Show the old settler I 1 my dear san turners Tua ners at a certain place where two i canyons join there is a NN wondrously on d rous 1 genial solitude when I 1 saw it first from the cliffs above it beckoned me to come down and alid I 1 in in its peaceful hush I 1 caught a faint but very pleasant echo of something for which I 1 had been hunting a long time it was tile the month of may wild flowers bloomed all over the little valley and a chorus of birds h happy and unafraid sang from the trees and the rocks I 1 sat down on a little bank listening not only to catch the sound but to hark for the soothing harmony and if possible to bring my discordant self in accord an alluring undertone of music echoed from the hills vibrating into my senses till I 1 could think more clearly and discern what I 1 had at first failed to see and lo 10 I 1 was sitting on the crumbling walls of what had once been a human dwelling and just above it was a room like cavity opening into the sandstone sand stone ledge that empty chamber was a quiet place and the gentle breezes whispered past its wide doorway with a familiar suggestion of some i long lost home finding a seat in the back of this rude room I 1 gave myself eagerly to the all prevail ing tranquility I 1 hungered for for it I 1 reached for it and I 1 became aware that it gathered around me with a which crystallized iced into thoughts and a passion to frame it into words it did not i amount to a voice voice nor to anything supernatural yet it was so prevailing and impelling that it taxed my lumbering shorthand to keep uncertainly in its dust this is what I 1 gathered of it as it flashed by man alan is the most destructive i creature in all the earth he ravishes gods creations with impious defiance lie ile disrupts defiles destroys consumes and the unsightly scars of his wild exploits disfigure the earth for ages after he has succumbed to the poison of his own corruption the cantu i ries are busy trying to obliterate the marks of his vandalism the greater the metropolis the more lofty the mansion the more sorry and long lasting the ruin old babylon the head of gold P the beauty of the chaldean excellency left such a dismal blot on gods green earth that owls hooted there hyenas howled there and awful satyrs danced there in the nighttime night time for years without number before the festering sore could heal over and the peace of original creation could return man alan might build the city and nd rear the kingdom of peace if lie he would but his cities go mad with greed with lust with violence with dark abomination and the tle wanton prostitution of the hollest holiest holi esit endowments of his heri tace tape hi his S dwellings become dreadful with injustice and reeking to heaven with crime this little valley has been restored by the years to its wonted sanctity it has been washed by the storms fumigated by the howling ing winds disinfected dis infected by thedrie the driving I 1 rays of tile the sun till the stench land and corruption of human folly has been cleared away its dung 1 hills and trash heaps have been eaten up by the worms its dark chambers have been crushed crus lied 0 or r reflected that my own home hoim is is built on the old ruins of other I 1 homes that virtuous nature can t 0 not endure man mail and his ways for I 1 long at a time and I 1 wondered how long till tile the earth under my I 1 dwelling dwelling place would cry for rest and have me and my f fellows removed ALBERT R LYMAN |