Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1910-08-31

| qualities than were needed on the FROM
| tier. There is need AT present to en-
courage the development of new abilities
which can be brought to high perfection
only by a kind of tracing useless IN pio-
neer times; but these new qualities can
only supplement, and never supplant, the
old, homeiy virtues: the need for the
special and distinctive pioneer virtues is
as great as ever. In other words as our
civilization grows older and more com
pick while IL is true that we need new
forms Of trained ability. and need to de-
yelop men whose lives are devoted wholly
to the pursuit Of special objects, 1t is yet
also true that we need a greater and not
less development Of the fundamental
frontier virtues. These virtues include
the power Of self-hetp, together with the
power Of Joining with others for mutual
help. and. what is especially important.
the feeling OF comradeship. of social good
fellowship. Any man who had the good
fortune to live among the old frontier
conditions must. in looking back, realize
how vital was this feeling Of general
comradeship and social fellowship. There
are good men and bad men. In the new
communities just as in the old comm uni
ties. and the conditions on the frontier
were such that the qualities Of the good
and bad alike were rather more strikingly
manifested than in older communities.
but among the men who tried to lead
feeling OF genuine democracy, which rep
resented an approach to the American
Ideal which we certainly should do ev-
erything In our power to preserve. We
did not try to say that men were equal
when they were not equal. but we did
our best to secure something like an
equality of opportunity and an equality of
reverb for good service: and moreover,
each man expected TO be received. and.
on the whole. was received wherever he
went, on the footing that his merits war
ranted.
Now so far as possible these qualities
and conditions that bring about these
qualities should be kept in the great
states which are growing out Of the old
frontier communities. We need to strive
for the general social betterment of the
people as a whole. and yet to encourage
individual liberty and set high reward
on Individual initiative up to the point
where they become detrimental to the
general welfare.
Wrong Doors and Wrong Systems.
In continually and earnestly striving for
this betterment of social and economic
conditions in our complex industrial civil
lization. we should work in the old from
tier spirit OF brotherly comradeship and
good will. I do not mean that we should
refrain nom hating wrong; on the con-
trary / would preach frey wrath
against wrong. But / would not preach
such wrath against the wrong doer. save
in those cases where his wrong doing
really is due to evil moral attributes on
his part and not to a wrong or false sys-
tenn. Of which he is almost as much the
victim as the beneficiary. Sometimes
wrong represents the deliberate wicked
ness OF the wrong door. In which case
the remedy is TO punish him, but some
- A,N~
social system, in which case the right
course is to alter what is false in the
system. Both principles need to be kept
In view as guides to our conduct, and IL
is necessary sometimes to work in ac-
cordance nth one and sometimes in &C
cordance with the other
Before ending l wish to say word on
something which I believe should espe-
cially 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 stockman. the mining
prospector, were the chief characters. was
not only a very important but alse a
very picturesque phase. Often such q
phase passes without any great artist
arising to commemorate it,
The old-tIme backwoodsman, for in
stance. the man of the back country
who lived in the eastern forests through
which the waters ran eastward to the
Atlantic and westward to the Mississippi
passed away without any painter or
sculptor arising who possessed at once
both the keenness of vision to see what
a vital and picturesque figure the back
woodsman was. and the genius adequate
ly 70 present that figure. The artist who
saw that picturesqueness of the back
woodsman lacked the genius adequately
to commemorate II. while the artists of
real ability unfortunately had their eyes
turned towards Europe and lacked the ro-
bust originality which the novelist Coop
er showed-to see where their chances lay
to do great work. But in our genera
ton. for our good fortune great artist
arose who was capable of seeing and of
recording the infinite picturesuueness Of
the life of the plains and the Rockies
Eulosy Of Remington.
OF course I speak OF Frederic Rening
ton. 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 a
painter and a sculptor. His pictures and
his few hronzes are equally good. When
my own regiment a typically western
regiment recruited mainly from the men
OF the great plains and the mountains,
dtSha pded af MNufatlk pospf fha ofN.