The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-10-21
THE PIONEER

less sun.
And his muscles are huge from the work
He has builded his home where the
prairie wolves roam
He's the Hewer the Blazer of Trails
He is crude with the strength of the
From the hot barren wastes he is gath
For : nation that lives from the bounty
He's the Builder, the Winner of Ways
Where the silent wastes bake in the sum-
Where the forests are choked in the
By his l brain and i his s' Drawn a new nation
He goes forward to conquer new realms.
And the world has its heroes of lace and
gold braid,
80 waste they have a''I made; de- M ING
But the world little knows OF the debt
To the Hewer, the Blazer of Trails.
Clarence Richard Lindner in Leslie's
Weekly.
The End of Free Land
The west is now inclosed. The free
land has been taken up. There is now
no homestead to be had for the ask
ing. The frontier has only a historical
thing of the past. THE public lands
which now remain are chi ely arid in
character" says the public land COM
mission The opportunity for home.
which for three centuries has been open
to all. has finally been closed by title
deeds or fraudulently appropriated by
individuals and corporations in COL
fusion with the government.
The Enclosure Of the free public do
main terminates the greatest epoch in
American history. In a big perspective
it may be likened to the fall of Rome,
the opening up of new route to India
by Vasco da Cana or the discovery of
America by Columbus. 1t marks the
end of the westward drift of civiliza-
tion, a drift which, with occasional in
terruptiors. has been going on since
the beginning of history. Ever since
the seventeenth century the Old World
has had vent IN America. During
these centuries Europe has been re-
lieved of its discomfort by the broad
hospitable prairies of the west. Amor
lea has been a hospital for all of the
world. The opportunity which 1t Of
fered has relieved the explosive ele-
ments Of other lands and brought them
back into harmony with life.
An undertow is now setting back
upon the east. Population is crowding
in upon our cities The energetic wage
Garner, who formerly followed the
westward trail, is now entering the
trade union: Here he will find express
sion for the energy which formerly
found an outlet in the west. 1t Is this
that explains the present industrial I'M
rest. 1t is this that accounts for the
political ferment No longer can the
disconnected hope to improve his for
tunes in another longitude. He must
remain at home, become a tenant or a
wage Garner.
1t is this. too, that explains the COM
ing of poverty and distress. The alter
native of homestead in the west,
which for three centuries has relieved
the dispossessed of the world, is now
closed forever. It Is this that explains
the change which has come over iae
spirit of America during the last ten
years. And as time goes On this spiri.
OF unrest must Of necessity increase.
in this sense. as has been said, Amer
lea is the mirror of all history An
understanding of the evolution If our
own land offers key to an under
standing of the evolution of the west
ern world, from the beginnings of the
migration of the Greek colonists out of
the Peloponnesus into the Western
seas--F. c. Howe, in Scribner's.
Gymnast so Years Old.
After continuous service of SO
years. Lewis Lewis, instructor of calls
themes in Girard college, has resign
ed. Mr.. Lewis is 80 years old. and
finds it is too hard a strain to go
through the exercises he teaches. He
will retire at the end of this month.
in 1878, and hundreds of boys have
benefited by his instructions. His
classes have been composed of the
younger boys in the school, and from
him they have learned to count in
German, as the professor always gives
his directions in that tongue. His sue
cessor has not been named.
Mr.. Lewis is as active as he was 20
years ago, and still leads his classes
in their exercises. Every morning,
from $3.50 to IL o'clock, he is at the
college, and goes through all the
movements of the arms, legs and
body, in the German method of cal
isthenics. He also leads his classes in
desk exercises, which consist of using
two desks as parallel bars.
He is small and stockily built. He
is feet inches tall. and weighs 140
pounds. He has chest measurement
of AZ inches. His biceps are IA inches,
forearm 7 inches, calf IL inches, and
thigh 20 inches.
He attributes his activity and good
health to his exercises, and says that
he has never been sick a day in his
life. His retirement from active
teaching will not prevent him from
keeping up his exercises in a minor
degree, and he says that he depends
upon this for many more years of
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. North American,
Twelve Stitches in Heart
Michael Lawlor, of 1947 Hodlamont
avenue, whose heart was sewed with
twelve stitches after he had been
stabbed in a fight in Wellston, August
%, has practically recovered. He is
held at the city hospital that the sur
geons may watch his heart action for
a few days.
The remarkable operation is said to
have been the first of its kind ever
performed in st. Louis. On several
occasions incisions in the outer COW
ering of the heart have been closed,
but never before have stitches been
taken in the heart itself while it was
pumping blood.
AS soon as Lawlor was received at
the hospital. Supt. w. C. G. Kirchner
and Drs. Rodney Bunch and c. H.
ChI1ft narfOrrned no onaraffon n