Interests of the Sick & Suffering, Rochester City
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Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Serials Collection DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF THE SICK & SUFFERING, ROCHESTER CITY HOSPITAL, "I WAS SICK AND YE VISITED ME." VOL. XVII. ROCHESTER, N. Y., AUGUST 15, 1880. No. 1. For the Hospital Review. For the Hospital Eeview. Musings. Camping Out in the Yo Semite. The daylight was fading softly, SAN FRANCISCO, July 12th, 1880. And I shut up my book with a sigh We hare been camping out in the Yo To wait for the lamps of evening Semite, and I thought you might like a To brighten the twilight sky; And one after one they spangled little account of the trip for the Hospital The beautiful arch above, Review. You know, or perhaps you do And answered my gaze as softly not know, when spring time comes in San As the eyes of the friends I love. Francisco, that is in April or May, people But soon o'er the blue sky's bosom begin to make their plans to get away A shadowy cloud was drawn, some where where it will be warm. As And the stars that had shone so brightly in the Eastern cities they flee to the "Were all from their places gone ; country to get cool, so here they go off to Tet I knew they were calmly shining Where the sky is forever clear, get warm, for the winds and fogs come And I knew that by patient waiting, blowing in through the Golden Gate every I should see them at length appear. afternoon, and we want to sit by a fire Then softly, 0 very softly! about as much as we do in January. A A delicate breeze swept by very favorite way, in this part of the And brushed with its airy pinions world, is to go camping ; and as it af- The clouds from the azure sky; forded to us all of the pleasures of novel- And there, in their tranquil beauty, ty, we thought that we would try it too, Like pearls in a crystal 1,11, as it combined the double attraction of The beautiful stars of Heaven Were shining above me still! novelty and economy, and a decided suc- cess it was. Ah I thus from affection's circle The jewels of love depart, A party of fourteen, including the Thus falleth the clouds of darkness driver and a Chinaman as cook, ten horses, And gloom on the mourning heart; four of them attached to the great cover- But when from our tearful faces ed wagon which held our provisions, tents, Thfflhadows of earth shall fall, &c, and two other lighter ones, with two When we p»t on our robes immortal, Then, then shall we see them all! saddle horses, left in the boat for Stockton L. at one P. M., and reached there the next Rochester City Hospital. morning and then began our travels. Man's inhumanity to man makes count- The ride up into the valley was full of less thousands mourn.—Burns. interest, first through the plains, then in- Central Library of RochesterThe andHospital Monroe Review. County · Historic Serials Collection to the foot hills, and in the mining region, little bells around the stalk, as our hya- where the country began to be wooded, cinths do, and the leaves are a shaded till gradually we reached the Sierras pro- red, and they twine in and about the per, and the magnificent forests of timber, flowerets as long and slender as a willow the like perhaps not equalled in any part leaf. My description can convey to you of the world. The pines are in them- no idea of the wonderful beauty of this selves a marvel, but the Sequoia, or Big cluster of blossoms. They grow to be Trees, exceed all known trees in size. We about a toot high, and sometimes there went into the Mariposa Grove, which will be as many as five in a single cluster. consists of about six hundred trees ; num- There are also acres of Azaleas large and bers of feet do not tell any thing as to white, but not a single pink one did I see, their size, but when you say that a road- such as we have at the East. way has been cut through one tree, and We passed through snow five feet deep, that not the largest, and that a stage with and that was the twelfth of June, and six horses can stand within it, the head of were obliged to lighten our wagons by the leader and the hind wheel of the walking for three miles over the summit- wagon all in the tree, and that immense And such wet feet, that had to stay wet cutting away has not affected the growth till they dried, but no one took any cold. of the tree at all, it is still alive and do- In fact the air is so dry and pure that ing well, you may have some idea of the though you may be cold you cannot grandeur of these trees. •atch cold. We slept out of doors both The larger trees all seem to have suffer- in and out of the valley, and were six ed at some time from the forest fires, as days each way in making the journey, they are all of them more or less burned with no roof over our heads. We lay on about the trunk, some entirely through, the ground—in a wagon as it might but when that burning was, no one can chance to be—with only the stars for can- tell, only long enough ago to have allow- dles, and the sky for a canopy, but no ed a growth of other trees of pine and one took any cold from the exposure, but cedar to have grown about them into a the bed was pretty hard sometimes. I very large size. The Sequoia gigantea took my Chinaman as cook for the party. themselves must antedate the Christian His comment upon it all was, " Melican Era, and may be as old as the Pyramids. man fun big fool." The foliage is something like the cedar, There are three ways of going into the and the wood a red wood, the cone very valley. We went by the Big Oak Flat small but like the pine. Road and descended, and the view that The flora of these mountains is as won- bursts upon you may well be called, " In- derful as the trees, and different from what spiration Point." Mountain resting above I have ever seen in other places. The mountain as the farther ranges came into most beautiful flower I ever saw is the view with their summits covered with Snow Plant. That does not grow in the snow, and below us lay all of the wonders valley but higher up the mountains. After of the Yo Semite. A valley fifteen miles the snow melts, there stands the flower in long and from a half to one mile in width, all its beauty springing out of the ground. almost as nature made it, the Merced River Its blossoms grow around a stalk or bulb running through it, and completely shut which is white and about two inches in in by the high walls, towering up three to diameter. These blossoms are in color five thousand feet above theValley, which the most brilliant shades of red, from is itself four thousand feet above the sea. cherry to a dark crimson, and hang like The walls are in many parts as smooth Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Serials Collection The JSospital Jieview. *s ^ polished by a plow, one solid mass think if there be a God-forsaken looking of granite, El Capitain for instance, and place in the world, it is some of those old on the other side will be the same eleva- mining towns that are now deserted, with tion, but the rocks cut into fantastic the solid adobe and brick buildings, great shapes, some vast cathedral spires, where iron, doors and shutters, which are now the trees make the tracery, and every- closed, and of no more use, the soil all where you catch views of the falls as w ashed away, and only the white rocks they come dashing down the high preci- left to tell what a greed and life was once pice, a distance of two thousand feet in there ! But I must not make my letter one unbroken plunge, or broken into cata- too long. racts, or clinging to the side of the rock I read about your hot weather this like a silver thread. Beauty and sublimi- summer, and wish that I could send you ty lie side by side so closely that they some of our cold. A. R. P. mingle as one. To see the Valley best, one wants to go «arly in June, before the water has dried An Incident. up on the mountains and the smaller beauties are lost. Every day we were in the In " The Life and Work of Dr. W. A. Valley was full of interest, and a new Muhleuberg," the founder of St. Luke's •sight for each day. Hospital, (New York City), and St. John- The climbing of these mountains, to land, the following touching incident is get the different views, is perfectly safe, given, which seems appropriate to a place the paths are all good, and you could not in our Hospital Review : get back if you tried.