Wallowa chieftain. [volume] (Joseph, Union County, Or.) 1884-1909, 1902-02-20
THE RIFLE AND AK.
What a Story They Can Tell of the d.
veIopment of the West.


The settlement of the West will ~
WAYS be a subject of deep interest 10
Americans In the Century the matter
is interestingly handled in the first Of a
series of articles which will deal with
the upbuilding of that great empire
and graphic pen pisSure is given Of
that restless pioneer who turned hi.
face toward the setting sun.
Let us picture, says the writer, this
first restless American, this west
bound man. We must remember that
there had been two or three full Amer.
can generations to produce him. this
man who first dared turn away from
the seaboard and set his face toward
sinking of the sun, toward the dark
and mysterious mountains and forests
which then encOmpassed the least re.
mote land fairly TO be called the West
Two generations had produced man
different from the old world type. Free
air and good food had given him abun.
dant Drawn. He was tall, with Anak
i'm his frame. Little fat cloyed the free
play of his muscles. and there belonged
10 him the heritage of that courage
which comes of good heart and lungs.
He was Il splendid Tan to have for an
ancestor. this tall and tiorid athlete
who never heard of athletics. His face
was thin and aquillne, his look high
and confident, his eyes blue. his speech
reserved.
This was our American. discOntented
to dwell longer by the sea. He had two
tools, the AK and the rifle. With the
one he built, with the other he fought
and lived Early America saw the in.
vention of the small-bore rifle because
there was need for that invention. II
required no such long range in those
forest days, and it gave the greatest
possible amount of results for its ex.
penditure Its charge was tiny. its pro
vender compact and easily carried by
the man who must ecOnOmiZe in every
ounce of transported goods; and yet its
powers We're wonderful Our early
American could plant that little round
pellet in just such spot as he liked Of
game animal or red-skinned enemy,
and the deadly effect of no projeetile
known to man has ever surpassed this
one, if each be weighed by the test Of
economic expenditure This long, small.
bored tube was one of the early agents
of American civilization. The condl.
tiOns of the daily life of the time de.
manded great skill in the use of this
typical arm, and the accuracy OF the
early rltiemen of the West has proba.
bly, never been surpassed in popular
average by any people of the world
Driving a nail and snuffing candle
with a rifle bullet were common forms
of the amusement which was derived
from the practice of arms.
When the American settler had got
as far West as the plains he needed
arms of greater range, and then be
made them; but the first two genera.
tiOns of the westb bound had the buck,
skin bandOleer. with it's little bullets,
its little mOlds for making them. its
little worm, which served to clean the
Interior of the barrel with a wlsp Of
flax, its tiny flask of precious powder
its extra flint or so. The American
rifle and the American ax-what his
tory might he written of these alone!
They were the sole warrant for the
departure Of the outbound man from
all those associations which had held
him to his home. He took some sweet
girl from her own family, some mother
or grandmother of you or me, and be
took his good AK and rifle and he put
his little store on raft or pack horse,
and so he started out; and God pros
pered him. In his time he was staneh,
industrious man. a good hunter. a stur'
dy chopper, a faithful lover of bis
friends. and stern hater of his foes.