The daily sentinel., 1910-08-27

who have made this great republic of
the West what II is, and especially
| the men who have turned it into a
| continental commonwealth. have pos
sessed in the highest degree the great
virile virtues of strength. courage,
energy, and undaunted and unwaver-
ing resolution Their typical lead
| ers-of whom Abraham Lincoln,
| though the most exceptional, was the
| most typical-have possessed keen in
telligence. and a character not merely
strong but lifty, character exalted
| by the fact that great power was ac-
| companied by high and fine determ-
nation to use this great power for
the common good, for the advance
ment 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.
| There is need at present to encourage
the development of new abilities
which can be brought to high perfec-
tion only by a kind of training use
| less in pioneer times; but these new
| qualities can only supplement. and
| never supplant, the old homely yir-
| tues; the need for the special and dis
/ tinctive pioneer virtues is as great as
ever. In other words, as our civiliza-
| tion grows older and more complex.
while ii is true that we need to de-
'velop men whose lives are devoted
4 wholly to the pursuit of special OBJ
! jects, 1t is yet also true that we need
greater and not a less development
of the fundamental frontier virtues.
'Refore ending | wish 70 say a
UTn rI 4, ,l,,rr IL. l.
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 lands, 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 very pic
turesque phase. Often such a phase
passes without any great artist aris-
ing to commemorate il The old
time backw oodsman, for instance. the
man of the back country who lived in
the Eastern forests through which
the waters ran eastward to the At
| lantic and westward to the Mississip-
pi passed away without any painter
or sculptor arising who possessed at
once Doth the keenness of vision to
see what vital and picturesque fig
| ure the backWoodsman was, and the
the genius adequately to present that
| HSure. The artists who saw the pic
turesqueness of the backswoodsman
| lacked the genius adequately to COM
memorate it; while the artists of real
ability unfortunately had their eyes
turned towards Europe, and lacked
the robust which the
novelist Cooper showed-to see where
their chance lay to do a great work.
But in our generation, for our good
| fortune great artist arose who was
capable of seeing and of recording the
infinite picturesqueness of the life of
! the plains and the Rockies. OF course
I speak of Frederick Remington. He
was one of those Americans who by
his achievements distinctly deserved
well of America. He worked with
pencil, with brush, with chisel; he
was both painter and a sculptor.
His pictures and his few bronzes are
equally good. When my own regi-
ment. a typically Western regiment
recruited mainly from the men of the
| great plains and the mountains, was
! disbanded at Montauk Point, the Of
ficers and enlisted men Joined in Civ
/ ing me Remington's bronze Bronco
Buster; gift which / thought pc
l cuiiarly appropriate coming from
such body of men. In Remington's
| pictures all the most vivid and char
acteristic features of the Western
pioneer life which is Just closing were
set forth, and he has commemorated
forever the men of the plains and the
mountains as they actually were. The
cowboy is his favorite type, but the
mining prospector, the frontier farm
er, the man who guides ox-wagon or
mule team, the soldier, the Indian
| all appear. Now / wish very much
that these men themselves would in
turn PROVIDE a monument for the
/ great artist, the sum of which activi-
ties represents such a feature of Am
erican achievement, and, above all,
represents the commemoration of
some Of the most interesting figures
that have ever appeared on the stage
of American life. A statue should be
raised to Remington by some royalty
first-class artist. Here at Cheyenne
In this gathering many hundreds of
the men have come together who were
themselves typical leaders in, and
representatives OF, the very life which
Remington so portrayed that 1t will
always, live. I hope that these men
will join together, arrange the ap-
polntment of committee. and start
TO rp'se f"nds for the.srection Of such
q statue" ssf-s-s,,.. 49,, =,