The times., 1899-06-04
The Makers of Empire.

recent writer on the Australian bush
and its English inhabitants remarks that
the British Empire owes much of its great
ness to the men who fail. This is a view
of the subject which would hardly occur
to most people, but little reflection will
show the justice of it. The advance guard
of civilization-the pioneers-the men who
smooth the track for the coming multi
tudes. are not usually what the world
calls successful men. Some of them sue
ceed but more do not.
The Americans who go to develop the
resources of our new colonies will not all
come back like the son OF Caleb Plammer
bearing wealth and wonderful experiences
from the golden South Americas. A
great many of them Will leave their bones
in the swamps. and their souls, one might
almost say. scattered bit by bit along the
toilsome and trying road by which they
travelled. 1t takes a strong man to do
the hard work of the world, and even the
strong sometimes succumb TO the weight
Of barbaric nature crushing them steadily
down. Some men take to the woods be-
cause they have been disappointed; some
leave the confines of civilization with high
hopes of fortune and power; some are
drawn into wild regions for mere love of
adventure. but there is one curious thing
about the rough, knockabout life beyond
reach of what we call civilization-the men
who have once tasted 1t are seldom con-
tent with the round of routine work and
pleasure which suffices for the stay-at-
homes. 1t seems as II there were peculiar
delight in great hardship and peril which
spoils men for ease and comfort The
old sailor, restless and disconnected on
land; the old soldier, stirring uneasily at
the sound of a drum in the street: the
old pioneer jeering at his grandchildren
for their love of material comfort, all
feel this strange fascination. The expert
ence, not the material gain, is the reward
of the adventurer and the pioneer; and
there is nothing like that rough school
to sift out the men from the weaklings
We have seen the workings of this law
in our own land, fully half of which is re-
Gently tanned wilderness; and it has been
thought by some careful observers that our
national danger might lie in the too sud-
den prosperity which enables the sons and
grandsons of the sturdy pioneer stock to
live like scions of the European nobility.
The Spanish American war, however,
proved that man might be able to take
part in a german and charge up San
Juan hill with equal ease and success, and
that men who had always been used to
ease and luxury could endure camp hard
ships with the same gayety as the West
ern cowboy. brought up in the saddle
1t has sometimes been said that the
salvation Of England is her empire, that
through the absolute necessity OF develop
ing and governing colonies the aristocrats
who might otherwise be loafing about
clubrooms and betting on the Derby, with
no further aim in all their well-fed lives,
have been made into a patient, plucixy, he
roic company Of administrators and SOL
diers who are doing service of inestimable
value in clearing UP the waste places of
the earth. Although there is no compari-
son between the tiny compass OF the Brit
ish Isles and the huge territory of the
United States, with It's varied interests
and nationalities, it looks very much as If