k i r 
abrlcr. 
After she h;ul retired, the Pnnee, who was slipped into richly adorned sandals, and on shone the magnificence offter aitire. Bliewna 
Ktent.IV eXCited and somewhat. li<..rvntin imr luiml „ ...i , r.... .1 i .... . , . 
BRIDAL VEIL FALL, YOSEMITE 
VALLEY. 
One hundred and forty miles east of San 
Francisco, on the 'western slope of the 
Sierra Nevadas, thirty miles 
from their summit, and at an 
elevation of over four thou* 
sand feet above the level of 
the sea, lies the pride of 
California, the boost of the 
United States, and one of 
the great wonders of the 
world —the Yoseinite Val¬ 
ley. Unparalleled of its 
kind, it is the perfection of 
beauty aud sublimity. 
We have no intention of 
giving a description of this 
valley, so well known by re¬ 
port and personal experi¬ 
ence. We give our readers, 
however, a view of one of its 
most beautiful features, the 
Bridal Veil Fall, which has 
elicited the rhapsodies of 
writers and the highest ef¬ 
forts of some of our best 
artists. Situated two miles 
from the lower end of the 
Valley, and being the only 
one of the noble cataracts 
visible to the tourist on ap¬ 
proaching or leaving the en¬ 
chanted spot, it has attracted 
special attention. About 
seventy feet wide in Juuc, 
leaping a distance of a thou¬ 
sand feet, aud waving from 
side to side, like the flutter¬ 
ing of a white veil, it is a 
most beautiful sight. “ As I 
think of it,” writes Staku 
King, “ I lose quickly the 
impression of the widening 
of its watery trail before it. 
struck the rocks to thunder 
from them; I do not dwell 
either on the fascinations of 
its ever melting and renew¬ 
ing tracery, nor on the bril¬ 
liance of its iris banners, 
that are dyed into its leap 
ing mists and Hying shreds ; 
I can recall for my supreme 
delight only the curve of tlm 
tide more than eight hun¬ 
dred feet aloft, where it 
starts off from the precipice, 
and the transparency of its 
vitreous brink, with the edge 
now aud then veiled with a 
little curling misty vapor, 
when llie wind blew hard 
against it, but generally 
tinged with a faint apple- 
green luster." 
lo those of our readers 
who may have visited this 
wonderful vale, our illustra¬ 
tion will recall the hours of 
the highest enjoyment; to 
those who have been unable 
to partake of this choicest of 
pleasures, it will give some 
idea ot one of the grandest 
beauties of Nature, a fore¬ 
taste of the rarest treats 
within the reach of man¬ 
kind. 
Vr..T. M. Hutchings, the 
pioneer settler and “ Cot- 
ta o e ” landlord, secured us 
the drawing of the magnifi¬ 
cent view herewith pre¬ 
sented. 
AN AFRICAN HAREM. 
A wiuteb in tlie Corn- 
hill Magazine who visited, 
with Dr. Livingstone, Jo- 
liunua > one of the Comoro 
Islands, which lie between 
the extreme of Madagascar 
p Uj lJie African coast, describes a visit to 
rmoe Mahomet’s harem, by invitation. 
1 ' ,lu d ** 8 u e make the following extract: 
After inviting us lo be seated, the Prince 
us in order to apprise his wives of our 
; U1 n a . Pc went out by a doorway covered 
llYi C - ‘ lna i rik hanging, whicli, we presumed, 
1 o he ladies’ apartments. He returned 
m -t lew minutes, and with him came, not a 
shrive 7 | 11 llttlc Mllla y woman, old and 
shrill , HU ,Ul1 of vivHcil y- Her sharp, 
she n 1 illl = through the room when 
anLY ^ Ua * " ,e la <lies would soon 
I, 1T • Sl,e was evidently the Janitressof 
mnei • ’ ,lUd the 1>ri »cu seemed to he 
Uie Ll a I Ve .? f 1 her ’ S "e rattled away at 
citeinent r. .- >ltc 1 01 her voice until her ex- 
seemed t Y. Y ,rolfe l,cr l,own i Mien she 
-buckle I'Y « ir Cl lien?eIf * a,u1 with a kind of 
and ran «r ’ N0 "’ 1 U ' il! send in tlie ladies," 
“ r wul1 r, - n *le a youthful agility. 
evidently excited and somewhat nervous, 
said, “ My wives say I must tell you of a little 
custom wo have whenever strangers are in¬ 
troduced to them. When they come in, 
they will each one of them come to each of 
her head she wore a purple velvet fez-shaped 
cap that was refulgent with gold lace and 
jewels. Round her waist she lmd a jeweled 
zone, and round her neck “jewels of silver 
dressed and ornamented, with some slight 
variation, like unto her sister-wife, to whom, 
indeed, she was really sister; for the Prince 
informed us that they were the children not 
§»foci 
rtfs for jaunt hots. 
■ . .,, , , , , and jewels of gold were multiplied in a only of the same father, but by the same mini I ritUPUlS A I .IS 
you, anclyouw.il have to go through a little barbarous profusion; she had rings on all mother. She moved towards us Uke anu ecu 
ceiemony eac i ° you with each of them, her lingers, she wore bracelets, armlets and —self-possessed and gracious. She had not a miner’s love stohv. 
h it is not much, it is not what you anklets of gold; and her ears were strange- the manner of an European lady, yet her 
tnn s he continued, with a shrewd smile, ly decorated, for not only were the lower mode of hand-shaking was unimpeachable. “You don’t say that is his wife? Well 
she is a stunner inirl 
THIRTY PROPOSALS. 
JV11N"JitR.’S JLiOViC STOBV. 
* wxj 
» . 
Mm 
mm 
PHE VEIL J'ALL, YOSEMITE VALLEY, GY'AiLIX^O-R.ISriYX 
“ H Is only this. Each of them will hold in 
her hand a little bit of bread, and each of 
lobes perforated, but the rim of each ear was 
pierced in several places, and instead of one 
she is a stunner, and no mis¬ 
take. I confess lo an over- 
1 whelming curiosity concern¬ 
ing that marriage. Why, 
in the Stales he was consid¬ 
ered an inveterate bachelor. 
Somehow he never cared to 
go round with the girls as 
the rest of us did ; but al¬ 
ways took his mother every¬ 
where and waited upon her 
as though she had been the 
Queen of England. All the 
girls liked him, and if he 
ever ventured where they 
were, they would flutter 
round him, but it, was plain 
that lie never gave them a 
second thought. 
“ His mother used to say, 
‘If my son ever marries, 
’twill ho a very superior 
woman, quite different from 
the girls one ordinarily 
meets.’ 
“ When we heard at 
home that he was married, 
the girls said, a little spite¬ 
fully, I reckon, ‘There must 
he one wonderful woman in 
California,’ and they hoped 
she would be ‘superior’ 
| enough to teach the old 
bachelor a lesson or two. 
How is it? is she likely 
■ ‘O'” 
“ Well, there’s more to 
her than you’d think at first 
sight. She must he real 
good herself, or she never 
would have appreciated our 
Mend, lie, is solid and sub¬ 
stantial, but not very showy. 
I’ve known him intimately 
for years, and I never 
knew him to say or do n 
mean thing. He deserves 
his good luck, aud I will 
own it; though to ho hon¬ 
est, 1 wanted that woman 
| for my wife, aud have not 
reached it point yet where 
I can take much pleasure in 
thinking of the wedding. 
Come over here tinder the 
trees, and I’ll tell you how 
it came about; but you’d 
better not let on you know 
it, for ’tis a sort of under¬ 
stood thing that we are to 
keep it on the square, and 
it’s rather a tender subject 
with us, boys. 
“ It was the summer of 
’GO, we lived over the cation 
I was telling you about— 
there were thirty of us in 
the gang, and we had four 
cabins, with a storehouse, 
which were public property. 
We worked hard through 
the week, and on Sundays 
did our washing and brought 
our house work up a little. 
Isuppose we should he called 
a hard set, but we were not 
any rougher than men gen¬ 
erally who get a living by 
themselves for a year or 
two. 
“ Eight of us camped to¬ 
gether, and each of us had 
as distinct an individuality 
as though we represented 
different nations. Somehow 
or other we had acquired 
a soubriquet which was 
acknowledged to be cliar- 
Y, G-A-XjXETO-Etlsrx^Y. acterislic, and wo were 
A tew moments elapsed before die third | complete ignoring of realrames. 
“ CI '“T, TV n ’ eacU 01 pierced in sem>al P laces - aild instead of one wife presented herself. Her appearance was "t * V w. T , 
you will break oil a small piece from each jeweled drop, each ear sustained four or insignificant, her features expressionless- her I , , * "" lS \ v "Acrton,aboutl.erne 
aud eat it. That (lone, we are friends- five. The first effee.r. i.„ ....., ,md a ,lerce secessionist; we called lm 
aud eat it. That done, we are friends— 
always friends." 
We expressed gratification and ready 
compliance. The curtain was then with¬ 
drawn, and standing in a row on either side 
of the passage, we saw a number of little 
slave girls, some of whom were very gaily 
dressed. Then there came from a room at 
j the end of the passage a stout lady about 
twenty-five years of age, whose face was 
j only saved from being commonplace by her 
. large and really beautiful eyes. Her appear¬ 
ance as she entered the room was dazzling. 
The bodice of her dress was of cloth-of-gold; 
five. The first effect produced on me by 
this profuse display of personal ornamenta¬ 
tion was amazement, and then the absurdity 
of il appeared so great that it was difficult to 
eyes lacked luster, her form, though not an¬ 
gular, was spare and destitute of all grace; 
her movements were awkward, and though 
dressed not less grandly t han the others, her 
, , w - | ---- vnv oumioj iiui 
retrain from laughter. Yet we could not costume appeared far less resplendent. The 
..I.. .1 . il . . . . 
help being pleased with the woman who had 
taken so much pains with herself to please 
us; and when she came forward to shake 
hands, which she did rather awkwardly, we 
bowed our lowest and smiled our sweetest. 
To her succeeded a tall, finely built, very 
‘South Carolina.’ Dave Austin, a Connect! 
cut man and a regular sell, we called Iiini 
1 Nutmeg.’ ' Dandle ’ stuck to Charlie Chap¬ 
lin, for lie was a regular fop. Then there 
was Ned Simpson, a regular * Aunt Betty’— 
. “ nan nun ifjuii, it IC-LLUHU /HUM. DllI V — 
Pnncc appeared ... feel tl.al we wore con- yotl . ( , llis lire lira, glim™ 
ftfUOllS of nor noPnofa fnr nc* elm fm>iw..l I . . ..... 
scions of her defects, for as she turned from 
us after the usual salutation, lie exclaimed, 
“ Oh, she is a very tame wife!” 
The introductions ended, the senior lady 
came forward and held out to us a thin slice 
I I ' - —"..w .w* M.MM uwm uui tu ui) it UJJI1 SJICM 
handsome woman, of about twenty years of of bread from wluch we broke off a small 
age. Her figure was perfect; the grace of portion and ate it. It was abominable lo 
hei carriage was faultless, and her large black the taste; a vile compound of had oil. Indi- 
I il,.. aiinvi gk;.., „.., q r, r , ’ . b imr mrge maciv the taste; a vile compound of had oil Indi 
I lilt short skill, W. s of Indian muslin, clabo- eyes were so lustrous they seemed to flash I an corn meal and sweets The ladies then 
! hei^cfralm I ^ WUU th ° firet My the richness of seated themselves on a couch and the Prince 
siuii Y V ornannYm, Y m and I Coslume vvas ,n08t Preminent, but with this conveyed to them our thanks for the honor 
7 ledl Hel ' nake(1 feet were ' womau lh « beau| y of ber person far out- I they had done us in granting this interview 
| without my saying a word. Otis Allen 
would faint if he jammed his finger or had a 
sight of blood, ile was ‘Our Baby.’ Jack 
Cummings was a wag, and lie certainly de¬ 
served his cognomen, ‘Jack the Wicked.’ 
Jim Woodruff was known all over the coun¬ 
try by the appellation of 4 Judge,’ and your 
bumble servant, from his black eyes, swarthy 
complexion, and jetty locks, perhaps some¬ 
thing, too, in my manner, was styled ‘ Senor.’ 
“ Well, we were a good-natured set of fel¬ 
lows, always making allowance for each 
