THE GRAND CANYON OF ARIZONA.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 696, 3 January 1922, Page 5

THE GRAND CANYON OF ARIZONA.

Thus does a “Times” special correspondeht begin a description of bis wonderful vision of that great wonder of nature —the Grand Canyon of Arizona*

“Men crawl like ants donw its stupendous sandstone flanks to the tawny torrent that rages through gorges of Archaean rock 5000 feet beneath the Rim>. Some seek thence to scale the gigantic terraces wbjch bear the temple-crowned heights that rise as many thousand feet above the rushing water. Vain sacrilege! The major heights have never yet been trodden by the foot of man, the exalted sancity of their isolation never violated by human rashness. “The feeble -minded have, indeed, sought to put upon some of theii a nam6, such as Tefnple of Isis, the Temple of Vishnu, the Temple of Zoroaster, the Temple of Odin, Thor’s Hammer, and., the like.. The unimaginative have squinted at them with puny cameras). Painters and poets have upon them pigments and wordy rhapsodies. None has ever yet achieved more than a semblance or expressed s more than a frail notion of their ineffable sublimity.

“How can man grasp and render a score that could not be grander had it fashioned by the Almighty a v. tee of rest wherein the tired ;v..i ’ - at worn deifies of other faiths ; u : ~ther ages might, await in sil- , r ,c the fullness of His time? “As I gazed in' wonder across the miles upon miles of enchantment -

tens in some directions, scores m others —I chanced upon the High Priest of the Canyon* To many he L

known, though not by name. His dwelling is not far from the House of Refreshment for wayfarers, where the worthy and the unworthy alike may repose and rejoicei. Giacomo Boni, who, j?n years gone by,, tore from the bosom of the Roman Forum the secret of its being, used to divide men into (three categories—those worthy now to take a wife, those worthy to take a wife, and those unworthy 'to take a wife. “Some such classification Snight apply to those who approach the Canyon. Some are unworthy of it. They look, see not, aand blaspheme. Others see, understand not, ride, in glee, or needless fear astride intelligent mules, down and 1 ' up its sides, and depart unblessed. To others who stare not, but adore, the Spirit of'the Canyon speaks anti to such the High Priest may discover himself. '

“Never, in outward guise, was priest less priestly. Nothing', in his daily task, suggests a sacerdotal function. Yet priest he is, and guardian of the shrine. Many there are more learned, many better vei-sed in the catechism of the true scientific faith. But he has the Faith. Not for him the sub■ titties of geological Pharisees or the pendantisc certainties of the Scribes of the Erosian theory Ito him the Canyon is a living miracle of a God whose name is above every name. Years ago he came for a brief season. The Canyon knew him for its own, 1 '•■•ripped him, and has held him fast 'as its devout servant. He speaks of 'it with bated breath, in tones that move and stir. In him the blood- of the Cossacks of the Steppes mingles, with the biood of the Norsemen. He lias ranged over the wide world, from China to India, from Russia to Egypt, from Scandinavia to Rome, and from Japan to Mexico. “When I came here,” he said, I was an atheist. The Canyon has made me a believing Pagatp OE religious and mythologies, ancient and less ancient, there are few I have not probed. Amongst the most beautiful are the mythology and the religion of our Indians, the Navajo and Hopi. Yeit they suffice not. At night, when winds blow and the voice of the river is strong, I sometimes he?,r the cries of the Valkyrs as they bear the souls of heroes to yon Valhalla. At times the deep tone of the Great Spirit speaks to me, when sunrise gilds the pinnacles of the temples or when they o-row blood-red and purple at the coming of eve. But more often does this scene appear to me as ‘the very o-ate of Paradise, which, if immortality be not 7 the veriest myth, I shall one day enter with my faithful dog at my sidle, and whither mv wife, my friends,, and my hunters have gone before to await me.”