The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1907-10-26


n the first European family the Continent
- vasquez DAYTON, prGpositus of the long
line, had entered the new land in the wake
of Coronado Unlike his great captain once in he
stayed for he had married native woman daugh
ter of an Arizona Cacique and had settled down in
the country he had helped to discover and explore
settlers had after a while and, in the long
of history, the "Dylons'-for the name had
finally got itself abbreviated-had nermarried with
the various racial strains which congomerate to make
the American of today.
The characteristics of the original Spanish FREEDOM
mated in the twentieth century exponent OF the
race for Dylon short in stature, vigorous in
son and graceful in bearing, while swarthy OF face,
dark and brilliant CT eye and black Of hair He
still Spanish in appearance but in disposition ex
hbed alertness foreign TO the inhabitants of the
Iberian peninsula. Perhaps this was due 10 some
Celtic the genealogical lines possibly derived
from the forgotten daughter Of the forgotten chief
the red Eve of the composite
BY profession Dylon artist. The remains
of the once extensive patrimony of his family which
had at 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 appca
ton OF his genius. His had been from Paris
to the deserts and thence to New York. Behold
him in his atelier the top floor with the necessary
skylight, of a broken-down New York dwelling that
had better days before it became the resort Of
the exclusively Bohemian The two of the
suite were in that delightful disorder which usually
marks the outward and physical sign of an inward
and spiritual quality to things they
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 end of his resources financial that is but he
optimistic and cheerful There were signs of clear
ing on the horizon. Several of his pictures had been
exhibited and had attracted attention Possibly buy
ers were 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 fan add loving touches. 1t
was large worthy of great subject. The
room was filled with pictures that glowed with the
light and color of the desert or in which the spirit
of the pines the romance of the deep and mighty
cahons was caught with fidelity and a charm that
told of keen appreciation coupled with not little
skill But there picture in the room quite like
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 CHANGED upon the dry bed of ancient rivulet
early one winter morning. In the bright sunlight he
had followed 1t through its many wdenings and
deepenngs until miles away it debouched upon a
deep silent, canon. It's sides were deeply furrowed
and grooved by torrents of past and to the lofty
walls chung here and there clumps of pines.
Far UP side, his keen vision marked evil
dencas of human handwork in the shape of tiny walls
whose gaping windows and Enclosed doorways be-
spoke habitations empty peoples gone, races past.
He had before felt attracted to place as
that morning. The desire for nearer inspection
possessed him. He sought eagerly to bring it about
Meanderng up the walls of the cliff he discerned at
last narrow, broken Remembered trail, probably
untrodden by human feet for who knows how many
centuries. At peril of his life he crept along the
di1vv lodg mil wit
ing hands, he stood upon broader though still
row way that led along the preciptous face to the
little houses Of the clifdwellers.
Time and change through untold years had done
their work. Perhaps nomadic and savage hands had
assisted The hut walls were broken, the gaping
cavehouses empty
With a strange sense that the experience 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 town, beneath a clump
of shrubs that hid it from all but careful scrutiny
like that he gave, he found 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 the keeper of the place, small but
fully developed skeleton lying across the entrance.
There hideous break in the skull, caused evil
IDENTIFY by the blow of some blunt and jagged instru-
ment Save for this grim guardian Of the threshold
and small oddshaped pot OF common clay, curlousy
marked by parallel ridges, maybe thumb-nan I'M
pressions. perhaps the imprint of straw matrix
from which it had been moulded. the place empty.
He brought the pot away with him, and when he
reached the solid ground again he made the sketches
which had enabled him to reproduce the the
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 voiceess recordless past.
There. too the table by his side stood the cliff
dwelers pot. With the picture and other thing
it occupied the chief place among his Lares and
Pendtes The other object vase similar
shape although of greater size latest product the
finest pottery of the Continent 1t was decorated
with the sleepy flowers of the wild poppy and ex-
hibted under the vellumlike glaze the soft brown
colors of the monotone of the land he loved.
This modern exactly the shane of his
treasure-trove that he had seriously depleted his