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| KEEPING WARM. |
A great many women have made the ascent of Mont Blanc. An English girl, Miss Stratton, conceived the daring idea, two or three years ago, of attempting the ascent in the middle of winter. She tried it—and she succeeded. Moreover, she froze two of her fingers on the way up, she fell in love with her guide on the summit, and she married him when she got to the bottom again. There is nothing in romance, in the way of a striking "situation," which can beat this love-scene in mid-heaven on an isolated ice-crest with the thermometer at zero and an Arctic gale blowing.
The first woman who ascended Mont Blanc was a girl aged 22—Mlle. Maria Paradis—1809. Nobody was with her but her sweetheart, and he was not a guide. The sex then took a rest for about 30 years, when a Mlle. d'Angeville made the ascent—1838. In Chamonix I picked up a rude old lithograph of that day which pictured her "in the act. However, I value it less as a work of art than as a fashion plate. Miss d'Angeville put on a pair of men's pantaloons to climb in, which was wise; but she cramped their utility by adding her petticoat, which was idiotic.
One of the mournfulest calamities which men's disposition to climb dangerous mountains has resulted in, happened on Mont Blanc in September, 1870. Mr. d'Arve tells the story briefly in his "Histoire du Mont Blanc." In the next chapter I will copy its chief features.
