Part I, Stories of Nebraska. Part II, A Short History of Nebraska. The best stories live forever in the human mind. They greet us in the Latin, Teutonic, and Celtic tongues, surprise us in the ancient Greek, Arabic, and Hindoo literature, and astonish us in the rude folk tales of primitive peoples who have no written language. The demand for a good story is as wide, as unsatisfied, as human longing, and the search for a new one as difficult and elusive as the discovery of a new element in nature.
Stories are the inspiration of patriotism and of home virtues.
No land is loved without its place tales, and no nation became great without the lift of noble examples and ideals in the stories of its common people. Every hill and mountain must find its hero, every vale and prairie its legend, ere it becomes invested with living human interest. With the flight of years the deeds of pioneers in a new land are transformed into the hero tales and place legends of the later generations. In Nebraska the pioneer period is just past. The pioneers are with us still.