Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1883-10-05
DA IL Y
POST : NTELLIG GER


POST NTELLlGENCER
CONC NOME.
On Tuesday morning last train LEFT
Portland for the East bearing COM
uapy Of men and women most OF whom
are now en- route to the homes OF their
childhood after lapse of more than
th;rtv vears. There were four hundred
and fifty of these pionesrs OF our Tar
vestern civilization. IL 10 notable
event. not only in the lives Of these mep
and women, now far advanced IN years,
Int in the history Of the Northwest
They return to the scenes OF early years
70 find all things changed. The play
mates of their youth have grown gray.
the associates of their young manhood
and vomanhood have passed like them
solves the meridian of life and are
journsying down the hill toward
the evening Of existence. Many are
dead, others are IN distant lands. few
will be found at the old homesteads TO
give welcome 10 the long absent waad-
srers. Fathers and mothers arc aged and
bent, and will extend in welcome, srem-
ulous hands. To many the churchyard
In it, sacred silence will mark with
white upiifted finger the resting place
of al the dear ones left behind in the
shsdowy long ago. The meadows have
changed. the groves have been felled,
the old orchard trees under which in
childhood they played and from which
they pIucked in Rlee the first ripe fruits
Of autumn have long since fallen and
dscayed. The little cottage in the. val
lev, the large house on the hill, the
barns, the pasture where they fed the
colts and calves, the old lane up which
in the mellow summer evenings they
drove homo she lowing kline are changed.
ali! sadly changed. For thirty years
they have kept framed in memory
picture Of the dear old homestead, have
seen father and mother and brothers
and sisters, playmates and youthful
associates Just ~ they were when good
bye vas given the adventurous young
msn and women then starting on their
westward march into the wilderness.
They have glorified the hsme land.
Years have cast glamour over every
incident and sCene Of the distant past,
and memory has covered all with twi-
light shadows.
They return 10 the thronged cities
and thiekly peoplsd regions of the East.
70 And that's with themselves, years have
made their mark on all. Living In
ssmi-isolstion for over quarter OF CEN
tury, they return 10 life only to fad
that the old days have long since passed
away forever, that all things have truly
become new. Il will be strange, and
70 very many, sorsowful experience.
Il will b Rrievous disappointment.
These men and women will soon grov
homssick; will sigh for their nests in the
forests, thsir cottages In the villages,
their homes In the land of their choice.
Here, whore they have toiled and suf-
fssed, where they have raised their
sons and daughters. where their life
work has bssn done, whore their eldest
and youngest born lie buried, to this
land Of their adoption their faces soon
will be turned never 90 loneinRly. A
whole generation has lived and died
sincs these pathfnders and blazers of
the trail, which progress follows, took
mp their march over the mountains. A
very different people now occupy the
places these pioneers left behind them,
when, In the flush Of ambitious youth
and pride of self-reliant strength, they
faced existence In a new and almost
undiscovered country. We will all be
glad TO welcome back these venerated
men and women, who will In few
weeks return 10 tell In saddened tones
the story Of the changes in these lines
bat family shadowed. They wlIl come
back 10 10 10 spend the remainder Of
lives rsplets with labor. and contests
with difficulties Of which We know but
little. Let them be welcomed back
most heartily, and cherished ten ierly
until their brave and worthy lives shall
end In psaae.