Evening star., 1927-05-31

anu So NcIt liiilblS anu MIS-
souri, but the settlements were
all along the rivers and in the
timber belt. The prairies were given
over to wild game" said Uncle Joe
Cannon. True. the prairies were wet
r. and regarded as swamp land. but that
was not the main reason they were
slow in settlement. The people sought
the timber belts because they had
never known any other way of max
ing a farm hut by hewing it out of
the woods. No one dreamed in 1S40
that the great prairies of Illinois
would within half century become
the granary of the world and also pro-
duce more warmth and power from
the coal that lay under the rich black
soil than any other State in the
Union.
1.-The North Carolina Quakers
stopped in the timber belt along the
Wabash River, built their frontier set
Elements and spent years in preparing
the land for the plow. They soon
realized that they had made a great
sacrifice in giving up their homes in
North Carolina to carry out the prin-
ciples Of their faith, but they did not
ttillDtdltl VI "tdhGIt' iSS iIlhoC
their new settlement in the woods and
put behind them the comforts Of the
past, believing it was according to the
Divine plan, and l think it was
I wrote this out at the time Mr.,
Cannon said it. Many years later he
looked over what ! had written and
added a postscript TO this early chap
ter of his life by saying:
Disappointed i'm Progress.
"After the close of the long session
OF Congress, in 1922, with railroad
strikes tying up transportation. / con-
cluded again to trek to the West along
the old National Pike. AS We whirled
over splendid road in big touring
car 1 confessed my disappointment.
IT was not the picturesque highway
of 1910, and the scenes l held in mem.
ory could not be reproduced. The
wide sweep of the road, with its green
swards bordering it and the big syca-
more trees that shaded it, was gone,
as were the turreted culverts which
then rose like castle at every stream.
The taverns had disappeared. and
with them the taprooms and their
hospitality. A garage is more service.
able than a stable yard in these days,
but not so quaint. The land owners
had encroached on the right Of way.
building their fences up to the pave
ment, destroying some of the impres.
sion of roominess and opportunity for
resting by the side of the road to
watch the panorama of travel as It
moved in opposite directions-one of
the most pleasant diversions Of man.
II do not complain, but first impres.
sions of the National Pike do not har.
monize with present-day realities of
flying trip from Washington to Dan
Vile in an automobile. / got more |
fun out of the slow movements of an
emigrant train which Travelled four
months along the way that / did in
making the same journey by automo-
bile in four days. The old pike is for
quick travel now, and l drove 900
miles without seeing much save other
autos whizzing by in the opposite di.
rection: like most automobilists, we did
not permit any one TO pass us going
the same way. 1 was told afterward
that met old friends on the pike, but !
who could recognize friend or enemy |
in this mode of travel Of touch and |
go? I am under the impression that |
! saw more people in a mile in 1910 |
than did in 100 miles in 1922, and my
father had time to stop and talk and
get acquainted with hundreds of peo-
pie in 1910 where I could not stop for
anything but to take in gas for the
machine instead of for myself. / like
to retain the pictures of the National
Pike in 1870, for they were more ma.
tional than those along the road to-
day, more democratic and more CO.'S
mopolitan.
Greatest Transformation.
From Old Tippecanoe to Coolidge
has been the greatest transformation
ever wrought in the world in four
score years, surprising the dreams of
the most lively imagination, and that
transformation has been produced
largely by those who travelled West in
covered wagons and their descendants. 4
Thousands and thousands Of people
from the East and South made the
journey over that long road, inspired
by the sentiment expressed in an old
song, one verse of which I remember:
"'To the West, to the West, to the
land of the free,
Where the mighty Missouri rolls down
to the sea;
Where a man is a man IL he's willing
to toll.
Where the humblest may gather the
fruits of the soil
"The Wabash country was in a free
State, but there were many people
who had come from the South and
were not opposed to slavery. Some
like the Quakers had come to Indiana
because they detested slavery, but
others had come because they were
too poor 10 own slaves. The slave
holding immigrants went on across
SPECIAL. NOTICES.