The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-07-01

to remember II by excen,
bad melodramas. and q ~ lev
most OF which are not much g:
ter. oet-
The exploration and conon..
the west is one Of the most So q
ing and astonishing things !, s4iiii-'
man history. 1t has NOT 80 - aa-l
q single first class novel ~ eaeedI
An enormous cheap litefs,.sseo eia
paper-back novels and - o.
stories have been written ar oa.ia 2
which is one long falsihcatIor y.
tanning nothing of the resl n-t eOh-i
OF pioneer life. Buffalo Biiss al,
West show, perhaps, ia tha r wa
est thing TO work of arr ~, ~
western movement produces me
or late, there seems i
dawned IN this country a eass ess |, |
consciousness of its literary -, sa,4
erty. Critics tell us that -. pof-
having a literary awakening
doubt the great vogue of his9o,,.ss.,
pageants is a part of this avail
ing. Missouri, perhaps without =
tending to do so, is contr;hr,t.a.
her share to this inteilac.nsss
renascence by digging up and nd, ~
ebrating her own history For a.
stuff which all these local hjs,ns s1
fans and pageant writers will hr;n.
to light is the raw material OF a.
and the interest which thew crssts
is a force to sustain the artist whee
he comes along.
Missourfs Stirring Past
Missouri surely offers him
great and unusued opportun,,v
Missouri is the heart of Americs !
and the Mississippi. which marks
its forder, is Americas great anrta
All of the three great races wh,ch
helped in the conquest of the new
continent-English, Spanish ana
French-sailed down this great
river, fought and explored. only 4
few generations ago, over the
ground where Missouri's farms ana
cities are today. De Soto. La SaIla
Lewis and Clark, the Boones
is the succession of heroes who
found the way to Missouri. And
when the eastern half of the con.
inent had been subdued, Missouri
became the starting point for tbe
exploration and conquest Of thu
western half. independence, nov
a quiet suburb of Kansas City, was
long the starting point for the
Santa Fe trail. by which the Yan.
kee and Spanish parts of America
were connected. This road, over
which for half a century a great
commerce was carried on in was.
ons, opened up the southwest and
led to the Mexican war. Thousands
of Missourians travelled over It. In
fact, it is doubtful if any state in,
the Union furnished more Of the,
pioneers for the conquest and set-'
tiement of America west Of the
great river. Missourians fought
the Mexican war, too. for Kearn-I
ey's command was made up largely
of them. A Missourian in thossI
days was a very distinctive kind OF
man, famous for his racy speech
his cautiousness, his marvellous
command over the reluctant muls
IuS llhC. III lADitii
Missouri and you gotta show me-
back in those days.
Those hardy gentlemen who clean
ed up the buffalo and kicked the
red man off the prairie we're large
" from Missouri. Missourians and
Texans (most Of whose parents
came from Missouri made up a
large part of the pioneer cattle
men who brought up the first long
horn herds from Mexico, and made
the first long drives to the COW
towns of lurid memory on the Mis-
souri, riven.
There is no room here to de-
scribe the crucial part Missouri
played in the Civil war, nor the
part she played since in the indus
trial and political life of the cou1-
Try. Every great national event.
has affected her. No state has ,
story more significant, nor more
American. Missouri may
we'll be proud to tell it to the Eorid.i