The daily sentinel., 1912-07-05

years. Years ago, when the settlers
of you came on in advance of the
wave of civilization. 1t is said that
the early pioneers of the west all
were brave and hardy people because
the timid never started and the weak
died on the way.
Pioneers Were Heroes.
| am not a pioneer. | can never
hope to be numbered with those who
laid the foundations, of this great
state. The best | can aspire to is to
be considered worthy to help carry
on their work. / am not easily NOV
ed through my sympathies, but the
thoughts that come to me as | con-
slider the life of the pioneer are
strangely affecting. | regard the
men and women who blaZed the trail
into this valley as heroes.
l stood one day on the famous bat
tlefield on the Little Big Horn in
Wyoming where General Custer,
hemmed in by the savage Sioux,
went with the Seventh Cavalry to
their death. AS | gaZed at the dis
tant brown hills that circles the last
resting place of that gallant band,
and thought how ineffably sad was
their tragic death in that lonely land,
country that had such soldiers as
these to guard with their lives the
outposts of its frontier.
Their deaths were not in vain for
their heroic deeds have been told
in song and story for the admiration
of the world. Monuments may mark
where they fell and today a grateful
people dwell in peace and safety in
the region preserved by their daunt-
less deeds
A year ago | was over in one of
the beautiful mountain parks of this
western slope, and | saw where an
other hero had planted an outpost of
civilization and blazed the trail for
US to follow. IN little valley rich
with waving grass Colorado pion-
eer and his wife had spent the best
years of their lives. In the early
days of their struggle in this new
country one of the horses died and
this dauntless man had hitched a COW
in its place He grubbed tie tough
sage brush; he stirred the stubborn
soil with his plow; he brought out
his ditch over interminable miles of
rocky hillside.
He worked and waited for 80 years
and finally sold out for what to him
was a fortune. His wife, broken by
her labors. sank under the burden
and went to sleep, just as the enjoy
ment of the reward of their toll was
near. The man, unstrung from his
privations in the long, long years, lost
his mind.
These two, in life and death, were
heroic. No bugle summoned them
to that grim conflict with nature. No
monuments mark where their bones
are laid. Yet they gave up their
lives for their country as truly as
soldiers who fall in battle.
When next | stand in historic
places where memorials of bronze and
marble tell of a peoples reverence
for those who died that we might
have security and enjoyment in our
day, | shall think of those two aged
pioneers, sinking to sleep, leaving
that valley beautified by their lives
of toll for others to enjoy. The kind
of heroism that makes the strongest
appeal to me is the steadfast heorism
of that lonely man and his strangely
mismated team turning the first fur
rows in the vast silences of the un-
peopled frontier.
Colorado is Well Fed.
A friend of mine told men when
was starting over here that this was
supremely great occasion on which
to deliver a Fourth of July address.
Colorado is filled with vague un-
rest" said he, THE state is stirred
to it's very center with feelings never
felt before"
Perhaps this is true, yet l see no
reason why, on beautiful day like
this. l should spend my time and