Arizona republican., 1899-06-29
AS MISS MONROE SAW
The Grand Canyon Done by a Late
 Resident of Dhoenix.

Miss Harriet Monroe, the noted newspaper woman and writer of New
 York, who was q resident of Phoenix
 last winter. has just written to the
 Chicago Times-HeraId. a description
 of the Grand canyon. After leaving | Phoenix she went directly to the can
 yon Like all writers of good iudg-
 ment she realized her inability to de scribe the cany0m so that those who
 had never seen il could understand.
 Having never seen anything like it | there could naturally be Eothing in
 comror between the writer and reader | but words and words are lost in that mighty abyss. But having brought her readers up to the rim of the can yOn by a most interesting route Miss Monroe thus proceeds to tell them
 what effect the mighty scene had on
 her and she does it so skiIIfulIv that they almost imagine they can see it themselves:
 T am dumb and breathless at the rim of t+le chasm TOW. as I was when l stood there in the flesh No one can describe il to the uHinitiated. because there is no standard in their minds to gauge 1t by. The spIendor and vast ness of it bears no relation to any possible mountain forms. for the req sen that n2ountains were thrown up molten and shapeleSs out of the earth. whereas these rocky immenSit;es were blamed and grouped by an architect cut and carved with miraculous re@u- Idrity |" accordance with h,s divine idea. and then clothed with colcrs which surely may not he achieved
 
 have stood on mountain tops and looked across d.s;arces greater than any between the rims of this abyss. but none of these gave me this thrill l ling sense of grandeur appalling and unear,llY, Of SUpern1l and Impossible l beauty. And the utter reStfulress of i the TiIce makes it eternal 10 .he sense. Here fS no motion except the ! motion of light and shadow. no life but i the life of tine spirit. This must Ee inc place of departed souls. for here all things endure.
 ''AS one clin%s 10 q rock at the edge i of the abyss the river iS visible only i as ore or two tiny silver curves at ihe | :; ;9lrerflike river. which long ago cut l its oceanic way through all the strata ! Of rock even to the earliest granite t mass. The strata lie absolutely level ! here: thus the fOaming waters were able tO leave great monuments aS they carved their way al0ng-this temple i Of NiShnu." for example. whose gran GiOSe architecture SurmOuntS miEgnifi- cent rectangular terraces which slOre . lOftily upward from the deDths: this fortress beside it. and the mighty pyramids beyond: this strangely Gp;ihic cathedral. with its buttressaS and towers. And all these wonderful CdificeS must have been built for gods. since they are inaccessible to man ard beast. The most daring foot could never mount these precipitOus ter races-even the venturesOlne noun tain sheep finds DO pathway here One would reed 10 have wings or be divested of the flesh to enter those mighty temples and break the hush of ages"
 Th-s of course does net describe the canyon, but it is one of The best things. perhaps the very best thing. that jhIS ever been written arout it. That k not so wonderful. as the can vOU. for Miss Monroe k probably the foremost of women newspaper writers. She is the author of the famous Co ! umhian Ode. for the premature Dubli- cation of which the New York World raid her S3,G20 after q stubborn law SlIit She is about twenty-eight years Df age and q nest Interesting and at Tacfive person.