Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1921-07-02
The Haskit1 Letter . ss1 asssss
CONCENTRATING MISSOURI.

| luton, and we have nothing to remem-
Der it by except few bad melodramas,
and few novels, most of which are
not much better. x
The exploration and conquest Of the
west is one of the most thrilling and
astonishing things in human history.
It has not produced single first
class novel or poem. An enormous
| cheap literature of paper back. novels
and magazine stories has been written
about it, which is one long Justification,
containing nothing OF the real quality
Of pioneer life. Buffalo Bills Wild
West show, perhaps, is the nearest
thing to q work of art that the western
movement produced.
OF late, there seems to have dawned
in this country a certain consciousness
of it's literary poverty. Critics tell us
that we are having literary awaken
ing. No doubt the great vogue Of his
torical pagents is part OF this
awakening. Missouri, perhaps without
share to this intellectual renascence by
digging up and celebrating her own his
tory. For the stuff which all of these
local historians and pageant writer's
will bring to light is the raw material
of art, and the interest which they
create is a force to sustain the ar
fist when he comes along.
Missouri's Stirring Past.
Missouri surely offers him a great
and unused opportunity. Missouri is
the heart Of America, and the Mis-
sissippi, which marks it's border, is
Americas great aorta. All Of the three
great races which helped in the con-
quest of the new continent-English
Spanish, French-sailed down this
great river, fought and explored, only
a few generations ago, over the ground
where Missouri's farms and cities are
today.
De Soto, La Sale, Lewis and Clark.
the Boones-such is the succession of
heroes who found the way to Missouri.
And when the eastern half of the con-
tinent had been subdued. Missouri be-
came the starting point for the ex-
ploration and conquest Of the western
half. Independence. now a quiet
suburb of Kansas City. was long the
starting point for the Santa Fee trail.
by which the Yankee and Spanish
parts of America were connected. This
road, over which for half a century
great commerce was carried on in wag-
ons. opened up the southwest and led
to the Mexican war. Thousands of Mis-
sourians Travelled over it. In fact, it is
doubtful If any state in the union fur
nished more of the pioneers for the
conquest and settlement of America
west of the great river. Missourians
fought in the Mexican war. too, for
kearney's command was made up
largely of them. A Missourian in those
days was a very distinctive kind of
man, famous for his racy speech. his
cautiousness. his marvellous command
over the reluctant mule and the deadly
rifle
I'm from Missouri and you gotta
show me" originated back in those
days. Those hardy gentlemen who
cleaned up the buffalo and kicked the
red man off the prairie were largely
from Missouri. Missourians and Tex
ans (most of whose parents came from
Missouri made up large part of the
band of pioneer cattlemen who brough.s
UP the first longhorn herds from Mex
leo, and made the first long drives to
the cow towns of lurid memory on the
Missouri river.
There is no room here to describe
the crucial part Missouri played in the
Civil War, nor the part she has played
since in the industrial and political life
of the country. Every great national
event has affected her. No state has
a story more significant, nor more typ
ically American. Missouri may well
be proud to tell it to the world.