The Newtown bee., 1904-06-17
GRAND CANYON OF
 ARIZONA. As Seen Through the Eyes of an Esteemed Newtown
 Gentleman,

--~ O W. = ~-A SO
 an Esteemed Newtown
 Gentleman,
 E. L. JOHNSON.
 One makes 8 mistake to suppose that the vast stretch of unbroken sol itude 65 miles in length, 5000 feet deep and from 12 to IS miles wide from rim to rim, is one clean channel like that cut through the rock below Niagara. It is one vast city so to speak, of disin- tegrated rock formation. Scholarly men are.b but children of larger growth and as they have gazed upon these great rock forma tions in the gorge many of them more than 1000 feet high, they have been given names, such as "Shiva's Temple" "Bishnus' Tem- pie, |" "Temple iof Isis, ," and the like. There is one peak in front of the hotel, practically inaccessible by the average tourist, named Mount Aver after Mrs Edward Aver. the first woman who ever descended into the canyon to the rivers edge. A Frenchman of culture and intelligence said to us: "I have travelled in Switzerland, the Andes, the Himalayas, and in Africa, and the Canyon is the greatest wonder in the known world" Robert B. Stanton, engineering in the Grand Canyon said: "lt is bewildering. The architecture so grand, so bold, so wild, and yet so grouped together with such symmetry, and over all, the outer and inner walls hung with so much grace, those parti- colored draperles in such varied tints, is yet in such blended harmony that none save He who first made and paint ed the lily and the rose could have been the artist or the architect. A morning in the presence of such awful grandeur is like standing on some new Mount of Transtig uration, where lan- guage fails and description. becomes 
 Probably no one thing has done so much tow ard opening up the Grand Canyon to Americans as the great painting that now hangs in the Nat ional Capitol at Washington. Before there was any way of approach to the place except by trail, Thomas Moran, the artist, came down from the north country, and after long and patient study, produced the celebrated paint ing for which he received from the United States Government the sum of SIG, ,OOO. Later, he produced it's com panion picture of the Yellowstone Canyon, for which our government paid a like sum, and that, too. is in the National Capitol. It was pleasant coincidence that we should have seen the ipainting in Washington on our outward trip, then see the Grand Can yon itself later, and also meet the great landscape artist there. We had many pleasant interviews on the train and at the hotel, which to us were very entertaining and instructive. He had just come down from the petrified forests that lie 15O miles to the east ward, where, he said he had been study ing to get the inspiration for paint ing of that, the second greatest won- der of our continent.
 Before saying adieu to the place that had held us spell bound for three days, I wanted to learn how such an unpre- tentious hotel should be called Bright Angel, and sweet story it is, which is given as related to us. From the opposite rim of the canyon, 13 miles across, is a trail that leads down among the rocks where little stream ofcrystal water oozes from the crevices and is called Bright Angel trail. As the story goes, 300 years ago, Fran ciscan Father, crossing the dreary desert plain on his mission among the Indians, reached the Canyons rim al- most famished with parching thirst. Just as he reached this trail ans1ndian maiden came up with bucket of water and gave him drink, which so much revived him he called her, what in our language means his "Bright Angel" :" which gave the trail it's name, and for which the hotel takes it's own.
 At9o'clock Friday morning, we took the train back 65 miles where we were to take the trans-continental train to Redlands. From Williams to Needles we wouid'go by daylight, what we went over by night on our way out, 200 miles through Arizona. What we had seen in and about Williams had prepared us for the dry river beds and parched ground we were to see through the day.
 Southern Arizona is called treeless and rainless desert, but it will not dc to condemn the whole country because of the heat of it's southern plains, fol it is not latitude so much as altitude that gives the change of temperature, and the altitude of the lower plateau of Arizona is 5000 feet or more below that of the northern plateau. All day we journey through region of coun' try, so arid, and so desolate as to in spire one with dread,so barren as tn ex' cite pity for all animal or bird life
 that tries to live upon it, so weird grotesque and wonderful in it's rock
 formations as to keep one watchful te see what would be coming next. As
 the day wore on the view was changed
 from one scene of desolation to another
 At one point our tourist conductor I