The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1913-07-19
A Trip Into the West.


On the list of September, 1884, with
Dr.. Craik for company. he set out on
horseback to go by Braddock's road
again into the west.
For nearly five weeks he was deep
In the wilderness, riding close upon
seven hundred miles through the for
ested mountains, and along the remote
courses OF the long rivers that ran in
to the mississippi; camping out as in
the old days when he was surveyor
and a soldier in his premiership in
these very wilds; renewing his zest
for the rough life and the sudden ad-
ventures Of the frontiersman.
But, though he had come upon his
own business, it was the seat Of q fu-
ture empire he saw rather than his
own acres scattered here and there.
"A Different Washington.
When last he had ridden the long
stages from settlement to settlement
and cabin to cabin in this far country
Of the Ohio, he. had been Virginian
and nothing more, a colonial colonel
merely, come to pick out lands for his
comrades and himself. their reward
for serving the crown against the
French.
. A transformation had been worked
upon him since then.
He had led the armies of the whole
country; had been the chief instru'
ment of new nation in winning indie.
pendence; had carried its affairs by
his own counsels as no other man had
done; had seen through all the
watches of those long campaigns the
destinies and the hope that were at
stake. Now he saw the crowding i'm
migrants come into the west with a
new solicitude he had not felt before.
A new vision was in his thought.
This western country was now q
"rising world" to be kept or lost,
husbanded or squandered, by the raw
nation he had helped put upon its
feet. His thought was stretched at
last to a continental measure; prob.
lens OF craftsmanship that were ma
tional, questions of policy that had
scope great as schemes of empire,
stood foremost In his view.
: He returned home more engrossed
than ever by interests not his own,
but central to public affairs, and of
the very stuff Of politics.
A Stream Of Letters.
And so not the letters merely which
poured in with every mail, not only
his host Of visitors, great and small
the governor Of the state, the presi-
dent Of congress-, foreign noblemen.
soldiers, diplomatists, travellers. neigh
bors, friends, acquaintance, intruders
but his own unbfdden thoughts as
we'll, and the very suggestions Of his
own interest as a land citizen and
landowner, drew him from his dreams
of retirement and forced him upon the
open stage again.
: - Gives Up Hunting.
Even hunting ceased before many
seasons were out. The savage boar
hounds which Lafayette had sent, in
his kindness, from the Old World,
proved too fierce and great breed
for even the sharp sport with the gray
fox; the old hunting companions were
gone-the Fairfaxes over sea; Belvoir
deserted and burned; George Mason
too much engaged-none but boys and
strangers left to ride with.
Twas poor sport, after all, without
the right sportsmen. It must needs
give way before a statesman's cares.
A New Sense Of Responsibility.
Upon his first Homecoming, Wash.
ington had found it hard to break
himself of his habit of waking very
early in the morning with sense of
care concerning the affairs of the day,
as If he were still In camp and in the
midst of public duties.
Now a new sense of responsibility
possessed him, and more and more
gained ascendency over him. He be.
gan to feel deep anxiety lest weak
government should make independ.
ence little better than a reproach, and
the country should fall into a hope
less tmpotency.
At first he had been very sanguine.
Notwithstanding the jealous and con-
tracted temper which seems to pre-
vail in some Of the states," he wrote
20 s4 ,ons$e1" cahH5e h5 5at h tS ana 5s
deve that the good sense of the people
will ultimately get the better Of their
prejudices. and that order and sound
policy, though they do not come so
soon as one could wish, will be pro-
duced from the present. unsettled and
deranged state of public affairs. :.
. Everything, my dear Trumbull, viii
come right at last, as We have often
prophesied. My only fear ts that we
shall lose little reputation first"
But the more Washington observed
the temper Of the time, the more I'M.
easy he grew.
Like young heir" he cried. "come
, little prematurely to a large 1nheri-
lance, we shall wanton and run riot
until we have brought our reputation
to the brink Of ruin, and then, like
him, shall have to labor with the cur
rent OF opinion, when compelled, per-
.haps, to do what prudence and COM
mon policy pointed out as plain as any
AH H. l.