Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1903-06-19
sentences, aid it is the kind Of thing

sentences, aid it is the kind Of thing
American audiences are not used to
hearing from our politicians-nor much
nowadays from the pulpit. The ros.
trum mouth has come to be mostly a
Fourth-of-July anvil, designed to make
a patriotic noise, but not to hit any
thing; but this hunter Of big game uses
it rife-wise-to put a bullet to the
mark.
He lost no opportunity. for instance,
to rebuke the vandalism which is so
~depressingly common among us
whether in the form of philistine
neglect or Of pernicious activity and
70 say to American audiences a thing
they cannot hear too often. 1t is also
characteristic of the man that in the
presence OF the great wonders of ma.
ture he sees them rather than the
chance they give him to show off. With
aim there is none of that business of
very big Papa Perrichon and a very
small Mont Blanc At the Grand
canyon, instead of using that master.
piece OF the Almighty for a blackboard
on which to chalk his own smartness:
instead of being stirred to tell How
this makes Me feel; instead of soar
ing on the wings of a rhetorical OAR
JUS Green in an attempt to describe to
his audience what they had eyes to
see, and that which no man can begin
to touch with words, he showed his
awe and his feeling by not parading
them; and by the straight, sincere ap-
peal that is first to strike a thought
ful man. He said. Il want to ask
you to do one thing in your own in.
terest, and in the interest of the coun-
try. Leave the canyon as it is. You
cannot improve on it-not a bit. The
ages have been at work on it and man
a only mar it. What yoa can do is to
keep it for your children, and for your
children's children, and for all who
come after you, as n of the great
sights which every American, il he
can travel at all. should see. Keep
the Grand canyon as it is. Keep back
houses and buildings and every other
work of man from that awful brink.
| am glad to learn that the railroad IS
to build its new hotel back among the
trees. That is right. That is the way
to treat these wonders"
And in the presence of the Big
Trees of California, again, it was the
same thoughtful and manful man that
came TO the surface, m not the oro-
tund politician. Il desire to pay
tribute to those who are preserving
these wonderful trees. They
should not be married by placing cards
and names on them. The people who
do that should be sternly discouraged.
The cards give an air of ridicule to
the solemn dignity Of these giants.
These cards should be taken off. /
ask you to keep them eff the trees,
or any kind of signs that would mar
them. See that the trees are preserv-
ed, and that the gift from Nature is
kept unspoiled.'
These immemorial columns, some
of which were grown trees when
walked the earth were pocli-
marked according to a peculiar
American habit) with the innumer.
able cards and names Of visitors Of a
certain class. 1t is a pleasant little
episode to record that after the pres
speech. ana while he had gone
10 walk alone amid the titan grove. ,
the party tore down these records OF
silly vandalism, amid the applause Of
the crowd. But the vitality good thing
about 1t all IS that we have an I'M.
man, VINO, in the presence of
Natures wonders and in the presence
civil problems, is naturally stirred
not 10 art-leather oratory, but to the
straight, conmonsense word for which
the occasion calls.
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