most perpendicular 9,000 feet. The snow is deep and purely white, and the Corner Glacier comes down from it, and several other estuaries are seen. The glacier, as seen from the foot of the mountain, looks like a large stream frozen and covered over with white snow. We had Monte Rosa a few years ago from the other side as we passed down the Simplon Pass into Italy. We retrace our steps as rapidly as safety will permit, and finish the ascent of the Corner Grat; we get a spendid view at sunset of a long range of snow mountains, extending for miles all around Mount Corner Grat. I had been disappointed until now in the scenery, and thought that from Rigi far superior with the Obernese Alps all around it; but this is by far the grandest view, bringing the snow mountains much nearer to your vision; you come suddenly upon the whole range; as you ascend the mountain you only see one side, but all at once, when you reach the summit, the whole panorama bursts upon your view, with the Matterhorn towering above all, 14,704 feet high. Some men could be seen upon the Matterhorn, but I did not care to take time and trouble merely for the name, as the view was no better than we had witnessed.

Many thrilling accounts are given by settlers in this region of the loss of life in attempting the ascent; but it seems to be of common occurence. Prof. Tyndall, I think, made the ascent in 1868.

We walk rapidly down to the Riffel Alp Hotel, and not finding our companion, we get a cup of tea and watch the sunset as it throws its rays over the mountains after it had disappeared from view. Soon the moon came up over the hotel at Riffelberg: it looked like a grand illumination on top of the hotel; I got up several times in the night to look out upon the snow mountains by moonlight. At half past four, A. M., I start down the mountain by way of Corner Glacier and its gorges, and at the foot of the Matterhorn where the Visp river is formed. My traveling companion has been a little anxious about me until I had telegraphed him. I suffered from cold, the 7th day of August, until the sun had risen sufficiently to warm the atmosphere. I have been delighted with my long-wished for visit to Zermatt. The railroad when finished will take away one of the picturesque attractions in the tour to Zermatt. I believe that a pleasure attained under difficulties always gives us the most happiness. I got back to Vevey in time to witness an illumination of the fest and to see the last day's grand scenic floral display, and to hear the music from 2,000 performer; there were choruses and solos and bands of martial and instrumental music. The whole was on a grand scale, with 12,000 spectators in the amphitheatre, and the space for the performers was about 200 by 300 feet. The decoration, arches of flower, and

bouquets, which each girl carried, was immense. The dances of the peasant girls and boys, with the arches of flowers in their hands, the waltzers passing between them, and the grand procession of all, with oxen, cows, sheep, goats, etc., following around the amphitheatre, was one of the grandest displays the world has produced, so they say.

We stopped at the Grand Hotel, just out of the city; it has large grounds, with trees and flowers; after

Our

noon lunch we heard firing of cannon and music, and behold, the whole fest were marching into the grounds for a picnic on the closing day. They scattered through the grounds, under the shade trees; a dray load of wine bottles was brought, and they were treated to all they wanted to drink, without any apparent effect but to make them jolly and in good spirits; among so many I supposed some would take too much; but I suppose it was their daily habit to drink the native wines, which do

not seem to be strong, but a little sour and palatable. All were orderly, and there was even no loud or boisterous talking. When they got through the picnic, each band and chorus society and dancers came in front of the hotel and gave some of their best music and dancing before they passed into the procession. About the grounds were the oxen, cows, sheep and goats feeding; they seemed to have been trained, and were easily controlled.

We seemed to have come upon various national fetes; as for instance, the Derby races, England; the bullfight, in Spain; Corpus Christi day, in Spain; French national holidays, which is similar to our 4th of July; regatta in honor of the queen, in Venice; and this fest, giving us an opportunity to see the people of different nations as they appear on their holidays.

F. C. SESSIONS. ZERMATT, Switzerland, Aug. 7, 1889.

No name stands higher in the annals of the law and equity courts throughout the Northwest than that of Edwin W. Toole, of Montana. His name appears in the first volume of the Supreme Court reports of Montana—in almost the first case-and from that time few important cases that have ever been tried in Montana lacked the weight of Mr. Toole's ability, on one side or the other. The briefs that appear in the reports of the cases decided by that court, in which his interpretations of the law are reflected, are alone a crystallized thesaurus of sound legal doctrines. He is the acknowledged head of the bar of the State, there being only one other to dispute the honor with him, in the person of W. W. Dixon, of Butte City.

Edwin Warren Toole was born in Savannah, Mo., March 24, 1839. He received his early education at the common schools in Savannah, and in Shelby county, Kentucky. He was a student at Masonic College, in the State of Missouri, at the close of that institution, and, with Hon. Stephen B. Elkins, represented the Philologian Society in its annual discussion with the Erodelphians.

He went to Denver in 1863, engaged in the practice of his profession for a short time, and came to Montana in the fall of that year. He located at Virginia City, and again engaged in the practice of law. He was in Virginia City during the stirring days of, the Vigilantes, but was not a member of the commitee, and took no active part in their deliberations or movements, save to contribute in assisting in the apprehension and suppression of the lawless element then infesting the country. He moved to Helena in 1865, where he has been constantly engaged in the practice since.

Mr. Toole was nominated in 1872 for delegate in Congress by the Territorial Democratic Convention after a warm and excited canvass, in which he defeated James M. Cavanaugh. He made an able and vigorous campaign, but was defeated owing to a disaffection in the ranks of his party, growing out of the contest in the convention. He has never been a candidate for any office since, and undoubtedly owes much of his success as a lawyer to the exclusive attention he has devoted to his profession since that time. He has always been a Democrat, but is broad and liberal in his

political sentiments as he is in all his feelings and sympathies.

As a well-equipped, trained, logical, comprehensive lawyer, Mr. Toole has few equals at the bar of any State. Before a jury he is unsurpassed for his earnest, candid, impressive eloquence; his clear, succinct statements; his logical and irresistible conclusions. The average juryman will not believe him capable of misrepresentation or deception. But it is in the exposition of the cold, austere and rigid principles of the law before the higher courts, that the luminous powers of his mind are uncovered. Studious in habit almost to asceticism, of profound and thoughtful mental grasp, he presents his arguments with a lucidity and thoroughness which leaves nothing unsaid. He is equally at home in the trial of either civil or criminal matters, and in addition to his extensive civil practice, there has been no great criminal trial in the State for the past 25 years in which he has not been retained. There was a period of some ten or fifteen years during which he never lost a criminal case. This is a remarkable record. He stands preeminent in every branch of the law, and among the members of the bar of Montana his opinions are accepted as unimpeachable. In fact, the history of Mr. Toole's life as a lawyer, is the history of Montana's jurisprudence. No member of the bar, aside from Senator W. F. Sanders, has traveled over the State as much as

Mr. Toole, or is better acquainted with its history and topography. He is a staunch friend of Helena and of Montana generally. He is interested in and carrying on mining in most of the principal mining camps of the State. He also owns, among other Helena property, the north 25 feet of the Merchants National Bank building in Helena, and was one of the first to expend money in the construction of the solid business blocks which have been erected in Helena in the past four years.

Mr. Toole's success as a lawyer is due as much to his strong personality as to his unquestioned ability. His friends are among all classes, and the ablest services he has ever rendered have been those wherein he has espoused the cause of the poor and oppressed without compensation. It can be said of him that which is seldom said of any man whose reputation and character are a part of the history of a people, that after a quarter of a century amid the clash and strife of law courts, without the sacrifice of a single individual conviction, he has not a personal enemy in all the broad domain of his adopted State. His honesty and integrity have become proverbial throughout. the State, and his name is never mentioned without respect. His peerless reputation as a lawyer, and a man who is one of the pillars of Montana's history, around which is entwined the loyal devotion of its people, and the bar of Montana is especially in

be said of him that he never reached a conclusion without the most careful and searching investigation and analysis, and that having arrived at it, he never yielded his conviction nor wavered in it.

Mr. Toole has associated with him in the practice of the law, Hon. William Wallace, jr., a young man of the highest attainments in his profession, of splendid natural talents and ability, who has been of great assistance to him in his extensive practice, and of whom he is justly proud. The firm are at this time retained as senior counsel in Montana for the heirs of Andrew J. Davis, the late Butte City millionaire, in the contest over the will of Mr. Davis. The determi

nation of the case involves the distribution of an estate aggregating ten millions of dollars. Col. R. G. Ingersoll and Nathaniel Meyer, of New York, are associated with Toole & Wallace and other eminent Montana counsel in the case. Mr. Toole has been the attorney of the First National Bank of Helena, of which ex-Gov. S. T. Hauser is president, since its organization, and has been its unflinching friend, and has doubtless contributed in no small degree to the signal success of that great financial institution.

Mr. Toole has realized a fortune from his practice, and has invested a large amount of money in the development of mines, from which source he derives a good income. He is a senior brother of the present Governor of Montana, Joseph K. Toole.

C. P. CONNOLLY.