See Other Writers

In describing the Grand Canyon,
one should go into a course of literary training and gradually work up to it. He should start off on the Bay of Naples, do that until he has perfected it, then tackle the sunset on the domes and minarets of Stomboul and work on that until he can do it in bogie. Then sunrise on Mount Rigi, the Vale of Cashmir, and other star attractions of nature. Perhaps by this method he might be able to make a try at the Canyon. The great climbers do not begin by ascending a Matterhorn or an Aconcagua the first thing. They do some foothill work first and then by steadily increasing the magnitude of the climb finally are able to negotiate the great peaks. Actors go through years of preparation before they reach their goal--Hamlet well done. Pianists work for years with their ambitions fastened on Liszt's Rhapsodie Hongroise. Violinists work up to Beethoven's Concerto--and so on. When a writer has tackled everything in the line of fancy descriptive writing, he crowns his life work with a pen portrait of the Grand Canyon--called by some: "The Greatest Show on Earth." For descriptions of the Canyon, see other writers.
--cartoonist John McCutcheon, writing in 1909