Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1915-11-03
IT'S GODS MASTERPIECE
DR.. PORTER THUS ALLUDES TO
THE GRAND CANYON
Il Was Never in Such a Place I
Never Will Find Such
Place Again"

Writing the CENSOR from the Grand
Canyon of the Colorado, dating his
communication in Arizona, October 20,
is DR.. Porter's letter with the above quo
tation. Then proceeds; IL arose at
four this morning and came from Will
liams on the Santa Fe road ga miles up
here. Ii costs S7 so the round trip, but
had nv money back in five minutes.
am 1000 feet above the sea, and look
ing down a mile or more. There is a
trail down there and three or four houses
and tourists are riding mules. The
houses are tiny white specks; the mules
look like big ants twenty feet away
would look. The guard tells me houses
and mules are three and seven tenths
miles away. To me they do not appear
one mile away. Fifty years ago stud
led little rhetoric, and as | remember
the pleasures of the imagination were
the novel, the wonderful, the pictur-
esque, the sublime and the beautiful +"
AS sit here on this rock with my lunch
box for desk, all alone, and drinking
IL all this glorious spectacle il seems to
me that this convulsion of nature brings
out, exercises every one of the five
pleasures of the imagination, and at
the same time. 1t is surely novel; IL il
wonderful The little oval amphithea-
tiers around me full of dead pines and
stunted cedars are picturesque; the
great chasm is sublimity itself, and the
whole grand canyon is tinted as only
God could color it, and is gloriously
beautiful. look across thirteen miIes
The two upper strata of rock, hundreds
of feet thick, are greyish red. The
middle strata are of red sandstone col
or, and the lower terraces Of darker
red with streaks of bright red coursing
down through them. Below that is
], 300 feet of granite rock canyon. and
then the river. Away down in the bot
tom of the canyon where we cannot
see, they tell as is a deeper canyon
where runs the Colorado river hundreds
Of feet below.
have just been to an illustrated lee
ture, a moving picture show given by
one of the Kolb brothers, who in 1871
went down this river in canoes for hum
dreds of miles during q hundred days
Ii is well worth the half dollar il costs.
The day lie warm, not a cloud is to be
seen. As one walks along the rim of
the canyon only few rods very diff
ferent view is obtained the more level
land in the canyon is of u grayish color.
Water is scarce and a train Of tanks
they tell me carrying It goss into the
canyon daily in summer.
We are leaving the Mexican help be-
hind as we near the coast and Japanese
servants and Chinese restaurants are
becoming plentiful. The nights are
frosty and the days quite hot. got q
room at Williams yesterday, the same
one that my friend McAuley occupied
August i. was laid up week at Al
buquerqne because | ate hot tamales
twice and chile con carne once. Had
10 stay three nights in sisters hospi-
tai and two days afterward in bed No
more red pepper for me. if know N.Y.
self. 1 have travelled days and stopped
off nights and have seen the country
along the Santa Fe road nearly all the
way. This southwest region is intense
~ interesting. Its people, its archae-
ology, mines, petrified forests ard ag-
riculture all are of interest. The state
fair at Albuquerque was great. The
city people raised $40, 600, the state
SO, 600; the city decorated three miles
of streets and everybody boosted.
They had cleaner fair than we did;
no gambling, no drunkenness, no Ques-
tionGble concessions. and fine big tents
full of rich Numerals, big fruit and grain
exhibits, and tent full of the beauti-
full work done by the Indian school pu-
pills, who did lovely cooking. dressmak-
ing, painting and manual training work.
The Indians and Mexicsns as well as
white people were real kind to me. |
expect TO start at four tomorrow and
reach the angel city at dark. c.vP.