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Show MILLIONS SPENT SIGHT-SEEING. Ever since the iron horse displaced the pony express in transportation over ;thc plains, mountains moun-tains and valleys of what was once calleel the Far West, travelers from the east to the Pacific coast have lingered a day or. more in this City of the Saints. Scmo remained' uneler the spell that a mountain to look at the first thing in the morning anel a peerless twilight over the inland sea the last thing at night, were two elements of happiness in life that could be had without asking. If one could make a living and build a home in such .an ideal place, where was the sense in-going farther? Thus it happened that Salt Lake City grew from a town of 25,000 to a city numbering three times that many people: from a town of one-story shops and adobe houses to a city of modern stores anel elegant anel costly residences. And while it still renects its historical associations as the center of Monnonism, and will ever be an object to the tourist tour-ist by reason of such external facts, independent of these Utah presents a composite scenery found nowhere on the other side of the globe. If one could imagine a mail-clad warrior of the Crusades to rise from a sleep dike Irving's "Rip Van Winkle," and, rubbing his eyes, cast his gaze ivcr the dead sea in the Utah desert, what would -be? the first exclamation to fall from his lips? His yes would light upon Mount Olivet and the River Jordan, and so close would be tho resemblance to the environments of Palestine that his greatest ii i ..1 ... i : :.......J -. o Conner wouiei ne to imu tin rvuicucnn nuicuu vi Moslem, the ploughshare instead cf the sw7ord, and l language spoken which- proclaimed Olirist the Son of the Living God. Pictures of Palestine and pictures of tho Salt Lake valley bear such close resemblance topographically that no person interested inter-ested in Bible history could fail to be interested md make a note of it in his diary of travel. So soon as the tourist leaves the plains of the Missouri and the Platte, his eye grown weary with the flatness of prairie and the sameness of fields of growing corn and nothing but corn, then comes the exhilaration of ascending upward through canyons, turning to the right to view the phantastie shapes volcr.nic nature spread out, and to the left a loveliness love-liness of cascade and"tunniltous mountain torrent. Over iu the distance a silvery lake formed by a natural bowl in the mountain anel around it two sccjre or more of American cottages with enough of the Swiss in their shape' to make your dream of the Alps a reality. These are the places where our wealthy and sensible. western people spend their summers, instead of pouring it out on foreign pleasure pleas-ure trips. These are not all that-an American can sec in his own country, for there is more of the curiou9 in nature here than he can find abroad anywhere., Yellowstone park with its geysers, the matchless Yoscmite, The Dalles of Oregon, the enchanting . beauty"1 of ' Colorado hills anel canyons, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming all presenting miles and miles of delight to' the aesthetic vision. Even the elesert is not without interest. Down in southern Utah are tliiiQ -naftlrtd bridges recently discovered, each grander "'in -proportion .than that which Virginia loVtg claimed cs or.e of the tcven wonders of the world. In thus briefly calling attention to-the matchless match-less wonders to be seen in this western country, the object of The Intermountain Catholic is to erlucate the rich of the cast to a greater appreciation of America for Americans, to discount the ravings over the "beauty of the Trossachs." the "glory of the Rhine," the "magnificence of tin Alps." Such have never scon and have but small cone'eption of the grandeur of the Rocky mountains or the .-plen-etor of the Columbia river. A conservative estimate made by reliable authorities au-thorities places the amount of money expended in foreign countries during the season of 1904-05 by American sight-seers at.$R000,000. This great, sum was paid in large part by men and woriion in search of health, pleasure or recreation, who, though native of the 'nited States, were in comparative com-parative ignorance of the scenic, climatic and in-elustrial in-elustrial advantages of that portion of our country coun-try lying west of the Mississippi river. The Commercial Com-mercial club of Salt Lake City has undertaken the work of awakeniug interest in this subject among the .business men of the western part of the United States and of the republic of Mexico. Arrangements Arrange-ments are now being perfected for a conference ef the governors of the states and territories affected, together with representatives of the chief commercial commer-cial organizations of the west and of the railroads operating in the interested section. The circular of the Commercial club appears on another part of this page. vviiriuL-iaiii,i jn.n-- intiii IlUli Ul IOC IniglUS (I Columbus and their frieneU passed through this city last summer to attend the convocation of the oreler at Los AngoJes. Xearly all of them expressed their wonder anel delight in ravishing terms. It was a lesson in eelueational travel worth ten timers the value of the money these tourists spent. Many of them could not conceal their wonder over the evidences evi-dences of Catholic wealth and philanthropy in a land where they expected to find naught but the shanty mission church. This was the general impression im-pression of L'tah. The stories these Knights told on their return has produced a kindlier feeling for Utah in the east. It is already visible in the additions to our church congregations. The writer is certain that no heartier promoters of the Commercial club propaganda propa-ganda can be found in the east than those Knights of Columbus who were the guests of their brethren in Salt Lake last summer. |