, 1889-11-09

bos. Twenty years ago. Wyoming was
hardly known. Yet Wyoming is more
tull of wonders than any fabulous region
of romance. 1t contains the Yellowstone
park, with its three thousand boiling
springs and spouting geysers, its many
colored canyons. and its cateracts and
waterfalls, buried in the depth Of prime
val pine forests, and overlooked by snow
capped peaks. In Wyoming, the wilder
Alpine scenery of the Rockies ends abb
ruptly, giving place to the lower attitudes
and gentler slopes of a plateau region;
and the Grand Tetons looking down into
the tremendous gorge of Snake river, and
the indented crests of the Wind River
mountains dominating the Laramie plans.
are among the strange contrasts of seem
cry and diversities OF outline which the
surface offers.
1T may almost be said that this Won
derland was still undiscovered when the
civil war broke out. The mining rush
to Colorado thirty years ago brought a
few stray prospecting parties into a por-
ton OF the wilderness, only crossed pre-
%viously by the trails of a few Indians,
s%portsmen. emigrants and explorers; and
in 1858 the limits of the territory were
marked out. But it was not until 1863
that the prospectors lighted upon the
land of fire. where the headwaters of
the Yellowstone, the Madison and the
Snake river met on the great divide
In 1870, the white population of the ter
ritory, larger than Great Britain, was only
1900; and by 1880 it had little more than
doubled. Wyoming. eight or nine years
ago, still brought up the tail OF the list
of states and territories in the number Of
inhabitants and area Of cultivated land,
and reckoned only one person for every
five square miles of surface. Now it
drafts a constitution upon lines SO broad,
so long. and so deep that old states and
kingdoms that have not had the advantage
of the same example. and the same free
and quiet field for such a work, can only
stand by in envy any wonder.
In Wyoming, with Fremont's peak
towering above them and the great plains
stretching below, constitution makers have
no fear of carrying principles too high or
stretching them too wide; they are
troubled with no doubts as to the future
greatness of their state. After clearing
the ground a bit by expressing gratitude
TO God for civil, political, and religious
liberties, and their desire to secure these
to themselves and perpetuate them to
their posterity,' and by declaring that all
power is inherent in the people and all
free governments foun ded on their au.
thority, they proceed to set forth that in
the inherent right to life, liberty and the
pursuit OF happiness all members of the
human race are equal, and that, accord.
ingly, the laws OF the state affecting the
political rights and privileges of the citi.
zens shall be without distinction of race,
color, or sex, or any circumstance or con.
dition whatsoever excepting in certain
cases of individual incompetency ascer-
tanned by a competent tribunal. On these
magnificent foundations they proceed to
raise stately and elaborate superstruct-
ure.
Like the map Of Wyoming twenty or
thirty years ago, the constitution is a
large and fair sheet, on which it will be
the privilege Of the people to inscribe the
substantial proof of their progress. Some
of the things found in it, however, may
be profitable to older communities, by
way either OF encouragement or warning.
1t follows from the terms Of its opening
declaration of rights that the political
rights and privileges of citizens" are to
be enjoyed without distinction by every
variety of mau, including women, black
aud white, red and yellow. 1t is more
particularly set forth that every citizen Of
the United States who has qualified him
self by residence in the state, and is not
disabled by insanity or conviction OF
crime, shall possess the franchise; and
further, that the rights of citizens to
vote and hold Office shall not be denied OF
abridged on account Of sex This il
manhood and woman suffrage set on a
very broad base. 1t has its abridgements
however. for no person shall have the
right to vote who shall not be able to read
the constitution of the state A neces
sary corollary is that the state should
make provision for a complete and uni
form system of public instruction, includ'
ing free elementary schools of every
needed kind and grade There will be &
state university and a ladder up to it
but free education apparently stops short
at the foot of the ladder.
[NoTE-In this surmise the editor Of
the Scotsman is mistaken. Education is
absolutely free from top to bottom. -EDI
TOR LEADER.
yet they have solved the religious
and the color questions that vex mems
souls on both sides of the Atlantic; for
no sectarian instruction, qualification, or