The Falls City tribune., 1909-12-03

PIE WHO Hdu DIdNeu the flSOIS Vi
the wilderness to make homes and
asylums for themselves. became irk-
some in the extreme. Nothing of n
substantial character was accomplish
ed till after the successful revolt of
the English Colonies, and then be-
gan the greatest movement since the
Aryan emigration.
In the space of M hundred and
twenty-five years, thirty-three new
states have been added to the family
of the original thirteen, each an
empire in itself, and all together form
ing the strongest, freest, richest, hap
piest nation of people to be found any
where on the foot stool. When all this
was done, how it was done, and by
whom it was done, are matters of
familiar history, and may be known
by all.
| have been privileged to witness,
and in a humble way contribute to
the building of the moral and politi-
cal house of one of those new states,
but only in this wise, that whoever
forms a unit in the aggregate of a
community, digs a post hole and sets
a post therein, nails a board TO it to
fence a garden, builds a shack or a
house, or in any way adds a dollar
to the material wealth of the common
wealth, has done something for the
common purpose, and to that extent,
infinitessimal though it be, like a
single drop of water in the uncount-
able mass that make up the mighty
seas, | have, like all my co-workers
in the past generation, had a part
in making the waste places of an un-
inhabited region, to blossom as the
rose.
Whoever will look about him and
take note of the conditions surround
ing, can, with little effort of the i'm
agination, determine from what small
and rude beginnings they all sprang;
and what he finds true of things and
persons in his immediate vicinity, he
can readily know were true of every
other subdivision of the state. And
especially is this true if he happened
to have helped to make the conditions
what they are.
With the opening of the Nineteen
tn Century, the frontier in this coun-
try had reached and taken possession
of the Mississippi Valley. The sol
been of the adventurous kind, and,
that it was fraught with danger and
hardship at every step, seemed to
make the enterprise all the more al
Turing to them. There was 4 certain
unrestrained riotous freedom among
them, that set at d~efinance all con
yentional rules and refinements of
polite society, but in no society were
the rights of persons and property
more vigorously safeguarded than in
those wild and apparently reckless
communities. They had brought
something with them besides their
guns and axes. In the composition
of each, was a s%prinkling of another
and a better order, something of the
old home, not very well defined per-
haps, nor often needed, bit still there
to be one day brought to the surface
to do its office in the betterment of
the individual, when touched again
by that wizard influence that has
'sown the world anew with the frag-
of the garden.
In this same hoodlum aggregation
from Tennessee 10 northern Illinois,
one man became locally famous as a
preacher of the gospel. His name was
Peter Cartwright. Without other ed
ucation than that afforded by the
backwoods common school, he espous-
ed the profession of theology and
preached it after his fashion,
and according to his understanding of
the letter and spirit OF the gospel of
Christ, as its author had himself
preached it, in his brief s%ojourn on
earth. A giant in size and bodily
strength, coupled with a courage that
knew no such thing as fear, be could
preach, and fight rowdies, With equal
facility and equal success II was a
common practice in those rude times
for the lawless element to get drunk
and break up a camp-meeting as a
mere matter of riotous pastime.
But when Cartwright came upon the
scene, the experiment Was never
tried a second time. he was physi-
cally able to thrash a dozen rioters,
either in detail or all at once, and hav
ing performed that service to the
satisfaction of everybody but the dis
turbers of the meeting themselves on
one or two occasions the disturbances