80 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



upon exaggerations as upon misleading statements as to 

 how and with what degree of comfort the trips may be 

 made, with what equipment and preparation the tourist 

 should fortify himself. 



There is a hotel located on a shoulder of a canyon side 

 near one of the National Parks in the west. The canyon 

 is very deep and its walls surround the hotel on every 

 side. A railroad 

 bulletin describ- 

 ing the hotel 

 says that it is 

 "situated on a 

 high, wooded 

 plateau, giving 

 a beautiful view 

 in every direc- 

 tion." Of course, 

 it is possible to 

 see in every di- 

 rection but not 

 so far that any 

 little defects in 

 the lands cape 

 will escape the 

 naked eye. As 

 a result of such 

 statements many 

 made reserva- 

 tions at this par- 

 ticular hotel and 

 were so disap- 

 pointed that they 

 never went into 

 the Park, where 

 is to be found 

 some of the 

 most magnificent 

 scenery in the 

 United States. 

 Even the feder- 

 al government 

 has acquired the 

 habit, for in one 

 National Park 

 bulletin we read 

 that "An excel- 

 lent road will 

 carry the visitor 

 t o several 

 comfortable 

 hotels and 

 camps." As a matter of fact, when this bulletin was writ- 

 ten there was but one hotel in the Park that could lay 

 claim to any degree of comfort, while the proximity of 

 garbage heaps precluded the possibility of comfort on the 

 part of anyone who was not enjoying a cold in the head 

 or was otherwise immune to the olfactory assaults of the 

 camp neighborhood. Thanks to the energy of a new parks 

 administration, this condition has been remedied but at 



ANOTHER WONDER SPOT ALONG THE APACHE TRAIL 



The box canyon of Fish Creek near the Roosevelt dam perhaps one of the most striking pictures in color 



and scale that can be found in the United States. 



the time of publication the bulletin was strangely mislead- 

 ing, not only as to the conditions but as to the extent of 

 accommodations. 



That these various statements of a more or less mislead- 

 ing nature are not wilfully made with the intention to de- 

 ceive there can be no doubt. They are the product of a 

 deep affection for the wonderful scenery and a lack of 



knowledge of 

 just what the 

 tourist should 

 and wants to 

 know. No sym- 

 pathetic under- 

 standing of the 

 scenery seeker's 

 mental process 

 would ever sug- 

 gest describing a 

 trip across the 

 great desert, even 

 in double sealed 

 Pullman cars, as 

 being "free from 

 dust," as one 

 folder puts it. 

 There is no way 

 of crossing the 

 desert without a 

 little brush with 

 the dust, and it 

 is not fairtogive 

 the tourist the 

 impression that 

 he may expect to 

 do so and 

 emerge with im- 

 macul ate linen 

 or that his wife 

 can wear her 

 velvet gown 

 with impunity. 

 Not that the trip 

 should be dis- 

 parage d, for 

 the desert is 

 one of the most 

 fascinating 

 sights in the 

 transcontinental 

 journey, but the 

 tourist wants to 

 know what he is up against. If he does, in nine cases out 

 of ten he will take any little inconvenience with that rare 

 good humor which is one saving grace of the American 

 people, but if he thinks he has been hoodwinked through 

 misrepresentation he is apt to develop a nasty temper and 

 with it a vocabulary that would turn a sea captain green 

 with envy. 



There is a form of exaggeration practiced by railroads 



