The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-07-02
The ARIZONA PIONEER.

Every traveller who goes to the Grand
Canyon of Arizona, hears of Capt John
Hance, the famous old pioneer and
yarn-spinner; and those who are fortu-
nate meet him and hear some of his
yarns. The Captain has a genius for
the making and telling of tales as tall
as the canyon-tales which are frank
and glorius lies, like most of the
worlds treasures of romance and which
Arizona will cherish, perhaps, just as
Greece cherished the grand Eloquent
legends of the Trojan war.
But now and then the captain has
serious mood, and INDUCES in it by tell
ing a true story more interesting than
his lies. One of these moods took pos
session of him as we sat on the edge
of cliff and looked down into the pur
pie mazes of that untenanted City Won
derful, through whose silent depths the
hidden Colorado flows.
~ Last winter" said the captain, in
Ms inimitable quiet drawl, me and my
: Hrdner started down into the canyon
- " do some prospectin'. We separated,
~ usual. an took our stuff to different
amps, agreein' to meet three weeks
from that day at the top an go to Flag
staff together on business. Well, 1 took
a look at my asbestos mine an a few
other holes in the rocks. an pounded
away at new places without hndin
much, an finally crawled up on the
twenty-hrst day to meet Jake Well,
he didn't come. Fur six days L knocked
aroun my old camp there an still he
didn't come. BY that time l knew there
was trouble, fur Jake was the exactest
man that ever clumb these rocks. SdA.
1 didn't want to think he was dead. so
went into Flagstaff an asked whether
he'd been seen there, or at Williams or
the Bright Angel, or Bass. or anywhere
along the road. Not a word of him
could l hear. so L came back to this
here big ole ditch to find him"
l smiled at Capt. Johns irreverent
title for the great canyon which he
had loved as his home for thirty years.
You came alone? ?" l asked.
Course" he answered; who could
help me? 1 knew just about where
he'd be. made a bee line fur the piece
o. country where he started to look fur
mineral and in less n three days [
found his camp There it all was-his
pot O. beans all dried UP on the ashes
of his fire where he'd left EN- to cook,
his pile o. canned things an dried up
biscuits, an flour, an bacon, his blan-
ket rolled up fur the day-everythin'
hxed up jus as he'd left EN- in the
mornin'.
''Wen, I searched through everythin'
an finely found his diary-we allus
keep diary, you know, when we go
off prospectin SOS not to lose count o.
the days. The last entry was Jan. l6,
ten days after we parted. Digging
three miles below mere. II Salu, JUST
above the granite-no finds yet
$50 / knew I would find him down
the river about thee miles an twelve
hundred feet or so up from it. An O.
, course / knew the kind o. country
where he'd be likely to look fur min
eral. Sure enough the mex day ! came
N scrost him, lynn cluttered up with a
~ O loose rock. There he lay with a
tJyoken hip, his face up an his dead
a eyes glarin' at the sky. An there he
had died alone. after sufferin an
starvin, probably. fur days an nights
"It was plain day how it all happen
ed. He had been poundin' into ledge o
rock about 30 feet above. an sOmethin' hac
slipped, an down he had come with chs
stones atop O. him. / reckon Il was kim
O. hard to wait there til death got ready
to come.
''WeH. I laid him oei straight an lie
cent on the rocks wrapped him in s
blanket an piled the Stone IS over him fur
Rrave-fur there wnsl earth enOugs
aroun' there to bury p parraw in. Ther
rolled a big rock 90 his head an marked
II with his name an the day he died an
wrote 'GOod-hy Jake on it. An so I left
him. An if twas me. 10 rather stay righ
there. but his relations are bound to carry
him up IN have a QrOpcr funeral in Flag
staff. TIN be hard JOB, but II they wan
II. it's got to be done"
"How can they want it, I exclaimed
wondering what filter resting place the.
could find for the lonely prcsDector than
this grave of stones on the spot where h'
fell, in the most beautiful wilderness eve
conceived by the mind of God. How ster1
must have seemed his fate to Kim as h.
lay there through the silent hours, with III
torrent below ana the heights above him
beyond the reach of a friendly hand O.
voice waiting in pain and solitude TO
the inevitable death!-Harriet Monroe il
New York Journal.