The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-02-15
TYPICAL MEN OF THE WEST.
They Differ From Their Eastern
Brethren, but VIII Bear COmpar-


New England is back East" the
Southern states are down South"
Alaska lies up North" Texas used to
be Mexico, the slope Of the Rockies is
"out West''-but we, here in the center
Of the continent, are Americans. Here
from the four corners Of the nation
have the people gathered-from the
four corners and the intervening states
Here have they gathered and made
their homes and brought up their fam
lilies. Here are sOWn their virtues and
their vices to combine into the great
national type, says the Kansas City
Star.
For long years that strip along the
Atlantic seabOard was the American
colonies, and during that time was
formed the habit Of calling all the rest
of the continent the West. No doubt
there are to be found, even to this day
in remote villages the original thirteen
conservative souls who still talk Of
Ohio as ''out West" and who still
think of Missouri and Kansas as the
camping ground of the hardy pioneer.
1t is the old habit, established before
this dying century was born, which
has given to these central states the
name of Western, which has made 1.-The
Vest a term embracing practically
three-fOurths Of the entire nation An
alyzing it carefully, one begins to re-
alize that the West, and the Wester-
ner, the Western states, and the West
ern man means actually nothing more
or less than America and the Amer
lean. The Westerner stands today as
the national type.
Here is the center Of the continent,
in this section, which time and custom
has christened with that strong and
political name, the West, the type ha
sprung up which, being the union of all
sections of the nation, is essentially the
national type. 1t is the fusion of the
Nirginian, the Kentuckian, the Bos-
tonian and the pioneer Here the native
of one state is brought under the in
f7fuence of a neighbOr from a far dis
tant one. Here customs that had grown
into, traditions were brought into con-
tact with other customs just as firmly
established in some other section, and
these, acting upon one another, have
become changed and modified, until
the Southern speech and the Yankee
twang are insensibly merged into the
pure English which must be the re-
suit of one tendency thus being COR
rected by a contrary one.
From all over the nation they come
the strong and enterprising sons of
widely scattered states-meeting here
insensibly learning that wide tolerance,
that O2enness of mind which is the
very backbone of true loyalty, of a
love which understands and values
every part of it, from shore to shore
Here, in this very spot, is moulded,
day by day, the American. Here is
free breathing ground; north and south
and east and west are meeting and
fusin. Here the industry and the puri-
tan principles Of the New Englander,
the Southerner's sense Of honor, North
ern education and Southern grace;
the culture inherited in old families
and the indomitable enterprise which
POUNDS new ones; here, under the
fostering spirit Of tolerance and
brotherhood, the true American, the
national type, has been evolved, and he
stands before the world wearing the
name Of The Western Man.