THE GRAND CANYON OF THE COLORADO 



207 



western bad man's costume. High-heeled black boots, 

 corduroy breeches, blue flannel shirt, red silk bandana 

 carelessly tied about the throat, with the knot under the 

 chin, sombrero, with the Montana peak, and, yes, the 

 trusty dagger at the hip or fastened to the belt these 

 constitute the stock costume. Mr. Brandt, who has for 

 the past eight or ten years devoted his energies to the 

 operation of the hotel and the protection of innocent na- 

 tives from wild tourists, described the raiment of one 

 who came to the canyon possessed of a fierce determina- 

 tion not to appear conspicuous amongst his western 

 brothers. He wore the regulation boots, shirt, bandana, 

 and in addition, perhaps to warn some presumptuous 

 bandit of the futility of any attempt to violate his per- 

 son, had thrust a long knife down each boot, while from 

 his hip protruded a .44-caliber horsepistol. Thus arrayed 

 full panoplied for war, a lesson in preparedness, he sat 

 upon the veranda of the hotel for three days without 

 so much as setting foot upon terra firma, and departed 

 silently in the night of the third day. For some time I 

 wondered at the name of "Montgomery Ward Cowboys" 

 given to such men by the plainsmen and mountaineers of 

 the localities most visited. Upon a recent trip to Chicago 

 I saw in a show window just such a costume draped 

 upon a waxen image, with a note beneath apprising all 

 observers of the fact that such was the only costume 

 that could be fittingly worn west of the Continental 

 Divide. 



Despite my frequent visits in the Southwest and many 

 friends of long standing who are engaged in various 

 occupations in the arid lands, I have never been quite 

 able to determine just where they leave off telling the 

 truth about their country, and begin what they please 

 to term stringing the tenderfoot. As a result, I am 

 inclined to be incredulous regarding the various tales of 

 wild animals, horrible accidents and hairbreadth escapes 

 which the guides delight in repeating. For instance. 

 I have it upon the authority of no less a person than 

 Peter B. Kyne that the "hydrophoby skunk" which 

 Irvin Cobb jokes about is a living, odiferous reality. He 

 tells me that there is no doubt that there is a species of 

 skunk infesting the vicinity of the canyon whose bite is 

 hydrophobic. How this can be proven is a mystery to 

 me, for I should be inclined to consider that any person 

 who was fool enough to let a skunk get sufficiently close 

 to bite was possessed of an insanity worse than hydro- 

 phobia before that animal entered the arena. I am also 

 informed upon the same authority that the tales of wild 

 asses in the canyon are not myths. On the contrary, 

 one may at times get close enough to them to distinguish 

 between those that live on the north and those that 

 inhabit the south side of the canyon. Perhaps one can 

 determine on which side of the canyon an ass lives by the 

 difference between the lengths of the legs on either side, 

 for I am also told that a wild ass always heads upstream. 

 This naturally would wear the legs on the right side of 

 the inhabitant of the south bank of the canyon shorter 

 than the others, while the reverse would be true for those 

 on the north bank. Be that as it may, there is little 

 doubt that many animals have been frightened out of all 



semblance of control by the hoards of strangely costumed 

 tourists who visit the district, and choose to cast their 

 lot with the hydrophobia skunk rather than to suffer 

 longer the burden of tourist weight on the repeated trips 

 down the trail. 



IN TUSAYAN FOREST 



Along this road and through this forest the visitor is taken to Grand 

 View which, in greater measure than might be expected after see- 

 ing other so-called grand views, justifies its name. 



The guides are peculiarly adept in fastening a new 

 story upon the first thing at hand, and already new ones 

 are being woven around the recently erected monument 

 to Major John Wesley Powell which has just been com- 

 pleted upon a point of the rim, the designing of which 

 finally fell to the unfortunate writer's lot. Many plans 

 had been submitted, all of which were most excellent 

 in themselves, but, in the opinion of the judges, not 

 exactly appropriate. To ask one what would be an appro- 

 priate monument for the Grand Canyon is almost compar- 

 able to asking what would be a fitting statue for heaven. 

 In the opinion of many, a mere pile of stones with a tab- 

 let might have been best, but there was the appropriation 

 which Congress made way back in 1909, the bronze tablet 

 to Major Powell already cast, and something had to be 

 done for the money. The monument, as built, is pat- 

 terned after the design of an old Indian sacrificial altar, 

 which consists of a pyramid forming a raised platform, 

 on which the altar proper was placed to receive the bloody 

 sacrifice. The monument is as like a pile of stones as 

 any structure could reasonably be, and is perhaps as 

 inconspicuous as might be desired. 



