Los Angeles herald., 1907-11-03

the first European family on the Continent
~ Vasquez D'Ayon, prGpositus Of the long
line had entered the land in the wake
Of Coronado Unlike his great captain in he had
stayed, for he had married a native woman daugn-
ter of an Arizona Cacique and had settled down In
the country he had helped to discover and explore.
Other settlers had come after while and, in the long
course Of history the 'Dylons'-for so the name had
finally got itself abbreviated-had intermarried with
the various racial strains which congomerate to make
the American of to-day
The characteristics of the original Spanish predom
mated in the twentieth century exponent OF the
race, for Dyon short in stature, vigorous in per-
and graceful in bearing while swarthy Of face
( dark and brilliant of eye and black Of hair. He
still Spanish in appearance but in disposition ex
hblted aertness foreign to the inhabitants OF the
Iberian peninsula. Perhaps this due to some
Celtic cross in the genealogical lines possibly derived
from the forgotten daughter OF the forgotten cnleI
the red Eve of the composite race.
By profession Dylon was artist. The remains
of the once extensive patrimo1y of his family which
had at last vanished after three centuries and half
of careless usage, had enabled him to cultivate
natural talent with the brush. The high tabelands
of Arizona his birthplace, had furnished him with
local color for there he had made the first appica-
tion of his genius. His course had been from Paris
to the deserts and thence to New York. Behold
him in his ateler the top floor, with the necessary
skylight of broken-down New York dwelling that
had seen better days before it became the resort OF
the exclusively Bohemian. The two rooms of the
suite were in that delightful disorder which usually
marks the outward and physical sign of an inward
and spiritual quality to see things as they are.
Dylon had been in New York about half year, and
Fortune had not yet deigned to manifest herself to
him in any very tangible shape. He was almost at
the of his resources financial that is but he was
optimistic and cheerful. There were signs OF clear
"A, 1t ~, haIh haara
exhibited and had attracted attention Possibly buy
ers we're not beyond range of chance, and with the
opening of the winter season he felt encouraged to
hang on.
The chief product of his brush stood easel be-
fore him. He had completed it long since, but in
certain moods he would fain add loving touches. 1t
was a large canvas worthy of great subject The
room was filled with pictures that gowed with the
light and color of the desert or in which the spirit
of the pines the romance of the deep and mighty
canons was caught with a fidelity and charm that
told of keen appreciation coupled with not little
skill But there picture in the room quite ike
the one he loved.
How well he remembered the day in which the
scene he had striven to reproduce had first burst
upon his astonished vision. From his camp In the
highlands among the great silent, towering pines, he
had chanced upon the dry bed Of an ancient rivulet
early one winter morning In the bright sunlight he
had followed 1t through its many widenings and
deepenings until miles away it debouched upon
Deep silent, canon Its sides deeply furrowed
and grooved by torrents of ages past and to the lofty
: walls clung here and there clumps of pines
Far up on one side, his keen vision marked evil
dences of human handiwork in the shape of tiny walls
whose gaping windows and Enclosed doorways be-
spoke habitations empty, peoples gone races past.
He had never before felt SO attracted to place as
on that morning. The desire for nearer inspection
possessed him. He sought eagerly to bring 1t about
Meandering up the walls of the cliff he discerned at
last narrow, broken rockencumbered trai probably
untrodden by human feet for who knows how many
centuries At peril of his life he crept along the
dizzy lodges until with tattered clothing and bleed
ing hands he stood upon broader though still mar
row way that led along the precipitous face to the
little houses of the cliffdwellers.
Time and change through untold years had done
their work Perhaps nomadic and savage hands had
assisted The hut walls were broken, the gaping
cave-houses empty.
With strange sense that the experience was not
a new one, he traversed the Jagged, seamy street.
keeping toward the houses and away from the ledge
that overhung the vast depth of the canon. At the
upper end of the village, or town, beneath clump
Of shrubs that hid it from all but careful scrutiny
like that he gave he found one dwelling practically
intact.
Clearing away the underbrush and squeezing
through the narrow door, which he would have been
unable to enter had he been of larger build he
stumbled over the keeper Of the place, small but
fully developed skeleton lying the entrance
There was hideous break in the skull. caused evil
IDENTIFY by the blow oNsome blunt and jagged instru
ment Save for this grim guardian of the threshold
and small oddshaped pot Of common clay, curiously
marked by parallel ridges, maybe thumb-nail i'm
pressions perhaps the imprint of some straw matrix
from which it had been moulded the place empty.
He brought the pot away with him. and when he
reachedVthe solid ground again he made the sketches
which had enabled him to reproduce the scene the
canvas before him. There it stood in all its yellow
brown stiffness The deep blue of the sky overhead
accentuated the dull monotones, fit colors in which
TO define the silent voiceless, recordless past.
There too, the table by his side stood the cliff
- the nil md oth