The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1912-05-12

pre-eminent, and the Apaches. who.
man for man. have been probably the
most successful warriors in history.
| All these. and a great deal more,
| make the Southwest wonderland
without parallel. There are ruins as
striking as the storied ones along the
! Rhine, and far more remarkable
! There are peoples as picturesque as
any in the Orient, and as romantic as
tho AZtecs and the Incas of whom We
have learned such gllded fables, and
! there are natural wonders which have
! no peers whatever.
OF the Canyon and Other Wonders.
! AT the head of the list stands the
| Grand Canyon OF the Colorado; whe-
Their 1t is the greatest wonder of the
world depends q little on our defini-
| ton OF wonder" Possibly II is no
more wonderful than the fact that SO
| tiny fraction OF the people who con-
TESS themselves the smartest In the
world have ever seen II. AS a people
we dodder abroad to see scenery in
| comparably inferior
But beyond preadventure, it is the
greatest chasm in the world, and the
most superb. Enough globe trotters
have seen 1t to establish that fact.
Many have come cynlcally prepared TO
be disappointed; to find it overdrawn
| and really not stupendous as some
thing else. 1t IL, after all. a hard test
that so be-bragGcd a wonder must en-
durc under the critical scrutiny of
them that have seen the earth and the
fullness thereof. But L never knew the
most self-satisfied veteran traveller to
be disappointed in the Grand Canyon, or
to patronize it. On the contrary. this
is the very class of men who can best
| comprehend 1t, and I have seen them
| fairly break down in It's awful pres
| ence.
L do not know the Himalays except
| by photograph, and the testimony of
men who have explored and climbed
them. and who found the Grand Can
yon an absolutely new experience.
! But 1 know the American continents
pretty Well, and have tramped their
mountains. including the Andcs-the
next highest mountains in the world,
after half dozen of the lIimalayas-
and OF all the famous quebradas of
the Andes there Is not one that would
/ count per cent. on the Grand Canyon
of the Colorado. For all their $4,000
foot peaks. their blue-white glaciers,
imminent above the bald plateau, and
green little bolsones ("pocket vaiIeys')
! of Chile. Peru, Bolivia and ECUADOR.
for all their tremendous active vol
! canoes. like Saugay and Cotopaxl; for
all an earthquake activity beside which
4
, paper-doli play; for all the steepest
gradients In the world (and Peru IS
/ the only place in the world where a
/ river falls 1900 feet in 100 miles,
In all that marvellous 3,000-mile pro-
ccssion OF giantism there is not one
conyon which any sane person would
! for an instant compare with that titanic
cash that the Colorado has chiseled
through a comparatively nat upland.
! Nor is there anything remotely APP
| preaching 1t in all the New World. So
much l can say at first hand. AS for
| the Old World. the explorer who shall
| find q gorge there one-half rs great
Will win undying fame.
/ The quebrada OF the Apu Rimac is n
marvel of the Andes, with its vcrtig-
nous depths and its suspension bridge
! OF wild vines. The Grand Canyon of
the Arkansas, In Colorado, Is {, noble
/ little slit In the mountains. The Fran
COMA and White Mountain notches in
/ New Hampshire are beautiful. The Yose-
mite and the Yellowstone canyons sur
| pass the world, each in Its way. But IL
I all OF these were hung UP on the op-
I posite wall of the Grand Canyon from
you. the chances are fifty to one that
/ you could not tell t'other rom which.
nor any of them from the hundreds OF
other canyons which rib that vast
! vertebrate gorge II the falls OF
+, Niagara were installed in the Grand
I Canyon between your visits and you
/ know 1t by the newspapcrs--neXt time
4 YOU stood on that dizzy rimrock you
would probably need good field glasses
and much patience before you could
u looks pretty big. If Mount Washing