Saturday Evening Mail, Volume 28, Number 15, Terre Haute, Vigo County, 9 October 1897 — Page 6

YOSEMITE WONDERS.

•VITHIN THE GRANITE WALLS OF A NATIONAL PARK.

Callfornlr.'i l*ride»nd Natcre'a Masterpiece. Cliffo, Canyon*, Waterfall* and Other Attraction*—A Cascade 2,000 Feet High.

Shooting and Fluhing.

[Special Correspondence.]

YOSEMITE VALLEY,

CaL.Sept.

29.—

"God never made another stretch of coast like this," said a well known preacher of Boston, speaking of the north shore of Massachusetts, "and I'm going to invest right here."

He did so and became enormously rich from the rise in real estate. God never made but one Yosemite, but you can't buy any of .it and so speculate on the bounties of Providence, like the reverend gentleman of Boston. Some people aren't satisfied with a corner lot in heaven they want to corral everything beautiful in sight before they get there. But they can't corner a single rod of this valley, for the wisdom of oar national legislators once rose to the greatness of an occasion and deeded it in trust to the state of California for a perpetual park and pleasure ground everlastingly for the use and benefit of the people. This was done by an act of the 80th of June, 1864. The state accepted the trust, and that is how for the past 83 years this wondrous work of nature has become part and parcel of our national recreation grounds.

I do not think that the state of California lias risen to the occasion as it should have done and made this spot so accessible or so habitable as it could. Years ago it was estimated that the state derived, directly and indirectly, an income from visitors to the Yosemite of not less than $500,000. And yet there is no steamer electric road nearer than 60 miles away, no first class and fireproof hotel—nothing, in fact, to indicate an outlay of more than a few thousands yearly. It keeps a commissioner there to answer questions and prevent the destruction of the forests, and it allows perfect freedom within reasonable restraint to all visitors.

You can go there and camp all summer through you can have use of wood

MIRROR LAKE.

and water, trails and paths without any outlay whatever, bat the getting there is altogether another matter. Still there are some advantages in staging it, even though the roads bo narrow, dusty and wholly inadequate. Some time, perhaps, there will be an electric road as far anyway as Wawona, and electric plants, worked by the immeasurable water power now running to waste, will light the valley throughout its length and breadth. With granite enough lying around loose sufficient to build a city, the few buildings hero are entirely of wood, menu and despicable.

Now, having paid my compliments to the (uiis)nianagenieut of this national gift to California, perhaps it may be expected that I shall find fault with the valley itself. Oh, dear, no! The trouble is that I cannot find words in which to express my delight at its beauties, my admiration of its grandeur. It seems perfectly absurd for a mere man to come here and even attempt to doscribe the glories, the sublimities, of tills gift of God to mortals. I cannot more than enumerate its attractions, but that will be sufficient to show that they are peerless: that were the difficulties of reaching the Yosemite increased a thousandfold yet would it be worth the greatest effort to reach and look pou them. In a short letter one must descend to plain statistics and leave to the imagination the exclamations of admiration, the elevation of tho soul, the awe and the rapture. After a week of wandering hither and thither, after scaling cliffs, wading streams, gazing upon waterfalls that seem to drop out of the sky and into lakes that mirror majestic mountains in their bosoms, I would that I could stay yet another week, a month, a year, (Old possess this beautiful valley through the varying seasons of a twelvemonth.

It is seven miles long, vrith a breadth of from half a mile to a mile, sunk between towering cliffs and granite walls from 3,000 to 6,000 feet in height

As yon gaze, spellbound, from Artists' or Inspiration point, before the stage descends to the valley floor, 5,000 feet below, you realise that life holds many things in store worth living for. It is difficult to believe that this divine

the valley, level as a floor, through its

immmmm.

view never came within the range of leads direct to Wawona, 85 miles dis white man's vision until lees than 50 tant, whence the return journey to Rayyears ago that until the year 1851 the

center running a swift flowing river, ^described. FRED A. OBKR.

until August of last year, but the larger of the two, the btoneman House, was burned, and the Sentinel has to harbor all who come. The commissioners fixed the highest hotel rate at $8 per day, but this does not prevent your paying $4 if abetter room is desired than goes with the regular price. There are more ways of killing a cat, you know, than by dashing out its brains. But still it costs something to get provisions into the valley, and one feels that rates ought to be a little higher than outside they are, at any rate, reports to the contrary notwithstanding.

But who can quibble about hotel and transportation bills when all around are beauties beyond estimate and scenes beyond all price? In the morning, before the sun rises, say at 7 o'clock, you form one of the innumerable caravan which wends its way to Mirror lake to witness the beautiful reflection of Moi:nt Watkins, 4,200 feet high Cloud's Rest, 6,000, and the Half Dome, 6,000 feet, in its bosom, as the sun climbs above the notch, and on horseback or muleback you climb the trails to the Vernal falls, 836 feet high, and still beyond to Nevada falls, 617, or the Tululawiak, 600 feet. There are trails to the summits of all the prominent mountains, such as to Eagle peak and Cloud's Rest, to tho top of the Yosemite waterfall, Nevada, the North Dome and to the Little Yosemite. Besides these there are the incomparable drives around the valley, the foot trails to the Happy isles, to the various pools for trout and scores of others. But by no means omit the trail up to Glacier point, where, perched upon one of the great rocks that shoot out from the summit of the perpendicular cliffs, you can look down a sheer descent of 3,250 feet. By all means stay to view the sunset shadows creep over the vast valley beneath and in the morning rise betimes to see the sunrise

If it were not so late in the season, 1 might tell of trout that could be caught in the streams that drop over the mountain wall around Yosemite. At all events, you can, if you will hunt persistently, get within view if not within shot of a grizzly bear now and later.

It is not necessary to return to the valley to get out, for a new stage road

mon

Indian possessed this valley unmolested Five days will suffice to see the chief except by others of his kind Mid civili- attractions, but ten are better, and if aatiou knew it not, pom go away within a week yon will

Descending by a narrow and *igsag garsJy be haunted by the thought that carriage road, you reach the bottom of

JQQ

W -1-

the Merced^ and between the high, perpendicular cliffs spreads a diversity of forest, composed of majestic trees and fragrant shrubs and green meadow lands embossed with bright colored flowers.

At your right, before you and above you, rise the Cathedral rocks, their summits 6,600 feet above level, and over their breastworks pouring the fleecy waters of the Bridal Veil. This waterfall is 860 feet in height, and the volume of water it pours over the rocks is tremendous, yet it appears as tenuous and filmy as a bit of lace. Come back some time between 4 and 6 in the afternoon and watch the changing colors of the rainbow which at that time spans the lower fall. Over opposite, forming the massive buttress of the western portal, rises El Capitan, that sheer precipice of granite, pearly pink and gray in color, and with an almost perpendicular face 8,300 feet in height. The valley floor itself is 4,000 feet above sea level, and thus El Capitan'8 bald head is thrust over 7,000 feet up into the clouds.

The stage bowls over the soft sandy road, through a forest of oak and pine, the river and El Capitan on its left, and, having rounded the bold shoulder of the Cathedral group, you see shooting up the tall Cathedral spires, two of them, with an average height of 2,600 feet above the valley. Then the triple profile of Fissure mountain is outlined against the sky, recalling the Old Man of Profile Notch, New Hampshire, only here there are three faces. Across the river again rise the Three Brothers, the highest 8,820 feet, crowding upon each other like boys at a game of leapfrog. On the right as we progress the isolated monolith known as the Sentinel, a combined castle and cathedral tower, rises 8,100 feet.

Over behind El Capitan tripkles a thread of water over 2,000 feet in length, known as the Ribbon fall, noiselessly descending, but as we near the Sentinel hotel on the bank of the Merced we are saluted by the roar of the mighty Yosemite, a triple cascade, shooting over a mountain wall of dark gray granite 2,600 feet from the hollow in the cloud seeking cliff to the emerald pool at its base. From the back or river veranda of the Sentinel you can watch the play of the silvery, aqueous rockets as they dart downward and at night be lulled to sleep by the roaring of its waters.

There were two hotels iri the valley

and the railroad is made ina day.

have left many sights as I

wen

aware I have left all too many

.Ai,.

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Tremendous Drop In the Bnslaen of a Great Canal. [Special Correspondence.]

BUFFALO,

That is, although New York's total grain receipts for the first three months of this year's canal season were nearly 12% per cent in excess of tho receipts during the same period last year, the canal receipts were diminished almost one-half, and, while New York's receipts of grain by canal during the first three months of 1896 were nearly one-third of the total, this year's canal receipts for the same months amount to less than one-fifth of the whole. "v This is not a showing calculated to inspire the friends of artificial waterways with hopefulness. In fact, it has thrown them into the dumps, and they are all busy answering the question, "What is the matter?"

The boatmen themselves, who make a livelihood out of the canal, declare, with few exceptions, that the trouble lies entirely with the railroads. "Corporate greed," they say, has decided that the canal "must go," and for all this class of canal boat men will ever do to prevent it the canal will "go," for they are helping to hasten its doom as efficiently as they can. Bead what a solid business man of Buffalo had to say today in a talk with the writer:

As a class the canalboat men are further behind the age in their methods than any other lot of men who are trying to do business at all that I know anything about. The patient mule is their chief motive power today just as he was in the middle of the century Combination of capital, that potent method which has wrought wonders in every other line of human effort, is unknown among them. In this they are behind the men who did the canal business of 50 years ago, for thon there were several regular lines of boats run by corporations composed of boat owners who had combined because they thought they could thus do business more economically and with greater efficiency. "In those days tho canal was a great artery of commerce. It was crowded with boats, which were hurried with all possible speed from this port to the seaboard and back.. Every hour's delay meant a loss, and many schemes were resorted to by boat captains to pass one another. At the locks they often literally fought for precedence. Boatyards were to be found at intervals of a few miles all the way from hero to Albany. Boatmen, boat builders and all who did canal business were making money. "But those days are gone. It would be silly to say the railroads have had nothing to do with the change. They have been the most potent factor, of course, but with all their power the canal need never have sunk to its present insignificance had the boatmen become infused with the spirit of the age. "Now, I am not going to advocate electric towage nor the giving over of the canal to the corporations," continued the speaker, "but I am going to say that I see little hope for the canalboat men unless they show the will and the power to get together in some soil of combination for their own protection. There are in existence now two organizations that were called into being for this purpose—the Canal Forwarding association and the Boat Owners' association—but neither of these has been of much value so far. "Perhaps it would be proper to say that they need a man like 'Fingey' Conners, otherwise known %s William J. Conners, more than anything else. This man Conners, as everybody familiar with lake business know£, took up the cause of the stevedores at the lake ports just when they were in the worst possible condition and put them on their feet He was a stevedore himself, and before he arose in his might the stevedores were out of work half the time, were constantly engaged in quarrels with shippers and vessel owners and were poorly paid generally. Today they are about the best paid and most regularly employed body of men I know of. It is true that Conners has made lots of money out of them and that they are practically all in his employ now, but that does not detract one whit from the truth of what I say. "Some students of the situation," oontinned the speaker, "say that business on the canal will continue to shrink until the work of enlargement has been completed, so that boats of much greater tonnage than those now in use can be employed. I am quite ready to admit that the enlargement of the canal is a good tiling for water transportation and that the construction of a ship canal from Lake Erie to tide water, so that cargoes can be sailed from Duluth to New York without breaking bulk, would be a better thing, but I also contend that there is money in canaling under present conditions for those who go at it rightly and that com* bination of the boatmen would make very profitable indeed."

DSXTSB

'V1

TERRJB HAUTE SATURDAY EVENING MAIL, OCTOBER 9, 1897.

THE ERIE'S DECLINE,*

Oct. 4.—Notwithstanding

the millions of money now being expended by the state of New York on the Erie canal, the business of that waterway, once the great and only route for grain transportation from the west to the seaboard, has this year fallen lower than ever. This is true of almost every line of canal commerce, as I have found by comparing the annual statistics kept here by the canal officials, but the sit nation can best be illuminated by a com parison of the figures representing the movement of grain over the canal last year and this:

The total receipts at the port of New York during May, June and July, the first three months of the open season of 1896, were 35,894,975 bushels, 13,756,250 bushels by canal and 22,138,725 by raiL

The total receipts at New York during the same three months of the present year were 40,522,875 bushels, of which only 7,284,100 were received by canal and 83,238, 775 by raiL

Musical Mexico. ...

One does not have to tranreksfer or stay long in Mexico to discover that it is quite as much a musical oomitry as any other in the world. Even the stay at home Americans, a dozen or so years ago, fancied that they had made this discovery when Mexican military bands Mid typical orchestras began to "tour" the United States, astonishing as well as delighting the crowds they attracted everywhere. But the truth is, the American stay at homes, with all their admiration for the music the Mexicans brought to them, gained scarcely any idea of how far the Mexicans were to be classed as a musical people. They supposed, very naturally, that the famous regiment band and the typical orchestra comprised all, or about all, that Mexico had to send abroad, that they fully represented the music of their country, and that they were probably considered prodigies in the land whence they came.

Such impressions are quickly dispelled in Mexico. The semiweekly concerts in the Zocalo, the Alameda and the Paseo, in the capital, do not suffer in the least when the Mexican war department grants one of the military bands, even the best of them, leave of absence for a tour in the United States. And as for the other cities of the republic, even such comparatively isolated towns as Jalapa, Puebla, Oaxaca, Toluca, Chihuahua, Morelia, and Guadalajara, each has at least one military band that would be likely to carry off the honors in any competition with the military bands of America. Arthur Howard Noll yi Lippincott's.

Indians With Blue Eyes.

One of the mysteries of Mexico is presented by the Maya Indians, who inhabit the Sierra Madre mountains in the lower part of Sonora. They have fair skins, blue eyes and light hair, and students of ethnology have always been puzzled to account for them. There is a tradition, however, that these Indians are the descendants of the crew and passengers of a Swedish vessel wrecked on the Mexican coast centuries before Columbus discovered the new world, but this tradition is founded on nothing more substantial than a folklore tale current among them that their ancestors came over the big salt water hundreds of moons ago.

The Mexicans have never been able to conquer this people. Nominally, indeed, they are under Mexican rule, but really they are governed by their own chief, and whenever the Mexican government has interfered with them they have taken up arms, getting the best of the scrimmage every time. Their nearest Indian neighbors are the Yaquis, and these two warlike tribes have reciprocity down to a fine point. Each helps the other when the Mexicans attack them.

The Mayas live principally by the chase, although they cultivate some corn and garden truck. The men are large and well formed and some of the women are remarkably handsome blonds.—Ohio State Journal.

Thiers and the Peaches.

Baron Pierre de Coubertin, in an article on "Royalists and Republicans," in The Century, relates the following anecdote: M. Thiers had never lived at tho Elysee, the seat of government during his presidency having been at Versailles, but his receptions had remained legendary. He retained in official life all his bourgeois habits. Jules Simon, with that delicate raillery, gentle and inimitable, which gave character to his most insignificant anecdotes, was telling me one day how M. Thiers, at a large breakfast, had drawn toward him a fruit dish which ornamented the middle of the table, and in which were some choice peaches, and had prepared to sever one of these, saying to his neighbor, "Shall I give you half -of my peach?'' Lima Thiers had been looking at the peach with an indignant air. "I thought," said Jules Simon, "that she was angry with her husband for not having known enough to wait for the servants to pass the fruit, but that was not the trouble. Not able to contain herself longer, she exclaimed, "But,, mon ami, those peaches are for dinner!" And docilely the president restored the peach to the fruit dish.

An Autograph Collection.

One of the largest collections of autographs in Connecticut is owned by William L. Ransom of Litchfield. In his selection he has confined himself mainly to the pen written letters and portraits of the members of the provin cial congress, the signers of the Decla ration of Independence, the presidents of the United States, senators aud congressmen, supreme court officials and famous army and navy officials. He has the autographs of every president Mr. Ransom found that Andrew Johnson's autograph was the most difficult to secure, from the fact that Johnson wrote little, and, when he did write, used a lead pencil as a quill.—New York Tribune.

Law Term Explained.

"Well, proceed," said the lawyer. "The plaintiff resorted to an ingenious use of circumstantial evidence," said the witness. "For the benefit of the jury state in plainer language exactly what you mean by that," interrupted the judge. "Well, my meaning is that he lied." —Boston Traveler.

Russia.

Russia was a duchy until 1167, when it became a grand duchy of Wladimir, remaining such until 1328, when it was called the grand duchy of Moscow. The Russian rulers began to call themselves czars in 1462. Peter the Great assumed the title of emperor is 1689.

IFotor* Population.

It is now stated that the world will be overpeopled at the end of 175 years. This brings us to the year 2072, when the population, at the present rate of increase, will be 5,994,000,000 people

A Matter of Spelling.

It is one of the curious facts that many of the brightest writers spell atrociously. That in itself goes a loug way in the practical demonstration that illiteracy does not connect itself with the art of spelling. An excellent article that recently passed through editorship in this office contained the words "villiage," "Chineese," "prarie," "paralell," "failiure," "Portugese" and "loose" for "lose.." It was an admirable paper of choice literary quality, and yet had it been printed as it was written the proofreader would have been open to summary discharge. for?obvious and hopeless incompetence.^

That humble minister would have been declared too illiterate to read proof. Going backward one step, the copy reader that let such manuscript pass without alteration would also be open to discharge. Why? For illiteracy. And yet the literary quality of the illiterately written article was fine and evident

People are very sensitive about their looks and their spelling. Next in gravity to the charge of being homely is the charge of being unable to spell. That seems to carry with it a sort of proof that bad spelling is discreditable. And yet the people whom the charge most hurts are those of whom it is truest To be able to write without being able to spell is like being able to run without being able to walk. Those who do it area wonder to those who look on. Hartford Courant.

Mennonite Courtship,

When a brother in the church wants to marry a sister, he does not make his wish known directly to her, but goes to the minister and tells him his secret, The minister, if pleased with the match, carries the lover's messaga The sister is usually surprised, as this is supposed to be her first intimation of the young man's love. If the proposal is received with favor, the negotiations are carried on by the minister. The ceremony always takes place in a church. No in vitations are issued, but the banns are proclaimed from the pulpit two weeks beforehand. During this period the groom is permitted to visit his intended without the intervention of a third party. After the wedding a dinner is always served, after which bride and groom go to their respective homes and remain apart for several days. The marriages in the church are generally happy ones, and there is no record of any of the members ever suing for divorca—Philadelphia Record.

Forgeries.

This method of detecting forgeries has been devised by Professor M. Bruylauts, professor of chemistry in the University of Louvain. The portion of a documeijt which is suspected of having been altered is first moistened, and then, after being dried, is exposed to the action of*vapor of iodine. The portion thus moistened, if it has been altered, assumes a violet tint, while tho other portion appears a brownish yellow. This action is evidently due to the removal of a portion of the starch contained in the size of the paper. The same process will even reveal the existence of pencil marks erased by rubbing. —Public Opinion.

tap®

The physical existence of mankind is something like an account in a ledger. Health on one side—disease on the other. All the pure air, good food, rational exercise and sound sleep go on one side of

the account. It sums up health and strength. On the other side, are bad air, poor food, overwork and worry. That foots up weakness and disease.

When your appetite or sleep is disturbed when the stomach and liver are not working properly, or the bowels are not in regular condition you are losing vitality and strength figures are going down on the wrong side of the ledger. Unless this is .stopped and the other side of the account is Duilt up, you'll soon be a physical bankrupt.

The most profitable account a sick man can open in his I^edger of Life is with Dr. Pierce's Golden Medical Discovery, a wonderful and scientific tonic which imparts a direct and healthy stimulus to the entire nutritive organism. It strengthens the digestive fluids and the liver, and enables the blood-making organs to produce pure, red, highly-vitalized blood.

It is not a mere temporary exhilarator. It feeds the constitution with genuine, permanent power. It writes big, round sums on the health side of the account, and wipes out the figures of weakness and disease. It animates the vital forces and builds up healthy flesh, muscular energy and nerve-force.

For nearly 30 years Dr. Pierce has been chief consulting physician of the Invalids' Hotel and Surgical Institute, of Buffalo, N. Y. His formulas are everywhere recognized as the most effective remedies in the world. His "Pleasant Pellets" are the most perfect and scientific cure for constipation ever invented. They are not violent in their action, but perfectly sure, and at the same time comfortable. Their great reputation has called out a score of imitations, which druggists sometimes try to substitute, but there is nothing "just

as good.''

O'NEIL & SUTPHEN

Machine Works

Manufacturers aod Dealer* in Machinery and Supplies. Repairs a Specialty Eleventh and Sycamore Sts., Terre Haute, Ind.

When You Order Your

Get the very best, and that is the product of the

TERRE HAUTE BREWING CO.

THE TURN OF LIFE

Is the most important period in a woman's existence. Owing to modern methods of living, not one woman in a?' thousand approaches this perfectly natural change without experiencing'* a t^ain of very annoying and sometimes painful symptoms.

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The Vegetable Compound is an invigorating strengthener of the female organism. It builds up the weakened nervous system and enables a woman to pass that grand change triumphantly.

It does not seem necessary for us to prove the honesty of our statements, but it is a pleasure to publish such grateful words as the following:

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DKLLA WATSON, 524

West 5th St., Cincinnati, Ohio.

TAX NOTICE.

Monday, November ist, is the last day for paying November taxes without penalty.

W. T. SANFORD, Treasurer Vigo County.

CRUSHED

$4.25

COARSE...

Delivered

$3.50

Ue,ivered*

The cheapest ami best fuel for hard coal stoves, furnaces and grates.

GAS COMPANY

507 Ohio Street.

LADIES

DOYOOKROW

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Steel# Pennpjal Pills

are the original and only FRENCH, safe and reliable core on the market. Price, $1.00 sent by mail. Genuine sold only by

Goo. W. J. Hoffman, successor to Gullck St Co.. Sole Agent, cor. Wabash ave. and Fourth street, Terre Haute, Ind.

DR. R. W. VAN VALZAH,

Dentist,

Office, No. 5 South Fifth Street.

gAMUEL M. HUSTON, Lawyer, Notary Public.

Booms 3 and 4.517W Wabash avenue, phone. 4T7.

Tele-

C. F. WILLIAMS, D. D. S.

DENTAL PARLORS,

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TERRE HAUTE. IND.

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Give them a call If you have any kind of Insurance to place. They will write you in as good companies as are represented in the city.

The Perfume of Violets

The parity of the lily, the glow of the rose, and the flash of Hebe combine in Pozzom's wondrous Powder.

Ph*

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