TOUTING THE TOURIST 



79 



ing his vocabulary without leash up and down the terrace 

 of the rim. Near him, with elbows on the wall was a gen- 

 tleman evidently from the west, for he was silently chew- 

 ing tobacco and punctuating his line of thought by occas- 

 ionally spitting with care at some imaginary object appar- 

 ently suspended in midair before him. It has been said 

 that a gentleman never spits ; he expectorates. This may 

 be true in some localities, but "way out west" a gentleman 

 never expector- 

 ates ; he spits, 

 frequently with 

 astonishing ac 

 curacy. (Some 

 one has said 

 that a western- 

 er's idea of 

 heaven is a long 

 row of cuspi- 

 dors and a pock- 

 et full of chew- 

 ing tobacco). In 

 his excitement 

 the Bostonian 

 did not notice 

 that his neigh- 

 bor was chew- 

 ing tobacco, so 

 h e addressed 

 him. "See the 

 sun glint on that 

 peak. It might 

 have been the 

 throne of Zeus 

 from whence he 

 hurled the thun- 

 der bolts that 

 marked with 

 riven stones the 

 power of his 

 might. Sir, have 

 you ever beheld 

 such a stagger- 

 ing spectacle?" 

 The westerner 

 paused in his 

 steady chewing, 

 turned just 

 enough to look 

 into the speak- 

 er's eyes and 

 said nothing. 

 "Are you not 

 overwhelmed by 

 the vastness of 

 this yawning 

 chasm ? Are you 

 not moved at 

 all?" asked the 

 easterner. The 

 westerner eyed 



him keenly for a moment, turned his head slowly back and, 

 resuming his contemplation of the opposite rim, spat care- 

 fully at some invisible target. "It sure do stranger," he 

 said at length. "This is the first place I've been to where 

 I could spit a mile." 



Fortunately for the advertisement writer, it is difficult 

 to overstate things in describing scenery in the southwest. 

 The great canyons in the vicinity of Roosevelt Dam, ruins 



of the cliff- 

 dwellers and the 

 astonishing col- 

 ors by day and 

 night defy ex- 

 aggeration by 

 either written or 

 oral expression. 

 The marvel is 

 that any one 

 should essay the 

 task in serious- 

 ness. As Senator 

 Phelan said of 

 California, "It is 

 impossible to tell 

 the truth about 

 it without lying 

 about it." How- 

 ever, such is not 

 the case in de- 

 scribing service 

 and accommoda- 

 tions that are to 

 be had. It is 

 difficult to "See 

 America First" 

 if the glare of 

 white granite in 

 Yosemite or 

 snow in Glacier 

 Park has blind- 

 ed your eyes be- 

 cause you were 

 not told to bring 

 colored glasses, 

 to say nothing 

 of the tears that 

 will fill the eyes 

 of him who is 

 not accustomed 

 to the erratic os- 

 cillations of a 

 Mexican saddle. 

 But the real 

 complaint 

 against those 

 who are inter- 

 ested in develop- 



THE STUPENDOUS PROPORTIONS OF "GENERAL SHERMAN" ALLOW OF NO EXAGGERATION & 



It may have been the story of the Sequoia Gigantea which first gave California^ the reputation of pos- " m e IS not 



sessing a strong inclination to exaggeration, but perhaps this picture of the greatest tree on earth- Gen- baged SQ mucn 

 eral Sherman" may go far to remove the stigma of such reputation. 



