XXIV 



THE GRAND CANON OF THE COLORADO 



Happy nowadays is the tourist, with earth's 

 wonders, new and old, spread invitingly open 

 before him, and a host of able workers as his 

 slaves making everything easy, padding plush 

 about him, grading roads for him, boring 

 tunnels, moving hills out of his way, eager, 

 like the Devil, to show him all the kingdoms 

 of the world and their glory and foolishness, 

 spiritualizing travel for him with lightning and 

 steam, abolishing space and time and almost 

 everything else. Little children and tender, 

 pulpy people, as well as storm-seasoned ex- 

 plorers, may now go almost everywhere in 

 smooth comfort, cross oceans and deserts 

 scarce accessible to fishes and birds, and, 

 dragged by steel horses, go up high mountains, 

 riding gloriously beneath starry showers of 

 sparks, ascending like Elijah in a whirlwind 

 and chariot of fire. 



First of the wonders of the great West to 

 be brought within reach of the tourist were 

 the Yosemite and the Big Trees, on the com- 

 pletion of the first transcontinental railway; 

 next came the Yellowstone and icy Alaska, 

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