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tho. most "otupendoiii piece ol raaisoniy that I 'the weste'rn 'mountains: THthjJtSWhandlwork ot
have seen, and one stands before it in awe and man an concluded 'each' verseMtli the following'
roveronco.
Visitors to tho Yosemite arc sometimes en
tertained by' the explosion of dynamite cartridges
within the walls of tho canyon, tho echo from
the various parts reminding one of reverberating
thunder. Glacier Point is tho best place for tho
.production of tills effect Tho beauty of the valley
is much enhanced by the verdure, everything ex
cepting the bare rocks responding to tho moisture
and tho warmth.
In returning from Yosemite wo stopped a day
at Lake Tahoe, which lies up in the mountains
on tho borderline between Nevada and California,
fifteen miles by rail from Truckec, a station on
tho Southern Pacific between Ogden and San
Francisco. Tho lake is called tho Pearl of the .
Sierras and has a depth of two thousand feot and
an area of two hundred and fifty square mile3. Its
elevation abovo tho sea is something over six
thousand feet and, owing to tho varying depths,
the water takes on many shades of blue and gieon.
In the northern portion of the Rockies there
are innumerable fishing and hunting resorts, 3ich
as tho Jackson Hole country, just south of tho
Yellowstone, the Big Horn Basin near Sko-idan,
Wyoming, the North Platto headwaters in. tho
neighborhood of Saratoga, just south ot Rawlins,
Wyoming, the Black Hill streams near Cus-er and
Spearfish, not to speak of tho Gunnison country
and many other places in Colorado.
THE PETRIFIED FOREST.
This year wo took most of our summer vaca
tion in Now Mexico and Arizona, the principal
places visited being the Petrified Forest and the
Grand Canyon.
The Petrified Forests are in eastern Arizona
and near tho line of the Santa Fe. The two smaller
forests are near Adamaua; the largest of the three
is near Holbrook. We visited the Halbrook for
est, sixteen miles southeast of that town, and
found it a place of surpassing interest. No one
who has formed an opinion of tho petrified wood
from the few pieces seen at the various expositions
can realize the immensity of the force, the size
of the logs or the variety of coloring. In some
places it looks, like a logging camp and many of
tho trees seem to have been sawed into sections,
tho lengths proportioned somewhat to the diam
eter of tho log. Thousands of pieces can be found
showing the entire circumference of the tree, and
varying in diameter from eight inches to two feet
and in length from a foot to three feet pieces
convenient for shipping. Every1 institution of
learning in the land ought to supply itself with
one of these specimen for the benefit of the stu
dents. If the government, which has made a
reservation of the forest, does not now permit
such use of the specimens, it ought to do so, i'or
these fragments of logs record a wondrous storjr
of tho earth's convulsions before man was born.
Geologists toll us that this portion of the earth's
surface was once submerged, probably by water
from tho Gulf of California, and that after tho
work of petrifaction was completed another con
vulsion converted this section into the arid plateau
which we find there today. It is evident that these
trees were at one time covered with a deposit of
soil which is now being gradually washed away
exposing the logs to view. As the washing con
tinues new trees are disentombed and new acres
added to the thousand or more now included in
the largest forest.
One of the petrified trees is nearly nine feet
in diameter and some show a length of two or
three hundred feet. One tree, or what scorns lo
be one tree, must have been more than four hun
dred feet high, but as the center of the tree is
still covered by a deposit of soil the identity of
the two sections is not clearly established. A
section of one tree shows five branches and there
is a stump which shows where tho roots have
been broken oft. In what appears to have bison
f ,27 in,a stumn there ia something which
looks liko driftwood, petrified with tho tree.
At the Chicago exposition in 1893 a visitor
after Inspecting some of the specimens of pelrt-
fled wood, innocently aslced whether they yoe
petrified by hand. The question brought a smile to
the face of the man in charge of the exhibit and
I smiled too, When he related tho incident to mo
but I recently heard Captain Jack Crawford tho
poet scout, recite some verses which make thn
inquiry seem less ludicrous. Captain Crawford
after a visit "to tho cities of the east wrote a
:. .-poem contrasting, the rugged natural beauty of
"Likorit?. No. I love, to, gander
'Mid the vales an' mountains green,
In tho borderland out ypnder,
Whore the hand o' God is seen."
I have thought often 'during ' the last few
weeks of his description of the mountain coun
try. "Whore tho hand o' God is seen!" In tho
canyon of the Yellowstone, in the valley of tho
Yosemite, in the brilliantly colored logs of tho
Petrified Forest and more distinctly still in tho
Grand Canyon of the Colorado in Northern Ari
zona "the hand o' God is seen."
Of all the wonders of the west, the Grand
Canyon, the mightiest and most impressive, is
now the most accessible of them all to tourists.
The S'anta Fo railroad has a branch which runs
from Williams to the very edge, of the canyon.
Here the Bright Angel hotel aud others of less
capacity supply the wants of the traveler and fur
nish outfits for a visit to the various points of
interest. Tho Santa Fo is building at this place
a hotel of one hundred rooms with all modern
conveniences, which is to bo run by the Harveys
who have made the Harvey eating houses famous
in the southwest. As the canyon is far enough,
south to be visited during all the months of tho
year it is destined to become a popular resort
Tho Bright Angel hotel takes its name from the
beautiful stream which enters the canyon from
the opposite side of the Colorado.
How can one describe this awijul chasm? More
than eight miles wide at the top, nearly three
hundred miles long and almost a mile deep its
immensity, its beauty" and its grandeur are in.7
expressible. The adjectives which ono is accus
tomed to employ at the sight of other wonders
seem feeble and insufficient. There are various
points from which different views of the canyon
can be otbained, the most extensive being Grand
View, some sixteen miles distant, but the views
from O'Neill's Point, only a few miles east of the
Bright Angel hotel, and Rowo's Point, a liko
distance west of the hotel, answer every purpose.
From the rim of the canyon afariy of these points
ono looks upon a charging- scene so modified by
sun avrid" clflud and sha'dbw thafc,3it:ipresents'-a differ
ent picture1 each ""time' K' $ seen. The canyon is
made'up of'ti great' m'any smalleV canyons 'and ot
countless piles and peaks and pinnacles of rock.
Some of the rocks look like frowning forts, soraO
like castles and others like slender spires. The
diffrent strata of rock from the granite at tho
base, the limestone above it, the red standstone
surmounting this, the light sandstone still higher
and tho softer stone at the top these rent by
earthquake, raised by volcanic action and worn by
erosion; assume an infinite number of shapes, of
figures and of hues.
There is an excellent trail leading from the
rim of the canyon to the muddy waters of the
raging Colorado. During two-thirds of the descent,
one is near the walls of the canyon and can
measure the depth of .each stratum of rock and
note the seams where the strata meet. About
thirteen hundred feet above the river a spring of
pure, cold water breaks forth and the geta
,tion about it has given the place the name of
the Indian gardens. The trail from this point
leads t)ver a sloping plateau to the edge of the
walls of the river where a descent of some six
hundred feet is made by a picturesque route down
the precipitous sides of a granite cliff.
There are "sermons in stones" and the stones
of this canyon preach many impressivo ones. They
not only testify to the omnipotence of the Creator
but they record the story of a stream which both
mouldsk and is moulded by, its environment. It
can not escape from the walls of its prison and
yet it has made its impress upon the gramtc as,
in obedience to tho law of gravitation, it has gono
dashing and foaming on its path to the sea.
How like a human life! Man, flung into exis
tence without his volition, bearing the race-mark
of his parents, carrying the impress of their lives
to the day of his death, hedged, .ibout by an en
vironment that shapes and moulds him before he
is old enough to plan or choose, how these cou
. strain and hem him in! And yet, he too, leaves
his mark upon all that he touches as ho travels
in obedience to his sense of duty, the path that
leads from the cradle to the grave. But here the
likeness ends. The Colorado, pure and clear in
the mountains, becomes a dark and muddy fined
before it reaches' the ocean, so contaminated is it
by the soil through which it passes; but man if
Eiralle(1 by a nable purpose .inspired by high
ideals, may purify, rather than . be I polluted by
VOLUME 4, NUMBER 38
Ilia -"surroundings, and by, resistance tn t ,
tion make the latter end of his life mnrnY pU
even than the beginning. more beadiul
The riyor also teaches a sublime lessen ,
imum;o au ua wuten ages lor it to do its I
and in that work every drop of water hii iork '
its part. It takes time for Individuals ov IrT
vl imiiviuuuis iu accomplish a great Work a
because time is required those who labor in k
half qf their fellows sometimes become dil !!"
aged. Nature teaches us. to labor and to ,
Viewed from day to day the progress o the nS
is imperceptible; viewed from year to y-ar it
can scarcely be noted, "but viewed by deides nr
centuries the upward trend is apparent, and everi
good work and word and thought contributes toward
the final result. As nothing is lost in the eccnmv
of nature, so nothing is lost in the social and
moral world. As the stream is composed of an
innumerable number of rivulets, each making its
little offering and each necessary to maku up tne
whole, so tho innumerable number of men and
women who recognize their duty to society and
their obligations to their follows arc contributes
according to their strength to the sum total of
the forces that make for righteousness and
progress.
Nevada vs Colorado
Nevada, and Colorado, the former, with a demo
cratic governor and the latter with a republican
governor, illustrate the difference between the
orderly working out of reforms through law and
the' violent and lawless methods employed by the
representatives of plutocracy. In Nevada John
Sparks, a democrat, is governor. While he is a
man of large means and interested in both mining
and agriculture, ho is in sympathy with the masses
and anxious to improve the condition of the la
boring men. The democratic and silver pa:tie3
adopted platforms favoring an eight-hour day.
They were successful, a fusion legislature passed
the eight-hour law, the democratic governor signed
the bill and the fusion supreme court declared the
law constitutional. AS a result Nevada has peace
and progress. In Coloradb the people demanded
an eight-hour law and the'Iaw was passed, but tho
supreme- court declared it unconstitutional. The
people then proposed and adopted a constitutional
amendment authorizing the enactment of an eight
hour law, but the republicans carried the state and
while Senator Teller was elected by one' majority
on joint ballot the corporate influence wa3 sliong
enough to prevent the passage of a law canying
out tho constitution as amended. As a result of
this disregard of the will of the people by the
corporations -Colorado is in a state bordering on
anarchy and the republican officials are the ones
who are ignoring the law. Peabodyism Is the
natural and legitimate outgrowth of that contempt
for the rights and interests of the masse which
is manifesting itself more and more among the
plutocrats. Governor Peabody is the willing ex
ponent of this element and' his administration is
giving tho people a foretaste of what can oe ex
pected if. organized wealth ever gets unquestioned
control of the nation and carries out its purpose
to employ the army for the subjugation ol the
wjige-earners.
Democratic Nevada and republican Colorado
present a striking contrast and make plain the
difference between the democratic and the repub
lican methods of healing with the labor question.
JJJ
Utilizing Han's Muscle
In The Commoner recently appeared an ar tide
written for tho Chicago Tribune, showing tie re
sult of some experiments made by Prof. At aiw
of Wesleyan University. The professor has wen
transforming man into electrical energy and ttmis
that he is' more perfect arid wastes less pow
than an., machine known, The experiments si b
gest a new use for muscle. If Edison will S"
43 a good storage battery we may yet see : nwi
lighting their houses by manual labor and 1 : u
labor can be performed on a stationary wcju
the boys may, for a little while until the noeu
wears off store light for-the family by tal;S,v
few turns at the wheels; The head of the jam ..
can fit up two bicycles and have his augntci
her beau take enough exorcise before ciai
furnish light for the parlor during the en
Now, if tho professor will- give us a pi on
transforming into fuel the energy oxponaeu
golf,' lawn tennis, football and baseball, wc
spon: bo independent-of. the:oil trust and tne
..trust. , . - - - .:.. u 4
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