Mumsie

MUMSIE 865 bolt a meal, and then, with shades of evening settling, in the glare of a gasoline lamp they loudly played cards into the small hours of the morning, to the utter disgust and annoyance of all the other campers present. The next morning, up betimes, they awoke all. Again the same haste, again the same hurry, again the same pressing need to use the remainder of a scant time. Off they drove, cut-out wide open, their objective "The Nar- rows;" but, enroute, to view the Great White Throne, Cable Moun- tain, Weeping Rock, the Great Organ, and the Temple of Siniwava (I certainly hope they didn't profane that sacred spot) — their viewing of these many places to be, I suppose, in the same manner they had eaten their breakfast — gulping it. , Promptly at noon back they stormed; again the can opener; again the litter; then away they were off, having "thoroughly done Zion — seen it all — uhuh! Only got two weeks, yuh know. See yuh at th' Grand — some ditch they say! — " and I meekly feared that in their haste of getting away they might possibly have overlooked something and we be inflicted with their presence again. What was it the superintendent wrote me? — Worship, compare, tune, reverence — and I fell back with much solace into the welcome solitude their absence gave us. Again I spent another afternoon, alone, drifting, absorbing, re- ceiving. And again that evening, late, I sat with paper plate on knee, when two very much worn, road-battered cars came rattling in, each with a decided engine knock; and the children! — children just poured out of each car. But I noted something about the more battered of the two cars which immediately engaged my attention. Two sturdy, clean, open-faced boys, ages about eleven and thirteen respectively, waited until the outpouring of children had ceased, and then they both helped a large woman in the back seat to get down — ■ one found her a cheap home-made crutch, and the other aided her toward the auto door; as she stepped down I noted that she had only one foot. The man rustled wood. A discerning eye quickly caught the story — both he and she had married the second time; the boys, fine lads, were his; hers were the large group of romping children, making themselves known by noise and numbers; and, added to his and to hers was theirs, a child in arms. She was step-mother to the lads. But this was a case different. Where in such cases one usually expects to find a jarring note of unwelcome to the new mother, here I saw a sight which warmed my heart — both boys were devotedly attached to her, and addressed her as "Mumsie." They were poor folk, evidently quite humbly placed. For bed.

866 * IMPROVEMENT ERA the family I was watching made down "a robin, "v and all found nest in it somehow — somewhere a nook received each. But, if they were poor in worldly possessions, they were certainly rich in having treasures beyond compare — two jewels of lads. The boys took all the work off Mumsie's hands. As the father visited the wood pile and busied himself with that chore, the boys placed a seat cushion for Mumsie, laid a cheap, colored spread upon the ground, and then did I see a sight different! Each need of Mumsie was anticipated. The boys were her hands and feet; they followed setting the tin plates around by getting the bread, and that by slicing the ham; and followed, whatever was next in order, without even so much as a suggestion from Mumsie. What they couldn't do (what was purely woman's work) they placed handily for her, put at her very finger tips so to speak. Every effort they could save her from doing they did. Whenever either addressed the step-mother, with what rich fervor of devotion did the term of endearment, "Mumsie," ring from their lips! It brought admiration upwelling in the onlooker. It added a touch to Zion National Park I had least expected, and I thirsted for yet more. | As to her part, Mumsie deferred to the lads; was wrapped up in them; yet, with each act of thoughtfulness on their part, she looked full at the husband, as the author of those two, with eyes that saw in him what stirred the boys. She foljowed his every move; and at one specially marked thoughtfulness of the lads, when she let her eyes rest back again upon her husband, did she subconsciously do what be- tokened her inexpressible and suppressed sentiment — the babe in arms was unconsciously stroked, as if to invest in its tiny form the qualities of the boys whose father she had married. And I thought I had known Zion National Park! The next day as I was motoring back toward camp, I saw two cars parked near the sign which read "Weeping Rock." In one of the cars, with one lad beside her, I saw Mumsie. The other lad was with the long string of adults and children filing along the narrow pathway that leads to that miniature Niagara, where the rocks drip, lamenting a secret sorrow, known only to the canyon itself It was there that I came to realize the extent of devotion of those lads; both would not desert Mumsie at the same time, to leave her thus alone; but each lad would take a hasty inspection of the point of interest, no matter how savory, and quickly return to spell the other eff, the combined time of both thus used just coinciding with the more leisurely interval consumed by the adult party. A lad was just scurrying back as I stopped alongside, and he said: "Bobbie, I'll stay now while you take your turn. Can you see pretty

MUMSIE 867 well with the glasses from where you are, Mumsie?" asked the lad of her who was sitting in the car, his interest shifting, from telling Bobbie to go, to this mother of his. Now Bobbie, even though the younger lad, didn't bolt off like a shot when relieved from duty. Not he. Instead, he didn't budge off that seat until he had said to his brother, "Did you see all you wanted to?" I was learning fast. "Yes, Bobbie, now you hurry along." "Well then, you ask the lady," meaning me, "what we can show to Mumsie," for he knew that I knew. That was the finest thing I have ever seen in Zion — the self- abnegation of those two lads, their sacrifice in devotion! When Bobbie left, I listened while the other lad, who was a good observer, let Mumsie see through his eyes what to her own was denied; he had a born skill of narration, and told a vivid tale. Then I told the two in the car how two Summers before I had seen the owner of the endless cable which comes down off "Cable Mountain" lower from the upland there about five loads of lumber in one after- noon; how that the heavier load coming down had drawn up from below the lighter load of washing machine, needed by the toilers there; how I had in turn been told that one day a dog was put into the little car, but the awful gulf below turned the dog mad, and they had to shoot it — a raving demented thing, bereft of reason. How that years ago a girl was standing up there on top between two men, during a violent thunderstorm; a bolt of lightning instanly killed both men, stunned the girl into unconsciousness lasting three hours, but that she survived and reared a family. I pointed out the twisting path which men and animals took to mount the mesa's top of Kolob Plateau — a toilsome journey of nine miles to mount but 2,750 feet! "What did the lady tell you we could show to Mumsie?" And then I told them of Observation Curve, where, seated in the auto, she could view the Great White Throne "over the saddle"; listening in her mind to the symphony of nature's harmony from the Great Organ, peal after peal of God's goodness; how from that curve one with lusty lungs could be heard by another on the very top of Angel's Landing (all the while avoiding mention of Observation Point or of the path leading to the summit of Angel's landing,, as being a taboo subject under the misfortune to Mumsie) ; and by way of climax, I expanded on the beauties of the Temple of Siniwava, where all could be in its sacred confines, children and adults and she, closing by saying that I was going beyond, but would pilot them that far. I thought of the message I had received there from the "Woman on the Rock," as I left this chattering double party, children playing on

868 . IMPROVEMENT ERA the shrubbery or casting stones toward the crags, all reveling in an outing which none enjoy so thoroughly as do the poor, so close are they ever to nature, nor hedged, in by restraint, never conscious of a wrong committed should they give themselves to the wild abandon of full enjoyment. The rich place a carpet between themselves and Mother Earth and then deny the very inflow they have shut out. I went away afoot, filled with enthusiasm — for had I not seen sacrifices, self-abnegation, devotion, adding another phase to the beauty of Zion National Park? There was one other impression to be given me by this spot which should befall in the next hour, how far at variance with the trend of thought set into action by what had passed those two days my readers must judge. THE HOT DOG KING I went up to "The Narrows," waded the stream, and from a convenient spot set up my camera for a view of the Mountain of Mystery. In due time I was again approaching the Temple of Siniwava, when I noticed an auto by the side of the road, and in it a man whom I remembered as having seen the evening before at the public drinking fountain. I had observed yester-evening that he had had considerable difficulty in approaching the hydrant; at the drinking fountain, because of a bad attack of locomotor ataxia, and that the cobble stones piled there to keep the place dry were an almost insurmountable task to him. But he would not give the struggle up; by sheer strength of will he forced those recalcitrant members to do his bidding, with many failings and fallings, — but I observed that he made his point — a command must be carried out. So I expected a strong-willed man, whose conversation, if it were in keeping with my reading of him, I wanted. To my entry with a commonplace, his reply was so instant I knew he hungered for talk from a stranger, even though a woman. From his volubility I soon learned that he remained in the car while his party went up farther afoot, he being unable to negotiate it. "Long hours and hard work had put him on the hummer," as he expressed it. I was soon apprised that he ran a down-town restaurant in Colorado Springs during the Winter months, and a hot dog stand at Manitou when the tourist season was on. Sightseers in Colorado ate! Ate so heartily he had done well, and in proof his broad gesture embraced his Buick car rather boastfully (Lizzie was contentedly nibbling the grass where I had tethered her) ; for, as he naively put it, "They eat one goin' up, and nothing touches th' spot better'n a hot dog when they come back" — referring to the trip up the cog railroad. But, added the man of practicality: "Here in Zion there aint nuthin' to make a man hungry — why a feller needn't budge from th* car to see th' whole show! Aint seen a single soul eatin' a bought lunch. Fact is, lady, thought maybe this'd be a likely place for a concession — but I can't see no money here at all. Why at Manitou I'd a cleaned up $ 1 8 by this time o' day! A feller here would starve to death behind his own counter — me for outta here as quick as I kin git!"

MUMSIE 869 And I thought of Mumsie! And the "Woman on the Rock!" And the Symphony of the Great Organ! How out of harmony was this man to the spirit of the canyon! Before we reluctanly withdraw from this temple, let us once more walk about it, noting each spot well, ourselves free to receive its im- pression; let us stand in the vast nave and study those carvings chiseled on the cross which lead men's thoughts heavenward; let us pause a moment before each niche in which beauty is enshrined and bend the pious knee of devotee in homage; in the shadow of the altar let us open the soul to the impouring of the canyon; and then, having caught the spirit of the place — Which thought, think you, leavesi the more savory impression: A hot dog from the very altar of the temple? Or, that you and I, in humble reverence, had repaired to that sacred fane 'As pilgrims from afar, seeking a shrine wherein to worship, compare our thoughts, and get in Tune?" ^^Sjpfjj * - . - & iffa °idwt i : ■ '-''. W-* '\ rM&. - '•' d r .* Photo by Frank Beckwith. The Sacred Altar of the Temple of Sini- wava, Zion National Park. Where the "Hot Dog King" would wish his quick lunch counter set.