They Call'd Me Back To Many A Glade,
My Childhood's Haunt Of Play,
Where Brightly 'mid The Birchen Shade
Their Waters Glanced Away:
They Call'd Me With Their Thousand Waves
Back To My Fathers' Hills And Graves."
The feelings which Mrs. Hemans had attributed to Bruce at the source of
the Nile, were mine as I took my first view of Niagara.
The Horse-shoe
Fall at some distance to my right was partially hidden, but directly in
front of me were the American and Crescent Falls. The former is perfectly
straight, and looked like a gigantic mill-weir. This resemblance is
further heightened by an enormous wooden many-windowed fabric, said to be
the largest paper-mill in the United States. A whole collection of mills
disfigures this romantic spot, which has received the name of Manchester,
and bids fair to become a thriving manufacturing town! Even on the British
side, where one would have hoped for a better state of things, there is a
great fungus growth of museums, curiosity-shops, taverns, and pagodas with
shining tin cupolas. Not far from where I stood, the members of a picnic
party were flirting and laughing hilariously, throwing chicken-bones and
peach-stones over the cliff, drinking champagne and soda-water. Just as I
had succeeded in attaining the proper degree of mental abstraction with
which it is necessary to contemplate Niagara, a ragged drosky-driver came
up, "Yer honour, may be ye're in want of a carriage? I'll take ye the
whole round - Goat Island, Whirlpool, and Deil's Hole - for the matter of
four dollars." Niagara made a matter of "a round," dollars, and cents, was
too much for my equanimity; and in the hope of losing my feelings of
disappointment, I went into the Clifton House, enduring a whole volley of
requests from the half-tipsy drosky-drivers who thronged the doorway.
This celebrated hotel, which is kept on the American plan, is a huge white
block of building, with three green verandahs round it, and can
accommodate about four hundred people. In the summer season it is the
abode of almost unparalleled gaiety. Here congregate tourists, merchants,
lawyers, officers, senators, wealthy southerners, and sallow down-easters,
all flying alike from business and heat. Here meet all ranks, those of the
highest character, and those who have no character to lose; those who by
some fortunate accident have become possessed of a few dollars, and those
whose mine of wealth lies in the gambling-house - all for the time being on
terms of perfect equality. Balls, in doors and out of doors, nightly
succeed to parties and picnics; the most novel of which are those in the
beautiful garden in front of the hotel. This garden has spacious lawns
lighted by lamps; and here, as in the 'Midsummer Night's Dream,' the
visitors dance on summer evenings to the strains of invisible music. But
at the time of my second visit to the Falls all the gaiety was over; the
men of business had returned to the cities, the southerners had fled to
their sunny homes - part of the house was shut up, and in the great dining-
room, with tables for three hundred, we sat down to lunch with about
twenty-five persons, most of them Americans and Germans of the most
repulsive description. After this meal, eaten in the "five minutes all
aboard" style, we started on a sight-seeing expedition. Instead of being
allowed to sit quietly on Table Rock, gazing upon the cataract, the
visitor, yielding to the demands of a supposed necessity, is dragged a
weary round - he must see the Falls from the front, from above, and from
below; he must go behind them, and be drenched by them; he must descend
spiral staircases at the risk of his limbs, and cross ferries at that of
his life; he must visit Bloody Run, the Burning Springs, and Indian
curiosity-shops, which have nothing to do with them at all; and when the
poor wretch is thoroughly bewildered and wearied by "doing Niagara," he is
allowed to steal quietly off to what he really came to see - the mighty
Horse-shoe Fall, with all its accompaniments of majesty, sublimity, and
terror.
Round the door of the Clifton House were about twenty ragged, vociferous
drosky-drivers, of most demoralised appearance, all clamorous for "a
fare." "We want to go to Goat Island; how much is it?" "Five dollars."
"I'll take you for four dollars and a half." "No, sir, he's a cheat and a
blackguard; I'll take you for four." "I'll take you as cheap as any one,"
shouts a man in rags; "I'll take you for three." "Very well." "I'll take
you as cheap as he; he's drunk, and his carriage isn't fit for a lady to
step into," shouted the man who at first asked five dollars. After this
they commenced a regular mêlée, when blows were given and received, and
frequent allusions were made to "the bones of St. Patrick." At last our
friend in rags succeeded in driving up to the door, and we found his
carriage really unfit for ladies, as the stuffing in most places was quite
bare, and the step and splash-boards were only kept in their places by
pieces of rope. The shouting and squabbling were accompanied by Niagara,
whose deep awful thundering bass drowns all other sounds.
We drove for two miles along the precipice bank of the Niagara river: this
precipice is 250 feet high, without a parapet, and the green, deep flood
rages below. At the Suspension Bridge they demanded a toll of sixty cents,
and contemptuously refused two five-dollar notes offered them by Mr.
Walrence, saying they were only waste paper. This extraordinary bridge,
over which a train of cars weighing 440 tons has recently passed, has a
span of 800 feet, and a double roadway, the upper one being used by the
railway. The floor of the bridge is 230 feet above the river, and the
depth of the river immediately under it is 250 feet!
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