The progressive farmer and the cotton plant., 1905-06-13
Rut the Frontier is Gone.

I'm, IF civilization But was born too late.
The frontier is gone. There are no more worlds
70 conquer. Westward the course of empire has
made its way until civilization now circles the
oIobo Frank Norris has made this plain in an
interesting little essay-Egypt to Greece, Greece
20 Rome. and beyond the Alps, then recounting
tbe story of how we Anglo-Saxons left first the
FriesIand swamps and subdued the isles of Bri-
tain then troubling Europe in our restlessness
until the New World was found; to which we
nressed forward, subduing the eastern section,
setting up a new nation; then westward until
dash was made and the vanguard stopped at the
Golden Gate.
"But on the first of May eighteen hundred and
ninptv-eight, a gun was fired In the Bay or Ma
Mia. still further Westward. and in response the
skrmish-line crossed the Pacific still pushing the
Frontier before it. Then came a cry for help
from Legation Street in Peking and as the first
boat bearing its contingent of American marines
took ground on the Asia shore. the Frontier-at
last after so many centuries, after so many
marches. after so much fighting, so much spilled
blood so much spent treasure. dwindled down and
vanished: for the Anglo-Saxon in his course of
empire had circed the globe and had brought the
new civilization to the old civilization had reached
the starting point of history, the place from
which the migrations began. And the Frontier is
gone"
The Neglected Epic of the West.
This is the significance of the West. The affairs
of Manila and Peking were only after-spurts; and
it is here in fact that the great world-movement
of our race ended, and within our own time We
have seen the last chapter in the mighty age-long
drama. but do not appreciate its significance
as will our children thousand years hence.
"The prairie schooner will have as large a
place in the legends as the black. ship that bore
Ulysses home from Troy. And the sea meant as
much to our Argonauts of the SOS as it did to the
Ten Thousand"
But it was the Just lament of Frank Norris that
winning of the West. unlike the earlier great
race-movements. has brought forth no great epic
-noIad or Aeneid or Beowulf. And we all re-
member how in ''The Octopus" Presley, stirred by
the wastes of the deserts the sweep of the wheat
fields, the forgotten Indian towns the Ode Pro-
funds" of the old Spanish mission, longed to
write his great poem Of the West ooh, to put it
all into hexameters; strike the great iron note;
sing the vast, terrible song the song of the Peo-
ple the forerunners of empirep But always the
song in its fulness eluded him, as it must elude
all save those who knew at first hand this prime
val, tumultuous life of fifty years ago. n
Our Contribution to Western Development.
And we all the poorer because this Ameri-
can epic will never be written. Forfto the win
nng of the West nearly every neighborhood in
our country made it's contribution Ihave heard
my father speak, and doubtless you have heard
Your father speak. of So-and-so who "went West
IN the old days. One two of these men, l re-
member, were never heard of again. Perhaps they
perlshed by the way, as did many another On
perhaps they survived the privations of the long
Trip across the continent-insutfcient food the
attacks of savage Indians the quarrels with other
aoVenturers-only to perish after reaching the