The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1910-09-09
ROOSEVELT AMONG
THE CATTLE MEN
Attends the Great Frontier Days
Celebration at Cheyenne.
TALKS or VIRTUES CT WEST
pioneers and Their Successors Pos
SCISSORS Of Masterful Qualities
which Lie at Foundation Of Ma
tion,s Greatness.

tlon,s Greatness.
Cheyenne, Wyo.. Aug. a. - When
Colonel Roosevelt stepped from the
train at sioux Falls at 1925 this morn
ing he was greeted with the character
istic yell OF the range given BY q
thousand cowboys and cowgirls who
were on hand to act as an escort 70
the distinguished visitor. The shout,
so familiar to him in days of old, made
him laugh aloud in glee, and ne grasp
ed the hands of every one VINO could
get near enough to him.
Mr.. Roosevelt's visit and the speech
he delivered later in the day formed
the elimination Of the annual Frontier
Days celebration witch had attracted
to the city thousands of persons from
all parts of the west and large num-
Der of tourists from more distant sec
lions of the country.
Colonel RooseveIt's Speech.
Out in the open air, under the blue
sky, vast crowd assembled to hear
the former president speak, and 1t
heard one Of the most important
speeches he has made since leaving
the White House. His address was as
follows:
When, at the close of my hunting trip
in Africa, / reached the borders of civili-
cation, 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, be-
cause have a peculiar feeling for the
men and women of what used to be called
the Far West" and especially for those
of the cattle country. For a number of
years l lived on a ranch on the Little
Missouri, sharing work and play, good
fortune and bad fortune, with my neigh
bors; working on the roundup, serving
as delegate from the Little Missouri
roundup district to the Montana Stock
growers asT?ciation, and even at times
acting as eSlty sheriff at my end of the
county. I count those years as among
the most valuable Of my life, because
nothing breeds such community of feeling
as to work with ones fellowmen at their
life tasks, and to learn to know their
feelings by actually sharing them. The
man of the west, throughout the success
sive stages Of western growth. has al
ways been one of the two or three most
typical figures-indeed. I am tempted to
say the most typical hgure-In American
life. and no man can really understand
our country and appreciate what It really
Is and what It 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 the westerner is so good an
American. He Is an American first and
foremost; for this Is the great lesson,
friends. that all Of us need to learn and
TO keep, the lesson that It is unimportant
whether 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 DESTROYS to
uphold the interests of all other Ameri-
cans In whatever sections of the country
they may dwell
A hundred years ago when men spoke
Of the west they meant the country be-
tween the Alleghanies and the Mississippi.
Fifty years ago the white mans west
took In Minnesota. Iowa and Kansas, and
then skipped across to California and
Oregon. The country of the great plains
and the Rockies, the country in which
you whom I am now addressing lead your
lives and do your work, has grown up
within my own lifetime myself saw
and took part in the closing years of the
pioneer period, and It was my great priv
ilese to work side by side with the pio-
neers-the ranchmen, the miners, the
cow-punchers, the muie-skinners. the bull
whackers-who actually opened IN the
country. have seen the herds and floclxs
or the cattlemen and sheepmen suup'ant
the game; I have seen the fortunate
movement bv which the small farm has
tended gradually to take the place OF the
great unfenced ranch. I now travel b,
every comfort on RAILWAYS across lands
which. when I first rode across them
were still the home OF the, Indian and the
ouralo: and find cities where one can
obtain not merely comfort. but luxury in
the places where thirty years ago there
was not building beyond log hut mr. a
dob'e house. The men who did this wnrIr
were engaged in the final stages Of con-
ouerinS the continent: and 1t was their
privilege to do one Of the great WORKS ~
all time. to do their part IN the perfoTro-
ancr of an epic feat I'm the history ~ tbo
progress of mankind.