Los Angeles herald., 1910-08-28

sionally appIauded, his reference to
the progress of the western country
calling forth approval from the as
semblage.
CROWD SITS IN SUN
Patiently the great crowd sat under
the hot sun that beat down on the
broad plain in the midst of which the
park was located. Reading from his
manuscript, Colonel Roosevelt now ana
then departed from its text.
"I don't care" he said, "how patriot
ic a man is If he runs away in the
time of danger"
His reference to the punishment
that should be given wrongdoers In
public and private life was greeted
with cheers.
"If the rules of the game are wrong,
we should change the rules rather
than blame the men who follow them,
he said, amid yells of approval by the
cowboys and girls.
When the name of Frederic Rem
ington was mentioned in connection
with a suggestion that a great memo
rial be erected to the memory of the
artist there was a chorus of shouts.
Mrs. Remington, widow of the artist,
occupied a seat on the reviewing stand
as this reference to her late husband
was made.
Colonel Roosevelt said in part:
"When, at the close of my hunting
trip in Africa, reached the borders
of civilization, the first invitation !
accepted was this, to visit the capital
of wyoming on the day when the
people of the frontier came together
to commemorate their achievements;
/ was glad 1t was SO, because / have
q peculiar feeling for the men and
women of what used to be called the
far west and especially for those
of the cattle country.
LIVED ON RANCH
For a number of years 1 lived on
ranch on the Little Missouri, sharing
work and play, good fortune and bad
fortune, with my neighbors; working
on the roundup, serving as delegate
from the Little Missouri roundup dis
trict to the Montana stock Growers
association, and even at times acting
as deputy sheriff at my end OF the
country.
II count those years as among the
most valuable OF my life, because
nothing breeds such community or feel
ing as to work with ones fellow men
at their life tasks and to learn to
know their feelings by actually shar-
ing them. The man of the west,
throughout the successive stages OF
western growth, has always been one
of the two or three most typical fig
ures-indeed, I am tempted to say, the
most typical figure-in American life,
and no man can really understand our
country and appreciate what 1t really
is and what 1t promises unless he has
the fullest and closest sympathy with
the ideals and aspirations Of the west.
The prime reason for this Is to be
found in the fact that the westerner
Is so good an American. He Is an
American first and foremost; for this
Is the great lesson, friends, that all or
us need to learn and to keep-the les
son that it is unimportant whether a
man lives north or south, east or west,
provided he is genuinely and In good
faith an American, that he feels every
part Of the United States as his own,
and that he is honestly desirous to up
hold the interests of all other Amert-
cans in whatever sections of the coun-
try they may dwell.
MEN WHO MADE WEST
%The men who have made this great
republic of the west what 1t is, and
especially the men who have turned 1t
into a continental commonwealth, have
possessed in the highest degree the
great virile virtues of strength, cour-
age, energy and undaunted and un-
wavering resolution. Their typical
Ieaders-of whom Abraham Lincoln,
though the most exceptional, was the
most typical-have possessed keen in
telligence and a character not merely
strong but lofty, d character exalted
by the fact that great power was ac-
companied by a high and fine deter
mination to use this great power for
the common good, for the advancement
of mankind. The pioneer days are
over, save in few places; and the
more complex life Of today calls for
greater variety of good qualities than
were needed on the frontier.
Before ending wish to say a word
on something which I believe should
especially interest all men who live In
the open country, and especially all
men who during the past thirty years
have lived and worked on ranches, or
have done their life work in the wilder
parts OF our land, on the great plains
or among the mountains. The phase
of our national life in which the stock
man, the mining prospector, the from
tier farmer and their associates were
the chief characters was not only a
very important but also a very pic
turesque phase.
NO ARTIST TO COMMEMORATE
"Often such a phase passes without
any great artist arising to commemo-
rate it. The oldtime backwoodsman,
for instance, the man of the back
century who lived in the eastern for
ests through which the waters ran
eastward to the Atlantic and west
ward to the Mississippi, passed away
without any painter or sculptor arising