Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1927-04-01
(By MRS. M. e. PLASSMANN)

Aaf 4Nhkt)s "a As n
TOW many of us realize the great
debt we owe those men and
- women who preserved for us
through diaries, letters, or journals
the story Of the past?
These records varied in the man
ner in which they have come down
to us, from the diary of the always
entertaining Pepys, to the journal Of
Patrick Gass; but however written
whether in cipher, like that of the
former, or the poorly written, and
worse spelled manuscript of the lat
ter, they n and all enable us to see
their world as the writer's themselves
saw 1t.
We are too apt to underrate the i'm
portance, as we fail to grasp the signif-
canoe, of what transpires about us from
day to day, forgetting that what seems
commonplace now, will have added import
ance in the future.
The press of today, it may be claimed,
takes the place of yesterdays diarists. This
Is true only to a certain extent. The init
mate details of our present everyday life,
VIII be learned by coming generations
through the same means by which we are
able to reconstruct the past, by letters,
diaries and journals, These will be sup
plemented by realistic sketches, In the fu-
ture, as In the past.
The pen can describe the cowboy and the
Indian, but the brush Of a Russell, q Rem
ington, or a Paxon was necessary to make
us see them as they were. No description
can be as accurate as a picture for the
simple reason that no two minds can gain
from a written description precisely the
same impression.
Since the day when gold was discovered
in California, and all the western world
went mad with lust for the precious metal,
hundreds of books and pamphlets have
been written of the great rush to the gold
fields, and the long trek undertaken to
reach them. These convey an idea of 1t to
the reader Of today but nothing like what
1t does to the pioneers who followed the
trail of the Argonauts, and experienced
many of the hardships they endured.
1t is fortunate. then, that the Wisconsin
Historical Library, the repository Of so
much valuable information concerning the
Far West, has lately secured fifty pencil
and wash drawings, the work of an I'M
known artist, who was one Of those who
crossed the plains In 40.
An account of them, together with re-
productions Of a few of the pictures, was
recently given in the Milwaukee Journal,
to which we acknowledge Indebtedness. No
| Montana pioneer Of the Cos can see these
pictures, without recalling his own journey
over nearly the same route, when he visit
ed Fort Laramie and Fort Bridger, forded
the Platte, and climbed and descended
mountains iSoShapiihb oNoA
The acquisition Of these sketches is a
story In itself. DR.. Joseph Schafer, the
superintendent of the Wisconsin Library,
purchased them in Eugene, Oregon, from
c. r.. Adams, son of Rudolph Adams, who
Is said to have paid $1,000 for them nearly
seventy years ago. The journal says:
1.-The first definite knowledge Of the
sketches is that almost seventy years ago
they were sold by Daniel s. Durrie, a book
seller of Madison, to Rudolph Adams, a st.
Louis apothecary. Mr.. Durrie came out to
Madison from Albany, New York, In 1850,
and opened a bookstore. In 1856 he be-
came librarian of the State Historical Lii
brary, and retained the position until 1892.
1t Is considered likely that the sale was
made in the six intervening years. 1t was
the discovery that the sketches had been
for several years In Mr.. Durrie's possession
that led DR.. Schafer to suspect when he
bought them In October that they might
have a positive Wisconsin conneetlon-that
they might have been made by q Wisconsin
emigrant who, on his return, entrusted
them to Mr.. Durrie to SELL"