Bisbee daily review., 1920-01-13

and am greatly interested ln 1t. How wonderful in its rapidity of move ment has been the history of our coun- try. compared with the history of the old world. For untold ages this river had been flowing through the lonely continent, not very greatly changed since the close of the Pleitecene. Dur ing all these myriads of years the prairie and the forest came down to it's banks. The immense herds of the buffalo and the elk wandered along them season after season, and the m dian hunters on foot or in canoes trudged along the banks or sklInmed the water. Probably a thousand years saw no change that would have been noticeable to our eyes. Then three centuries ago began the work Of change. For a century it's effects were not perceptible. Just nothing but an occasional French feet or wild, half-savage French-Canadian ex- plorer passing up or down the river or one of its branches in an Indian canoe; then the first faint changes, the building of one or two little French fur traders hamlets, the pass ing of one or two British officers boats, and the very rare appearance of the uncouth American backwoods- man.
 Then the change came with rush. Our settlers reached the head-waters of the Ohio, and flat-boats and keel boats began to go down to the mouth of the Mississippi, and the Indians and the game they followed began their last great march to the west. For ages they had marched back and forth, but from this march there was never to be return. Then the day of steamboat traffic began, and the growth of the first American cities and states along the river with their strength and their squaIor and their raw pride. Then this mighty steamboat traffic passed its zenith and collapsed, and for a generation the river towns have dwindled compared with the towns which took their i'm portance from the growth of the rail roads. I think of it all as pass down the river.
 October i've are steaming down the river now between Tennessee and Arkansas. The forest comes Gown a little denser to the bank, the houses do not look quite 80 well kept; other- wise there is not much change. There are a dozen steamers accompanying us, filled with delegates from various river cities. The people are all out on the banks to greet us still. More over, at night, no matter what the hour is that we pass town, it is gen. orally illuminated, and sometimes whistles and noisy greetings, while our steamboats whistle III equally noisy response, so that our sleep is apt to be broken. Seventeen gov ernoTs of different states are aiong. in boat by themselves. have seen a good deal of them, however, and it has been of real use to me, especially as regards two or three problems that are up. At St. Louis there was an enormous multitude of people out to see us. The procession was in a drenehing rain, in which I stodd bare headed, smiling affably and waving my drowned hat to those hardy mem bers of the crowd who declined to go to shelter. At Cairo I was also greet cd with great enthusiasm, and l was interested to find that there was still extreme bitterness felt over Dickens description of the town and the peo- pie ia Martin Chuzzlewit" 65 years ago.
 Copyright 1919, Charles scribner's
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