So with one who obtains the living water,—he has an inexhaustible supply, springing up in his soul. Outward conditions do not affect the deep whence it has its source, but it flows on regardless of conditions on the surface, bringing life and happiness to multitudes.
At three o'clock in the afternoon, we boarded one of the touring cars to Yellowstone, Montana, the Western Entrance to the Park, where there is a branch terminal of the Union Pacific Railroad. A little more than four days had elapsed since we started on the tour at Cody, Wyoming, but to me it was the beginning of a new epoch, and I felt that enough had been crowded into the four days to talk and write about for the rest of my life. I had stocked up my storehouse with a supply of illustrations to be used in books and Gospel exhortations; and not only expected to profit by what I had seen, but to do what I could to make an impression upon others; and the result so far has been satisfactory.
THE YELLOWSTONE PARK AND HOW
IT WAS NAMED
The Devil was sitting in Hades one day,
In a very disconsolate sort of a way.
One could tell from his vigorous switching of tail,
His scratching his horn with the point of his nail,
That something had gone with His Majesty wrong,
The steam was so thick and the sulphur so strong.
He rose from his throne with a gleam in his eye,
And beckoning an agate-eyed imp standing by,
Commanded forthwith to be sent to him there
Old Charon, employed in collecting the fare
Of the wicked, who crossed the waters of Styx,
And found themselves soon in a deuce of a fix.
Old Charon, thus summoned, came soon to his chief,
As the Devil was angry, the confab was brief.
Says the Devil to Charon, "Now, what shall I do?
The world it grows worse and grows wickeder, too;
What with Portland, Chicago, Francisco, New York,
I get in my mortals too fast for my fork;
I haven't the room in these caverns below,
St. Peter, above, is rejecting them so.
So hie you, my Charon, to earth, far away,
Fly over the globe without any delay,
And find me a spot, quite secluded and drear,
Where I can drill holes from the center in here.
I must blast out more space; so survey the spot well,
For the project on hand is the enlargement of Hell.
"But recollect one thing, Old Charon, when you
Can locate the district where I can bore through,
There must be conveniences scattered around
To carry on business when I'm above ground.
An 'ink-pot' must always be ready at hand
To write out the names of the parties I strand.
There must be a 'punch-bowl,' a 'frying pan,' too,
A 'caldron' in which to concoct a 'ragout.'
An 'old faithful' sentinel showing my power,
Must shoot a salute on the earth every hour,
And should any mortal by accident view
The spot you have chosen, why, this you must do:
Develop a series of pools, green and blue,
That while these poor earth bugs may beauties admire,
They'll forget that below I'm poking the fire.
Now fly away, Charon, be quick as you can,
For my place here's so full that I can't roast a man."
To earth flew fleet Charon, to regions of ice;
He found these too cold—so away in a trice
He sought a location in Africa's sands,
He prospected, and finding too much on his hands,
He cut out Australia, Siberia, too,
The north part of China—no! they would not do;
Till, just as about to relinquish the chase,
He stumbled upon a most singular place,
'Twas deep in the midst of a mountainous range,
Surrounded by valleys secluded and strange,
In a country the greatest, the grandest, the best
To be found upon earth—America's West.
Here the crust seemed quite thin, and the purified air,
With the chemicals hidden around everywhere,
Would soon make the lakes that the Devil desired;
So he flew to Chicago, and there to him wired:
"I've found you a place never looked at before;
You may heat up the rocks, turn on water, and bore."
Then the Devil with mortals kept plying the fire,
Extracting the water around from the mire,
And boring great holes with a terrible dust,
Till soon quite a number appeared near the crust,
Then he turned on the steam—and lo! upward did fly,
Through rents in the surface, the rocks to the sky.
Then with a rumble there came from each spot,
Huge volumes of water remarkably hot,
That had been there in caverns since Lucifer fell—
Thus immensely enlarging the confines of Hell,
And it happens that now when Old Charon brings in
A remarkable load of original sin,
That His Majesty quietly rakes up the coals,
And up spouts the water, in jets, through the holes,
One may tell by the number of spurts when they come,
How many poor mortals the Devil takes home.