The emigrant aid journal of Minnesota. [volume] (Nininger City, Minn. Terr. [i.e. Minn.]) 1856-1858, 1857-09-26
eastward.

Ii is something or a marvel that, though God ARA, I'd
Ills glorious courier, the Sun, in armor. TIL lar his COM
ing shone.' and babe him westward take his way, man
should only have taken the hint a day or two ago and
followed after him.
But the pioneer has become q multitude and the lnui-
,itu,ie numterless, and the drowsy East a~waking, seeks
the West. There is but one grand cardinal point to-
day, though the poor ignorant needle Is slow to learn 1t.
Like the dawning OF morning has this progress been.
The .Genesee,' a little while ago, was Il Dame to con-
lure with: to couture visions of Wilderness, and noise
less foot fall and dimmest threads OF trails, and rife
notes, and the rcd light Of camp fires among the trees.
A little while since, to set forth thither was a good deal
like dying-a piece Of business to be done solcmnly
and alone, and when long, dull intervals Of time yawned
between the pioneer OF the Genesce and the home he
left behind him. -
Those will read these aragraphs who remember it,
and they are not very old after all.
Thcu Lake Erie was wonderful dim in the blue dis
tauce, aud he who had seen it and he who had padded
a canoe upon it's waters Was a travelled soul, aud had
tales to tell, and a world Of ears to hear hem.
By-and-by somebody set foot upon Gods graz mead
ows, that were waiting to be fenced, and a pillow share
cut the sod as gaily as a ships bows the parting water,
and smoke went up from new hearths, aud songs from
new homes.
Now and then, some silly Canute or other would
throw ii chain upon the advancing wave and utter his
ed,c, Of thus far ana no--, and the disobedient
tide would wash him inprudently up, and tumble hin
nearer suusci, with the word farther just finished on
his lips.
And this LASS has been IN our day and here IN the
time when round the lakes aoatcd the craft To our port
and over the enamelcd sad came the prairie sehooners.
Then the l;as, stretched forth, its hand to the West,
with ii brace of iron bars therein, aud the West looked
away 10 the Mississippi. The Old coaches numbered and
lurch.l. aud went down and ever, and under some
,iiues; then they waited at the terminus OF the pioneer
railroad, tic Ga!ena ten miles Out, fifteen miles out,
iwent, miles cut, where. like The White Nile, it seemed
t" ln>e Itself upon the prairie. and bad Sdepot aud pas
senger bouse IN "A grand >cale--a depot aud 4 passenger
house with a blue root, and circular walls precisely as
the horizon, a glorious ventilation and abundance Of
room. and all hat. Aud the Canu,es came about again,
with their chains ami their injunctions, but the Sun,
that bright cx"mplar, kept on his way II the West, and
the roads followed after, and the world brought up the
rear.
And We here, away here, Oh the hither shore of Lake
Michigan-eaught ourselves looking on beyond,-for
strangely enough, we arc no longer at the West-the
West has slipped iy almost without CIR knowing it.
Slipped by on tue railroad, and by the rivers, and in the
cansas-covct. wainS. and on foot with packs, and even
in whce!Aarrv :. Blu, the West was all abroad, unfcnced
aud unclaimed, ana cheap .s The great Uncle Of us all,
in the generosity 1t his heart could make it
\ while ago, as We waited here wondering who
would come next, aui hs:w many mora there were to
come, the note OF II : Bugic.' cam IL us faint anl low a
Nebraska Bag%, and very strange it sounded to US from
away in the wilderness Oh the frontier, the outer rim Of
the West.
And the West There it is dimly reckoning in the
distance .-lChicag Journal.