The Elk Mountain pilot., 1922-10-12

What feast OF beauty is spread
on our mountains and valleys these
autumn days! How stately and rich
are the cottonwoods along our streets
with their colors of Roman gold and
FURNISHED bronze! On the mountains
the aspens with their streaked GRIM
son against soft background of ever
green far surpass in gorgeousness or
| intricate design the boasted fabrics
| of Oriental weave. A kind of magic
carpet is it, rather, unrolled there
in charming folds by the cunning
elves of the woods. And what days
of dreamy warmth and wistful skyI
The .dozy sunshine seems designed to
touch all life that hibernates into
languorous mood in preparation for
the, -somnolent days of winter.
These valleys are fertile. For hay
to fatten cattle and various other
crops it were probably hard to match
them. These mountains are rich in
pasture, timber, coal, and metals.
So the statistics need not astonish
when they divulge that per capita
we stand, among the other commune
ties of the state, in the very front
line in that wealth which comes from
the successful exploitation of ma
terial resources. But this beauty
"One can't live on scenery" Truly
enough. Yet surrounded by such
beauty, can one live in fullest mea-
sure and ignore it. Perhaps, Words
worth was right:
"The world is too much with us;
-. late and soon, 1.g ~ .li-rt
Getting and spending, we lay waste
our powers; ~ ea q aiN
Little we see in Nature that is
p ours; o. - eeoa p..t
We havelsgiven aour hearts away,
rs : sordid boon! ,g .s-g ra,.
The Seasthat bares her bosom to
the moon;
The winds. that will be howling at
all hours.
And are up-gathered now like
sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are
out Of tune;
1t moves US not.-Great Godi I'd
rather be
A pagan sucked in creed out
worn; i'll .-.rrig .strsd sif
So might !, standing on this pleas
ant lea, ea9 sS~-r .4.r
Have glimpses that would make me
less forlorn;, -s. 4,a
Have sight of Proteus rising from
the sea; j ui.
Or hear old Triton blow his
-; wreathed horn" .;l~sai
The Strange Fortune Of Columbus
With. what other man did Fate
ever deal SO capriciously as with the
Savona weaver, Columbus? Without :
the advantage of noble birth in an
age when high birth could open many
a door to preferment otherwise
closed; without great ability and the
training of the schools; without
wealth and influential friends, this
poor italian artisan gained a fame
which shall abide as long as either
of the Americas endure, or their
history be known.
Columbus was born in poor family
in Genoa, when his city was sharing
in the black disaster, which overlook
all Italian cities that had thrived
on Oriental trade. Two years after
his birth, 1451, the Turks shut the
gates of the Orient by their capture
OF Constantinople. With foreign
markets thus closed to Italian goods
it seemed sorry mischance that put
this child of such glorious destiny in
the obscure and hard pressed family
of weaver.
His luck was no better through
early manhood. He took to his
fathers trade of weaving as the
readiest means of earning a living,
and this he followed, with only such
Interruption as the most elementary
schooling demanded, until he was
twenty-five. Success did not favor
him AT twenty-five he shipped on
merchant-man for England, but his
vessel fell into the hands of pirates
and he was glad to escape with his
life to Portugal At twenty-seven
he married into a sea-faring family,
his wife bringing him some papers of
voyages which turned him to mari
time discovery. Still Fate was most
unkind. His wife died, leaving him
with an infant son; and the Portu-
guese king who might have been ex-
- ~
of Prince Henry the Navigator, was
utterly deaf to all of Columbus'
schemes for exploration.