Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-01-08
THE GREAT TREK.
# Harrington Hawk-Eye. I

The Doors were wont to regale the
younger generation with stories of the
great trek. How they gave way to the
the Briton rather than to fight, and
moved out into the desert and the
wilderness to wrest 1t from the black
owner and to make new homes for
themselves there. The people have al
ways been on the trek. The earliest
legends, the slight indications that
have been carefully traced by men of
science, tell us the story OF the great
trek OF the Arians into Europe. The
men from the north trekked south
ward and overthrow the Roman ems
pire. And again at later period In
Vulnerable hordes out Of Asia trekked
Westward and for centuries the
strength Of Europe was wasted in the
defense of western civilization against
the invader. And then for other CEN
turtles millions from Europe trekkeS
toward Palestine and the orient and
they were not all actuated by the most
exaggerated religious motives either.
And as time rolled on and America was
discovered and Australia was found,
there has been a most marvellous drift
of population from the old world
to the new that Is still continuing at
a rate that exceeds anything Of ancient
times.
And here in our own country there
have been trek after trek. The first OF
les are still familiar figures in the
school books and in the histories for
grown children, and their trek was as
remarkable as that Of the Doors And
then there were many others all of abb
sorbing interest and each followed by
the marvellous development of hither-
to practically unknown country.
And now we are told that the last
of the tricks is now under way. From
all the states Of the northwest thous-
ands upon thousands are pouring into
the rich lands Of the British North
west territory. They had lain there
neglected, unknown, despised until
farmers and more especially Iowa
farmers CHANGED upon them, and since
these pioneers found that the soil and
the climate were unobjectionable there
has been Transformation effected in
those hitherto unknown and scarcely
mapped lands that is perhaps without
a parallel in the world. The opening
of new country in our west, the ban
ishment of the American desert were
magnificent achievements, but as the
world grows older she seems to work
with more feverish haste, and she has
more effective means and better tools
at her disposal. There are no sod
houses In the Canadian northwest. The
pioneer is not going to wait years for
results. He has the best Of everything,
the latest machinery, and he gets re-
turns Immediately. With unprecedented
speed this rich country is being filed
up and soon the land hungry will be
looking for other spots that have here
tofore been passed unnoticed by the
seekers after the best. And a new
United States will develop in that
rarely rich country. Whether the men
who trekked to the Canadian northwest
in the early years of the twentieth
century will ever cease to be good
Americans who can presage? But per-
haps it is reasonable to assume that
the latest and one of the most remark
able Of the tricks has not been made
with the purpose of enriching another
country, but rather with the object
of adding to our possessions what the
neighbors never used and deemed
worthless.