Year: 1872

The YELLOWSTONE national PABK.-


The hungry patrons of cheap restaurants


down town must occasionally have been


edited by the notice posted conspicuously
over the counter, that " all pastry con-


sumed in this establishment is made on the


premises" Without committing ourselves


to the general principle of protection for


home manufactures, we may afford TO re-


ioico at any measure tending to encourage


the practice of doing our own pleasuring


within our own borders The recent Act


Of Congress concerning a singularly pic


turesoue tract Of land known as the Yel-


lowstone region, will call attention TO the


unexampled richness of Montana and Wyo-


ming Territories as a field for the artist


or the pleasure tourist, while it aims to


ensure that the region in question shall


be kept in the most favorable condition to


attract travel and crafty a cultivated and


intelligent curiosity. By the Act, some


> 500 square miles of territory at the


head waters of the Yellowstone river are


set apart as a National Park O. with


Superintendent (the Secretary Of the In


teriorl authorized to take all measures to


keep the region in such condition as most


fully to answer its purpose of q gigantic


pleasure ground. Verify a colossal sort


Of junketing place The Yankee in the


story book claimed that America could


boast OF bigger lakes. larger rivers, louder


thunder. and torkeder lightning than any


other country. If any one doubt this


hereafter. we shall refer him to the \ ell


lowstone Park. Everything in il seems
on q scale out Of all proportion to orGina-
ry experience and conventional habits of
thought While European potentates
spend millions on millions of francs to dig
out little rills or lakes, or painfully heap
up little nuggets of rock work IN their
artificial pleasure grounds, Nature has
given US one here, ready made, which
dwarls every other, natural or manufac-
tured As little children Of a holiday
afternoon amuse themselves with building
dams. cutting canals, and raising mud hill


locks in the cabbage garden or the gutter,
50 here the Titans and -Eons Of the elder
world seem TO have refreshed themselves.
IN some leisure cycle of geologic growth.
with playing at scenery. They did it lust
lily ana con aH5re. Why should we waste
ourselves in unpatriotic wonderment over
the gorge of the Tamina or the Via Nala,
when Nature has furnished Us with the
Grand Canon OF the Yellowstone, in which
the famed Swiss ravines would be but as a
cTeyice or wrinkle ? Why run across
the sea TO stj1e and sneeze over the Ill
odors of S0lfaterra, when we can spoil our
lungs or our trowsers TO better effect. and
on an incomparably larger scale, with the
gigantic boiling springs and geysers of /
Montana ? And why strain and stiffen
our backs in staring up at Terni or the
Schuadribach, which are but rs side Jets
and spray fakes to the Titanic majesty of /
Wyoming Lower Fails


OF the detailed wonders which we here T
only hint at no reader Of our Magazine /
for the last year or two viii need to be /
reminded. l. will not be forgotten that
along with our descriptions and ilustra- T
tions of this curious tract, the suggestion .
was made which has been carried out In I
the recent action of Congress. 4 con-
publication has lately discussed
with some gravity the question whether
the tide Of mountain travel can ever be
expected to set westward, whether Ameri-
cans or Europeans, turning away from the
-amllar terrors OF the Alps, may be drawn 4
10 whet their appetite for adventure on the
peaks and ravines of the Sierras, and
Shasta or Mount Tyndall come TO be as
fascinating 10 the all conquering crags
nan as the Lyskamm or the Matterhcrn.
The present disclosures certainly tend to
'ender it probable. When the North )
Pacific road, as we are led to hope will
,e the case, drops Us in Montana in three
lays journey, we may be sure that the
ide Of summer touring will be perceptibly
Inverted from European fields. Yankee
nterprise will dot the new Park with s
ostelrIes and furrow it with lines of trav-
l. That the life will for some time to
ONE be frightfully rough, the inconveni-
noes plentiful, and the dangers many and
ppalling, is likely enough. Bnt that is
Ist the spice which will most tickle the {
alate of our adventurous tourists and .
len Of science.-ScribHer'S for Mau.