Frederick Russell Burnham

“ Way back in geological time this implacable desert drove strange monsters far down into the valleys below. You have all seen them in the La Brea pits or as skeletons mounted in our museums. Along the road you traveled today once padded softly in dead of night saber-toothed tigers, long-fanged wolves, and lions of enormous size. Down those winding canyons ponderous mastodons wound their way. High on these crags sat condors and eagles watching for some huge mammal that might be slain, or die of thirst. ”

“ The Chief in all his years of war had seen that it was carried on by youth. Nearly all our Rhodesians were very young. One old Matabele warrior, when looking over our dead that fell with Major Allen Wilson on the Shangani, turned to an older chief in amazement and said, "Look, these are only beardless youths, yet they have killed five hundred of our warriors! What will happen to us when the full grown men with beards come over the sea?" ”

“ Must the youth of his nation be shut off from the normal and happy things of life and often slaughtered in thousands at the whim of some strident mob or powerful tyrant? There was a better way. Youth was really a glorious age of joy, growth and accomplishment, of laughter, fun, games and sunshine. ”

“ Far back in the pages of recorded history we find that, when the nations of mankind wish to confer a special tribute which they desire to last through the ages, they dedicate to their deities and heroes one of the dominating mountains of the world and so, in this instance, following the custom of our race through a thousand generations, your committee with great care has selected this particular peak because it is as characteristic and outstanding among mountains as our Chief is among men. ”