Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1915-09-09
A View of California.

i TIC IOllOWiHS lctlCi illdJ OS>HtSiSSu"S
TO the patriots who advise so loudly,
"See America first"
No, California is not as interesting as
Europe by whole long shot. The west
is the most over-advertised place in the
world know, but il is wonderful in a
great many ways. The mountains, and
the shades and shadows on it, the colors,
are beyond description, and nothing |
have seen is like it; the colors and shad-
ows on the mountains around the Salt
Lake region, you feel, you can't describe
them, but work has made the west what
il is. IL we worked half as hard as they
do for what they get, our country would
be blooming too. 1t seems marvellous TO
think OF what place Salt Lake City was,
the tremendous amount OF energy dis
played in building that, with nothing from
nature in the way OF assistance, hauling
lumber and material all the way from St.
Louis, If doesn't seem possible. And it
is all bleak and barren unless made to
grow by mans work. But all over the
west they will take mountain, for in
stance, and build very wonderful road
around it, up TO the top, name If some
park, "Top OF the World" or something
like that, have automobiles and meet all
visitors to the city, and that is one of the
sights OF the city? You ask what is up
there-they say, why the view is wonder
full. You go there, then you meet another
same kind of an arrangement, you ask
what is up there, they say, why the view
and up you 60 again, and see ''the view"
from another standpoint, all the same
view, one little higher perhaps than the
other, or the road winds around differ
ent way-but il is all "view." Then they
want to take you for the sunrise, and
when you do that, they want you TO see
the "view" by sunset, and you do the
''view" over again. SO have come to
the conclusion that the biggest thing in
the west is "view." European postcards
are nothing, their number is multiplied
out west by the millions, and you can't
90 anywhere that they don't want TO sell
you some Indian junk, possibly made in
Germany at that, because no one but the
Germans could make so many alike, and
so hideously ugly.
The old mission at San Gabriel, el,-they
advertise il as wonderful. The meanest
little church and monastery in Europe is
beautiful beside it. II is literally nothing
a mere shack compared to Fifth Avenue
mansion in New York, besides what you
see in Europe. Rather pltifuI, and The
reams had read about il before went
there. And the wonderful cloister! |
wished for you TO have good laugh over
it, il was so meagre and bare, not OF the
kind that is even interesting, il isn't even
an old ruin,-iust nothing. And was
feeling pretty good that morning, too. 1t
was after day at Catalina Islands. Al
ter all my ocean crossing was certainly
most floored by that trip,-never was so
uncomfortable in my life. | didn't give
up the ghost, but felt like il very much.
You would have enjoyed the organs.
There is one at San Diego that is to be
permanent, sort of round, stage-like
looking structure, that has kind OF a tin
curtain that fits down over it. and when
if is being used this curtain goes up, and
they put the keyboard out in front. II
seems portable, and connects with the
electric wires, OF course. The audience
is outdoors, on benches in front. heard
them play the Haleiuah Chorus on it,
and there was some noise around there
too. The organ at the Frisco Exposition
is in the Festival Hall, and heard all or
ganiSt from New York play. He had on
spiked-tail coat, and sat out in front OF
the organ, the most awkward man ever
saw, and when you looked at him, with
his arms, feet, coat tails, all in motion,
he looked like big crab with IFS many
legs squirming around. But he could
play, and enjoyed itwhen looked away
at the ceiling, or elsewhere.
But "the" organ is at Salt Lake. That
is just wonderful. II is being kept up
every year, and each new improvement
is added, so that it is down to the last
notch. was there when they gave the
Liberty Bell crowd a concert, and after
they were through some OF that Philadel-
phia crowd asked the man TO play "Old
Black Joe." The stop that sounds like
the human voice, vox humana or what
ever youcall it, is wonderful-you could
J almost hear them singing-and one girl
who had never heard an organ before
leaned over and asked me if there was
somebody underneath The organ singing.
Then il is in that building where the
acoustics are so wonderful, which, Of
course, helps the organ-none OF that
rumbling and interference of sound that
you hear in ST. Johns, New York.
To revert to the over advertising.
notice one point about which they do not
kick up so much dust, and that is the dust
in Yellow Stone Park. They might well
boast that it is greater, denser, rises high
er and lies deeper than that of the Appian
Way of Rome. About all their views"
you are expected TO gush in ecstatice. !
now can fully appreciate the old story Of
the real estate promoters here, having in
tow an old gentleman to whom they were
expatiating on the beauties, glories. ad-
vantages and possibilities of their tract,
which bad only one slight drawback
the scarcity of water. He advised them;
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