a TRANSPORTATION
appears. And such a picture! A river
as lordly as the Hudson or the Ohi9,
springing from the distant snow
crested Tetons, with waters transpar-
emit as glass, but green as emerald,
with majestic flow and ever increas-
ing volume, sweeps on until 1t reaches
this point, where the august display
begins.
Suddenly in different places in the
river bed jagged rocky reefs are up
raised, dividing the current into four
rivers. and these, in mighty plunge
| of 80 feet downward, dash on their
| ga W \ &, ~
| ed into foam and roll over the preci-
pice white as are the garments OF the
morning when no cloud obscures the
sun. The loveiest of these falls is
called the Bridal Weir because it is
made of the lace which is woven with
a warp of falling waters and wool
of sunlight. Above this and near the
| right bank is a long trail of foam, and
this is called The Briday Train The
other channels are not so fair as the
one called The Bridal Veil, but they
are more fierce and wild. and carry in
their furious sweep more power.
One of the reefs which divides the
river in midchannel runs up to a peak
and on this a family of eagles have
through the years, maybe through the
centuries, made their home and reared
their young, on the very verge of the
abyss and amid the fun echoes Of the
resoundlng boom of the falls. Surely
the eagle is a fitting symbol of perfect
fearlessness and of that exultation
which comes with battle clamors.
But these first falls are but a be-
ginning. The greater splendor sue
ceeds. With swifter flow the startled
waters dash on, and within few feet
take their second plunge in solid
crescent over sheer precipice PIC
/ feet to the abyss below. On the
brink there is rolling crest of white
dotted here and there, in sharp con-
Z trast. with shining eddies of green, as
might a necklace of emerald simmer
on a throat of snow, and then the lean
and fall.
| Here more than foam is made. Here
the waters are shivered into fleeey
spray whittier and finer than any mir
acle that ever fell from India loon
while from the depths below an ever
lasting vapor rises--the incense of the
waters to the waters God. Finally,
through the long, unclouded days, the
sun sends down his beams and to give
the starting scene its browning SPLEEN
dor wreathes the terror and the glory
in a rainbow halo. On either sullen
bank the eXtremitieS of its arc are an
chored. and there in it's many colored
robes of light 1t stands out, stretched
above the abyss like wreaths of flow
ers above sepulcher. Up through the
glory and the terror an everlasting
roar ascends,< deep tone as is the voice
of fate. dapason like the rolling
ocean chants when his. eager surges
come rushing in to greet and tiercely
WOO an irresponsible promontory.
But to feel all the awe and to mark
all The splendor and power that comes
of the mighty display one must climb
down the steep descent to the rivers
brink below, and, pressing UP as near
ly as possible to the falls, contemplate
the tremendous picture. There some-
thing of the energy that creates that
endless panorama is comprehended;