Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1927-09-02
PIONEERS OF STATE SUFFERED
MAINLY UNTOLD HARDSH0PS

buffalo chips having to supply the lack.
Then came the glorious evenings in the
mountains where fuel was plentiful. and
seated around great camptires. stories
were told. songs were sung and any IN
strument available from q jewsharp or
mouth organ to banjo or fiddle played.
This was genuine pioneering, unknown
TO the sybarites h elected to make the
journey by coach. No wonder those were
regarded by other pioneers with what
bordered on contempt.
Those happy days Of which I speak
are gone forever. or the original pioneers
but few remain. our society. today. be-
ing largely composed Of those coming
about twenty years later, or of honorary
members. No matter what these are
called they can never be Montana
pioneers.
For myself, I crossed the plains to be
sure, hot in a Connestage wagon. which
had then gone out of fashion. but In
one of the army type drawn by oxen.
There were some disagreeable features
mails. The road through the mountains
gnats, heat and dust. rattlesnakes, hail
and thunder storms; but these might
be encountered today in a summers
outing.
For me. the whole three months
jaunt from Omaha TO Bannack, was
but a prolonged picnic. l never lost
sleep from fear of indians or wild ami
Of the journeymosquitoes. files, buffalo
of Lander's cutoff was a constant delight.
| had never seen mountains before we
passed through the small chain of the
Laramie. hose of the Wind River were
the real thing and teemed with sur
prises.
Warned not to go out of sight of the
train. l repeatedly disobeyed there where
the danger from Indians mac greatest IF
was unalloyed pleasure all alone to fol-
low the course of a clear mountain
stream on its laughing way to join the
Snake in its swift course to the Colum-
bia. to gather strange flowers. and
listen to the signing of the pines. There
was something new to see and hear
daily.
And when we were at length at Ban
mack, I experienced no difficulty in adj
justing myself to the new life. filled as it
was with deprivations. Books were few.
and l was an omniverous reader. What
books there were passed from hand to
hand. I read everything I could get
hold of. and was in this way introduced
to some choice literature l might not
have read had books been more plentiful.
Even the Spectator of Addison and Steele
gave the thirteen-year-old girl. which
was myself. unlimited pleasure.
My life in Bannack knew no actual
hardship. and is become. with the pas
sage Of years-sixty-four of them
nothing but a pleasant memory, although
| can recall wildly both Vigilante Days
and Ways.
Because I was young when I came to
Idaho, | therefore esteem 1t q privilege to
be counted among the 0 fide pioneers,
men and women who sacrificed much to
come here and who eventually laid the
foundation nf tho prpat nfafa nf Mon
tana, the third in size OF the United
States. To those pioneers-the real
ones-I dedicate these rhymes, prefacing
them with the explanation that O favor
lite slang phrase in Bannack used to be
Il amt no sardine, If I did come in a
tin box" which sentiment shared In
popularity with faint me, but old
WHITEHEAD" I never learned the origin
OF either expression.
Montana Pioneers
They did not come West for their health;
They came, 1t may be, to gain wealth.
But the came
Just the same.
Whatever their motives might be.
The point that effects you and me
Is. they came
Just the same
BY river, and mountain, and plain,
Few were there who thought to remain
Just the same
Here they came.
Their dangers and h%ardships were great,
These staunch ones who founded
state
So we claim
When they came.
They builded through all the long years,
And now they are called Pioneers.
Theirs the fame,
For they came.
And should you ask one here today,
How is 1t you happened to stay
That your aim
when you cameo"
Yould hear him exclaim What dye
meant
81 reckon I amt no sardine
Just the same,
Though l came.
IT knew a good thing, so I staid,
And that's how my fortune was made.
Just the same"
"Glad I came
Dun pioneers, all must admit
Exemplify Judgment and grit,
They were game:
Hence they anne.