The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-04-19
ATDAWN AND SHUTDOWN.

At dawn vast wilderness; at SUM-
down completed settlement.
Ten wears ago these words might have
been meaningless; today they are preg-
nant with scenes Of high-tensioned ex-
citement. confusion worst cOnfouuded,
and pandemonium.
The plan of opening large tract OF
land at a stated date and at a given hour
may now be regarded as settled one.
1t is not faultless plan. On the con-
trary, there are numerous flaws in the
execution of the idea, that In the nature
of things cannot be avoided. But, faulty
as it is, it is highly superior to every
other plan yet suggested of which there
are many all seeking to avoid the known
difficulties and all as surely mourning
unknown troubles, and in steering clear
of Charybdis, clashing in every case
against Scylla.
So the plan of opening lands at the
drop of a hat, as it were, has become
fixed and in the civilization and settle
ment Of western lands, become fixed
institution.
The pioneer of an early day-of the
very earliest day in the history of man,
has been superseded. The refugee Tro-
jams settled in Rome as, pioneers lived
for centuries in a precarious condition.
So the Saxons in Briton. SO the Britons
on the Atlantic coast The American
colonies were not settled in a day. Then
Isolation, the hostility of. the native
Indians, and the fewness Of settlers in
contrast to the vast wilderness surround
ing, made the settlement of the original
colonies a matter of long and dangerous
years. Then followed the history of regu-
lar pioneers-men who pressed forward
into the unknown. appropriated regions, |
in the van of civilization. The pioneer
was a reclues, a solitary settler, who liv-
ed by his rife, in the deep forest, his res
idence a log cabin in a small clearing, |
barred night and day, for protection from
the wild beast Of the forest, and too of
ten in vain, from the treachery of the |
lurking Red man. Eventually he was
Joined by another PIONEER and, in time,
by another and pioneer settlement was
formed. But it was decades before the
vast army of civilization overlook them
and built cities and formed states, push
ing the original PIONEERS still further into
the wilds. Before this came, there were
years of suffering and death.
This was the history of Ohio and Ken
lucky; of Indiana and Illinois; of Mis-
souri,; of Kansas and Nebraska.
But the pioneer is gone, disappeared
in the Businesses Of Rocky mountains, or
swallowed up in the great march of civil
liZation that has at last overtaken him.
The new system has rendered the pio-
neer useless and obsolete
This mornings sun finds the CHEYENNE I
and Arrapahoe country a wide stretch {
of land unpopulated and lonely, Just as
nature thousands and thousands of years {
ago left it and pronounced it finished"
Tonight when the sun sinks in golden
splendor his blazing eye will behold this -,
great expanse of prairie, settled at every :
stones throw-every curling column 8
from the campers fire of twigS the foun- 7
dalton for a happy home and every /
group of huddled tents and temporary t
shacks the site Of a prosperous town, |
village or city. ,
So it is that civilization has ceased its :
slow march and at one bound is master
IF the ground, and frontier and frontiers
man, in the old sense of the words are C
10 more.
Today Mt noon, the word will be given ..
hat will send 60,oOO people off in a pell-
nell race. The settlement of Oklahoma n
hree years ago, gives us no right to ex- y
,ect any scene revolving or criminal. It t
will be peaceful settlement and the bad 1
'lasses, unavoidably present on such an t
VIII sink out of sight or play {,
'ut an unimport&nt part in the race for il
ZONES. q
But 1t is wonderful, exciting day to :,
he south of us. At dawn vast wilder =
shutdown completed settle W
nent. G