Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1907-09-21
=wssR or THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
THE WEST is FADING

A few years ago-in the course of
associated with freedom, wildness,
a region different from other sec
tions of the country, through its I'M
peopled state and its closeness to
nature. Within the memory of pres
ent residents of the west, there was
no settlement west of the Red river,
byond occasional hunters and trap
pers and the military posts of the
government, established to protect
frontier settlers and to maintain a
guard for the builders of the rail-
roads. Within the memory of pres
ent residents of the west, there were
no farms, no. ranches, no habitations
of any sort west of the Missouri river
Tor hundreds of miles. Today this
condition has changed. It may be
said, almost, that there is no west,
no frontier. The Indian has to all
intents and purposes, disappeared.
The bison, companion with the In
dian, has been sexterminated. The
rancher and the farmer have peopled
the west, and the pioneer who yearns
for the return of the old conditions
must be disappointed. In this con-
nection, the following verse, written
by Mr.. Foley Of the Tribune, and re-
Gently. published in the New York
Times, will bring a sympathetic note
i to many a pioneer:
Sunset on the Prairies
They have tanned with their har-
rows; they have broken with their
pIows;
/ Where the bison used to range it
some ones built himself a house;
They have stuck it full of fence
@ posts; they have girdled it with
Wirss
They have shamed it and profan-
cd 1t with an automobile tire;
They have bridged it's quilted riVens;
they have peopled it with men
They have churched it, they nave ma,
schooled it, they have steep|led II
Amen.
They have furrowed it with ridges
they have seeded it with grain,
And the west that was worth know
ing Il shall never see again.
.6 They have smothered all its camp
fires, where the beaten plainsman
slept, ]:
they have driven up their cattle
where the skulking coyote crept;
They have made themselves a pas,
ture where the timil deer Woule
browse,
h Where the antelor,e were ferallns
they have dotted Ger with cows;
There's yoEel's tuneless whis tl5ns
down the bison's winding trail,
q Where the redman's aTroN futteret
there's "a woman with pail
Driving up the cows for milking
they have cut its wild extent
into forty-acr.e patches till its g'''' f'
is all spent. 81
i remember in the sixties, when a
far ash could see,
1T had never lord or ruler but tn
buffalo and NE;
Ere the blight of man was on i
and the endless acres lay
Just as God Almighty left them q
the restful Seventh day
When no sound rosss from its yasi
ness but murmured hum and dir
Like the echoed void Of Silence
an unheard Prairie hymn;
And / lay at night and rested in N
led OF blankets eurled 81
Much alone as II was the only ma
in all the world.
But the prairie's passed, or passinI
with the passing OF the years.
Till there LIS no West worth knoN
ing and there are no Pioneers;
They have riddled It with railroad
throbbing on and on and on,
They have ridded it of dangers =
the zest Of 1t is gone;
And I've saddled up my pony, +
I'm dull and lonesome here,
no go Westward, Westward We
ward, till we find new Frontie
no gel back TO Gods own wiidne
and the skies we used to know
EHs there IL no Vest It's eonquer'
4@fld i don't know where to go.
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