The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-01-31
LET TIERS OF
TWO WOMEN

By ZOE BECKLEY.

The Grand Canyon, Wednesday.
May. Old Friend:
Paul and 1 fell into each others
| arms. We actually could not speak.
Words failed Just as they failed US
when We beheld for the first moment
this mighty and chaotic gorge called
the Grand Canyon. Congratulations
on your second marriage, dear. For
now that this storm in your married
| life is over, you are coming out into
| a second marriage just as actually as
a ship sails from the blizzardish
North Atlantic into the sunshine and
| turquoise of a tropic sea-
Thousands of couples who seem
happily mated today, May, have failed
miserably in their first marriage"
The first marriage is always more or
! less a trial because it is handicapped
by love. When the first rapture and
passion pass away comes the test of
the first marriage" Many a pair
never survives it. If there is foun-
tain of character on both sides, aided
by mutual respect, man and woman
can build up their second marriage"
The new structure is usually finer and
firmer than the old-like modern
house erected on the site of a rickety
predecessor.
And now, dear insist on your COM
ing straight to us and spending your
second honeymoon here in this won
derfu1 place. 1t will be an oasis in
life. 1t will divide the old from the
new. Every couple should have an
occasional fresh start.
The canyon will do your soul good,
Maizie. 1t has ours. I should call the
Grand Canyon an experience, rather
than a sight" You somehow do not
see it with your eyes, but with your
emotions. One rarely hears even the
stupidest tourist gush upon sight of
the Canyon. One steals out to its rim
with bated breath-and looks little
and steps back-then dareS to look
again. Then begins the struggle of the
senses for equilibrium. order and fin
ally expression Your mind beats
around, trying to arrange itself, hunt
ing for something previously known
with which to compare this new mar
vel. And it finds nothing. There is
no anchorage for your thought.
After a while, however, when you've
got a bit more used - it, and can
look down into the 6,000-foot cash
studded with massive bulks of pink
and yellow rock castles, the thing rests
you. The very profundity of it swal-
lows up your own personal pains and
problems. Turn your back upon the
hotel and its wearisome rich guests,
and the modern world fades from your
ken You are one with the mysterious
primal forces of nature Houses, fur
niture, kitchen sinks, babies cradles
groceries, commerce. railroads. war
and money do not exist Inere are ~
such things as cities. Or toll. Or
tears.
1t is the place of places to come
with your matter-of-fact old Curt
Anchor him upon the rim at sunset as
the titanic chasm fills with purple
shadows and the temples" that jut in
to it are painted with orange and rose
and if you are not able THEN to
find the soul of him I'll-Tll push him
in. For you'll find he has a soul,
Maize, and perhaps very decent one
at that. III gamble on it.
The train gets in early in the morn
ing. The stage will bring you over
while the mist-scarfs are still floating
about the, peaks AS you step down
in front of the hotel. you will fall into
the loving, welcome arms of
Paul and your adoring Kits.