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Show THE ANYOX SELDOM SEEN Most visitors to the Grand Canyon see it only from the rim; a small; ! proportion take the extra day to de-j scend to the river, and still fewer j the two days necessary to spend a j night in its depths. But it is neces- j sary to see the canyon from within if i one is to have even a superficial idea of it. The rim view is noble in the extreme; it is inspiring, to some, even terrifying; to all it affords an emotional experience whose memory remains for a lifetime. But, after all, it presents only one aspect of very many, for the great gulf offers sensations of infinite variety. For this reason there is probably no great place in the world seen b so many and known to so few. The supremacy of the Grand Canyon In the world's scenic gallery is universally univers-ally acknowledged. Not far from a hundred thousand persons visit it annually. The boundaries proposea for the national park which congress is now considering inclose a thousano square miles of a magnificence which phrase and photograph fail even to I suggest. The fact that so few who visit the Grand Canyon really see it grows oui of the public disposition to consider It a side trip of the transcontinetnal journey. People planning to spene weeks or months at the Pacific resorts re-sorts accept the popular misconception misconcep-tion that "the canyon can be done In a day or two" en route. Many leave it with some realization that thev have merely looked in through a crack in the fence, but, with prearranged prear-ranged reservations, they naturally hold to their programs; besides, they argue, nobody else stays more than a day or two, so, in spite of appearances, appear-ances, that must be all it is worth; besides, hotel, carriage, and trail accommodations ac-commodations are organized on the idea that the stay will be brief. Thus the greatest spectacle of its kind; and many think of any kind, in the whole world has become a side show to a western vacation. JThis colossal blunder naturally would cure itself in good time if the Grand Canyon could only be made as comfortable to live in as it is to stop in, and" if its innumerable details were made comfortably accessible. Many visitors eat breakfast on the train coming and spend the succeeding succeed-ing night on the train going; they have "seen" the Grand Canyon in between. be-tween. The excellent hotel, so charmingto live in, if people would only live in it, almost suggests the hurry of a crowded street, so rushed is it with the visitors of a single night. ' But, after all, there are two good reasons why the visiting public should not be charged with lack of appreciation. One is this general preconception that the Grand Canyon Can-yon is a. one or two days' spectacle. The other is that the private interests inter-ests which have built the trails ana otherwise planned the manner in which the public shall see it have adopted the same idea; it is natural that they should not invest more money in roads and trails than just enough to take care of the business that naturally offers. A man who, after hn has spent one day on that part of 'he rim which is developed and one day going to the bottom of the canyon, finds that further exploration ex-ploration involves expensive special equipment and special guides, and that the canyon floor is unprovided with good lateral trails or more than the one camp; in other words, who plans an undertaking which resembles resem-bles an expedition, must possess enthusiasm en-thusiasm and a pocketbook beyond the usual. Artists and leisurely travelers sometimes do this, but it is out of the question for the great body of busy Americans. Their turn will come when the Grand Canyon be comes a national park. It has inspired more literature and art than all the other scenic places of America combined. It is the center of a steadily increasing pilgrimage of painters. It perhaps may be said that the Grand Canyon and the region of which it is the climax inspire the highest as well as certainly the most extensive expression expres-sion of landscape art In America today. to-day. This canyon even "gets" the Government Govern-ment topographers and geologists who have studied it for years. Apparently Ap-parently in spite of themselves, these men to whom rocks and canyons are the grim business of life, often inter rupt their dry technical pages by brief hursts of enthusiasm not in- J spired in the least by science, but by the pure emotion of sublimity. ! a ' |