The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-08-28
Cheyenne Celebrates DOubly
In Extending Welcome to
Former President
COWBOYS, INDIANS AND
PLA|NSMEN ARE PRESENT
Roosevelt In His Address Pays Tribute
to Frederick Remington and Sug-
gcsts a Great Memorial to be
Built BY the Cowboys
BY HOMER DAVENPORT

Cheyenne, Wyo. August N.-(Speeial)-
Into the midst of a picturesque setting.
representing the old frontier days of the
west Col Theodore Roosevelt, former
President of the United States, made
trumphal entry today, shook hands with
old friends, looked upon the old scenes.
reviewed a parade and delivered a speech.
not to mention eating a luncheon ten
dered him by pubie-spirited citizens OF
Cheyenne, dinner given by the gov
ernor of Wyoming. and a greeting from
cowboys, soldiers and Indians.
| The west is near to the heart of the
former President and he showed 1t plain
| ly in his speech and his joyous manner
Of entering into the spirit of the occa-
sion.
| The eX-President applauded and used
every word in his emphatic vocabulary
in expressing his pleasure over the scenes
of the afternoon when he watched cow
roping contests and buckng broncho COM
petitions and COW pony races, all Incl
dental to the ante celebration of frontier
days.
In his speeches the former President
dwelt upon the debt which the nation
owes to Frederick Remington, the artist
who perpetuated in bronze and upon cam
vas the typical scenes of the old west
when cowboys galloped over the plains
and wild steers and buffalo as plentiful
as chickens and pigs are today
Lost Opportunities
Colonel Roosevelt spoke of the lost op-
portunities of early artists and then re-
ferred to Mr., Remington by saying;
! But In our generation, for our good
fortune, great artist arose who was
capable Of seeing and recording the in
finite picturesqueness of the life plains
of the Rockies. or course, I speak OF
Frederick Remington"
The biggest and the best Of the wild
west shows marks the passing of the
gold days. The sheepman and his hered-
itary foe, the ranchma.l. now shake hands
over barbed wire fences and the low
grades that lead up to the summit of
the Rockies have lost their romance of
round-ups and stampedes. Instead, rail-
road tracks cut up the plains and the
foothills and the most romantic of the
Rocky buttes are seen through strands
of telephone and telegraph wires.
But the passing of the old west has
not dimmed Colonel Roosevelts love for
it, His memory of the old days when
he ran a ranch In upper Dakota will
ever be green and consequently his af-
fection for western men, manners and
institutions will live with him through
out his natural life.
Begins His Speech
Colonel Roosevelt started his speech
by saying that after. leaving the jungles
of Africa the first invitation he accepted
was the one inviting him to Cheyenne.
Il was glad it was So" said he be
cause l 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 1 lived
a ranch on the Little Missouri, sharing
work and play good fortune and bad
fortune with my neighbors. The man
of the west, throughout the successive
stages of western growth, has been and
always will be one of the most typical
hgures-indeed, | am tempted to say
the most typical figure in American life
and no man can really understand OAR
country and appreciate what 1t really
10 and what 1t promises unless he has
the fullest and closest sympathy with
the ideals and aspirations of the west.
"The west stands for growth and
for progress. SO must the VIII ole Amer
ican people stand. A great democracy
must be progressive or it will soon
cease to be either great or democratic.
No nation, no state, no party, can stand
still 1t must either go forward or
go backward and 1t becomes useless
If 1t goes backward. Therefore, I greet
you, men of the west and / stand for
progress as all men must stand who
are progressive.
The Pioneer Days
1.-The pioneer days are over save in
la few places, and the more complex
life of today calls for a greater variety
of good qualities than were needed on
the frontier. There is need at present
time to encourage development of new
abilities which can be brought to high
perfection only by kind OF training
useless in pioneer times, but these
new qualities can only supplement,
never supplant the old homely virtues:
the need for the special and distinctive
pioneer virtues is great as ever.
"The artists who saw the pictur-
esqueness OF the backwoodsman lacked
the genius adequately to commemorate
1t. while the artists of real ability un-
fortunately had their eyes turned to-
ward Europe and lacked the robust
originality-which the novelist Coop
er showed-to see where the chance lay
| to do a great work. But In our gen.
Grafton, for our good fortune, a great
artist arose who was capable of seeing
and recording the infinite picturesque
ness of the life of the plains and the
Rockies OF course l speak of the
Frederick Remington.
I'm Remington's pictures all the most
vivid and Characteristic features of the
western pioneer life which is just clos.
ing were set forth and he has COM
memorated forever the men of thee
plains and the mountains as they actuA
ally were. M
Now, l wish very much that thu
men themselves would in their +
provide monument for the
artist, the sum of whose activities
resents such a feature of Am~
achievement and, above all, repoi
the commemoration of some of
interesting figures that have lA
peared on the stage of Amer -
II hope that these men WILL
gether, arrange the appointAz
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