Niagara Falls 



1885 BARKER, GEORGE. The redemption of Niagara. — Views near the 



Barker cataract. — From photographs and sketches by George Barker, Niagara 



Falls. (Harp, w., July 18, 1885. 29:460-461, 466.) 



Three large views: (1) The rapids above the Falls; (2) The Horse- 

 shoe Fall; (3) Whirlwind Bridge, at the Cave of the Winds. Page 466 

 contains a brief history of the establishment of the reservation. 



1885 Carter, James C. Oration at the dedication of the state reserva- 



Car,er tion at Niagara, July 15, 1885. (19th Ann. rep't of the com'rs of 



the state reserv. at Niagara. Albany: 1903. Pp. 263-277.) 



The occasion upon which we are assembled has a peculiar 

 interest which needs no aid from speech. A great commonwealth 

 is here by her official representatives, with the Chief Magistrate 

 at her head, to perform a solemnity; not, as sometimes, to dedi- 

 cate a structure to some great purpose of public utility or charity 

 — not to consecrate a monument to the virtue or valor of her 

 sons — not to celebrate a great event in her annals ; but to make a 

 solemn public acknowledgment — to declare that the awful sym- 

 bol of Infinite Power, in whose dread presence we stand — 

 these visions of Infinite Beauty here unfolded to the eye, are 

 not a property, but a shrine — a temple erected by the hand of 

 the Almighty for all the children of men ; that it cannot be dese- 

 crated without her permission, nor, therefore, without her crime; 

 that she confesses the duty of guardianship imposed by her empire 

 over the place ; that she marks out the boundaries of the sanctuary, 

 expels from the interior all ordinary human pursuits and claims, 

 so that visitors and pilgrims from near or far may come hither, 

 and be permitted to behold, to love, to worship, to adore. 



It is now some two hundred years since the Falls of Niagara for 

 the first time burst upon the gaze of civilized men. These were 

 La Salle and his associates, then engaged in a bold exploration 

 westward towards the Mississippi. One of the company, Father 

 Hennepin, a Catholic priest, had journeyed from the Old World, 

 and was familiar, at least by report and description, with the 

 cataracts of Europe. In his account of his travels and discoveries 

 he sought to convey an adequate idea of this great wonder; but 



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