Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1912-10-03
The Passing of the Range.

The Passing of the Range.
Eugene Register: The crowds
that have gathered at Pendleton this
week from all over the world to wit
ness the Roundup indicate how deep
a hold the romance of the western
ranges has upon people of all kinds
and all stations, and how tenaciously
they cling to the last remnants of
fast disappearing phase of western
life The appeal of the Roundup is
a wide one. 1t draws to Pendleton
people of all occupations and OF
widely varying interests. The atten-
tion of this mirror of a regretted
past is felt by wealthy tourists, whose
business is to see every famous exhi-
bition in the world, by small town
merchants, by farmers, and by labor
ing men alike. The fires of romance
slumber within the breasts of all of
us.
The life of the western range has
Iona been typical of freedom from
restraint, of familiarity with the
open, of association with the wide
plains and the towering mountains
in brief. of all of those elemental
longings and markings back that
even the most civilized of us feel at
times. Much of the glamour of the
plains exists only in imagination,
and arises rather from the gifted
pens of writer's of adventure stories
than from actual knowledge of the
conditions as they exist, it is true,
but this fact, even though it is dimly
realized by most peoplpe, does not
lessen the fascination.
1t is probable that large number
of the people who have witnessed the
feats of the Roundup have been
aware of a feeling of sadness-of
regret that an alluring phase of west
ern life is passing For it is passing.
Every year sees the breaking up of
some of the great ranges. Every
year the settlers plow is turning un-
der more and more of the soil that
has been in the past the grazing
ground of the long-horned steer, and
every year more and more of the
bunch grass and the sage brush is
giving way to wheat and alfalfa.
The change, of course, is one of
progress. The increasing number of
mouths must be fed and the methods
| vi lllG ldDSS WGlC IOO lOOoC anu wv
prodigal The farmer is able to sup
ply the demands for meat, and at the
same time can produce wheat and
other necessary grains from the land
that formerly provided only beef cat
tie.
In the past, the encroachment of
the settler has only driven the cattle
man farther westward. He has aban-
doned his old ranges, and has merely
moved on and conquered new ones
that were fully as good. In most
cases the change was pleasant rather
than otherwise, for the men of the
ranges have always been pioneers,
and the dangers and hardships to be
encountered in the winning of new
homes and new grazing grounds
have been an incentive rather than
an obstacle.
The old condition has passed, nev-
er to return. No more can the cattle
man blithely resign to the hester his
ranges and move on westward tC
newer and better grounds. There is
no more unconquered west. The
> limit has ben reached. The western
! horizon has been found.
The change is an economic one. II
is demanded by new conditions, anC
is inevitable. 1t means greater
, good to greatr number of people
!, Yet most of us cannot help viewing
. the passing of the old order with {
feeling of regret The life of the
range was mans life.
The success oof the Pendletor
Roundup is easily explained. 1t il
genuine. The country is overruI
with wild west shows and buckaroC
I exhibitions, but they are only shams
that seek to capitalize the romance
of the range. The Pendleton Round
up is real. The men who take par
in it are not mere paid performers
l whose business is to create an illu
sion. They are the old guard of =;
g romantic history that is making it
3 last stand