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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
' " One of those miracles of nature , that occur perhaps once in the me and full of an empire—a woman of the perfect beauty of an angel with the most winning human sweetness of character and manner . She was kind , playful , unaffected , and radiantly , gloriously beautiful . I am sorry I ma }* not mention her name , for in more chivalrous times arhe would have been a character of history . Every body who has been in America , however , will know whom I am describing ! and I am sorry for those who have not .
«< ? * * We descended to the bottom of the precipice , at the side of the fall , where we found a small house , furnished with coarse linen dresses for the purpose , and having arranged ourselves in habiliments not particularly improving to our natural beauty , we re-appeared—only three out of a party of ten having had the courage to trust their attractions to such a trial . Miss looked like a fairv in disguise , and Job like the most
ghostly and diabolical monster that ever stalked unsepultured abroad . He would frighten a child in his best black suit—but with a pair of wet linen trowsers scarce reaching to his knees , a jacket with sleeves shrunk to the elbows , and a white cap , he was something supernaturally awful . The guide hesitated about going under the fall with
him . "—vol . i . p . 65 . We do not stop to quote any description of the " lofty and well lighted hall , " with " its transparent curtain of shifting water . " We are thinking : of Job Smith .
•• I was screwing U }> my courage for the return , when the guide seized me by the shoulder . I looked around , and what was my horror to see Miss standing far in behind the bheet upon the last visible point of rock > with the water pouring- over her in torrents , and a gulf of foam between us , which I could in no way understand bow she had passed over .
' * She seemed frightened and pale , and the guide explained to me by signs , ( for I could not distinguish a syllable through the roar of the cataract , ) that she had walked over a narrow ledge , which had broken with her weight . A long fresh mark upon the rock at the foot of the precipitous wall , made it sufficiently evident ; her position was most alarming . " I made u sign to her to look well to her feet ; for the little island on which she stood was green with slime mid scarce larger than a hat , and an abyss of full six feet wide , foaming and unfathomable , ra # ed between it and the nearest foothold . What was to be done ? Hud
we a plank , even , there was no possible hold for the further extremity and the shape of the rock was so conical , that its slippery surface evidently would not hold a rope for a moment , To jump to her , even if it were possible would endanger her life , and while I was smiling * and encouraging the beautiful creature , as she stood trembling and pule on her dangerous foothold , I felt my very heart sink within me .
•* The despaiiing guide said something which I eould not hear , and disappeared through the watery wall , and I fixed my eyes upon the lovely form , standing like a spirit in the misty shroud of the spray , as if the intensity of my gaze could sustain her upon her dangerous fttotholr ) . I would have given ten years © f my life ut that rnornent to have clasped her hand in mine , *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1836, page 354, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2658/page/26/
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