82 IN THE DAYS OF AUDUBON 



Miserably poor the American woodman was! Let me 

 give some pictures of him in his poverty. 



From a boy he had read of the glory of Niagara. 



In August, 1824, he heard the thunder of the cataract 

 from afar and approached the falls. He was overwhelmed 

 at the spectacle, as it were, of an overthrown sea. He 

 exclaims : 



" All trembling I reached the falls of Niagara, and 

 oh, what a scene! My blood shudders still at the gran- 

 deur of the Creator's power that is here displayed. The 

 falls, the rainbow, the rapids defy description with the 

 pen! " 



But what a humiliating confession follows these ex- 

 ultant words. He says: 



" I moved toward the rapids, over which there is a 

 bridge to Goat Island, that I fain would have crossed to 

 look at the water which is running with incredible swift- 

 ness below, but I was deterred ~by the low state of my 

 funds!" 



He could not spare the money to pay the toll over the 

 bridge. 



Soon afterward his purse was reduced to " one hundred 

 and fifty cents." 



He went to a prosperous pioneer town and replenished 

 his purse by portrait-painting. 



He tells us how he felt when destitute in Cincinnati, 

 before asking a loan of money. 



