On Seeing Mount Tacoma [pp. 108]

OVERLAND MONTHLY
chairman, was not present. The commissioners generally seemed to have a due
sense of their responsibilities, and a fair
appreciation of what the people expect of
the guardians of the greatest natural beauty
of the State. One or two, however, have
some queer notions. One of them is said
to yearn to set up an electric plant that
may be used to cast colored lights on the
falls at night, as if they needed more
than they now have of beauty! Another
told me that a pet scheme of his was to
have a permanent exhibit in the Valley of
the products of the State, in which the
various counties should have space to display their industries. People come to the
Valley from all parts of the world, he said,
and they should have put before them the
resources of California. His county, he
was sure, would gladly make such an exhibit, for it was fully alive to the value of
advertising and had long ago been educated
to the business policy of spending fifty cents,
yes, ninety cents if necessary, to bring in
any dollar that was in sight.
Other commissioners, however, told me
that there was no danger of this scheme's
being adopted, so the reader need not fear
that he will be called upon to admire the
big squash and the walnut elephant in competition with the glories of Yosemite.
Having said so much of the delights of
the camping trip to Yosemite, I must add a
word of caution; for here as elsewhere
from the very gates of Paradise there are
paths to the pit. The success of such a
trip depends on knowing how. A lack of
knowledge of horses and what may reasonably be expected of them, or of out-door
cooking and how to do it quickly and well,
or inexperience in many other details of
camping on the road, may result in dismal
failure. It is strongly to be recommended
that some less extensive and arduous trip
be tried before undertaking to climb into
the heart of the Sierra.
But the days pass all too quickly in the
happy valley and no matter how much you
may yearn to stay longer under its magic
spell, the time comes when with backwardturning glance you go up the trail that
leads out into the everyday world of work
and duty again. Yet you carry with you
something that neither work and worry,
nor length of time nor experiences otherwhere, can take away. The beautiful Yosemite is yours forever after. You can
shut your eyes at any time and see its towering cliffs, its mystic falls, its green meadows, its graceful trees, its winding paths,
yes, even the flowers and ferns that carpet
it with living beauty. The charm of Yosemite is not that it is grand, that its cliffs are
taller and its falls higher than any others
on earth. These things might be and yet
be set in such rugged grandeur that they
would awe the soul too much to wake the
sense of personal affection. There is in
Yosemite added to all this grandeur, a
world of such perfect and varied beauty,
of grass and trees, of birds and flowers
and butterflies, of smiling noons and
cloud-flecked morns, of bewitching moonlight and of gorgeous sunsets, that all
the possibilities of perception of beauty
that in you lie are put to their utmost
test, and as in no other spot on earth that
I have found, you are satisfied.
ON SEEING MOUNT TACOMA
LONG hours we toiled up through the silent wood,
Beneath gray mosses stretched from tree to tree;
At last upon a barren hill we stood, And lo, above loomed Majesty!
Herbert Bashford
108