The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-11-05

or rides after his cattle, the rivers voice
grows dim and small, but at night, when,
with his pipe in hand, he sits at the door
of his tent and the darkness rises from
the flood like an exhalation, then the river
: awakes, its roar grown louder, angrier,
| more tumultuous 1t comes at last to dom
mate the whole valley. II then appears the
| thing 1t really is-the power which has
hewn out this incomprehenslble chasm be-
| tween the mountainous cliffs.
The tourist sees the canon from the rim
or during one day on the trail, but John
sees 1t S65 days In the year. He sees 1t
when the grey clouds roof 1t in like some
prodigious dim temple. He sees 1t when the
tall peaks are white as marble and the up
per canons are filed with ice; when the
streams around him are quickened by
melting snow and the grass grows green
again through falling rain. He sees II in q
thousand varied harmonious effects Of
light and shade--in moonlight, In starlight,
in dawn light.
In the winter days, when there is moth
ing else to do land there could be moths
ing better TO do), John goes exploring the
mysterious presence. Driving his burro,
laden with a camping outfit, he strikes
out along the river. One winter he ex-
plores up--the next winter down. There
fore It is that he knows 1t and leaves it,
does not fear 1t. He knows that in the
InlQSL OF THESE ONeTdWiUk lUlIntuHlAlSb
there are grassy hooks where the ferns
grow and water falls with merry gurgle.
The canon has a thousand moods when
one comes to live within 1t. John has seen
them all.
He knows, too, the cliff dwellers' houses,
mere swallow nests in the unscalable
cliffs, and he muses. upon the antiquity Of
man, and most of all upon the antiquity
Of this river bed. lie speaks often of the
mighty dikes Of granite, through which
the river has chiseled its way, and asks:
WHO can tell how long 1t has taken to
drill through rock like that? Long enough
to make men Of no account on this earth
surely"
He has comes. naturally. to feel sort
of propretorship here. He recognized
the grim resolution of Powell IN going
through 1t when every bend In its river
was unknown and threatening, but he
knows that 1t can be traversed to-day
without much danger. Powell and Moran
had the cultivated faculty of letting the
world know Of their discoveries. Old John
has only the power of his tongue, which
is considerable, but does not reach the
great world.
There are those who laugh at his pecu-
liarities and see nothing more In him.
Others acknowledge him to be a powerful
and astonishing fictionist. Consciously ne
is a teller Of whopping lies. Unconscious
ly he is one OF the most dramatic and pic
turesque natural raconteurs / have ever
met His experience as a soldier, as a
guide on the plains, as a prospector. as a
hunter. furnish him with an enormous
fund OF actual adventure which he tells
with the power OF actor and hctionist
combined. provided he is not self-con-
sctous. II he is aware Of his wit he is
labored and artificial.
He is a Tennesseean, and his soft,
voice and accented military
verbs add quaintness and distinction to
his stories. His gift for telling phrases
is as great, in its way as that OF Whit
comb Riley. His profanity Is never COM
monplace. 1t blazes out like some UNI
usual fireworks and illumines his story
for yards around. 1t is not profanity; It