The New York herald., 1922-07-09

thor, Stephen Graham, to do
the Rocky Mountains with him.
Graham put sign. Back in half an
hour" on the door of his flat in Soho
and started. He picked the poet up
at Lindsay's home in Springfield, Ill.
They packed their knapsacks with
blankets, socks, towels, coffee pot,
frying pan, knives, forks and spoons
They went by railroad across the
great land ocean" of Minnesota,
North Dakota and eastern Montana
Lindsay said he liked that region be-
cause the prairie ran right to the
horizon and there were no stone
walls as in New England at is all
broad and unlimited; that is why
since the days of Andrew Jackson all
the great politicians have come from
the West-the unfenced West. I'd
like to put all the Boston and New
L VI pSOpiC OQl IlSIt Oll tilt
and let the plain men run the East"
But to Graham it looked like a land
of endless toll. 81 thought of the toll
ing pioneers and the Russians in the
Dakotas, the Swedes and the Ger
mans content to live in toll and be
swallowed up at least by the dis
tances and the primitive. European
life rivers have flowed into these
deserts and made them what they
are. One day their children perhaps
will have a Western consciousness,
an American consciousness" Indeed
they will, Stephen, and that soon.
One third of the inhabitants of the
United States have at least one
parent born in Europe. and yet we go
along very much in the American
way.
The tramps took to the woods at
Glacier National Park and followed
their wrist compasses to the North
west On reaching the top of their
first mountain Lindsay tested the
echo by yelling "Rah for Bryant"
The poet heated a rock to keep him
warm as he slept. 1t stormed and
the tramps were soaked. They did
not mind this, their only apprehen-
sion being in regard to bears. They
always left their bacon twenty yards
from themselves at night, hoping
that the bear would be content with
that form Of meat
For several days they did not see
the sign of a human being. I've
never been before" said Lindsay. "in .
place where you did not see tin cans.
Why, some of the popular canyons
of the West are literally filled with
cans" Another relief, Graham re-
marks, was the absence of adver-
tisements. He was seeing America
"as she was"
The higher they went in the Rock
les the more serious their converse
lioh bCNdihCs Odh thCy WCiC
only when they lost their breath.
upon occasion, in this grand and
lonely scene, the poet would lift his
voice so high that it could have been
heard on the mountain on the other
side of the valley. His enthusiasm
naturally lifted his resonant voice.
His political hero is John Randolph
or Andrew Jackson, his literary hero
is Ruskin, his artist in marble is
Saint Gaudens, his pet hobby is
Egyptian hieroglyphics, his passion
is the road and his ideal is st. Fran
cis."
Rather conservative for poeti
Finally, though, the mountains
silenced even the joyous Lindsay.
"They ate up our provisions and
swallowed our breath and beguiled
us deceptively to climb higher" They
were reduced to rasher of bacon a
day and tea without sugar or milk.
The poet was affected by the alti-
tude. After tough day or two they
found provisions and went on.
Mr.. Graham. writing of our ma
tional reservations like Glacier, yell
lowstone, Sequoia, Yosemite and the
Grand Canyon, says very truly that
we should not call them parks. They
are really wildernesses. retreats or
''empty places" as the Russians say.