Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1899-09-18
MOVING WESTWARD.
A. n Locality "West" Travels Each
Year Further Towards me
Setting Sun.

The query, "Where is the west?"-
the west as Il locality and not as point
of the compass-has, for several rea-
sons, acquired new interest in recent
times. In the political nomenclature
OF the latter part of the days when
slavery was in existence Kentucky.
Tennessee and Missouri were classed
with the south, although in the earlier
times all three of these states were
considered, and rightly so, part of the
west. 1t was ds western states that
Kentucky and Tennessee, under Speak
er Clay, of the former state, turned the
scale In favor of war against England
In 1872, and coerced the peace-lovine
Madison, against the counsel of the
other man of peace, Jefferson, into the
adoption of war policy. It was as
western state that the northern mem.
bers of congress in 1890 sought tc
shut slavery out of Missouri.
Geographically speaking, it was in
1888 that the west began to have loca
habltation and name. That was tho
year In which the colony of Manasset
Cutler, Samuel Parsons and Rufus Put.
nam laid the foundations of Ohio. The
pioneers OF Kentucky and Tennessee
had planted settlements in their local.
tiles earlier than this, but Kentucky
was then regarded merely as an exten.
sion of Virginia, and Tennessee ar
elongation of North Carolina. Ohio, or
the other hand, as we'll as the rest of the
states of the old northwest territory
were considered from the outset to bt
embryo commonwealths. 1t was ar
ranged from the beginning of their ex
istence that these were to be separat,
states, which were to have all the DOW
ers and to be subject to all the obliga
lions of the original 10 members of tn.
national sisterhood. AS. a concrete
geographical fact the west as locality
had its beginning on that April day il
1888 when Putnam's and Parsons May
flower, with its load of pioneers from
New England, sailed down the Ohio anc
planted their settlement at the mouth
of the Muskingum.
AS geographical mark the Yves
was continually receding line from
the beginning of the government on
ward until few years ago, when the
Pacific slope started to become widely
settled. A hundred years ago "Ou1
West" meant anywhere from Rochester
or Buffalo south to Gordonville, Va, O.
Greensborough, n. G. The line moved
slowly for the next few years, but after
the introduction of steamboats, on the
rivers west of the Alleghenies and the
advance of the verge of the settled are,
to the prairie country the march per,
ceptibly quickened. When DAME
Boone died il 1920 the western verge o.
the settled area of the United States
had reached him in Missouri. Kit Car.
son saw it cross the Rocky mountains
and ten years ago, when the state
Washington was admitted, the we star,
line occupied the Pacific shore from III,
Mexican boundary to Canada. The OLE
classifications of the states has becoul,
obsolete.
The Mississippi and not the ALE.
ghenies should be considered the divid
ing line Eetwecr: the east end the west
While the population center las Lot YET
reached the Miss@"ippi, the gccgrarl
ically center, exclusive of Alaska ~
the recent acquisitions of tsrritor:,
in Smith county, Kan. AS Fixes s:
called American Sahara, which is j.
reality among the most fertile rcgia9
of the country, fills up with inhabitai.,
the population center will approach i:
geographical center and render
change in the old political classification
of the states even more nccegrary thai
it is now. Historically, sc ily, gee
graphically, and politically the west
an exceedingly interesting part CT Il.
country, but it becomes constant.
more and more difficult to answer til (
question: ''Where is the west ?"--St.
Louis Globe@Democrat.