The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-04-24
THE GRAND CANYON OF ARIZONA AS SEEN
BY A KANSAS NEWSPAPER WRITER
FLORENCE TOMBSTONE

''Whatever else you do" said the
Big Boss, SEE he, don't describe seem
cry"
write Literchoor."
But if you want the literature of the
Grand Canyon of Arizona you can find
It in plenty. The Santa Fe puollsnes
pamphlets and brochures galore with
ali the necessary information for tour
lists about this, its biggest scenic at
traction, and a more pretentious vol
ume containing impressions or the
Canyon by we'll known writers: I. a.
Higgins, Charles F. Lummis, Joaquin
Miller, William Allen White, Hamlin
Garland, Charles S. Gleed. Harriet
Monroe, John l.. Stoddard, Charles
Dudley Warner and many others. Inc
book is we'll worth while-a collection
of word pictures, recording the emo
lions of the writers in the presence OF
this stupendous masterpiece of Ma
ture, which the greatest uaveilers
have pronounced the wonder OF the
world. 1t is the poetry OF the can
yon, and there are other pubncatlohs
which deal exhaustively with the sub
ject historically, geologically and
ethnologically
When YOU have read what the scien-
lists and Literati have said about the
CANYON, turn for relaxation and
mental sedative, to the Visitors BOOK
at Ell Tovar. the Harvey hotel on the
brink of the Granite gorge. Some
body has named it the Bromide BOOK
and it is the only humorous treatlse
on the Canyon that 1 know OF, al
though it's humor is entirely uncon-
scious The complaint has been made
that descriptions of the canyon are
written over the heads OF the common
people, that they appeal only TO the
illuminate. But the Bromide BOOK Is
of the people. for the people and by
the people. 1t abounds in the faml-
liar platitudes, it is the sublimlZatlon
of the obvious, the climax or the
commonplace ao-
bored or impatient with the Canyon
stuff written by the High Brows, but
the Bromide Book will never start
yawn The members OF the ladles
literary clubs who have eVlcently peeh
it's principal contributors, bulloeo PEI
ter than they knew in their consclen-
tious and painstaking attempts to write
something Real Literary about the
Canyon, for the Visitors BOOK at FL
Tovar Their trite and carefully stud
led ''impressions" remain the most
,,nioue and Interesting of -commentar-
les. not on the Canyon itself, but on
some of the people who go 10 see IT,
The Bromide Book furnishes a
wholesome, if unintentlonal. reneI
from the serious attempts OF the poets
Of the Canyon to realize in words the
ineffabIe and indescribable. Most OF
what one reads about the Canyon
leads one to believe that there one
does nothing but stare ana Wonder
until the senses reel and reason tot
ters. If this has been your idea, and
Won have imagined only vast mys-
terry of beauty and silence in the pres
ence of which strong men weep ana
which produces on the spectator the
invariable effect of a sort OF religious
ecstasy. read the Bromide Book and
come hack to earth The Grand Can
Won is undoubtedly the greatest seen
10 marvel on this or any other con-
tinent; after 1t Niagara Is playthlhs
and the Alps and Himalayas are pow
erless to astound. But Wnen = haI t,,
al wonder is commerctallzed II is nu-
manized. The Canyon, until rev
years ago, when the Santa te mace
il accessible for the average TOURIST
by building a branch from the man
line at williams to the head of Bright
Angel trail, was reached only py d
Formidable stage journey and compar-
atively few people had seen 1t. Ihese
were principally writer's and explorer
who celebrated it's unearthly side the
difficulties which 1t opposes TO the
Imagination and the senses and the
emotional effects produced by It's APP
Mailing proportions and SURPRISING
beauty But the Santa Fe train ana
hotel service have put it in easy reacn
of the traveller and the unhonored
and unsung authors of the Bromide
Book have, all unwittingly, epitomiz-
ed it's human interest story as the
modern tourist knows it.
Even If 1 had not had express or
ders to the contrary, 1 think shoulo
not have been tempted to describe
the beauties of the Canyon. Far be
il from me to enter into competition
with the Bromide Book. to which, II
YOU care for Fine Writin. 1 commend
you. Anyway. people are even more
Interesting than places. and of all the
visible forms of nature, humanity is
the most absorbing study. At the
Grand Canyon as at every famous re-
sort, one finds all sorts and conditions
OF people. II is q great place for the
human headliners. Following your