12 



THE DESERT 



Historic 

 periods. 



The open 

 desert. 



Perception 

 of beauty. 



some day Science will conclude that historic 

 periods do not invariably happen, that there is 

 not always a sequential evolution, and that the 

 white race does not necessarily require a flat- 

 headed mass of stupidity for an ancestor. 



But what brought them to seek a dwelling 

 place in the desert ? Were they driven out from 

 the more fertile tracts ? Perhaps. Did they 

 find this a country where game was plentiful 

 and the conditions of life comparatively easy ? 

 It is possible. Or was it that they loved the 

 open country, the hot sun, the treeless wastes, 

 the great stretches of mesa, plain and valley ? 

 Ah ; that is more than likely. Mankind has 

 always loved the open plains. He is like an 

 antelope and wishes to see about him in all di- 

 rections. Perhaps, too, he was born with a pre- 

 dilection for " the view," but that is no easy 

 matter to prove. It is sometimes assumed that 

 humanity had naturally a sense and a feeling 

 for the beautiful because the primitives deco- 

 rated pottery and carved war-clubs and totem- 

 posts. Again perhaps ; but from war-clubs and 

 totem-posts to sunsets and mountain shadows 

 the love of the beautiful in nature is a very 

 long hark. The peons and Indians in Sonora 

 cannot see the pinks and purples in the moun- 



