Smyrna times., 1885-05-20
Far the Sn'grnt Times
CIVILIZATION ON OUR CONTI-
NENT.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE EARLY SET
TLERS-THE TRIUMPHS OF THE
ANGLO-SAXON.

TLERS-THE TRIUMPHS OF THE
ANGLO-sAXON.
MIR. EDTToR-It is approximating
very nearly four hundred years since
columbus discovered the new world ;
and from its present point of progress
and prosperity it is pleasant food for
the mind to run back to the initia-
tory stages Of the progress of naming
| occupying, subdumg. settling. and
clvillzing the new found hemisphere.
We do not propose Il lengthy article.
or to allude to Columbus except so far
as touches the accomplished fact of the
successful realization of his lofty
dreams. and the publishing of his
grand lind" to civilized Europe.
We never look upon this grand do
main of prairie, woodland, rivers. lakes.
valleys and mountains, but what we
mentally in some measure estimate
their value to humanity, that the re-
curing thought does not present the
question, why did it lay here so long
almost unknown, certainly unutilized
say from the time of the English settle
ment in 1920 until our time?
So little was known of the Ohio or
as the French spelled the Indian
sound (OyO), river, that for two hun
dred years it was supposed from its
continued westward bearing for more
than thousand miles on Il west line
from its rise in the Alleghanies that it
continued its course over the continent
and empties into the Pacific Ocean.
Rivers have always have been util-
lied as a medium for explorers, but in
the new world" none save the st.
Lawrence of any magnitude ran from
the setting to the rising sun.
Fancy dreamers of fairy lands were
not wanting and as long as its placid
waters constituted a medium of commu-
nication to their base of supplies, they
Ventured on and on until the French
missionary found the great inland seas
OF the Northwest but made no perma-
nent settlement.
But the French seemed to excel the
English in their penetrations into the
dark interior. Under La Sale. Mar
quette and Joliet many discoveries
were made, and Father Hennipin has
the honor of discovering St. Anthonv's
falls, now Mineapolcs.
The French made feble settlements
IN Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin and
Minnesota but their principal impor-
tance was the mere fact that they were
the hrst white men on the ground
The latter seemed to be content to
cultivate Il hundred miles breadth a.
long the Atlantic shore.
For three hundred years the map of
the interior of the Continent was in
complete and supposed to consist of a
Sahara-like desert Of equal extent and
sterility.
While undevelOped and unexplored.
America was the coveted land Ofthe
lour great European powers, Spain
having the prior right Of discovery
the others by some minor discovery
and acquisition by means more or less
arbitrary and dictatOrial. The ferocious
beasts were known to exist in the iun
gle, but the more ferocious and SCALP
ing red man was the terror of the
plain whose number was thought to be
unknown millions.
Time draws the panorama along be
us /; settlement aftersettlement through
the rigOrs of the climate and the priva-
tlons incident to a foreign cline, near
ly or quite foiled by the perishing of
their original numbers through hard
ships; but the great UtOpian idea of a
free land, great Republic, still surviv-
ed, and in the midst of wars between
cOntending natiOnalties in which the
Indian was sometimes an ally,
sometimes a merciless foe; those
cOntending powers were continued by
Providence until the proper one and
the best should be selected out of whose
blood the new nation should come.
THE FRENCH SETTLEMENT.
They stand before us to-day in CON
petitive array, but they have somewhat
changed places. Spain instead of be-
ing the greatest maritime and colonial
power is sixth. The French have not
the stamina and are in no sense a col
OnizingpeOple; they idealize France and
there by their industry and frugality
seem to prosper; but all the old
French settlements in the United
States, where not over run by outside
pressure, are called in western language
dead tOwns). St Charles, Minnesota:
Kaukakee, Illinois; VermilliOnville,
Louisiana; are instances. 1t is notice.
able the sameness that runs through
them all they will neither sell proper
ty nor improve it. This course of pro-
cedure where American progress over
runs them has made some families i'm
menselyrich as the ChOuteaus. st, Louis.
and Campeans in Detroit. They dOn
profess Il desire to step out from the
customs and methods of the
former ages even in the midst of mod
ern American progress where every
incentive is brought to bear; they de-
nOunce its view of lfe's brevitv as not
worth the expenditure Ofphysicial and
mental energies required to obtain such
ample surroundings. They enjoy fine
caias, hotels, BallrOomsand cathedrais:
beyond this they are content in miser-
able quarters as in the French por-
tiOn of New Orleans where thev
live in bOx-hOuses," in that hot eli
mate where the burning sun upon
roof that Il tall man could touch with
his head miserably cramped on everv
hand for room and ventilation i'm MANY
cases one apartment containing a
whole family; and yet for fifty or a
hundred years the style has not
changed except the shelf has been en-
larged to hold more pomatum and
cologne.
The renowned French market in the
Crecent citysO Ocelebratedfor its delicious
coffee, for that it is worthy ofpraise, but
otherwise we neversaw such cOnglom-
crate mixture of evergreens, vegetables,
laces, ribbons, casing bonnets, calico
suits, Texas beef and oranges brought
together under an old barracks of a
market house such as was torn out of |
Market ST. Philadelphia thirty years
ago. We judge it will be there intact |
thirty years to come.
SPANISH SETTLEMENTS AND CHARAC- |
TER
If we had been of Spanish extraction |
we should have been of lower grade |
of civilization still, for then we should |
have had the bull-fghtimg element to |
have sustained and all the Lazaroni,
born-tired, worthless, cigarette .smok- |
ing young men, and young wO-
men, and an upper class of young
Spanish dudes, with his broadbrim hat
with flowing ribbon, his lace-trimmed
coat, with scarlet vest, and wide and
ever widening pantalOons toward the
bottom, whose fathers estate furnishes
a charger to ride, with a peculiar but
hiUhlxy OrnomantaI coddla an6 n vo;r