The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1909-11-16
DEAN HARRIS HELPFUL BOOK.

L
ord of his journeys through the regions
from the Petrified Forest to the tip of
the southern California peninsula, with
a most appreciative comment on the
work of the priests who devoted their
lives so unselfshly-and, in the main,
so successfully-to the betterment of
the human beings found in that wide
region.
The book is going to become invalu-
able. 1t groups in astOnishingly small
compass much of the most necessary
data touching both the history and the
ethnology of the big southwest. And
its message is stated in the most beau
tiful of language, wherever word paint
ing can properly be used.
There is a pretty clear study of the
Yaquis, those untamable Indians of
Mexico; and a curious fact is recorded
by Dean Harris, to the effect:
OF the Indians warning against a civ
ilized and white nation, One-third are
whites, one-half half castles, and many
of the rest carry white blood in their
veins On the other hand, the civilized
troops who now, and for the past fifty
years, have been waging war on the
Yaquis, following them to their haunts,
hunting them in the Businesses of their
mountains, are all Indians and half
breeds.
We said there were some examples of
worthy word painting. Here is just a
suggestion, taken from a description of
o.,.o,, EoIgfov,,io
Three miles to the westward were the
cones of the Sierras. thrown up and
distorted by refraction into airy, fan
tastic shapes which, at times, altered
their outlines like unto a series of dis
solving views. Above them ALL high in
the air, rose the Pico de Navajas, now
yelled in a drifting cloud of fleecy
wiiteness, but soon 10 come out and
stand clear-cut against a sapphire sky.
You viii want the rest of the picture
and it will we'll repay the entire read
ing. A little farther on
The measuring capacity Of the mind
is unequal to the demands of such mag
nitude, for there is here no standard
adjustable to the mind. PeTspectives
are elusive, distances are deceptive; for
yonder cliff changes its color, shape
density approach it.
In the afternoon we entered the mesa
or tableland where. i'm a huge basin,
reposes La Arroyo de las Iglesias''-
the vale of the churches. 1t is a laby-
rinth of architectural forms, endless in
varied design, and at times painted in
every color known to the palette, in
pure, transparent tones of marvellous
delicacy-a shifting diOrama of cOlors-
advancing into crystalline cIearness or
disappearing behind slumberous haze.
Which reveals an appreciation of the
marvels and beauty of that region of
which Mr.. Culmer has spoken with his
brush and coloTs. A little farther on
Dean Harris gives a picture of perhaps
the quaintest town in the world. Here
is a fragment:
The picturesque and ancient town of
Urique was founded the year Cham
plain first sailed the St. Lawrence river,
and eight years before the Pilgrim Fa-
theirs landed on Plymouth Rock
Urique has never known wagon, cart,
carriage or bicycle. Its archaic popu-
lation of three thousand souls. mostly
Indians and Mexican half-castes, has
lew waits anu lib dlllD1tlDH lDI WHAT we
call the higher life. If the wise man
seeks but contentment, peace and hap
piness in this world, these primitive
people are wiser in their generation
than are we.
The dean doesn't especially like GER
tain portions of the southern California
peninsula. Indeed, he says of it:
If there be upon the earth country
lying under the Isaiahan malediction.
il is here; for here is the realization and
accomplishment of the dread prophecy
portending the blight of vegetable life.
Il will lay it waste. and it shall not be
pruned or digged, but there shall come
up briars and thorns. / will also COM
mand the clouds that they rain no rain
upon IT,"
Never have the Jesuit fathers found
more kindly chronicler than Dean
Harris. Much of the book-but not too
much-is devoted to a record of their
work, and the authors comments upon
il. In one place he very beautifully
says:
From their monasteries came men
whose names are beads of gold. worthy
to be filed on the Rosary of Fame.
And-just to show that he is more
than an ecclesiastic and a panegyrist,
Dean Harris inspects the petrihed for
ests of Arizona; and here is a fragment
of his comment on that marvel of
marvellous region:
The ancient builders selected siiieified
logs of uniform size for their dwellings.
and with adobe and precious chips of
chalcedOny, chiuked the valuable tim
bers. Never did prince or millionaire
choose more valuable, more beautiful
or more imperishable material for even
a single room of his palace; than the
trunks of these trees which stood erect
ages before the first man saw the set
ting sun.
by Path and Trail is worth having
in the library. iii the hand. It is more
than a dissertation on the aboriginal
races, more than the report of a priests
travel, more than description of mar
vels, beside which the things seen by
Marco Polo are commonplace. It is all
of these-and more. For it is the fair
statement Of big-bodied. big-souled
man. whose whole life is a benediction.
THE RAILWAY RECORD.
Some canal HE Oanffar,or, a.o,.o