The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1916-09-29
AWAKENING TO
BEAUTIES OF HOME LAND
Why Go to Other Countries for Beau
tiful Scenery When We Have 1t?

The European war is teaching
America a great many things-things
that are useful to know in time of
peace as we'll as in war. One of the
chief products of war, so far. as this
country is concerned, is self conf
dence and above all the self-sufficiency
of this country. We are being taught
to depend upon ourselves.
AS by-product of the great lesson,
or rather as a part of it, we are being
taught to know and appreciate the
scenery of America. The following
article from the New York Mail shows
that appreciation of the scenery of
this country is taking root in the
eastern mind.
America is slowly awakening to the
value of a tremendous asset. 1t is an
asset of surprising beauty as well as
of unlimited financial possibilities. For
many years Switzerland, with its
mountains, lakes and valleys, has
served as the playground of the Old
World Between the Atlantic and
the Pacific we have twenty Switzer-
lands. Part of this heritage of beauty
lies within sight of the skyscrapers of
New York. The Palisades can be
reached in half an hour from the ferry
house at West 130th street. The most
remote of Americas Switzerlands-
Mount Rainier, in the state of Wash
ington- is weeks journey from the
Atlantic coast.
Only a small fraction of the Ameri-
can people have any inkling of the
wide variety, the surprising grandeur
and the inspiring power of the master
pieces which Nature has strewn about
this continent in the mighty upheavals
of its birth pangs. They surpass any
thing that Europe has to show. A
German professor who was visiting
New York just before the war spoke
to his host with enthusiasm of the
beauty of the Rhine-banks Have
you seen the Palisades?" asked his
host Il have not" answered the
German professor. After the visitor
had been taken up the river in yacht
by his host, he said in an awcd voice:
81 shall never speak again of the
Rhine-in America"
Our Many Waterfalls.
America and the world have agreed
upon Niagara as the father waterfalls.
1t is a well-deserved distinction. With
the possible exception of Victoria
Falls, on the Nyanza, Niagara is the
most spectacular demonstration OF
falling waters in the world. But we
have in America other waterfalls that
dwarf the Niagara. The Great Falls
of the Yellowstone, part of the Ma
tional Park system, is twice as high
as Niagara. The Yosemite Upper
| Fail, in the Yosemite National Park,
tumbles roaring down cliff nine
times as high as Niagara. And the
settings which Time and Nature have
provided for these gigantic cataracts
are of surprising beauty that strikes
the spectator dumb
| The world has heard much Of the
glories of Lake Constance, of Lake
Geneva. in Switzerland; of Killarney,
of the lochs of Scotland, of Como, in
Italy 1t has yet to hear of the in
comparable Mirror Lake, in the Yose-
mite National Park, framing I'M its
blue bosom the towering summit OF
Mount Watkins. 1t has yet to hear
of Crater Lake, the waters of mystery
nesting amid the wild grandeur of
mountain tops in Crater Lake Nation
al Park. America itself has only be-
gun to hear of these beautiful lakes.
! When it has heard it will spread its
message through the world.
Lofty Mountain Submits.
Is it mountain climbing that the
traveller seeks? There is the king of
American mountains, Mount Whitney,
the mighty climax of the Sierra, whose
isolated summit rises l4,500 feet above
the sea. 1t is in the realm of perpetual
snow Glaciers have drifted for ages
down its rugged slopes. Then there is
Mount Rainier, rearing its silver crest
l4.40S feet above the tidewater at
Puget Sound-a land OF Snow-bound
silence There is Stevens glacier, a
mountain of ice thousand feet deep;
the stately battlcmentS OF the Rocky
Mountains and the scrried cliff forma-
tons OF the Grand Canyon of the
Colorado. a sort of Palisades on a
vastly grander scale, of which John
Muir write: "A gigantic statement for
even nature to make in one mighty
stone word. Wilderness SO Godful.
cosmic, primeval, bestows a new sense
OF carth's beauty and size"
\ European poet has said that ma
ture in America lacks one attribute:
Human tradition; that every forest.
every mountain and every valley of
Europe is a memorial of struggle, OF
suffering, of achievcment-and that
| America is lacking in these memories.
Things of Long Ago.
Then what of our lost cities OF the