Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1919-02-04

had prepared an atlas and geography
OF the Rocky mountain region extend
ins perhaps to the Pacific. but his
death occurred before its publication. .
Another foot note in T~itchelrs his
tory says of him: ON several occa-
sions his escapes from the Indians,
grizzly bears and from starvation Dor
dered on the miraculous"
But much more has been, learned
of Smiths career through the discov-
cry by Prof. Harrison c. Dale of the
University of Wyoming of his manu-
script letters and journals. and what
those letters and journals tell of him,
modestly mark him as having justi-
fled the high estimate placed upon
him by those who knew him
It is fact much to be deplored
that many Of our great national he
roes are as yet scarcely known out
side of comparatively small circle
of historical specialists. The reason
fer this is that when American his
tory as taught in our schools, ven
lures west of tho Mississippi, t gives
dispropo emphasis to the Of
and to the exploring trips of Fremont
whcreupon the interest is again alb
rnptly shifted 10 the Atlantic coast
or to the Great Lakes, Thus a vast
body of glorious epic material re-
mains unsupported by the pupil.
Anyone can recite the exploits of
Israel Putnam and Paul Revere; yet
these and their like were merely par
lor Adventures compared with the
heroes of the trans Missouri fur
trade during the second and third de-
cades Of the nineteenth ceutury.
For example in the spring uses,
General Ashley, who had gone With a
hundred men up the Missouri from
st. Louis the previous year with Major
Henry started with a hundred men,
trappers, to the headwaters of the
Missouri. In the roster of these two
parties are found the following
names; James Brldgcr William Sub |
lette Thomas Fitzpatrick, David Jack
son, Edward Rose. Hugh Glass. Seth
Grant, and Jcdediah smith Could
so much as one out of one hundred
thousand of the school children of the
United States recount any part of the !
history of one of these men? Yet it |
can be shown that they are the direct
and altogether worthy descendants. in
the grand epic line, of all the heroes
of the Aryan race that have been
celebrated in song and story from
Mesopotamia to California.
Aside from Smith, the name of
Bridger is the only one that appears
in New Mexico history. OF Smith
Colonel Twitchell says in a foot note
Jim Bridgcr was the most conspicu-
Gus figure among the old mountain |
GERS. He was a trail-maker in every
sense Of the word. The greatest fur
hunter and the greatest pathfinder
of them all"
me Wanderlngs of this group dur !
ing tho following fifteen years covered I
the entire west from the Missouri to
the Pacific and from Canada to Chi |
huahua; nor is there anything in the
epic literature of the past that excels
in sheer wonder-stuff the bare facts
of their experiences in the vast west
ern wilderness.
But the career of Jedediah Smith
was typical, He was as expert with
the Bible as with the rifle. and as Just
as he was fearless. In the larger
meaning of the time he was Homeric; |
and he managed to pack into his brief
life enough adventure TO make an
Odyssey lie was killed at the age
of twenty-siX.
Lonine and Trotzky still hang to-