Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1900-05-20

FLAGSTAFF, Ari., April %
Strangers who collide with him cas-
ually, even most of his neighbors who
live al ear by as fifty or one hundred
miles and see him frequently, are
prone to say John Hance exaggerates.
This is because neither stranger nor
neighbor has ethical insight. AS a
plain matter of fact there does not live
q more outstanding mar than that same
nance. He would have pulled out
the lantern of Diogenes and sent that
dirty old pessimist back to his hobo
barrel incontinent at sight. When 1t
comes to a matter az between man and
man Hance IS utterly honest, hope
lessly truthful-and many a time this
has been to his cost most fully DEM
onstrated. No one has ever known
John Hance to do any other nan out
OF a dollar or to mislead anyone in any
serious matter.
/ met him in front of DR.. Brannan's
drug store Sunday morning and asked
him if he wouldn't go with me and
hear Father Oily preach.
NO." said he. Il oughta, but 1
can't. / gotta feed my bosses an l
oughta go to church. But the bosses
must be fed and I'm late"
He waited a moment thoughtfully
and added:
Il shore oughta go to church, be-
cause I'm OWN something thar. l
swore at a boss Yesterday, an | really
oughta make good, because I'm run
min a tab with heaven an l don't like
to lag behind in the game. But the
bosses won't wait, an | reckon heav-
EMIL have to. I'll do a double turn
next time l find things open an see
Il l can't ven up"
That indicates Johns character.
He owes nothing to anyone, nor would
he owe nor deceive. The wide differ
ence between his real nature and his
nature as understood at large is Who'll
ly referable to the scenery. Whatever
there is between the Alps and the
Rockies might be tumbled into the
Grand canyon of the Colorado and not
be noticed. The canyon has never
been destroyed nor pictured-nor will
it ever be. 1t is the one thing on
earth that transcends words, no mat
ter by whom welded. When you
come to it you have come to the edge
of the world; and there, before you,
solemn, in u~nspeakable and awful
withdrawal, away off on the farther
verge, stands out the gray edge of
another world, across an infinity of
mountain and chasm, streaked with
gigantic bands Of color, heaped and
serried in forms of colossal terror
and beauty, wreathed here and there
with drifts Of cloud, a play of light
ming maybe, so far away among the
peaks below you that the roar of the
thunder is lost to the ear. immensely
and silence
Hance Found a Trail.
1t won't do. Only a boy would try
to tell you anything about that place.
You might throw a Shakespeare and a
Thesaurus at it and never hit ny
thing. In the whole 230 miles of it's
length there are but five paths lead
ing from the rim of the river, and
three of these are about midway. One
of them was discovered and made nav
igable" (the word is his own by John
Hance. The next to the west is the
Cameron trail, Clipped out of the
mountain scarps with infinite labor by
Ralph Cameron and the three or four
others who with him had located the
Cameron mines on a great copper dyke
about $500 feet below the rim. The
next is the Bright Angel trail. l tried
it once and | think it well named. 1t
would call for an exceedingly bright
angel, well insured against moulting,
to travel that trail either way. The
distance between the rim and the river
by any of the trails is about seven
miles. Seven ~singularly devious miles,
with a shifting prospect of steep and
deep In every furlong. And that is
the sort OF scenery John Hance has
looked upon and lived in these thirty
five years last gone. He gets his liv-