L 
 
 BANCROFT 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 I 
 
RANCH LIFE 
 
 AND OTHER SKETCHES 
 
 By 
 Michael Hendrick Fitch 
 
 Author of 
 
 "Echoes of the Civil War as I Hear Them" 
 
 "The Physical Basis of Mind and Morals" 
 
 "The Chattanooga Campaign" and 
 
 "Universal Evolution" 
 
 PUEBLO 
 
 THE FRANKLIN PRESS COMPANY 
 1914 
 
777 
 
 Copyright. 1914 
 By MICHAEL H. FITCH 
 
u. c. 
 
 ACADEMY OF 
 
 PACIFIC COAST 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PUEBLO AND ITS ENVIRONMENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Colorado in 1870 9 
 
 Ranch Life in Colorado 24 
 
 Historic Pueblo 88 
 
 Pioneers - - - - - - - - - -115 
 
 The Old Santa Fe Trail 133 
 
 Address to State Realty Association - - - - 135 
 
 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 George Washington 142 
 
 The Battle of Lexington - - - - - -158 
 
 Virginia and Massachusetts -178 
 
 Our Flag 201 
 
 Lincoln-Washington Campfire 206 
 
 President McKinley 209 
 
 Chattanooga Address, 1907 215 
 
 The Basis of Representative Government - - - 245 
 
 MISCELLANIES. 
 
 Our Negro Citizens 260 
 
 Address at Clermont Academy in 1887 - 265 
 
 Remarks upon James K. Parker and Wife, 1901 - 269 
 
 The Sensible Chinese 272 
 
 Letter to Twenty-First Wisconsin Regimental 
 
 Association, 1912 276 
 
 The Mocking Bird 281 
 
 The Eminent Men of the Past 285 
 
 Death and the Soul --- 291 
 
 Death 297 
 
 A Sixth Sense - - 301 
 
 The Nebular Theory 305 
 
 The Boomerang Features of War 307 
 
 Kepler's Three Laws of Planetary Motion - 308 
 
 The Wonderful Capabalities of the Brain - - - 310 
 
 Early Advocates of Women's Suffrage - - - 311 
 
PUEBLO AND ITS ENVIRONMENT 
 
COLORADO IN 1870 
 
 IN the latter part of May, 1870, an American, 
 seeking a more congenial clime and sunnier 
 skies within the confines of his own country, 
 boarded a railway train in Chicago. The blue 
 grass region of Kentucky had been his home for 
 the first nine years of his life; the next fourteen 
 years he spent in a county of Southern Ohio, bor- 
 dering the Ohio river; the last ten in Wisconsin. 
 Four years of the latter period were spent as a 
 Union soldier in the Civil war, and the succeeding 
 three years as a civil officer of the national gov- 
 ernment. His object in taking this train was to 
 visit the territory of Colorado, Denver being his 
 immediate destination. At that time the railroad 
 fare from Chicago to Denver on the Union Pacific 
 was $70. This fact is not interesting except by 
 contrast with the present fare, $22.60 (1914). 
 But during the first eight days of June no rail 
 had reached Denver. The Union Pacific had been 
 built on a parallel one hundred and twenty miles 
 north of Denver through Cheyenne, a road called 
 the Denver Pacific then being built to connect 
 Denver with Cheyenne. The end of this road re- 
 
10 RANCH LIFE 
 
 mained twenty miles north of Denver when the 
 American came to Colorado, arriving the first 
 week of June, 1870. Stage coaches transported 
 the passengers from the terminus, Hughes, now 
 called Brighton, to Denver, then a town of 4750 
 inhabitants. The best stopping place proved to 
 be the Broadwell House, at the corner of Larimer 
 and Sixteenth streets. This hotel, a frame house 
 with wide shed roof reaching out to the curb- 
 stone, thus making a porch of the sidewalk, was 
 kept by James M. Broadwell. The site is now oc- 
 cupied by the first Tabor block, a stone structure, 
 the best building when built in the city, but now 
 out of date. 
 
 On the train spoken of there arrived at the 
 site of Greeley Mr. N. C. Meeker, the founder and 
 president of that colony. Several years later he 
 was appointed agent to the Ute Indians on White 
 river and massacred by those savages. He was a 
 scholarly, mild mannered man. The town of 
 Meeker on White river, named after him, is lo- 
 cated near where the killing occurred. Several 
 passengers disembarked at Greeley with Mr. 
 Meeker. The place was then without houses, 
 only a few tents occupying the site, but there 
 were acres of sage brush and cacti. The colony 
 soon had a ditch, bringing water from the Cache 
 La Poudre river, covering some of the land. The 
 ground absorbed so much of the water the first 
 year that the farmers were complaining and 
 
COLORADO IN 1 8 7 11 
 
 scrambling for enough to irrigate the first crops. 
 But now, in 1914, they have five or six ditches 
 from the same stream, one above the other, and 
 all have plenty of water. The reason of this 
 difference is that the subsoil has become saturated 
 and the low spots have to be drained. This ex- 
 periment of locating a union colony of farmers at 
 the place where Greeley now stands, has evolved 
 in forty-four years into one of the most fertile 
 and wealthy farming districts in this country. 
 From the cars that now pass through that region 
 the passengers see no wild grass, sage brush, nor 
 cacti, but a garden spot producing fabulously of 
 alfalfa, wheat, potatoes, cabbage, onions and 
 sugar beets. 
 
 Denver then was a town of scattering houses. 
 The old American House had been built of brick. 
 Former Governor Evans and also Governor Gil- 
 pin were citizens, but Edward M. McCook was the 
 Governor. The Denver News and Tribune were 
 the daily papers, W. N. Byers being the proprietor 
 of the former and Henry C. Brown of the latter. 
 A. Jacobs owned a well equipped line of stages 
 which ran from Denver to Pueblo, each stage 
 drawn by four fine horses, with relay stations lo- 
 cated every fourteen miles. A stage would start in 
 the morning at a certain hour from each end of 
 the line and make the distance, 120 miles, by a 
 certain hour in the evening, the fare $20.00 each 
 way. The route from Denver proceeded via 
 
12 RANCH LIFE 
 
 Cherry Creek to Franktown (named after Frank 
 M. Gardner, the owner), over the divide about 
 four miles east of Palmer Lake and thence into 
 old Colorado City, thence down the Fountain 
 river to Pueblo. The American's destination was 
 the ranch on the little Fountain, known formerly 
 as the Geiser ranch, three and one-half miles west 
 of the present town of Fountain City. This latter 
 place was then known as Terrellville, there being 
 merely a house and a grout store building. Amos 
 Terrell was the pioneer living in the house. In 
 going from Terrellville to the Geiser ranch the 
 road led over a bluff and high mesa then dropped 
 down into the valley of the Little Fountain. Here 
 a wide bottom very level and in the midst of it 
 the ranch house, stables, corrals and a large 
 meadow of natural blue stem grass greeted the 
 eye. This meadow produced a great quantity of 
 fine hay perhaps a hundred tons each season. 
 Outside the meadow was merely dry prairie. 
 Harvey Ring managed the ranch. He lived roy- 
 ally, drove a fine team of white trotters and en- 
 tertained like a true Colorado ranchman. The 
 American came here as his guest until he could 
 locate his family which was then in the East. 
 Staying there two or three weeks he finally lo- 
 cated on a ranch on the Arkansas River three 
 miles west of Pueblo. 
 
 The feelings of one making this change from 
 an eastern climate to that of Colorado are those of 
 
COLORADO IN 1870 13 
 
 contentment and pleasure. The environment dif- 
 fered greatly from that of the Lake region at Chi- 
 cago. The Colorado air is luxuriant. The soil, the 
 vegetation, the fauna, the scenery generally are 
 all entirely different from those of the eastern 
 states. 
 
 The physical features of the country were 
 those peculiar to a semi-arid region. To one com- 
 ing from the states east of the Mississippi river, 
 Colorado presented in the early 70's and prior to 
 that date, the aspect of an entirely new and un- 
 developed region. The contour of the earth's 
 surface, and the general features were entirely 
 different from that of the humid climate and 
 wooded surface he had left behind. The at- 
 mosphere acted as a tonic upon the newcomer, 
 giving a vivid feeling of a more virile life. The 
 broad, treeless prairies and scant foliage of the 
 region west of the one hundreth meridian of 
 longitude, where Dodge City, Kansas, is now lo- 
 cated, to the foot of the Rocky Mountains, had 
 no parallel east of the Mississippi. The altitude 
 increases rapidly toward the west. Sage brush, 
 soap weed, buffalo, gramma and bunch grasses 
 were everywhere, but not a tree in sight, except 
 the cottonwood and some willows bordering every 
 stream. The absence of any real woods and the 
 scarcity of rainfall marked off the very striking 
 differences between this and a humid climate. 
 The sunshine was comparatively constant and 
 
14 RANCH LIFE 
 
 seemed to revivify and renew the life that had, in 
 the east, become withered. The rainfall, includ- 
 ing melted snow, averages twelve inches annually. 
 The paucity of the moisture makes possible the 
 nutritious winter feed on the prairies for cattle, 
 horses and sheep, accounts for the clear atmos- 
 phere, so delicious to breathe, the three hundred 
 sunshiny days in the year, and brings the rattle- 
 snake from his prairie dog hole on many a Christ- 
 mas Day. If this correlation of physical conditions 
 thus acts on the cold-blooded reptile, what physio- 
 logical wonders it works upon the warm blooded 
 vertebrate who stands erect, breathes through a 
 pair of weak lungs and lets his whole being re- 
 spond to the life-giving rays of the sun ! 
 
 Buffalo, antelope, jack rabbits, coyotes and 
 prairie dogs were numerous, but not a deer nor a 
 quail, nor a squirrel was visible east of the foot- 
 hills in Colorado. In the pine woods on the foot- 
 hills called the Divide, were black squirrels, and 
 in the timbered regions of the mountain sides 
 numerous deer, but no quail are found within the 
 confines of the state. But when cattle, horses and 
 sheep were imported, they throve on the open 
 range winter and summer, as well as did the ante- 
 lope and buffalo, without shelter or other feed 
 than the nutritious native grasses. 
 
 It was a delight to walk through the meadows 
 and get the aroma of the grasses and exquisite 
 flowers. The flowers of Colorado are brighter in 
 
COLORADO IN 1 8 7 15 
 
 color than those of the eastern states, yet they 
 are not so fragrant. In spots favorable for some 
 moisture, but not too damp, the wild rose grew in 
 profusion. The primrose grows in early spring 
 from the crevices of the shale in the dryest spots. 
 A species of the daisy was numerous. A flower, 
 known most generally as the Indian paint brush, 
 but which might appropriately be called the flame 
 flower, because it is just the color of the flame 
 of a wood fire, was seen occasionally in the cedar 
 brakes and on the higher foot-hills in greater 
 numbers. It is a very striking flower. The sun 
 flower grew wherever the surface was broken. 
 In the high mountain reaches, where the native 
 grasses are most luxuriant, will be found the 
 beautiful Columbines, the Colorado State flower. 
 Wherever they are, will also be the bumble-bee 
 nests. They can be fertilized only by the queen 
 bumble-bee, for only she has a bill long enough to 
 reach the nectar in the bottom of the flower. In 
 doing so, she carries on her body some of the 
 pollen which fertilizes the ovules of the female 
 stocks. The species is thus perpetuated. In June 
 a beautiful bouquet could be made from the flow- 
 ers picked from the prairie. In fact, the botany 
 of Colorado is very curious and interesting. The 
 trees are few in varieties, being confined to the 
 cottonwood along the margins of streams, the 
 scrub cedar on the dry bluffs, and the pinon on the 
 higher foot-hills. In the valleys of the Fountain, 
 
16 RANCH LIFE 
 
 the Arkansas and the St. Charles the wild plum 
 abounds. The wild grape and hop vine grows in 
 profusion. The willow flourishes in the moister 
 places. The grasses are numerous in variety. 
 The blue stem is the natural meadow grass. The 
 best grazing grass is the gramma and this, when 
 irrigated, makes fine hay. There grows, in the 
 low bottoms, a heavy grass with a large head, 
 which may be called rice grass, which makes fine 
 hay. There is no true buffalo grass around 
 Pueblo. It grows in the eastern border of Colo- 
 rado and in Kansas. A range covered with 
 gramma grass will fatten horses in the spring 
 quicker than will a blue grass pasture in the east. 
 There is also a grass on the prairie which grows 
 in bunches, but it is likely the true bunch grass 
 of Montana does not grow here. The cacti, sage 
 brush and grease wood abound everywhere on 
 the stretches running from the borders of the 
 streams to the foot hills. The cacti bear two col- 
 ors, red and yellow ffowers. The flower is beau- 
 tiful and cattle eagerly eat it. The sage brush 
 produces a mass of seed and after the frost, in 
 the autumn, has worked its magical chemical pro- 
 cesses on both leaf and seed, cattle would, in the 
 early days, grow fat in the winter season on their 
 oily and spicy contents. 
 
 It would be most interesting to write about 
 the birds of Colorado. The wild goose, the duck, 
 the mountain grouse, the dove, are edible species, 
 
COLORADO IN 1870 17 
 
 but the magpie, the night and fish hawks, the owl 
 and the buzzard are peculiar. An article could be 
 written upon the wild duck alone. But that must 
 be reserved for another sketch, perhaps in connec- 
 tion with ranch life in Colorado, or fly fishing in 
 the mountain streams. 
 
 At the ranch on the Little Fountain the Chey- 
 enne Mountains were several miles to the north, 
 yet, on account of the very clear atmosphere, they 
 appeared to be very near. Pike's Peak looked 
 down in magnificent majesty, crowned with his 
 nimbus of snow. One's appetite grows phenome- 
 nally in such an environment, but the table, set 
 with fine home made bread, butter, mutton and 
 ranch vegetables fully satisfied it. Drives to the 
 neighboring ranches revealed a population, though 
 sparse, yet contended, happy and prosperous. 
 Every one had plenty. Stock-raising was the 
 principal occupation. There were some fine 
 farms along the main stream of the Fountain. At 
 the junction of the Little Fountain and the main 
 river, Woodbury & Lincoln had a store and 
 possessed fine meadows. Above these, all the way 
 to Colorado City, were farms and meadows. From 
 there all the way south to Pueblo a great deal of 
 farming was done, corn seeming to be the prin- 
 cipal crop. Dr. Dickinson, Mr. John Irvine, Mr. 
 Robinson, Wm. H. Young, Glaus Wildeboor, Mr. 
 Sutherland and Matthew Steele are those now re- 
 membered as having farms some of them being 
 
18 RANCH LIFE 
 
 quite extensive. Edward Cozzens lived where 
 Work's Woodcroft Sanitarium now stands. They 
 all had herds of cattle or horses grazing on the 
 open prairie. The main dependence was on stock- 
 raising. The burro, as a burden bearer, called by 
 the pioneer a mountain canary, because of his un- 
 earthly braying, was in strong evidence. 
 
 The valley of the Fountain has been above 
 described, but here and there throughout Pueblo 
 County, at the head of all the streams and along 
 their borders lived ranchmen. In some instances 
 they farmed the land but stock-raising formed 
 the main business. Captain Craig, Peter Dotson 
 and Judge Fields had large cultivated tracts. 
 George M. Chilcott on the Arkansas River and 
 the Hicklins on the Grenaros had fine ranches. 
 In those days there were no fences of any kind 
 and cattle roamed at will, having access to water 
 anywhere along the streams. In the river bot- 
 toms adjoining Pueblo grew a wild tangle of 
 grape vines, wild plum groves, willows and young 
 cottonwoods. There were no railroads until 1872. 
 The real pioneer, who followed closely the Indian 
 habits, lived in a wicky-up dressed in a Mexican 
 sombrero and a six shooter, fled from the sound 
 of the locomotive whistle in 1872. Also many a 
 well-to-do ranchman, who possessed large herds 
 and cut stacks of native hay, upon the coming 
 of the railroad train, sold his ranch to a tender- 
 foot and drove his herd to new locations beyond 
 
COLORADO IN 1870 19 
 
 the supposed reach of modern civilization. So it 
 was with many of the early residents in Pueblo. 
 When new faces began to appear in increased 
 numbers and the price of a town lot rose above 
 the value of a horse or a cow they moved to more 
 congenial climes in western Colorado, New Mex- 
 ico and Arizona. 
 
 The American made his first visit to Pueblo 
 on horseback down this valley of the Fountain, 
 past these ranches located thereon in early June, 
 1870. The distance from the Geiser ranch is thirty 
 miles. The road, a mere wagon trail, long used, 
 dry and hard, proved to be an uncommonly good 
 one. Low hills on the right, separating the valley 
 from the mesa lands beyond, the river with but 
 little water lined with cottonwood timber and 
 undergrowth, on the left, furnished a perfect line 
 of travel from north to south until the bluffs of 
 the Arkansas River were reached. An occasional 
 ranch adjoined the stream, the cornfields being 
 then in prime growing condition, green and wav- 
 ing. Many natural meadows, cleared of weeds 
 and sage-brush gave evidence that winter feed 
 would be provided for stock. Alfalfa was not at 
 that time cultivated; it subsequently, however, 
 became the chief crop of all ranches. 
 
 A peculiar feature of early Colorado was the 
 adobe, or sundried brick and the houses built of 
 them. Nothing of the kind could be seen in the 
 eastern states. The heavy annual rainfall there 
 
20 RANCHLIFE 
 
 prevents the building of such houses. The eastern 
 clay would not make adobes. It is the peculiar 
 tenacity and hardness of the adobe soil of Colo- 
 rado and the arid region generally, that makes 
 such good and cheap building material of that 
 clay. A one-story adobe house with a good dirt 
 roof, while not very elegant in appearance, nor 
 clean for a fastidious housewife, was warm in 
 winter and cool in summer. When the door sill 
 was constructed high enough to keep out the 
 skunks it served the unpretending and impecu- 
 nious pioneer, being far superior in every way to 
 the squatters' sod cabins of the Kansas home- 
 steaders. 
 
 It must be remembered that the Western slope 
 of the Territory of Colorado in 1870 still remained 
 an Indian Reservation. What is called the Gunni- 
 son country was unoccupied by the white man. 
 It had no railway and no communication with the 
 rest of the world. At the time of the Meeker mas- 
 sacre in 1878, all the region west of the main 
 range was unknown except to the Indians, the 
 government agent and a few mining prospectors. 
 But after carbonates were discovered at Leadville 
 in 1878, and silver in the San Juan region of 
 southwest Colorado, railways were soon built in 
 both sections. Canon City was the only town west 
 of Pueblo, all beyond being terra incognita. The 
 crossings of the Platte, where Denver now stands ; 
 of the Arkansas where Pueblo is now located, and 
 
COLORADO IN 1870 21 
 
 the Purgatoire where Trinidad now exists as a 
 city, were mere available points on the trail be- 
 tween military forts on the north, such as Fort 
 Laramie, and Fort Union in New Mexico, in the 
 south, and where aggregations of population 
 naturally settled and became permanent. 
 
 The present climate and the resulting flora 
 and fauna are due to the lack of moisture and the 
 high altitude. Pueblo is higher from the sea 
 level than any point in the Alleghany Mountains 
 in Pensylvania, Virginia, or Maryland, and only 
 two thousand feet less in height than the highest 
 peak in the White Mountains of New England; 
 its altitude being four thousand six hundred and 
 sixty-seven feet. The altitude and the aridity 
 are the real causes of the peculiarity of its flora 
 and fauna. This was not always so, and no one 
 can measure by years the date of the beginning 
 of the present physical peculiarities of this region. 
 Far back in the Cretaceous Epoch the ocean rolled 
 over the site of Pueblo as high as Pike's Peak. 
 As that ancient ocean receded and the Rocky 
 Mountains were lifted up by the internal forces 
 of the earth, the soil and gravel which now cover 
 the rock strata were washed down from the moun- 
 tain heights. The sandstone, lime rock and the 
 shales which lie in such regular order, through 
 which the Arkansas river has cut its channel, 
 were deposited in successive layers by the ocean 
 waters. In that remote age the climate was 
 
22 RANCHLIPE 
 
 moister and perhaps warmer than now. The im- 
 mense Colorado coal measures show that at or be- 
 fore the Cretaceous Epoch luxuriant tree ferns 
 covered the land, which is now able in its present 
 state to produce only the natural grasses, the sage 
 brush, the cacti, the cedar and pinon. But man 
 did not exist when the forests and swamps cov- 
 ered the land. He is here now and is changing 
 the cacti and sage brush into alfalfa, corn, sugar 
 beets, delicious melons and the product of the or- 
 chard. The Indian was not able to make this 
 change nor could the present inhabitants convert 
 this prairie wilderness into a garden for the abode 
 of civilized millions yet to come, until they were 
 preceded by the pioneer with his horse, rifle and 
 knife. Thanks to the factors, heretofore spoken 
 of and the warm Japan winds from the Pacific 
 coast, Colorado has a very fine climate. Here in 
 the bottom of that Cretacean ocean is being built 
 an empire the greatness of which no man living 
 now can estimate. 
 
 It was thought the prophecies of Governor 
 William Gilpin in 1870 and before, regarding the 
 future of Colorado were poetic fancies, but they 
 have been already largely realized. No one be- 
 lieved Mr. Lagrange, of Greeley, in the 70's, when 
 he said Colorado could raise enough agricultural 
 products to support a population of three millions. 
 The popular idea rather coincided with that of 
 Senator J. B. Chaffee's, who said, a man was a 
 
COLORADO IN 1870 23 
 
 fool to try to farm in Colorado and he also 
 thought Denver might eventually grow to contain 
 a hundred thousand population, but no more. Now 
 with the prospects of dry farming, the possible 
 conservation of water for irrigation in every de- 
 pression of the surface, at every opening through 
 the mountains and foot-hills, the future use of ce- 
 mented reservoirs and ditches, the distribution of 
 water in the fields by perforated pipes and the 
 proper selection of crops adapted to the physical 
 peculiarities, there is no limit to the future possi- 
 bilities of the cosmopolitan race that will eventu- 
 ally people the whole of Colorado, in much the 
 same manner and numbers as the settled portions 
 of the Arkansas valley are now peopled. 
 
 Life is worth while in such a region. It would 
 be exceedingly interesting to return from the 
 great unknowable in two hundred years from now 
 and make a trip in the airship of that day from 
 the headwaters of the Arkansas river to the east- 
 ern boundry of Colorado. 
 
RANCH LIFE IN COLORADO 
 
 This American made a settlement with his 
 family on a ranch three miles west of Pueblo. 
 It was a singular thing for an inexperienced man 
 to do. He was neither a farmer nor the son of a 
 farmer. He knew nothing about farming meth- 
 ods nor the raising of stock. He had been a 
 mounted officer in the Civil War and therefore 
 could ride and manage a horse but for any real 
 knowledge of horses in general, of cattle, or of 
 sheep or hogs, he was fully as ignorant as any 
 other townsman. It will thus be seen that the 
 motive for a movement of this kind was not that 
 of pecuniary profit alone. In almost every such 
 instance where inexperienced men undertook the 
 ranching business the pecuniary balance was on 
 the wrong side of the ledger. But this family 
 had been living on the west shore of Lake Michi- 
 gan where the winter climate was very severe 
 and trying. It began to undermine the health of 
 both husband and wife, and upon the advice of 
 the family physician they were seeking an out- 
 door life in a climate less severe and where the 
 sunshine and pure air would bring back the health 
 
RANCH LIFE IN COLORADO 25 
 
 that was partially lost in the east. So they were 
 willing to undergo a rough life, the most of which 
 would be spent in the open air, and where the diet 
 would be of the plainest and simplest kind. 
 
 Another and potent reason can be given. A 
 strong love of nature, innate in the head of the 
 family and fostered by his previous environment 
 and habits urged him to a rural life. This can 
 best be illustrated by giving a pretty full account 
 of his early life in Kentucky and Ohio. 
 
 In the blue grass region of Kentucky in his 
 earliest boyhood he had an unquenchable desire 
 to wander from the small town in which he lived, 
 over the blue-grass pastures and sweet meadows, 
 along the streams, which had cut their way 
 through the blue limestone strata, to fish in the 
 waters or gather walnuts or hickory nuts from the 
 numerous woods which adorned that beautiful 
 country. An uncle's farm, a few short miles be- 
 yond the town was a favorite resort. He remem- 
 bers with delight playing in the ample grounds of 
 the home residence on this farm or playing on 
 the bales of hemp in the wide barn and going 
 down to the spring house where the milk was 
 kept and riding the horses whenever he was al- 
 lowed to do so. It was a delight in those early 
 boyhood days to be with the team which was usu- 
 ally a Conistoga wagon and four horses, the driver 
 riding the near wheel horse and using only a 
 single line to guide the leaders; or to follow the 
 
26 RANCH LIFE 
 
 plow and get the aroma of the fresh earth and 
 view the insects and every sort of geocentric an- 
 imal that burrowed in the ground. 
 
 The same desire for a country life continued 
 throughout his boyhood days, when a change was 
 made from the blue-grass country of Kentucky 
 to the north side of the Ohio River. The flora 
 and fauna of that region were generally of the 
 same delightful character as those from which 
 he had migrated. The town in which he lived in 
 Ohio was practically of the same size and the en- 
 vironment of that same character, so inviting to 
 a boy from the time he was nine until he was eigh- 
 teen years of age. Thick beech woods grew upon 
 the hills adjoining the town, and the beech nuts 
 so abundant invited squirrels and birds of all 
 kinds, and especially the wild pigeon. The hills 
 on both sides of the Ohio river at this point were 
 covered with the most fascinating growth of all 
 varieties of trees and vegetation. The hunting 
 was fine, so that with a gun and a skiff one could 
 row to any spot on the river and find the finest 
 recreation. A sail boat was a delightful means of 
 transportation on this water, and it was found 
 easy to construct such a craft, because along this 
 river the necessities of boating had given rise to 
 a class of ingenious boat-builders, who could 
 easily construct almost any kind of craft. 
 
 Berries of all kinds grew in profusion. Wild 
 plums, fox grapes, black and red haws, persim- 
 
RANCH LIFE IN COLORADO 27 
 
 mons, paw-paws, sassafras bark were in profusion 
 everywhere. Hazel nuts, acorns, shell bark hick- 
 ory nuts and walnuts, gave abundance of re- 
 sources to the boys when the frost came in the 
 fall and luscious paw-paws began to fall from 
 sheer ripeness, and soon became covered with the 
 falling leaves. When the skin of the paw-paw 
 a little later turned black, that was the signal for 
 them to be eaten. The boys soon learned just the 
 right time to gather each of these natural pro- 
 ductions of the forest, and never failed to reap 
 an ample store of all of them. It was pleasurable 
 delight in the summer time to wander along the 
 sandy beach of the beautiful river, play on the 
 sand-bars and swim in its waters, as long as the 
 boy desired. The city or town contains no de- 
 lights like these, and the boy who has never en- 
 joyed them has no conception of the true delights 
 of a real country life. Even the best school was 
 not in the town, but two and a half miles away 
 along the banks of the river, where the roadway 
 was lined with the wildest and most beautiful 
 productions of nature, with all kinds of wild an- 
 imals and birds to draw the boy's attention and 
 make him linger on the road. 
 
 There were no railroads in this region at that 
 time, but travel and commerce were by steam- 
 boats along the river, and by horse conveyance 
 on the land, and these gave a most delightful 
 variation to that enchanting environment. This 
 
28 RANCHLIFE 
 
 town lay only twenty miles from Cincinnati and 
 a daily packet from there landed at the wharf, 
 thus giving easy access to the commercial life of 
 a great city. 
 
 The period spent in this environment is looked 
 back upon as the most pleasurable of his life. It 
 was not an idle period, for the daily life was oc- 
 cupied habitually with the duties of either busi- 
 ness or the student life at school, and the recrea- 
 tions spoken of were only enjoyed at proper times 
 and in a temperate way. The life fitted into the 
 environment, and nature's profusion of beautiful 
 productions was simply complementary to the 
 artificial education which every well endowed boy 
 should experience. It was not an idle but a happy 
 life, and perhaps is the best for preparing boy- 
 hood for those future sterner duties which come 
 to every one in manhood. 
 
 A curious case of illusion is that when one 
 leaves the Ohio river, its delightful valley and 
 pleasant hills, and resides for a few years on the 
 shore of a large body of water like Lake Michigan, 
 he is astonished when revisiting the boyhood 
 region, to find that in his larger acquired vision 
 the river, valley and hills have shrunken to one- 
 half of their former supposed dimensions, and 
 especially is this so when one travels further and 
 views for a time a wide ocean or a range of high 
 mountains then when he returns to his early 
 habitat, the illusion is still more potent. This 
 
RANCH LIFE IN COLORADO 29 
 
 kind of early experience remained in memory 
 when the doctor, as aforesaid, suggested that the 
 conditions made it almost imperative that this 
 family seek in Colorado, that which it had failed 
 to find in the Ohio valley or in the more northern 
 region of Wisconsin. 
 
 It was with the recollection of all this that 
 twenty-four years afterward he gladly and con- 
 fidently located on this ranch on the upper waters 
 of the Arkansas river, in the very shadows of 
 the Rocky Mountains, so far away from the region 
 just described on the Ohio river. The environ- 
 ment here in Colorado was different in almost 
 every respect from that in Ohio or Kentucky, yet 
 while it lacked the exuberant vegetation and 
 possessed an entirely different animal life, it made 
 up for it by having other natural features that 
 were perhaps more essential to the life upon which 
 they were then just entering. 
 
 The landscape was entirely different. High 
 mountains in plain view upon the west and the 
 foot-hills covered with their own peculiar tree 
 life and grasses, which grow only in a semi-arid 
 region, sloped down from the mountains to the 
 very borders of the ranch. On the north was 
 Pike's Peak, plainly in view fifty miles away, 
 though not looking to be over ten; in the south 
 the Twin Mountains, snow-capped and seventy- 
 five miles away. From Pike's Peak on the north 
 to the Twin Mountains directly south, there was a 
 
30 RANCHLIFE 
 
 range of mountains, bent like a bow to the west, 
 and averaging perhaps ten thousand feet high, 
 with the concave side toward the ranch. This 
 range of mountains, while seeming continuous, 
 was discontinuous in its course, and took on dif- 
 ferent names in different localities; for instance, 
 the Cheyenne Mountains extended from the base 
 of Pike's Peak some distance to the south. The 
 range immediately south of the Arkansas river 
 is called the Wet Mountains, and further south 
 where it rises in places to the height of twelve 
 thousand feet, the Greenhorn range. Still be- 
 yond the Greenhorn range, but seeming continu- 
 ous, from where it terminates on the Huerfano 
 river, to the Twin Mountains, rose the perpetual 
 white tops of the Sangre de Christo range. Long- 
 fellow must have had in mind such mountains 
 when he wrote: 
 
 "Where steep Sierra far uplifts 
 Its craggy summits white with drifts." 
 
 These mountains were far away, but an optical 
 illusion would occasionally bring them so near 
 as to make it seem that one could walk to and 
 touch their beautiful sides and return before 
 breakfast. Especially at the rising of the sun, 
 when the clouds hung but a little seeming distance 
 above the tops of the mountains, the reflection of 
 its rays from the clouds directly on the mountain 
 tops would make the illusion perfect. These fas- 
 
RANCH LIFE IN COLORADO 31 
 
 cinating features which were so much enjoyed in 
 daylight were more than equalled by the splendor 
 of the skies at night. With nothing in the imme- 
 diate environment to obstruct the view of the as- 
 tronomical bodies, the clear atmosphere rendered 
 the stars exceedingly bright, and the constella- 
 tions could be traced with the utmost ease and 
 delight. It was the study of astronomy, with the 
 natural eye alone; repeated night after night, it 
 greatly added to the book knowledge theretofore 
 acquired without the accessory of such a splendid 
 astronomical observatory. When the full moon is 
 just rising above the eastern horizon, it appears 
 to be larger than it does in the zenith. It is not 
 really larger nor is it enlarged by any condition 
 of the atmosphere ; it is purely an optical illusion. 
 This is produced by a mental operation which may 
 be described in this wise: the beholder has a sub- 
 conscious knowledge of the great distance of the 
 moon from the earth; while the moon is on the 
 horizon, he unconsciously compares its well 
 known size and distance with the intervening ob- 
 jects on the earth's surface, but when it arrives 
 in the zenith, there being no intervening objects, 
 the illusion has passed away. If a sheet of paper 
 is made into a cylinder and the observer will 
 adjust it to his eye so that the full moon on the 
 horizon will just fill its diameter, it will be found 
 also that the same moon when it arriver in the 
 zenith, will just fill the diameter of the same cylin- 
 
32 RANCHLIFE 
 
 der. The cylinder shuts off the intervening ob- 
 jects on the earth's surface when observing the 
 moon on the horizon. For the same reason the 
 stars on the horizon have a different appearance 
 from that which they have in the zenith. 
 
 To say they settled on a ranch might convey 
 the idea that the ground was cultivatable, the 
 land irrigated, and that the improvements were 
 at least of a comfortable kind. But there was 
 an absence of all these. The improvements con- 
 sisted of a log cabin very crudely built and having 
 only a dirt roof. Adjoining was a dug-out cellar 
 with the same kind of a roof and a corral made 
 of poles. The cabin was located on the bank of 
 the river within thirty feet of the water and this 
 river was the sole reliance for water. There was 
 no irrigation ditch and the high bluffs which im- 
 mediately began to the west and up the river, 
 prevented the construction of a ditch without 
 very great expense. But this did not worry this 
 family because they were not anxious to farm 
 and they were close enough to Pueblo to easily 
 procure all farm products without having to raise 
 them. They had infinite confidence in eventually 
 acquiring sufficient knowledge of the business 
 they were launching into, to make it at least pleas- 
 ureable, if not profitable. There was a wide sense 
 of liberty and independence in living in this glori- 
 ous atmosphere and sunshine and having a wide 
 
RANCH LIFE IN COLORADO 33 
 
 expanse of unoccupied land on all sides. There 
 was not another house in sight. 
 
 It was located about where the thin timber 
 in the foothills ends and the true prairie country 
 begins. Adjoining the river in the bottoms was 
 a heavy growth of cottonwood trees, some wil- 
 lows, wild plum trees and wild grape vines. At 
 first there were but a hundred and sixty acres 
 of land with an uneven contour, including a 
 portion of the river, but from time to time 
 adjoining lands were acquired until about a 
 mile and a quarter east and west and extend- 
 ing on both sides of the river gave a variety 
 of bottom and upland that made a body 
 of land large in extent only. There were some 
 natural meadows from which hay was cut each 
 season, but a large part of it produced nothing 
 but sage brush and greasewood. 
 
 Better buildings were immediately required. 
 Selecting a desirable spot on high lands, but not 
 far from the river, a comfortable adobe dwelling 
 a story and a half high was built with a shingle 
 roof and a good stable and corrals. These im- 
 provements would have been creditable to an east- 
 ern farm and made the stay upon the ranch both 
 comfortable and pleasurable. 
 
 The nearest neighbor on the east was "Com- 
 modore" T. C. Wetmore, and on the west lived 
 "Professor" Boggs. These ranchmen had some 
 farming lands and raised corn, but what the one 
 
34 RANCHLIFE 
 
 was "Commodore" of or the other "Professor" 
 of remained an unsolved problem. About a mile 
 up the river, on the opposite side, lived the well- 
 known Charles Goodnight, a driver and dealer in 
 Texas cattle, a very respected citizen of the coun- 
 ty, a man of fine character and in every way de- 
 sirable as a neighbor. Next west of "Professor" 
 Boggs lived J. J. Smith and adjoining him Michael 
 Mahoney. Mahoney's ranch was bounded on the 
 west by what is well known as Rock Canon, a 
 narrow defile cut by the river through the sand- 
 stone at some period long back in geological time. 
 There was no ranch for three miles up the river 
 from this Rock Canon and then followed to the 
 foot of the mountains some forty miles, a succes- 
 sion of ranches in places where natural hay could 
 be' cut and contiguous grazing lands on the higher 
 mesas. The ranchmen all kept more or less stock, 
 generally cattle and horses, which were branded 
 with the private brand of the ranchman and 
 grazed on the adjoining mesa government lands. 
 Such were the ranch and its surroundings during 
 a residence of ten years, from 1870 to 1880. It 
 had been determined beforehand for what purpose 
 this ranch would be used, for without a profitable 
 occupation the pleasure of such a life would be of 
 short duration. That occupation was to be stock 
 raising alone and incidentally the cutting of hay 
 upon natural meadows. But there was never any 
 intention of ploughing lands and raising crops. In 
 
RANCH LIFE IN COLORADO 35 
 
 after years when this land was divided up into 
 small farms and gardens it proved to be very pro- 
 ductive. Now, in 1914 some of the most valuable 
 gardens about Pueblo are located on this land. 
 The sagebrush land eventually raised the finest 
 celery and all of the ranch when placed under 
 irrigation proved to be exceedingly valuable for 
 farming purposes. 
 
 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 
 
 The first stock placed upon the ranch was a 
 flock of fifteen hundred sheep ; a little later a small 
 herd of cattle and some horses. All the stock 
 grazed on public lands adjacent to the ranch. A 
 cabin and corrals being built in the bottom on the 
 south side of the river, there the flock with a 
 herder was located and ranged upon the bluffs 
 and open mesa prairie running east, south and 
 west. There then existed no obstruction to graz- 
 ing in any direction. The Denver & Rio Grande 
 Railroad was yet unbuilt; there was no Bessemer 
 ditch, and the place where South Pueblo is now 
 located on the mesa, contained not a single house. 
 The sheep grazed over the ground now occupied 
 by the City Park and Minnequa Lake. This is an 
 artificial lake made by throwing across a depres- 
 sion in the land a dam and running into it a ditch 
 from the St. Charles river. In 1870 it was dry 
 
36 RANCHLIFE 
 
 grazing land. The winter of 1870-71 was a severe 
 one, and as the range on the south side of the 
 river sloped toward the north, the snow lay with- 
 out melting for a long time. One day after a 
 severe storm, when the snow lay upon the ground 
 about a foot deep, the herder appeared in the 
 cabin just as the hour for the noonday meal ar- 
 rived, and excitedly exclaimed "The sheepies is 
 gone." It was then snowing some and the wind 
 was from the north. He explained that he could 
 not keep up with the sheep although he was on 
 horseback, and they had drifted away from him. 
 It being apparent that the sheep could not have 
 sunken into the earth, nor really been lost, the 
 herder was invited to sit down to dinner, after 
 which a search would be made for the sheep. By 
 riding directly south in the course of the wind for 
 two or three miles, they were found, huddled to- 
 gether and apparently waiting for someone to 
 come after them. They were gotten back to the 
 corral in due time, and one of the peculiarities of 
 the stock business was over for that day. 
 
 In the next spring, it was found that the grass 
 on this range had been pretty well eaten off, and 
 in order to have new grass grow during the spring 
 and summer for the next winter's feeding, it was 
 necessary to transfer the sheep to some other lo- 
 cality. A ranch was purchased on the Divide at 
 the head of Cherry creek, four miles east of the 
 present town of Monument in El Paso County. 
 
RANCH LIFE IN COLORADO 37 
 
 It had a fine summer range at an elevation of 
 about seven thousand feet, and there the sheep 
 were located with a herder. In fact, these wooly 
 animals had to be changed oftener than either 
 cattle or horses. The horses and cattle ranged 
 on the north side of what may be called the home 
 ranch on the Arkansas river. They grazed as far 
 west as Turkey Creek and as far north as what 
 was called the pinon woods on the foot-hills. This 
 was a very large range for the number of horses 
 and cattle that then occupied it. So that these 
 animals did not require any transfer at any time 
 of the year to other localities. It was discovered, 
 however, in the course of a year or two, that cat- 
 tle were not profitable unless handled in much 
 larger numbers. An opportunity offering to trade 
 them for horses, an end thus came to the ex- 
 periment of cattle raising and cowboy riding. 
 
 A herd of Texas horses having been purchased 
 prior to this exchange and this additional herd ac- 
 quired by the exchange of cattle having been 
 added to them, there were then about one hundred 
 and fifty head of horses on the ranch. They 
 proved to be great roamers, and seldom all of 
 them could be rounded up at one time. They sep- 
 arated into bunches, and some of them would 
 roam as far north as Little Buttes, twenty miles, 
 others into the pinons on the head waters of 
 Turkey Creek, while some crossed the river and 
 wandered out toward the foothills in the south- 
 
38 RANCH LIFE 
 
 west. Thus a great deal of riding and driving 
 became necessary, and it soon developed that there 
 would be no profit to an amateur in that kind of 
 business. But horses are very interesting ani- 
 mals! A horse is much more intelligent than a 
 cow or a sheep, and as there was nearly always a 
 bunch being kept up to be broken and sold in the 
 market it was an interesting diversion from the 
 ordinary ranch life to watch the peculiarities of 
 the animals, but more especially those of the 
 breakers. Most of these breakers were Mexicans, 
 and they were exceedingly expert in throwing the 
 lasso and in handling and riding wild horses, their 
 methods being of the cruelest kind. They used 
 cowboy saddles, usually with two cinches, and 
 bridle bits that were exceedingly severe in the 
 mouths of the animals. They would lasso a wild 
 horse, and by winding the lariat around a "snub- 
 bing post'* soon had him flat on his side. Then 
 forcing the bit in his mouth and a saddle on his 
 back, the rider was enabled to mount him, and 
 pitching and bucking at a furious rate, the horse 
 and rider would start off. This continued until 
 the animal was completely exhausted. These op- 
 erations continued from day to day until the horse 
 was supposed to be broken. Some horses were 
 much more easily tamed than others ; it depended 
 largely upon the intelligence of the horse. Others 
 were never tamed, and these when mounted al- 
 ways pitched and jumped in an endeavor to dis- 
 
RANCH LIFE IN COLORADO 39 
 
 mount the rider. Those Mexican horse-breakers 
 were generally unfit for anything else, being lazy, 
 slow and independent, selected their own times to 
 do the work, and one of them would often ride a 
 horse off to Pueblo and hours would elapse before 
 he would return. They were not paid by the day, 
 but broke each horse for a certain price. There 
 were some domestic American horses on the 
 ranch, gentle and workable, being really pets from 
 the time they were colts. They were most enjoy- 
 able companions. Many of them seemed de- 
 lighted to do their duties when not over-worked, 
 and many of them were exceedingly sociable, al- 
 ways coming up to be petted. Two or three of 
 them became very fond of clabbered milk which 
 was set out in wide pans for them to drink. They 
 would come to the house and paw on the cellar 
 door as a signal for this milk. This was a pe- 
 culiarity very amusing that had not before been 
 observed in horses. 
 
 Chickens were kept in large numbers being in 
 a small way very profitable. Some pigs were kept 
 and in the course of time a regular dairy was es- 
 tablished the milk from which being sold in 
 Pueblo. 
 
 After a year or two struggling with the main- 
 tenance of a horse herd, it was found best that 
 they should be sold and the efforts in the stock 
 business which before that time had been too 
 much scattered should be centered upon that par- 
 
40 RANCHLIPE 
 
 ticular branch of stock raising which had proved 
 not only the most congenial but the most profit- 
 able. The number of horses was reduced to that 
 required for work on the ranch and for carriage 
 use or horseback riding. 
 
 The sale of the horses reduced the domestic 
 animals to a small herd of dairy cows and two 
 flocks of sheep, two thousand in each. In the 
 summer time no sheep remained at the home 
 ranch. Ranches had been acquired at Rock Canon 
 three miles up the river and at Adobe Creek, in 
 what is now Crowley County, about seventy miles 
 east of Pueblo, in addition to that one already 
 spoken of, on the Divide. The flocks were usually 
 brought to the home ranch in the winter time 
 where they were kept until after shearing and 
 lambing in the spring. They were then taken to 
 the nearest ranch where the grass had been left 
 to grow until after the lambs could be separated 
 from their mothers and put by themselves. They 
 were then sent to the more distant ranches, each 
 flock accompanied by a herder and a two-horse 
 wagon with a driver. Sometimes these outfits 
 would linger on the way to the distant ranches 
 and temporarily take up quarters where good 
 grass and water were contiguous and where their 
 presence would not too much interfere with cattle 
 ranges. One of these expeditions was made to a 
 ranch east of Colorado Springs for dipping the 
 sheep in a solution of tobacco and sulphur to kill 
 
RANCH LIFE IN COLORADO 41 
 
 the germs that were destroying the wool, a dis- 
 ease called the "scab." "Mack," an old hand at 
 the business, was the herder and "Jeff" drove the 
 team. The herder had a pony to ride and with the 
 team was another saddle pony to be used in case 
 of emergency. After the dipping, they started 
 directly east for the Adobe creek ranch. It was 
 a fine flock of choice sheep and with them were 
 two large black goats with bells attached to straps 
 fastened around their necks. Goats are exceed- 
 ingly sagacious animals and wherever they led the 
 sheep were sure to follow. Their tall forms and 
 ringing bells kept the coyotes from preying upon 
 the sheep and also assisted the herder in detecting 
 any movement at night. The herder also had a 
 shepherd dog with him which could be sent 
 around the flock at any time and would bring in 
 any that were grazing too far away. They had 
 proceeded perhaps a couple of days travel toward 
 their destination when a severe northern blizzard 
 struck them at night. It was accompanied by 
 snow and some hail. All the efforts of the two 
 men and shepherd dog failed to hold the sheep to- 
 gether and they quickly drifted away following 
 the trend of the storm and were lost to the herd- 
 ers. The men stayed in camp until morning and 
 then spent that day in hunting for them, but not 
 succeeding Jeff mounted one of the horses and 
 rode for the home ranch. The distance was about 
 seventy-five miles but he reached home during 
 
42 RANCHLIPE 
 
 the afternoon of the third day after the loss and 
 informed the proprietor of the accident. Consid- 
 erable thinking was done that night as to the best 
 method of proceeding. The storm had come from 
 the north and would undoubtedly blow the strays 
 toward the Arkansas river, north of which forty- 
 rive miles the disaster occurred. After the storm 
 abated they sought water and that existed only 
 in the Arkansas river. The sheep would natur- 
 ally keep together unless they were scattered by 
 coyotes and the only object in hurrying for the 
 search at all was to prevent their being thus scat- 
 tered. So the next day a pair of horses was 
 hitched to a spring wagon and Jeff and the pro- 
 prietor drove down the river through Pueblo and 
 on east to the mouth of the Chico. Inquiring of 
 the ranchman who lived at that point (inquiries 
 had already been made along the road in several 
 places) he answered that he noticed a flock of 
 sheep watering at some distance below him on the 
 river but paid no attention to them supposing they 
 had a herder. The journey was resumed in that 
 direction and within a mile or mile and a half the 
 sheep were found lying down. The two black 
 goats were standing with their heads erect as if 
 watching for any friend or enemy. Jeff acted as 
 herder while the proprietor drove the team and 
 in the evening they were again at the home ranch. 
 Being counted the next day only two or three were 
 found to be missing. It is altogether probable 
 
RANCH LIFE IN COLORADO 43 
 
 that if the black goats, with their bells, had not 
 been with them they would have been badly scat- 
 tered and many of them lost. Storms are very 
 destructive to sheep. They cannot be made to 
 face a storm they always drift with it keeping 
 their faces away from direct contact with the 
 wind, rain or snow. "Mack" suggested that the 
 sheep drifted toward the Greenhorn range of 
 mountains in the southwest which brought them 
 to the river. However, and whatever the cause of 
 their being found in that location, it was most 
 gratifying to the owner that they were recovered 
 with so little exertion and in such short time. 
 
 To illustrate the precarious conditions of the 
 business of wool-growing at that time in Colorado 
 the following juxtaposition of its good and ill for- 
 tune is given. A resident of Philadelphia, Pen- 
 sylvania, owned six thousand head and grazed 
 them by proxy on the Apishapa river in Huerfano 
 County, hiring a manager and herders while he 
 remained at his eastern home. Experience having 
 taught him in time that these conditions were in- 
 compatible with successful results, he offered the 
 sheep for sale at a very reasonable price. Imme- 
 diately the Pueblo ranchman procured an option 
 for the purchase of two thousand of them. A 
 short time afterwards the remaining four thou- 
 sand were taken by an ex-banker of Chicago who 
 was also seeking the recovery of his health in the 
 fine climate of Colorado. His enthusiasm exceed- 
 
44 RANCH LIFE 
 
 ed all bounds and his wealth was ample. He de- 
 sired to purchase the whole six thousand and 
 when all the interested parties met at the Apisha- 
 pa ranch to count and transfer the sheep, he of- 
 fered the buyer of the two thousand a bonus of 
 $500 for his purchase. This was declined. It 
 was agreed that the flock should be divided by let- 
 ting two thousand of them out of the corral, one 
 at a time, through a chute which had been built on 
 one side of the corral and when these had passed 
 through the remainder should go to the banker 
 from Chicago. This plan was very agreeable to 
 the purchaser of the two thousand, because experi- 
 ence had proved that the most vigorous would 
 come out first. The two thousand accompanied 
 by a herder and their proprietor were soon on 
 the road toward Pueblo, grazing by the way. 
 The weather being fine there was no hurry 
 to get them on the home range for the longer 
 they should be kept by the way, the better 
 would it be for them and the better the 
 grass on the home range would become. It 
 was in March when this flock arrived at the home 
 ranch. In a short time there came an inquiry 
 from a merchant in Pueblo asking at what price 
 these two thousand sheep could be purchased. 
 The answer was $2,000 advance over the price 
 at which they were bought. A few days after 
 the banker from Chicago came to the home ranch 
 paid the price and drove them away. They were 
 
RANCH LIFE IN COLORADO 45 
 
 taken immediately to their grazing grounds north- 
 east of Colorado Springs, in El Paso County, and 
 turned into the same flock with the four thousand. 
 In a few days after this a severe northeast storm 
 of snow and sleet struck the combined flock on the 
 range, froze to death one of the two or three herd- 
 ers and drove twenty-five hundred of the sheep 
 over some high bluffs, killing them all. The only 
 part of the twenty-five hundred left to sell 
 were the pelts. The Chicago banker concluded 
 that wool growing in Colorado was not profitable 
 and soon closed out his holdings. 
 
 As said before, the question of ranges for 
 sheep was a serious one. Experience proved that 
 not more than two thousand could be profitably 
 grazed in one flock. Two flocks might be kept 
 at one point in two corrals and grazed in different 
 directions, but one herder could not well attend 
 more than that number. For instance, at the 
 home ranch two thousand could be kept on each 
 side of the river, but the important thing was not 
 to crop the grass too close at any time of the year 
 and to have some ranges free from sheep while the 
 grass was growing. 
 
 Cattle did not do well grazing upon the same 
 range with sheep and the cattle raisers were very 
 bitterly opposed to this and perhaps properly so. 
 The Adobe creek ranch was selected with particu- 
 lar reference to this feeling of cattlemen. Assist- 
 ance was given in the selection of this ranch by 
 
46 RANCH LIFE 
 
 Mr. Ludwig Kramer, who had a fine place on the 
 Arkansas river twenty-five miles east of Pueblo. 
 He grazed a large number of cattle toward the 
 north from his ranch as far east as Bluff Springs 
 and along Mustang creek perhaps as far as Horse 
 Creek. Two fine springs were found in the bluffs 
 immediately west of Adobe Creek. The range 
 was exceedingly fine and seemed to be unoccupied 
 except by a herd of wild horses which kept well 
 out of the way and would run whenever they 
 sighted a man in the distance. The distance from 
 .the home ranch was really little further than the 
 one on the Divide. The good grazing and occa- 
 sional water between these two ranches made the 
 long distance endurable. The ranch itself was 
 perfect for summer occupation only. It was a 
 true prairie region without any timber and there- 
 fore there was no protection against storms. A 
 cabin and corrals were soon built and occupied 
 more or less during the years following. At one 
 time while a flock of sheep was being taken to 
 this ranch by two men with wagon and necessary 
 equipments and all the paraphernalia of a moving 
 flock, when they arrived at Horse Creek the two 
 men concluded there was not any good reason why 
 another ranch should not be established there. 
 The finest water and splendid grazing lured the 
 men. There were no cattle in sight and no cabin 
 anywhere in view. They decided to remain at 
 least for a while until they could communicate 
 
RANCH LIFE IN COLORADO 47 
 
 with the home ranch. They soon erected from 
 materials at hand a comfortable dug-out in which 
 to sleep at night and used a circular canvas corral 
 which they carried along with them in the wagon. 
 This was made of canvas a yard wide, and iron 
 stakes sufficiently numerous to hold the canvas 
 in place. They remained but a few days, when 
 one night hearing some commotion about the cor- 
 ral, looking out they discovered some men on 
 horseback driving the sheep away. The two herd- 
 ers discreetly remained in the cabin watching the 
 performance and noting the direction in which the 
 sheep were taken awaited the coming of daylight 
 before pursuing. They then found them not a 
 great distance from the corral. The account of 
 the event given by the herders was rather vague, 
 but at all events it was taken as sufficient warning 
 on the part of the cattle raisers whose stock per- 
 haps occupied that region that sheep were not 
 wanted there. They were taken to another local- 
 ity and no further attempt was made to locate 
 on Horse Creek. 
 
 The route from Pueblo to that Adobe Creek 
 ranch left the Arkansas valley at the mouth of 
 Haines creek by what was known as the Kit, Car- 
 son road, a plain wagon road leading to the town 
 of Kit Carson on the Kansas Pacific Railway. The 
 Adobe Creek ranch was located perhaps four or 
 five miles north of this Kit Carson road where it 
 crossed from Horse creek to Adobe. Large irri- 
 
48 RANCHLIFE 
 
 gating ditches now cover that whole country and 
 valuable reservoirs and farms occupy the entire 
 region between there and the Arkansas river. 
 The town of Arlington, now on the Missouri Pa- 
 cific Railway, is located on Adobe creek, south of 
 this sheep ranch. 
 
 The Divide ranch, an old stage station at the 
 head of west Cherry Creek, immediately on the 
 old stage road from Denver to Pueblo, a fine pro- 
 ducer of native hay, with log house and very com- 
 modious barns, was formerly the home of John 
 Irvine who moved from there to his farm on the 
 Fountain river at the station now called Wigwam 
 on the Denver and Rio Grande Railway. Because 
 of these convenient buildings it proved to be a de- 
 sirable summer location and a fine place to shear, 
 which generally occurred in May or June of each 
 year. The clip of wool of 1871, cut at this ranch, 
 marketed in Denver, hauled by wagons, sold for 
 31c per pound. The Denver & Rio Grande Rail- 
 way was then being constructed at Palmer Lake 
 and down Monument creek, four miles west. After 
 the clipping of 1871, however, the shearing was 
 done at the home ranch on the Arkansas, because 
 shearers were more easily obtained at that point 
 and the wool could be such more readily marketed 
 at Pueblo. Another ranch on the Arkansas river 
 has not yet been mentioned but which was really 
 more valuable than the home ranch. It was located 
 two and one-half miles east of Pueblo down the 
 
RANCH LIFE IN COLORADO 49 
 
 river. At the present time Pueblo has grown so far 
 east as to bring this ranch within less than a mile 
 of the suburbs. It consisted of a very valuable 
 natural meadow from which a large crop of hay 
 was taken every year. It had a valuable irriga- 
 tion 'ditch covering the whole acreage, and was 
 used for a number of years for the dairy cows. 
 It made a splendid dairy ranch. Sheep were never 
 taken to this ranch for two reasons. One was 
 that the range contiguous was not so good as that 
 at the home ranch and access to the water was 
 cut off by fences and meadows. It was generally 
 rented to a tenant who at the same time rented 
 the dairy. 
 
 THE PERSONNEL OF EMPLOYES. 
 
 The personnel of the employes in this ranching 
 business is interesting to look back upon. There 
 were not a great number employed at any one 
 time, but the aggregate for the whole time was 
 large in number. Some of them remained for 
 years, others for only a few months, and many for 
 but a few weeks, sometimes only a few days. They 
 were of all grades of efficiency, and nearly of all 
 grades of character. There were still more grades 
 of intellect among them some of them being 
 bright and others very stupid. As a rule they 
 were white men, generally Americans, but occa- 
 sionally some Mexicans, who were really good 
 
50 RANCH LIFE 
 
 docile sheep herders. One by the name of Jesus 
 proved to be an exceptionally good herder, and 
 was kept for many months, but the American 
 white men were the only ones who were really 
 trusted to take flocks to the distant ranches. This 
 name Jesus was pronounced "Hasoos" with the 
 accent on the last syllable. It was a common name 
 among the Mexicans, and was never thought any- 
 thing but proper except by the woman whose tub 
 was borrowed and sent home by the Mexican with 
 a note which read : 
 
 "Dear Madam: I am exceedingly obliged for 
 the use of your tub, which I herewith return by 
 Jesus. 
 
 "Yours truly," 
 
 She afterward remarked to the borrower that 
 it was all right to return the tub, but it should 
 have been done without any profanity. Many of 
 these employes were young men from the east, 
 seeking health in the Colorado climate. One was 
 a young, smooth-faced boy from New York City. 
 He was quite efficient in some ways, but exceed- 
 ingly green and unused to the ways of the world 
 arid many a joke was played upon him by the older 
 western men. He afterwards became quite a 
 politician in Pueblo, and held more than one city 
 office. He long afterwards located in northern 
 Mexico, where he now owns a large ranch. An- 
 other employe is now a lawyer in Durango; an- 
 
RANCH LIFE IN COLORADO 51 
 
 other a lawyer in Pueblo. But Mack, who stayed 
 the longest as a sheep herder, and who was by far 
 the most efficient one, had no ambition to rise 
 higher, and went away from the ranch with the 
 last flock of sheep, this being sold to a son of one 
 of the principal fur merchants of New York City. 
 Mack went with him. He was accompanied by a 
 Mr. Grant from London, England, who had estab- 
 lished a large stock ranch on the Kansas Pacific 
 Railway in northwestern Kansas. They pur- 
 chased this flock of sheep for investment, placing 
 them on this ranch. They took Mack and the 
 canvas corral. That was the last seen or heard of 
 Mack. He was quiet and gentle, always doing his 
 duty squarely and well. His only seeming faults 
 were personal, his want of any thrift being the 
 worst. 
 
 WILD ANIMALS. 
 
 In the summer of 1870, there were numerous 
 varieties of wild animal life on that home ranch 
 and in the country adjoining. There was an 
 abundance of fish in the river, consisting of chan- 
 nel and mud cats, suckers and a very fine silver 
 scaled fish which for want of a better name was 
 called white fish. Turtles were in great abund- 
 ance. Mud cats weighing as high as ten pounds 
 were sometimes caught, but the channel cat and 
 the white fish made the finest eating. It was easy 
 
52 RANCH LIFE 
 
 to catch them on trot lines set with hooks every 
 few feet and baited with minnows. These trot 
 lines were kept anchored in the water and fast- 
 ened to a stake on the shore, so that at all times 
 plenty of fish appeared on the table. They could 
 be also caught readily with pole and line, and 
 much fishing was thus done by the visitors from 
 Pueblo. A large wooden box was fastened at the 
 edge of the stream, so the water would cover its 
 bottom about a foot or eighteen inches deep. Many 
 fish taken alive were placed in this box, so that 
 fresh fish were always available at very short 
 notice. A great many beavers lived along this 
 stream. They were very shy animals, seldom seen 
 and hard to trap, but their nightly depredations 
 on the timber were plainly visible. They would 
 cut down cottonwoods a foot in diameter. Whether 
 they did this for the purpose of feeding on the 
 bark and extreme twigs of the trees, or for use in 
 constructing dams in the river, was difficult to 
 determine. By means of traps, one was occasion- 
 ally caught, and his fur was quite valuable. 
 
 Ducks in large flocks at the proper season 
 alighted on the waters, and the table was frequent- 
 ly served with this delicious viand. There was no 
 occasion to go hunting ducks or angling for fish, 
 except for mountain trout, away from the ranch 
 at any time. Wild geese, while not so plentiful 
 as ducks, occasionally came within shooting dis- 
 tance, and some were shot. An occasional long- 
 
RANCH LIFE IN COLORADO 53 
 
 necked crane or heron would alight on the shore 
 of the river. They were very beautiful but not 
 edible, and therefore not shot. 
 
 Cotton-tail rabbits were numerous, both in the 
 sage brush, which grew particularly on the more 
 level lands, and among the cacti, which seemed 
 to grow best on the flat-topped hills. These little 
 bunnies would make their nests under the bunches 
 of cactus. They found in the cactus needles a 
 perfect protection against the roving coyote or 
 other enemies. It was easy to take a shot-gun 
 and in an hour get enough of these on the ranch 
 alone to make a meal for the family. 
 
 Antelope were numerous on the range north 
 of the ranch, it not being necessary to go out 
 on the prairies to hunt for them, they came within 
 shooting distance. On the morning of April 7, 
 1871, the storm of snow and sleet which destroyed 
 so many sheep, spoken of before, drove a herd of 
 antelope into the home ranch ; fifteen or twenty of 
 them entered the corral. In their eager desire to 
 escape the storm, they seemed to have lost the 
 fear of human habitations and human beings, and 
 acted almost tame. There then existed no law 
 protecting these beautiful animals from the gun- 
 ner, and one rifle shot killed three of them. The 
 others jumped over the bank into the river and 
 swam to the south side. In the crevices of the 
 blue limestone bluffs just west of the house lived 
 some swifts or little foxes, beautiful little gray 
 
54 RANCH LIFE 
 
 animals, whose bright eyes, erect ears and bushy 
 tails were pleasant to see, as they would frequent- 
 ly protrude their heads from their hiding places 
 or take excursions, even in day-light, through the 
 timber that lined the stream below the house. One 
 could not be seen moving along through the cot- 
 ton tree woods when a rifle was available, but 
 often the roamer in the timber when unarmed 
 could watch their beautiful forms passing rather 
 leisurely within a short distance. They watched 
 the chicken yard pretty closely, but if they made 
 any depredations in that direction, it was not 
 noticed. No exertion was made to kill or molest 
 these little foxes, and very few beavers were ever 
 caught. The little black and white striped animal, 
 which has such a sharp black nose and bushy tail 
 was numerous and gave some annoyance at times 
 in the chicken quarters and by his odor. But he 
 fed mostly on insects, toads and frogs, thus being 
 perhaps to a farmer more valuable alive than 
 dead. 
 
 On the south side of the river, at the home 
 ranch, there was an exceedingly thick growth of 
 willows covering several acres evidently of an old 
 bed of the stream. In this thicket there lived a 
 very large wild-cat. He was as large as a good- 
 sized bull-dog. He kept out of sight in daylight 
 but occasionally from the small tight little corral, 
 kept for the use of lambs which had lost their 
 mothers, a lamb would be missing without the 
 
RANCH EIPE IN COLORADO 55 
 
 least evidence of the method of its disappearance. 
 The cabin in which the herder slept adjoined this 
 little corral and if he had been wide awake and 
 less stupid he might have found out before he did 
 the cause of their disappearance. This agile and 
 industrious wild-cat was feeding on the lambs. 
 He would jump the high board fence, seize one 
 with the greatest agility and bound back again 
 evidently without ever making any noise on the 
 fence itself. He was finally killed but only some- 
 time after he had been master of the situation. 
 
 Rattlesnakes were numerous. They generally 
 had holes of their own in which they crawled but 
 sometimes used those of the prairie-dog. They 
 were very sluggish and easily killed but would 
 occasionally bite the noses and mouths of the graz- 
 ing animals. They would lie curled up in the sum- 
 mer time in the hottest places, the neutral tints of 
 their skins making them almost invisible on the 
 adobe soil. They were killed whenever seen. A 
 slight tap of the quirt on the head of one was 
 generally effective. A saucer full of their rattles 
 at the house gave evidence of numerous killings. 
 
 Owls of all sizes and shapes had their nests in 
 the cedar trees within a half mile of the house. 
 One would frequently come at night and lighting 
 on the chimney make a most weird and disagree- 
 able hooting. At such times they seemed to be 
 aware that the inmates in bed were not likely to 
 disturb them. Wild pigeons, doves, black birds, 
 
56 RANCH LIFE 
 
 and occasionally a blue bird would come and break 
 the monotony of other sorts of animal life. Mag- 
 pies were numerous but very disagreeable and 
 worthless. 
 
 Moles, field mice, prairie dogs, striped 
 ground squirrels, beetles and insects of many 
 kinds abounded in the soft soil of the bottom 
 lands. In fact, there was life everywhere. Most 
 of the insect life was invisible, but known to be 
 there, and presumably for a good purpose. Every 
 form of it seemed to be devouring other forms. 
 Large numbers of field ants occupied places on 
 the dry prairie land, and built good-sized mounds 
 of the dirt and gravel carried from their galleries 
 of rooms in the sub-soil. From the foot of these 
 ant-hills, for quite a distance in a circle, the 
 ground was perfectly bare. They either ate the 
 grass and roots, or their very presence had the 
 effect of killing all plant life within that circle. 
 Ants are the most intelligent of all insects, and 
 very cosmopolitan. They seen to be found on land 
 in the temperate and torrid zones, everywhere 
 around the earth. It has been said that the little 
 particle of brain matter forming the head of an 
 ant is the most intelligent piece of matter on the 
 globe. It is interesting to any one to study their 
 habits and watch with what system and industrial 
 persistence they accomplish their objects. They 
 are very annoying to farmers when their hills 
 
RANCH LIFE IN COLORADO 57 
 
 happen to be in cultivated fields, and it is exceed- 
 ingly difficult to annihilate them. 
 
 There were also horned toads, the red racer, a 
 most beautiful species of the order of snakes, 
 tarantulas and centipedes. Common toads were 
 not very numerous, but one big fellow made his 
 home under the front steps of the house. The chil- 
 dren amused themselves feeding him flies and 
 other tid-bits, for he sunned himself daily. One 
 day the wife hearing a commotion under the steps 
 went to investigate, and as her foot touched the 
 step, a large red racer emerged from underneath, 
 and his throat was suspiciously large, with the 
 legs of the toad protruding from his mouth. She 
 called one of the men who cut the snake's head off, 
 and out jumped the toad as lively as ever, without 
 any seeming injury. Toads did not go near the 
 water, but there were plenty of frogs along the 
 edges of the river and these lived both in the 
 water and on the land. They fed on insects and 
 presumably small fish and were in turn a quite 
 common food for snakes. Tarantulas, interesting 
 but hideous animals, were huge black spiders cov- 
 ering a space two inches in diameter with their 
 numerous legs and feet. They made homes in the 
 soil with a little trap-door at the top which they 
 would shut when entering and it was quite diffi- 
 cult to discover the trap-door. Scorpions appeared 
 occasionally and once in a while a wild bee would 
 
58 RANCH LIFE 
 
 alight from some distant hive but the number was 
 small. 
 
 As said before, the deer tribe remained in the 
 wooded regions of the mountains, as did the elk 
 and the mountain sheep. Bears were also den- 
 izens of the mountain districts but one day in 
 driving from the ranch to Rock Canon up the 
 river, a black object seen on the right of the road 
 about a mile and a half from the ranch proved 
 to be one. The vehicle turned from the road and 
 approached the black object. It did not linger 
 but was soon out of sight over the high bluff be- 
 yond moving north toward the pinon woods. It 
 was not followed nor seen again, but heard of. A 
 Mr. Schwartz, who was a wood-hauler from the 
 pinon woods to Pueblo, killed and brought into 
 town that same evening a black bear which, of 
 course, must have been the same one. Numerous 
 mountain lions lived in the foot-hills, being ex- 
 ceedingly shy, one was never seen at the ranch, 
 but being very fond of the meat of young colts 
 their presence not far away was evident. 
 
 It is stated some pages back that it was not 
 necessary for the hunter to go away from home in 
 search of game. But occasionally an expendition 
 went to Chico or Haines creek, where the antelope 
 and jack rabbits were more numerous. It was 
 easy to bring back a number of both these ani- 
 mals. Jack rabbits were not especially good eating, 
 but when cooked and served in a certain way, 
 
RANCH LIFE IN COLORADO 59 
 
 made a very good substitute in the absence of 
 other meats. There was nothing more delicious 
 in the way of good eating than the round steak of 
 a fat antelope. These were very numerous in 
 those days, but being very fleet, it was necessary 
 for the success of the hunter to discover their 
 watering places, and they could then be easily 
 killed. On such expeditions, and in fact on all 
 trips, made for any purpose or from ranch to 
 ranch, a pair of horses and a good wagon made a 
 necessary conveyance. The outfit for cooking and 
 sleeping was more for use than ornament. A 
 Dutch oven in which to bake bread and meat of 
 all kinds, a frying pan with a long handle which 
 was called a "spider," an iron kettle and a tin one 
 in which to boil potatoes and vegetables, a coffee 
 pot, plates, and knives and forks made up the eat- 
 ing department. A fine bed-room was made by 
 using a long sheet made of two widths of cotton 
 canvas wound around the wheels of the wagon, 
 so as to enclose the space beneath. The bed was 
 made of sheep skins with the full length of wool 
 left on them, sewed together, of the proper length 
 and width, and the skin sides of the pelts came to- 
 gether so as to make a double thickness with wool 
 on both the upper and under sides. This, with 
 plenty of blankets, made a sleeping apartment 
 finer than any in a first-class hotel. The traveler 
 being thus equipped, there was no difficulty what- 
 ever in keeping perfectly comfortable in the 
 
60 RANCH LIFE 
 
 stormiest weather. Tales have been told of men 
 on the prairie being annoyed by snakes crawling 
 into their beds at night, but nothing of that kind 
 occurred to these pioneers. 
 
 One reason why invalids whose lungs were 
 more or less affected preferred the life of a herder 
 to that of any other was the constant life in the 
 open air both night and day. No one who took 
 proper care of himself was injured by this kind 
 of exposure, but greatly benefited. There is per- 
 sonal knowledge of dozens who came from the 
 east to Colorado with tuberculosis being cured by 
 remaining in the mild climate of the Arkansas 
 valley for two or three years. The almost perpet- 
 ual sunshine and the absence of excessive moist- 
 ure make the atmosphere a healing tonic, and 
 while the spaces eaten out in the lungs are not re- 
 placed by new lung substance, yet the abcesses are 
 healed and the disease thus cured. Personal ex- 
 perience proved also that the chest is enlarged 
 and the breathing power made stronger and the 
 inhalation more abundant, by the great exertion 
 required to take in a larger quantity of the light 
 air in Colorado than what has been habitual in 
 the damper climate of the eastern states. At any 
 rate, the physicians of the eastern states discov- 
 ered long since that at least in the first stages of 
 consumption, their best prescription directs the 
 patient should migrate to Colorado. But coming 
 to Colorado was not all ; a patient might come to 
 
RANCH LIFE IN COLORADO 61 
 
 Colorado and by going to too high an altitude at 
 first and especially by not remaining in the loca- 
 tion where he received the most relief he might 
 not improve especially if he became impatient or 
 lonesome and returned to see his family or friends 
 in the east. In the latter case he not only did not 
 recover but in many instances quickly died. 
 
 THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE RANCH. 
 
 It was fortunate that this American made a 
 location not only in an equable and desirable 
 climate under the bluest of skies and the most 
 propitious surroundings, but that it was so close 
 to a community like Pueblo, in which there could 
 be found friends and neighbors. Drives to town 
 were naturally frequent, and the ranch as con- 
 stantly being visited by persons who had also 
 sought the west, at least partly, for its freedom 
 from conventional society. There lived here an 
 intelligent community of men and women, most 
 of whom had fine culture and were possessed of 
 all the qualities desirable in social intercourse, 
 courteous, generous, considerate and friendly. 
 There were ministers of the gospel, teachers, law- 
 yers, doctors, bankers, merchants and mechanics. 
 They had too much love of freedom and adventure 
 to remain in the east after becoming aware of the 
 unoccupied and boundless attractions of the Rocky 
 
62 RANCH LIFE 
 
 Mountain region. Almost every Sunday visitors 
 came to the ranch, and the neighbors who lived 
 beyond, on their way to or from town, made fre- 
 quent pleasant calls and gave friendly greetings. 
 Mr. Charles Goodnight, Mr. Henry Cresswell, 
 Professor Boggs, J. J. Smith and Michael Ma- 
 honey were among the pleasant passers-by. From 
 Pueblo would come Mr. and Mrs. Irving W. Stan- 
 ton, Judge Moses Hallett, Judge Henry C. Thatch- 
 er and R. M. Stevenson, the editor of the "Chief- 
 tain." In 1874 Gov. Frederick W. Pitkin came 
 with his family in search of health, which he had 
 failed to find by traveling in almost every other 
 region of the globe. He was in an exceedingly ad- 
 vanced state of tuberculosis of the lungs, and lo- 
 cating at first in Pueblo, his lungs were entirely 
 healed by his staying there in the winter months 
 and in the hot months of the summer traveling 
 in a wagon through the mountains. He was elected 
 Governor of the State in 1878 and lived for twelve 
 years, although quite active in politics and the 
 practice of the law. 
 
 The facilities for social functions in the town 
 of Pueblo at that early date were not expected 
 to be first-class, but thoroughly enjoyed, because 
 the people in this manner came closer to each 
 other, overlooked the necessary annoyances which 
 accompany all border life, while good will and 
 humor prevailed at all times. Dances, dinner- 
 parties, conversations frequently occurred. The 
 
RANCH LIFE IN COLORADO 63 
 
 drama was necessarily more or less neglected, but 
 the "Two Orphans" given in the Court House 
 without any scenery, by a traveling company and 
 an opera presented in Chilcot's Hall, also without 
 scenery or orchestra, a piano supplying the music, 
 gave a great deal of pleasure and merriment. 
 "Jarley's Wax Works" got up by local talent for 
 the benefit of some charity perhaps supplied pas- 
 time of the most laughable and enjoyable char- 
 acter. 
 
 Friends and relatives came from the eastern 
 states also, especially after the Denver & Rio 
 Grande Railroad was built into Pueblo from Den- 
 ver. This gave a continuous railway line from 
 Chicago or New York, or any point on the rail- 
 roads of the east, to Pueblo. It may be said that 
 when this occurred, the real pioneer days were 
 over, for when those luxuries of civilization, 
 which were enjoyed in the east could be obtained 
 by railroad and laid down so readily at one's very 
 door, there was a marked transformation from 
 the homely comforts of pioneer life to the adorn- 
 ments and frivolities of civilization. When any- 
 thing bought in the stores could be purchased for 
 less than 25c, self-denial was thrown to the winds 
 while in time better houses, better furniture, some 
 works of art and libraries began to appear in 
 various homes. The family whose ranch life is 
 here recorded brought much of the furniture they 
 used in the east in 1870, and never felt called upon 
 
64 RANCH LIFE 
 
 to do without carpets or bedsteads. Among the 
 luxuries was a library of books. The new adobe 
 house had been built with wide fire places and 
 good-sized rooms, so that in winter when fires 
 were necessary they were made of cottonwood 
 found in such abundance in the drift piles along 
 the river and the pinon wood, so pitchy and in- 
 flammable, from the hills. So that comforts were 
 not wanting at any season of the year. An adobe 
 house, while warm in winter, is cool in summer. 
 This house plastered on the outside did not show 
 very apparently its construction of adobes. It 
 had a large stone-walled cellar, good foundations, 
 and here friends from Pueblo, or the east, were 
 welcomed with a warm greeting, to pleasant 
 sleeping rooms and a cuisine of white fish, chan- 
 nel-cat, mutton fattened on the wild grasses of 
 the prairie, tasting like wild meat, the most 
 thrifty dark Brahma chickens, antelope steak, 
 home-made bread, butter made on the ranch, milk 
 and cream from the home dairy and jam of red 
 raspberries picked on the mountains. 
 
 Two children gave vivacity to this ranch life. 
 A boy and a girl were the most precious and in- 
 teresting members of this family. They reveled 
 in the inexhaustible sources of human happiness 
 in a region of such newness and freedom. They 
 were the chief pets of the older men and women 
 and had likewise their pets in horses, dog, sheep 
 and pigs. In summer they gathered flowers and 
 
RANCH LIFE IN COLORADO 65 
 
 grasses, roamed the prairie with a New Found- 
 land dog as a constant companion and played in 
 the waters of the river. Their grandparents on 
 their mother's side resided six miles up the river 
 and the visits there were always greatly enjoyed, 
 as were also the drives into Pueblo. They grew 
 strong and active in such surroundings, giving 
 pride and pleasure to their parents. 
 
 Excursions for pleasure to other localities 
 were frequently taken. A trip into the mountains 
 in the summer time, or to the top of Pike's Peak, 
 or to Manitou Springs, or to Denver, made always 
 a delightful diversion. When business had to be 
 transacted at a distance more or less pleasure was 
 added to it by driving a team in a spring wagon 
 over the fine natural roads, the weather generally 
 almost perfect and the fine scenery of the moun- 
 tains on the west always in view. The sunsets 
 were glorious. The changing tints made by the 
 reflection of the setting sun on the fleeting clouds 
 above were of the greatest magnificence and ex- 
 quisite in gorgeousness. Even in the hottest days 
 of summer, when the direct rays of the sun seemed 
 unbearable, it was always cool in the shade and 
 at night. So cool were the nights that one did 
 not care to sleep without a covering, but most of 
 the men on the ranch preferred to sleep out in the 
 open rather than in the house. The constant sun- 
 shine was not tiresome ; that and the purity of the 
 atmosphere made things very clear to the eye at a 
 
66 RANCHLIFE 
 
 long distance and the mountains that were always 
 in view from thirty to fifty miles away, appeared 
 at times to be less than a tenth of that distance. 
 On the prairie, there being no obstructions to the 
 view, the distant horizon was like that on the 
 ocean except for the mountains on the west, which 
 rose in sublimity and grandeur. Pike's Peak could 
 be seen from a point a hundred and eighty-five 
 miles to the east. In going from the home 
 ranch to that of Adobe creek, at a certain 
 point on the road one was sure to see in 
 the middle of a sunshiny summer day a mi- 
 rage of cool water and green fields. These were 
 illusions very grateful to the thirsty traveler 
 while the other illusion of shortened distance from 
 point to point kept up a pleasing hope which really 
 shortened a journey and gave zest to every-day 
 life in this "land of the blest." These peculiarities 
 of this life in the far west really gave it its at- 
 tractiveness. Of course, these alone would not 
 people a country nor build an empire, yet if the 
 pioneers had experienced dull and cloudy days 
 and the heat of mid-day in summer had been con- 
 tinued through the night, had the land been cov- 
 ered with thick heavy woods shutting off these 
 enchanting vistas, the pioneer life would have 
 been less pleasurable and therefore much less use- 
 ful. Had rains fallen in great quantity making 
 impassable roads the only lines of communication, 
 there would have been less intercourse, much 
 
RANCH LIFE IN COLORADO 67 
 
 more hard toil, the winter grazing destroyed by 
 too much moisture and generally less optimistic 
 life. The absence of moisture alone made the 
 grass nutritious in the winter time. 
 
 The first impressions made upon women com- 
 ing to Colorado gave them no pleasure. They 
 naturally looked on the outdoor life here as being 
 the same as that in the east. The log cabin or 
 the adobe house did not "greatly please" them, 
 but after remaining a few months, or a few years, 
 and experiencing the life, there was either no de- 
 sire to return to the east, or if returning, a strong 
 desire arose to get back to the bright and free 
 life of the prairies and mountains. 
 
 The following account gives a full description 
 of the most pleasurable diversion a resident of 
 mountain districts can have. Trout fishing is 
 pursued by so many men without knowledge of 
 the necessary equipment, or of the proper method, 
 that it seems necessary to give herein a full treat- 
 ment of the subject. It should be not only a part 
 of ranch life but an outing in the mountains is 
 now so common in the life of every resident of 
 Colorado that no apology is required for inserting 
 herein how that outing can be made happy and 
 desirable. 
 
 FLY FISHING. 
 
 To many men the most fascinating sport in 
 Colorado is that of fly fishing in the mountains. 
 
68 RANCHLIFE 
 
 Expert hunters usually prefer elk or deer hunt- 
 ing to trout fishing. True, it is more exciting, 
 but requires a vaster exercise of energy. The 
 fisherman may be a less active and energetic per- 
 son than a hunter, but on many streams it re- 
 quires the exercise of a great deal of strength 
 and endurance to wade the stream and capture the 
 trout. It is the expert fisherman only who gets 
 the full measure of the sport and who really pur- 
 sues it more for the pleasure there is in it than 
 for any profit in large catches. If one is to re- 
 ceive the full delights of the sport the commercial 
 element must be entirely eliminated. The fisher- 
 man should be properly equipped and this means 
 that when he casts the fly he must feel perfectly 
 comfortable although wading in mid-stream with 
 perhaps the sun beating down in full splendor 
 from the zenith in mid-summer. He must wear a 
 cowboy's sombrero, nearly white in color and 
 heavy enough to shed any rain. He must wear 
 waders that come above the waist which will not 
 leak a drop of water and over these a pair of 
 overalls to protect the waders from snags and 
 from wearing into holes. Over these on his feet he 
 must have woolen socks and canvas light colored 
 shoes with hob nails in the soles to prevent slip- 
 ping. A very light rubber cape with arms to 
 fasten around the neck and reach not lower than a 
 few inches below the top of the waders, to be put 
 on in case of rain. This cape must be light 
 
RANCH LIFE IN COLORADO 69 
 
 enough to wrap in so small a bundle that it will go 
 into a hip pocket in the overalls. In another hip 
 pocket he will carry his lunch which should be a 
 very light one. In two pockets in front of the 
 overalls he will carry such other things as his 
 experience proves to be desirable. In the pockets 
 of his flannel shirt should be a knife, a fly-book 
 and an aluminum box, thin and just wide enough 
 to carry a leader and some flies. In this box will 
 be a wet pad to keep these flies and leaders moist 
 enough to use instantly. Dry strands in leaders 
 and flies break too easily to be used without wet- 
 ting beforehand. A desirable adjunct is a spring 
 scale for weighing the fish. He should wear no 
 heavy clothing under the waders and only a single 
 shirt, no coat nor trousers. The waders being 
 impervious to the water from the outside also 
 confine the perspiration, therefore the waders 
 should be very loose around the body above the 
 waist to allow the perspiration to evaporate, and 
 too much clothing makes the fisherman uncom- 
 fortable in a short time so that he does not enjoy 
 his fishing. He must wear cotton gloves with the 
 tips of the fingers cut off, and the wristlets long 
 enough always to cover the space around the wrist 
 not covered by the cuff of the shirt sleeve, other- 
 wise his wrist will soon become sore from blister- 
 ing in the sun. He must carry a fishing rod made 
 of many strips of bamboo and divided into three 
 sections, the whole rod weighing from five to 
 
70 RANCH LIFE 
 
 seven ounces only and about ten feet long. The 
 reel seat of the pole should be nickel-plated metal, 
 and the reel a good strong one made of rubber and 
 nickel-plated steel. The line running from this 
 reel through guides to the end of the pole should 
 not be too light, for a line too light is easily blown 
 by the wind and does not stay where cast, but the 
 line should be of the best material. The leader 
 should be at least six feet long and where tied 
 upon the line, the tying knot should be made as 
 small as possible, and there should be no projec- 
 tion of the end of the line from its connection 
 with the leader. At the end of the leader is a loop 
 and into this loop will be inserted the loop of the 
 fly, thus requiring no tying. There are infinite 
 varieties of flies with as many fancy names, but 
 it is found that the Coachman and the Royal 
 Coachman tied upon a No. 8 Sproat hook are the 
 most effective in the mountain streams of south- 
 ern Colorado. The creel should be of willow large 
 enough to hold from fourteen to eighteen pounds 
 of fish, with nickel fastenings and no leather 
 bindings. This strung upon the left hip and held 
 over the right shoulder by the modern creel strap 
 will finish the equipment of an expert fisherman. 
 One thus equipped will wade to the middle of a 
 clear mountain stream and fish up-stream, vary- 
 ing his course from one side to the other of the 
 stream by the nature of its waters. To do this 
 the stream must not be too large ; it must be clear 
 
RANCH LIFE IN COLORADO 71 
 
 of drift and logs, not too rocky, and there should 
 be no mosquitoes there are plenty of streams 
 where there are no mosquitos. If now the stream 
 is reasonably well filled with speckled trout, and 
 the fisherman knows where and how to cast, he 
 ought to be able, within a reasonable distance, 
 to fill 1 that fourteen-pound creel. He of course 
 understands that the fly must not be allowed to 
 lie still upon the water. A slight movement of the 
 wrist will make it appear to the fish like a live fly, 
 and he must not cast in one place more than twice. 
 If the fish is going to take the fly at all, he seizes 
 it at once. In a good stream, it will take about 
 twenty fish, or perhaps twenty-five, to fill the 
 creel. A record of thirty fish caught in the 
 South Fork of White River, gives a weight of 
 twenty-three pounds. A good fisherman knows 
 just where the trout lies in the stream, and if 
 on a riffle it is always behind a rock where 
 there is an eddy and still water, with its head 
 up-stream invariably; but the large and strong 
 fellows occupy the still holes on the sides 
 of the stream close to the running water, where 
 they lie and watch for any food that may come 
 down the stream. The largest fish occupy the 
 largest holes until they are caught, and then the 
 next largest come in and takes their place. It is 
 because the fish always lies with its head up- 
 stream or feeds as it moves up-stream, that it is 
 best that the fisherman cast up instead of down. 
 
72 RANCH LIFE 
 
 He can thus get closer to the fish without its see- 
 ing him, and the closer he can get the surer he is 
 of hooking the fish. But if the fish sees the fish- 
 erman first, it is off like a shot, and in that case 
 there is no chance of hooking it. A fish is not al- 
 ways caught when it is hooked, for with the light 
 tackle just described, it is not safe to lift the fish 
 out of the water with the tackle. When hooked 
 it immediately runs away with the fly, and it is 
 wise to let it run until it stops of its own accord, 
 but if possible, not to let it run into very swift 
 water, for then it has the weight of the water to 
 assist in carrying it away from the fisherman and 
 to break, if possible, the hold of the hook, or to 
 break the line or the rod itself. As soon as it 
 stops running, then the reel should be used vigor- 
 ously and as rapidly as possible, the fish drawn 
 to the fisherman, holding the butt of the pole with 
 the left hand and working the reel with the right 
 hand. If it can be drawn into still water, it can 
 be very easily managed if the fisherman does not 
 lose his head. There should be no movement of 
 the body while the fish is being played, other than 
 the necessary working of the reel with the right 
 hand. The rod should be held perfectly still and 
 the bend of it will readily hold an ordinary fish 
 in place in the water until it gives up of its own 
 accord. If the pull of the fish, after being drawn 
 toward the fisherman, is found to be too heavy 
 for the safety of the tackle, the fish should be al- 
 
RANCH LIFE IN COLORADO 73 
 
 lowed to run again, which it will do for a less 
 distance than it did at first, and as soon as it 
 stops, it should be reeled in again. All this time 
 the fisherman and the rod should be perfectly 
 still, not even moving a finger, for should the fish- 
 erman move his body and especially his foot under 
 the water, it increases the exertions of the fish to 
 get away, and it is more likely to be lost. After 
 two or three trials of rushing with the hook fast- 
 ened in its mouth, the bend of the light rod will 
 easily hold the trout in place until it is tired out. 
 This condition is quickly observable by an expert 
 fisherman, because the trout turns over on its side 
 and rises to the surface of the water. Then the 
 fisherman can easily draw it within reach of his 
 hand, when he stoops down, inserts his thumb in 
 the mouth of the fish and two fingers in the gill, 
 and joining thumb and fingers, lifts it quickly out 
 of the water. If thus held, no fish can get away. 
 If the fish is of good size, the fisherman carries 
 the trout thus to the shore, and lays his tackle 
 down a sufficient distance from shore, so if the 
 fish is dropped, it cannot get back into the water, 
 takes his knife and quickly stabs the fish on top 
 of the head between the eyes. This kills it at once. 
 The hook is then disengaged from the mouth, the 
 fish put in the creel, and the creel securely fast- 
 ened before the next casting. 
 
 Fishing from the shore of a stream is not sat- 
 isfactory. The fisherman who makes large catches 
 
74 RANCHLIPE 
 
 is the one who wades the stream. This is economy 
 in time and strength, because always on a trout 
 stream there are so many places on the shore 
 where the fisherman must go around a fine fishing 
 hole, and if he undertakes to cast from the shore, 
 the branches of overhanging trees and bushes are 
 apt to catch his hook and line, whereas in the 
 middle of the stream there is usually nothing to 
 interfere with the free and easy casting. If the 
 stream happens to be in the high altitudes, the 
 early mornings are too cold for successful fishing, 
 and the fish are sluggish until the sun gets high 
 enough to warm the air a little next the water, 
 and it also thus dissipates any fog that might be 
 hanging over the surface. In a warm rain, the 
 fish are apt to take the fly more readily than at 
 other times. This is very likely caused by the 
 falling of insects into the stream beaten down 
 from the overhanging trees by the descending 
 drops of rain, and also carried into the stream by 
 the swelling rivulets along the shore. This addi- 
 tional supply of food being observed by the trout, 
 accounts for their greater activity during the 
 rain. It is for this reason that the wise fisherman 
 carries with him the rubber cape spoken of above. 
 When the fisherman has filled his creel, he steps 
 on the shore and lays his speckled beauties upon 
 a grassy spot ready for cleaning (for every good 
 fisherman cleans his fish before returning to 
 camp), his eyes will behold as beautiful a picture 
 
RANCH LIFE IN COLORADO 75 
 
 as was ever looked upon. The trout is a very beau- 
 tiful fish and especially the native mountain trout. 
 While their spots are all black, yet the many hues 
 of their long and slender forms and the perfect 
 proportions of their bodies and heads make a very 
 fine picture. The fisherman cleans the fish with 
 a knife that he carries, eats his lunch if he has 
 not already done so; if a smoker, lights his pipe, 
 and leisurely wends his way back to camp. The 
 camp, if not in a ranch house, should be made in 
 some beautiful spot, of two walled tents, one for 
 sleeping and loafing purposes, and the other for 
 kitchen, pantry, etc. In the sleeping tent should 
 be a good sized cot with a comfortable bed and 
 plenty of blankets. It should be supplied with a 
 folding table, a folding chair, a candle-stick and 
 candle, and if possible, a coal-oil lamp. There 
 should be such books and magazines as satisfy the 
 tastes of the fisherman. He has a guide with him 
 who does the cooking, who knows how to fry fish 
 to a turn, can make good hot biscuit, aromatic 
 coffee, and have the meals temptingly awaiting 
 the returning fisherman, who usually comes home 
 tired and hungry. 
 
 Mountain streams are bordered usually on 
 both sides by high hills or mountains whose sides 
 are covered with pine, spruce and other varieties 
 of the evergreen tree. If the fisherman has no cot 
 in his tent, a most comfortable bed can be made 
 from the boughs of these evergreens, especially 
 
76 RANCHLIFE 
 
 of the silver balsam, and by patiently preparing 
 only the extreme twigs of this tree, and by making 
 the bed thick enough, there are no more comfort- 
 able sleeping quarters in the world. The only 
 objection to a bed of this kind is that if made 
 upon the ground there are many small four-footed 
 animals who are liable to disturb the slumbers of 
 its occupant. This can be avoided by driving 
 down four forked stakes at proper distances and 
 laying cross poles in the forks for the head and 
 foot and on these, laying proper sized poles of suf- 
 ficient length. Evergreens can be laid on these 
 poles. 
 
 Young and vigorous fishermen seem to enjoy 
 this sport without making themselves as thor- 
 oughly comfortable as heretofore described, but 
 older and more experienced men always do so, 
 and later in life when pursuing their favorite 
 recreation, they seek their quarters at some ranch- 
 man's home near the stream and enjoy the warmer 
 quarters than those furnished in a tent. Towards 
 the close of the season, nights get colder, more 
 rains come in the mountains, and a good bed in a 
 comfortable cabin becomes a necessary luxury. 
 The fisherman, in order to really enjoy the sport 
 through the season, must not be too eager to catch 
 a great many fish. It is wiser and more humane 
 to catch just what will be devoured on the table, 
 and if this can be done by fishing only every other 
 day, or every third day, it gives a very desirable 
 
RANCH LIFE IN COLORADO 77 
 
 leisure, which can be well spent in reading or 
 writing, or wandering through the woods and 
 studying the habits and interesting characteristics 
 of the great variety of animals always seen in 
 such places. The gophers and little ground squir- 
 rels are always numerous in these mountain 
 camps, and if not shot at but encouraged, some 
 of them can almost be tamed. When lying in the 
 day-time resting on the camp cot, these cunning 
 little animals will sometimes enter the tent and 
 perch themselves on one's shoe, looking wonder- 
 ingly into the face of the beholder. The camp 
 cooking will bring a great many insects, especially 
 flies, and these like to roost on the ceiling of the 
 tent. This makes a harvest for the bald hornets 
 whose nests are never very far away, and they 
 come lazily buzzing into the tent, catching the flies 
 one at a time, and bearing them away to their 
 nests. When a bald hornet catches a fly he holds 
 him tight and instantly cuts off his wings. He then 
 leisurely flies away to his nest but does not kill 
 the fly. He is a skillful surgeon, and with his cut- 
 ting instruments, which seem as sharp as razors, 
 he punctures the joints of the fly at just the 
 proper places to paralyze all movement, and then 
 stores them away for future food. In August of 
 every year, fishing is not the only method of pro- 
 curing fresh food even in the mountains. Then 
 the mountain grouse become large enough for 
 shooting, and in the open season many of them 
 
78 RANCH LIFE 
 
 grace the table. Next to fishing itself, as a source 
 of pleasure, the social intercourse of companions, 
 one of whom at least every good fisherman always 
 takes with him, is the next in enjoyment. No one 
 likes to be alone miles from any human habita- 
 tion, along a mountain stream and beside the 
 solemn woods and hills, without some genial com- 
 panion to share these with him. There are hours 
 day and evening when the fisherman is not em- 
 ployed in the pursuit of his game. If at this time 
 he can have an intellectual companion, a good 
 story teller or a fine conversationalist, the season 
 for his outing passes much more pleasantly. 
 
 There should always be in camp a good riding 
 pony and saddle and bridle for each fisherman. 
 He should visit the ranchmen in the immediate 
 vicinity or some miles away, taking as a present 
 some fish or grouse, or some artificial flies, and he 
 will always receive in return many courtesies and 
 remembrances that are exceedingly palatable, and 
 he will usually find these pioneers to be men and 
 women of more than ordinary intelligence. These 
 ranchmen are not always skillful fishermen. Their 
 daily toil is too arduous in harvesting their crops 
 during the open season, and at other times they 
 are prohibited by law from taking trout from 
 the stream. It is a well-known custom of these 
 mountaineers not to kill their own domestic ani- 
 mals, aside from chickens, for their tables, but at 
 any time of the year to have one venison which 
 
RANCH LIFE IN COLORADO 79 
 
 they entirely consume before killing another. The 
 fisherman, of course, will not be allowed by the 
 game wardens to kill deer out of season, but if by 
 an exchange of courtesies he can procure a ven- 
 ison steak from a ranchman, who is a permanent 
 resident, it adds very greatly to the pleasures of 
 his meals. 
 
 The building and keeping of a fire of the right 
 kind in a fisherman's camp is quite an art. He 
 should have pitched his tent on a very gently 
 rolling plot of ground so that water would run 
 away from the tent, and in front of the tent at a 
 proper distance he should build a semi-circular 
 wall of rocks laid as high as they would lie with- 
 out falling, with the concave side toward the open 
 flaps of the tent. A small fire in this open fire- 
 place would be much more effective in cooking 
 and warm the inside of the tent much more than 
 would a flat fire without any wall behind it. 
 These fires are easily kindled by a bundle of dry 
 twigs broken from the extreme ends of branches 
 of the aspen or cottonwood trees. Even in rainy 
 weather, when all other parts of the wood may be 
 saturated with water, these extreme ends are al- 
 ways dry enough to be quickly lighted from a 
 match. There should be a spring of cold water 
 near by, if possible, for the water of the stream 
 is not as cool and refreshing as that from a 
 spring. It can thus be seen from this long de- 
 scription of a fisherman's outing, what happiness 
 
80 RANCH LIFE 
 
 can be secured and why a season thus spent is so 
 fascinating to the average man of good health and 
 robust constitution, who is compelled to spend the 
 rest of the year in the dull pursuit of business. 
 
 THE CLOSING PERIOD. 
 
 After experimenting in the way described, 
 in this free and open country life, for a period of 
 five years, the American thought best to draw it 
 gradually to a close. Not that the life had become 
 tiresome or unprofitable, for health, which was 
 the first object of going into it, had come in 
 abundance, nor had it been without compensation 
 in a pecuniary way. But it had not proven to be 
 sufficiently profitable or agreeable to make it a 
 life occupation. With previous knowledge in 
 farming and stock-raising, and a more natural 
 adaptation to these occupations, there is no doubt 
 that it could have been made of sufficient pecuni- 
 ary profit to induce its continuance. But other 
 lines of business more congenial and more under- 
 stood offered better inducements with much less 
 anxiety and much less exertion. The last sheep 
 were sold in 1875. In 1876 business connections 
 in the City of Pueblo were formed, and while the 
 residence on the home ranch was kept up for four 
 years thereafter, yet as rapidly as possible the 
 odds and ends of the stock and dairy business 
 
RANCH LIFE IN COLORADO 81 
 
 were closed out and the sale of ranches went on as 
 circumstances would permit. From March, 1876, 
 to the summer of 1880, a daily drive into the town 
 in the morning and a drive back to the ranch in 
 the evening, formed a part of the regular duties 
 of life. 
 
 The Denver & Rio Grande Railroad entered 
 Pueblo in 1872 and the Santa Fe Railroad in 
 March, 1876. Both these roads soon thereafter 
 built their lines up the Arkansas valley through 
 the home ranch to the coal fields near Canon City. 
 The Denver & Rio Grande built its line on the 
 south side and the Santa Fe on the north side ; the 
 latter road bed running between the house and 
 the barn. The country also began to fill up rapid- 
 ly more farmers and gardeners came in. The 
 bottom lands were cleared and fenced and stock 
 thus cut off from access to the water of the river. 
 The former range was being rapidly bought from 
 the government by private parties, and grazing 
 upon the public lands soon became a thing of the 
 past. 
 
 The town of South Pueblo was laid out in 1872, 
 and by 1880 Pueblo began to put on metropolitan 
 proportions. New additions were being made to 
 the city from year to year, buildings were being 
 rapidly erected, and when the first smelter was 
 erected in 1878, the steel works in 1881, there 
 were altogether too many attractions in business 
 of all kinds and in every line to justify a continu- 
 
82 RANCHLIFE 
 
 ance in the slower prospects of a ranch life. In 
 1880 the residence in the country was given up. 
 The ranches were sold, and the glorious experi- 
 ence, begun ten years before, became entirely a 
 thing of the past. The Denver & Rio Grande 
 Railroad was continued to Leadville after the dis- 
 covery of carbonates, and eventually built into 
 the extreme southwest part of Colorado, when the 
 discoveries of silver ores in the San Juan Moun- 
 tains built up Durango, Silverton, Ouray and 
 eventually all the towns that are now spread along 
 the southwestern slope from the south boundary 
 line to Grand Junction. 
 
 Colorado remained a territory until 1876. In 
 that year it was admitted into the Union as a 
 state, and hence is called the Centennial State. 
 Its growth from that time has been exceedingly 
 rapid. The mining of the precious metals ex- 
 panded to gigantic proportions, and farming grad- 
 ually replaced stock-raising. It is now not profit- 
 able in the Arkansas valley to conduct the stock- 
 growing business as it was done prior to 1876. 
 There are thousands of cattle and sheep fed and 
 marketed, but they are not grazed upon the public 
 lands except to a very limited extent. They are 
 fed and more surely fattened on farms with al- 
 falfa and other farm products, while thousands of 
 sheep are driven every year from New Mexico and 
 fed the beet pulp from the beet sugar manufact- 
 uries, so many of which are doing such a large 
 
RANCH LIFE IN COLORADO 83 
 
 business in the valley. Other railroads built into 
 Pueblo in the later years. The Denver & Rio 
 Grande was extended to Salt Lake City the San- 
 ta Fe to Denver and from La Junta in the valley 
 a branch of that road was built to San Francisco. 
 Everything has been transformed. Pueblo has 
 grown beyond any early expectations, while Den- 
 ver with a population of over two hundred thou- 
 sand, is not only the capital of the state, but the 
 business center of a mountain empire. 
 
 It has been curious to watch the advance in 
 land values, especially in ranches with sufficient 
 water rights to insure irrigation for farming. 
 The home ranch in its first sale was not sold in 
 entirety. That part lying north of the river has 
 changed hands several times in these long years. 
 The cultivatable part of it which could be covered 
 by a ditch from the river was divided into small 
 tracts, and these tracts sold to gardeners and hor- 
 ticulturists, first at a comparatively low price, but 
 when it was found by experiment that the very 
 finest celery could be raised upon this sage brush 
 land, its price rose to four and five hundred dol- 
 lars an acre. Some of it has been rented at $25.00 
 per acre. A part of it was plotted into town lots 
 and given the name of the "West End Addition." 
 Pueblo's City Park, which lies on the south side 
 of the river, and occupies a hundred seventy-five 
 acres of ground, reaches almost to the ranch on 
 the south side. New and better roads have been 
 
84 RANCH L II FE 
 
 built, and all in all the transformation from a little 
 stock ranch in 1870 to what it is in 1914, was? 
 never anticipated by the pioneer resident, and 
 those pioneers could now scarcely recognize in 
 the city of Pueblo, and its environment, the old 
 features which they loved so well. Of course, 
 forty-four years should bring great changes in 
 any well-conditioned region, but no such changes 
 as those just described, could occur except in' a 
 state with great resources, not only for commer- 
 cialism, but attractive also for its physical 
 features. 
 
 The mountains stand as grand as in 1870, the 
 skies are just as blue, the sunshine is just as 
 bountiful, the climate the same as forty-four 
 years ago. What man has done has not affected 
 in the least the forces of nature, has not changed 
 a single natural law, nor added to or subtracted 
 from any of these great natural features. Yet 
 changes are occurring in the mountains and on 
 the plains. The wind, the rain and the frost are 
 gradually denuding the mountain tops, but no 
 change can be noticed in the life-time of a man. 
 But the puny efforts of the latter in building cities, 
 cultivating farms, delving into the mountain rocks 
 for precious metals, building railroads, turning 
 the water of the streams on to the land, make 
 changes quickly observable but of like shortness 
 of duration. After accomplishing these great 
 things, man thinks himself the lord of the earth ; 
 
RANCH LIFE IN COLORADO 85 
 
 he thinks he is subduing nature to his own pur- 
 poses ; he thinks he is changing the laws of nature 
 and harnessing them to his own chariot; but the 
 world, notwithstanding, still revolves on its axis 
 and moves in its orbit around the sun as it always 
 did. The sun still sends light, heat and electricity 
 to the planet. The eleven motions of the earth 
 never change at any moment for the benefit of 
 mankind. Man is a late product on the surface 
 of the earth and did not appear until long after 
 the earth assumed its present form and motions, 
 and it is altogether likely that the same described 
 operations of nature will continue long after man 
 and all his works have disappeared. Man is con- 
 stantly reaching out to know the meaning of it all. 
 He will perhaps never know why things exist just 
 as they are. But a limited knowledge enables him 
 to adapt himself to the laws of nature, and thus 
 he can support and continue his life and the per- 
 petuation of that life, which are facts plainly visi- 
 ble to his senses and are perhaps all that are 
 really necessary to his welfare, but in no sense 
 does he control any law of nature. That law con- 
 trols him, and unless he adapts himself to it, his 
 existence will be quickly brought to a close. 
 
 The farmers of Colorado, to whom the irriga- 
 tion of their farms is so irksome, hope and think 
 that sometime the rainfall will increase sufficient- 
 ly to do away with the necessity of irrigation. The 
 farmers of dry land have still more cause for ex- 
 
86 RANCH LIFE 
 
 ercising this hope, but if they would study the 
 statistics of the Weather Bureau, scientifically, it 
 would be discovered that there is no real ground 
 for such hope. The valley of the Nile in Egypt 
 has been irrigated for thousands of years. It is 
 still being irrigated, and there is no record of any 
 increase in the rainfall in all that long stretch of 
 time. It is not probable that Nature has a dif- 
 ferent law in the semi-arid region of the Rocky 
 Mountains. But the fact that the farmer in this 
 region should get firmly fixed ill his brain, is that 
 when rain falls upon the unbroken ground it is 
 but little absorbed and quickly flows away into 
 the adjoining streams. But when broken, the 
 same ground will more readily absorb the rain 
 that does fall, and the deeper it is plowed, and 
 the more thoroughly it is worked into a fine tilth, 
 the more moisture it will absorb and the less of it 
 will evaporate after it is absorbed. This con- 
 servation of the moisture that does come to the 
 surface of the earth, whether it be by rain or 
 snow, is infinitely better for the prosperity of the 
 farmer than a vague hope and a vain thinking 
 that there will be any increase in the rainfall. No 
 one in the spring of 1870 could have reasonably 
 predicted the great growth in farming in Colo- 
 rado that came to it as the years passed by. It 
 is wiser to look at the facts as they exist, than 
 to risk a false judgment of what the future may 
 bring, but at least there is no risk in saying that 
 
RANCH LIFE IN COLORADO 87 
 
 Colorado is still growing, notwithstanding there 
 may be a decline in the production of its mines, 
 and that by a proper conservation from the great 
 water-shed of the Rocky Mountains within her 
 borders, farming and all the business that de- 
 pends upon that industry will continue to grow in 
 the future in more wonderful proportions than it 
 has grown in the past. 
 
 The great region west of the Missouri river 
 will yet be covered by a gigantic irrigating canal 
 taken from the head waters of that stream, and 
 into that canal will flow all the waste waters of 
 the streams between that and the foot of the 
 mountains. When this shall be accomplished, and 
 it is feasible, no man can now tell what the great 
 results to the country will be. 
 
HISTORIC PUEBLO 
 
 City building is a chapter in sociology of great 
 interest to the philosopher. But the reason for 
 the founding of a city, supposing any strict reason 
 for it, would be very instructive. Men do not al- 
 ways build cities on the sites first selected. In 
 other words nature, not man, determines finally 
 where they shall be built. The selection of sites 
 is governed by the concentrated requirements of 
 commercial evolution such as the soil; the con- 
 tiguity of wood, or coal, or iron; hygienic envir- 
 onment ; and convenience of transportation, natur- 
 al or artificial. Should man be so foolish as to 
 violate these natural requirements he would suffer 
 the penalty by failure. 
 
 For instance, if those who, by their early set- 
 tlement here, unconsciously selected Pueblo for 
 the site of a city had been governed by estheticism 
 and not by so-called requirements of physical 
 necessities, it certainly would have been located 
 away from the irregular bluffs and arroyas con- 
 tiguous to the river. As it is, the city has grown 
 over and around these, and in time, when the 
 hard necessity of daily toil shall bring wealth and 
 
HISTORIC PUEBLO 89 
 
 refinement to its citizens, the unsightly places can 
 be made beautiful by the hand of man. The orig- 
 inal pioneer inhabitants gave no thought to the 
 mere beauty or ugliness of sites. A running 
 stream, a spring of water, plenty of surrounding 
 grass and timber, where, of course, would be also 
 deer, or antelope, or buffalo for food, were the 
 compelling, and to the pioneer the most beautiful, 
 conditions. The pioneer had neither the leisure 
 nor the ability to admire that which was not use- 
 ful to him. The miner, for instance, was not 
 usually an educated man of leisure and refine- 
 ment, other than in the heart qualities of hospital- 
 ities and sympathy. But the location of placer 
 gold in paying quantities, was always a beauti- 
 ful spot to him, whatever the surroundings 
 might be. 
 
 The pioneer was his own farmer, baker, cook, 
 tailor, butcher, nor had he any telephone by which 
 he could order his dinner at the hotel miles away 
 and whirl himself there in an automobile. The 
 pioneer life, however, was a necessary step in the 
 evolution of cities from mere sites of cities. It 
 necessarily preceded, and was the essential fore- 
 runner of the very much more desirable advance 
 which the present generation is making. Those 
 who braved the native Indian tribes lived in a 
 primitive age and performed well the require- 
 ments of it, were happy and contented, and are 
 entitled to our everlasting gratitude. Those of 
 
90 RANCH LIFE 
 
 them who came into the Arkansas valley rescued 
 it from a savage race, who did not occupy a thou- 
 sandth part of it, who did not make any use of its 
 endless resources; who would neither till the soil, 
 nor extract the coal, and metals, from the moun- 
 tains, nor allow any one else to do so ; who did not 
 welcome immigration; but repelled it with mur- 
 derous savagery. The refined, the fastidious, the 
 dilettante, could not penetrate the unknown 
 desert and perform the rough work of a pioneer. 
 The pioneer had no thought of city building. That 
 was done by those who came after him. Yet the 
 pioneers made settlements on the sites where cities 
 had to be built. Unconsciously, by following the 
 natural requirements of human needs, they chose 
 the sites of cities. 
 
 It would be difficult to determine just when, 
 and in whose brain, the definite idea of a city at 
 Pueblo first originated; certainly it was not prior 
 to the advent of a railway and smelters, after the 
 discovery of carbonates at Leadville. Those who 
 now live here and study the situation, seeing how 
 wise the first settlers were in selecting this loca- 
 tion, on account of the water, soil, climate, and 
 facilities of transportation, all think that our city, 
 having its foundation laid in the adaptability of 
 the natural conditions, will continue to grow to 
 much larger dimensions; and the present in- 
 habitants are the real city builders upon the site 
 our forerunners selected. New York, Philadelphia 
 
HISTORIC PUEBLO 91 
 
 and Boston were natural seaports, and grew upon 
 the ground first occupied by the earliest immi- 
 grants. Cincinnati and Chicago did not grow 
 upon the actual locations first selected for them, 
 but like a water turtle, immediately turned to- 
 ward the streams, and then grew like a willow 
 tree, when placed where the water reaches its 
 roots. Chicago flourished best in the swamp adja- 
 cent to the Chicago river, a natural harbor, and 
 compelled its citizens, willy-nilly, to expend mil- 
 lions of dollars in lifting the city above the swamp 
 and bringing the adjacent high ground where the 
 city failed to grow, to the place where it would 
 grow. The mountain thus literally came to Ma- 
 homet. The lakes, of course, are the determining 
 factor in locating the cities of Chicago, Milwau- 
 kee, Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo and Toledo, and 
 numerous other lesser cities. But second to the 
 lakes as promoters of city building in localities 
 adjacent to an ocean or lake, are the mouths of 
 rivers which furnish good harbors for transporta- 
 tion, also the banks of any navigable stream. 
 After railroads expanded into great lines of com- 
 mercial traffic, it was possible to build cities away 
 from oceans, lakes and navigable rivers, such as 
 Indianapolis, Indiana; Columbus, Ohio, and At- 
 lanta, Georgia. Lexington, Kentucky, is an older 
 city than Cincinnati, or Louisville, but it was not 
 on the Ohio river and did not develop into a large 
 city. 
 
92 RANCHLIFE 
 
 Another curious fact in the location of cities 
 in the United States is that generally they are lo- 
 cated on the west sides of streams running north 
 or south or bodies of water. The tide of emigra- 
 tion toward the west seems to be the factor in this 
 tendency. The growth is toward the west. St. 
 Louis, Kansas City and Omaha, are samples of 
 this tendency in the newer west, as well as Chi- 
 cago, Milwaukee and Cincinnati in the middle 
 west. The great region west of the Missouri 
 river did not grow into importance until the 
 through lines of railroad were built. Its streams 
 were largely unnavigable. But they furnished the 
 water level for the railroad grades and along these 
 the pioneer settlements had already necessarily 
 been established. The pioneer was compelled to 
 locate near water and such locations also con- 
 tained timber and the best grazing ; these features 
 indicated the most fertile land. 
 
 By reason of these natural features the early 
 pioneers found the region of the confluence of the 
 Fountain and Arkansas rivers a good site for a 
 city surrounded by wide bottoms, good timber, 
 plenty of grazing and near the mountains where 
 afterwards mining became very profitable ; whose 
 barriers stopped for a time further westward 
 treking and where game was plenty. It was not 
 only in the line of travel from the east, but in 
 that from the north and south, being on the first 
 level land east of the rough mountain region to 
 
HISTORIC PUEBLO 93 
 
 the west. The Arkansas valley from the begin- 
 ning remained a great highway for travel from 
 St. Louis, Independence and Westport, Missouri, 
 toward the Pacific coast or into the Rocky Moun- 
 tains. Some trappers of the American Fur Com- 
 pany, established by the elder John Jacob Astor, 
 operated in this region and made Pueblo their 
 winter quarters. Here came the buyers of furs, 
 all for the American Fur Company, to meet the 
 trappers and trade or purchase their collections. 
 In 1840 the location was considered of so much 
 importance that at least not later than 1842, a fort 
 was built for the better protection of the perma- 
 nent residents, and of the trappers and sojourn- 
 ers, against the Arapahoes, Cheyennes and Kio- 
 was, who were troublesome. The first white child 
 was born here August 17th, 1846. Her maiden 
 name was Sarah Kirchner. Now her married 
 name is Sarah Miller. There certainly was not 
 another location at that time within the present 
 boundaries of Colorado with so large a population 
 of white people. It is true, that most of these 
 were only temporary citizens, who remained only 
 a few months, that is, through one winter. But, 
 they lingered as long as they did because it was a 
 desirable location in which to reside, and conse- 
 quently a good location for a city. They found 
 the winter mild, grazing good, and game plenty. 
 It was easy to raise crops in the rich soil of the 
 bottoms, which could be irrigated from cheaply 
 
94 RANCH LIFE 
 
 constructed ditches, taking water from the Arkan- 
 sas river. John Hunt, then 13 years old, was here 
 in 1846. He attended the 18th Irrigation Con- 
 gress from Arizona, which met at Pueblo in 1910. 
 The special party which wintered at Pueblo 
 in 1846-7 were induced to come to this point, 
 because assured they could here get supplies. It 
 seems, however, that the supplies, other than the 
 plentiful game, consisted of corn and cornmeal. 
 These they did not obtain at Pueblo, but from the 
 Hardscrabble and the region west of Pueblo, there 
 being some farmers on the Hardscrabble creek 
 and a rude corn mill in that region. Why were 
 these people at that particular place, and where 
 did they come from? Their presence there can 
 be accounted for as follows: about 1822, Colonel 
 Wm. Bent made a rude fort at the mouth of the 
 Hardscrabble, and established there his trading 
 post. Under the protection of that fort, and the 
 facility of obtaining supplies from Bent's store, 
 undoubtedly those trappers of furs who had 
 drifted up the Arkansas river, or who had come 
 from Santa Fe, or Taos, in the south, settled on 
 the Hardscrabble, or on the Arkansas river as far 
 up as where Canon City now stands. They could 
 get no further west without climbing the moun- 
 tains. For some reason, Bent moved later from 
 the Hardscrabble to where Las Animas town is 
 now located on the Arkansas river. The probable 
 reason is that he found the Hardscrabble too far 
 
HISTORIC PUEBLO 95 
 
 west to catch any travel from either the north 
 or south. The north and south trail parallel with 
 the mountains ran up the Plum or Cherry creek 
 from the South Platte, and down the Fountain 
 to the Arkansas. From the Arkansas it would 
 naturally follow either the Huerfano, St. Charles, 
 or Purgatoire. So that the mouth of the Foun- 
 tain, or of the Purgatoire, and not the Hardscrab- 
 ble offered the best points to catch the travel 
 coming from the north, east and south. Bent 
 chose the mouth of the Purgatoire; and after- 
 wards, the old Santa Fe trail, which was first 
 traveled in 1824, branched off from the Arkansas 
 river and followed south up that stream. But 
 also many travelers kept on up the Arkansas to 
 Pueblo, and then turned south. It turned out that 
 Bent's fort near Las Animas did not become the 
 nucleus of a city, but that the mouth of the Foun- 
 tain, where in 1840 a small fort was built, did 
 become such nucleus. This occurred because na- 
 ture had provided a natural line of communica- 
 tion between the Platte and Arkansas rivers, by 
 the water levels of the streams mentioned, upon 
 which the trails, wagon roads, and railways in 
 succession were forced to be made, whether man 
 so desired it or not. The Hardscrabble was too 
 far west, and the Purgatoire, or Las Animas river 
 too far east to catch the tide of travel which 
 eventually set in along this natural trail from 
 north to south along the eastern foot of the Rocky 
 
96 RANCHL1FE 
 
 Mountains. Now, since the Grand Canon of the 
 Arkansas fifty miles west of Pueblo, gave a low 
 grade for a railway through the Rocky Mountains 
 toward the Pacific Ocean, Pueblo has the advant- 
 age of being a railroad center of through lines 
 from east, west, north and south. No other point 
 on the Arkansas river nor any other point in Colo- 
 rado could give this combination of fortunate ad- 
 vantages. 
 
 There is little recorded history of Pueblo be- 
 tween 1846 and 1854, the date of the massacre in 
 the fort ; nor from that year until 1858. 
 
 In 1858 gold was discovered in the sands of 
 Cherry creek near where Denver now stands, and 
 the Pike's Peak immigration began from the east- 
 ern states. Several parties of immigrants came 
 through Pueblo by the way of the Arkansas river, 
 notably that led by Green Russell. In this party 
 was the late Judge L. B. Gibson and Mr. John D. 
 Miller, Otto Wineke, Mr. Josiah Smith, and 
 Charles D. Peck came that year. During the next 
 year, or two, they were joined by S. S. Smith, 
 W. H. Young, Matthew Steele, 0. H. P. Baxter, 
 G. M. Chilcot, G. A. Hinsdale, Mark G. Bradford, 
 Colonel Francisco and others. 
 ^ A new settlement was made near where the 
 /Walter's Brewery is now located, and called Foun- 
 tain City. But that did not grow. In 1860 or 
 1861 the region now known as lower Santa Fe 
 Avenue, north of the river, was chosen by a num- 
 
HISTORIC PUEBLO 97 
 
 ber of the settlers as the proper place to build 
 houses, and from the feeble start then made the 
 present city of Pueblo has developed. The Arkan- 
 sas river then ran close to First Street where it 
 crosses Santa Fe Avenue. It is stated that one 
 Jack Wright built the first house at the foot of 
 Santa Fe Avenue. Colonel A. G. Boone, a nephew 
 of the famous Daniel Boone, opened a store ; and 
 Emory Young was the first child born in the new 
 location. But he came 14 years later than the real 
 first white baby in 1846. The name given to 
 Pueblo in 1840 has clung to it ever since, because 
 it was appropriate, meaning a village. 
 
 The town, governed by trustees, was organ- 
 ized in the winter of 1859-60, but not incorpor- 
 ated until 1870. The county was founded in 1862, 
 and then included all the territory now contained 
 in the counties of Pueblo, Bent, Otero, Prowers, 
 Huerfano and Las Animas, with 0. H. P. Baxter, 
 R. L. Wooten and William Chapman as County 
 Commissioners, and Stephen S. Smith as County 
 Clerk. Judge Allen A. Bradford was the District 
 Judge. Mr. Smith is still a citizen of Pueblo. Judge 
 A. A. Bradford was afterward one of the Supreme 
 Judges of the Territory, and was twice elected 
 delegate from the Territory to Congress. Pueblo 
 is indebted to him for the acquisition by the coun- 
 ty, of the tract of land known as the County Ad- 
 dition on which the present Court House is lo- 
 cated. 
 
98 RANCH LIFE 
 
 The United States recorded census of 1870 
 shows that Pueblo had a population of six hun- 
 dred and sixty-six. It has made continuous growth 
 since that time. In 1880 it was about six thou- 
 sand in the two towns of Pueblo and South Pueblo. 
 In 1890, twenty-four thousand five hundred and 
 fifty-four in the consolidated city ; in 1900, twenty- 
 eight thousand one hundred and fifty-seven; and 
 in 1910, forty-four thousand three hundred and 
 ninety-five. In 1870 the population of Colorado 
 was less than forty thousand, and of the County of 
 Pueblo two thousand two hundred and sixty-five. 
 
 The Rio Grande Railway came in 1872; and 
 the first depot was located about where the rail- 
 road section house now stands at the Mineral Pal- 
 ace Park grounds. Prior to that date the passen- 
 ger traffic was done by one stage coach daily from 
 Denver, as before mentioned. 
 
 The first regular court in Pueblo was held by 
 Judge Allen A. Bradford. A historical writer of 
 Pueblo County made this statement in 1881: 
 "Court was held in an adobe building on Santa Fe 
 Avenue, near Third Street, until 1872, when the 
 present handsome structure, the finest court house 
 in the state, was erected." The writer is not now 
 living, and of course, would be astonished, if still 
 living, to see the fine Court House now standing 
 upon the site of the one he so praised. 
 
 The first hotel was kept by Aaron Simms, fol- 
 lowed soon after by another kept by John B. Rice. 
 
HISTORIC PUEBLO 99 
 
 These hotels were not very large and palatial, nor 
 did they furnish Delmonico meals. 
 
 The first postmaster was Stephen S. Smith, 
 followed by Aaron Simms. In 1862 the United 
 States mail came from Denver alone and the serv- 
 ice once a week. Afterwards a stage line was es- 
 tablished, first by A. Jacobs, who was succeeded 
 by Barlow and Sanderson, who ran the line until 
 the D. & R. G. Railway came in 1872. 
 
 Mr. J. A. Thatcher came in 1862, as a mer- 
 chant in a small way. 
 
 About 1863 the first school house a small 
 frame on the west side of Santa Fe Avenue, be- 
 tween Fourth and Fifth Streets was built by 
 private subscription, Miss Weston being the school 
 teacher a small forerunner of the present large 
 system. The first regular religious services were 
 held in this school house in 1864. 
 
 Dr. M. Beshoar, a late citizen of Trinidad, 
 founded the Chieftain as a weekly newspaper in 
 1868. Samuel McBride was the mechanicalhead, 
 and George A. Hinsdale and Wilbur F. Stone, the 
 editors. It was printed on the spot where the 
 present Chieftain office stands. 
 
 St. Peter's Church, still standing on the corner 
 of Seventh Street and Santa Fe Avenue, was 
 erected in 1868, being the first building used ex- 
 clusively for church purposes. It was considered 
 at that time to be out of town, only two buildings 
 being north of it. 
 
100 RANCH LIFE 
 
 In 1870 the six hundred and sixty-six inhabi- 
 tants all dwelt on the nort hside of the river; 
 Mr. Klaas Wildeboor lived on the south side, 
 where his present house is located. William 
 H. Young had a private bridge across the 
 Arkansas river near the present D. & R. G. 
 Railway bridge. Baxter's grist mill stood on 
 the site of the present beautiful public build- 
 ing. Thatcher Brothers had a general store on 
 the southeast corner of Fourth and Santa Fe in 
 an adobe building. They also did a banking busi- 
 ness, and in 1871 founded the First National 
 Bank. Only two brick dwellings existed in the 
 town, but the jail was made of brick of so pale 
 a color that the building had the appearance of 
 an adobe. They were the first bricks made here. 
 An adobe school building just erected stood on 
 the ground now occupied by the Centennial School. 
 
 George M. Chilcott and Wilbur F. Stone lived 
 in adobe houses on the opposite corners of Sixth 
 and Santa Fe, where they still stand. 
 
 The National Hotel was located at 405 North 
 Santa Fe Avenue. The name was the biggest part 
 of it. Its former proprietor, a Mr. Cook, had died 
 in 1870. Next to it on the corner of Fourth and 
 Santa Fe was an adobe one-story building used 
 by a Mr. Scidmore as an agricultural implement 
 ^tore. 
 
 The only brick building on Santa Fe Avenue, 
 the dwelling, No. 806, still standing with its gable 
 
HISTORIC PUEBLO 101 
 
 to the street, had just been built by Lewis Conley, 
 a very enterprising contractor. Weldon Keeling 
 lived in a one-story frame corner of Tenth and 
 Santa Fe; the next house south then occupied by 
 C. J. Hart as a dwelling, is still standing; the next 
 John A. Thatcher's residence corner of Ninth. 
 Cooper Brothers occupied as a tin shop the frame 
 building still standing at 513 Santa Fe Avenue. 
 Henkel & Thomas had a bakery on the east side 
 of Santa Fe south of Sixth Street. The El Pro- 
 gresso building belonging to George Hall stood on 
 the southwest corner of Third and Santa Fe Ave- 
 nue and his dwelling was opposite where the Hob- 
 son Block now stands. Guilford Court House 
 Budd, a black man, lived on the side of the bluff 
 south of George Hall; he was the barber. The 
 Post Office was just south of Fourth Street in a 
 frame building, J. W. 0. Snyder, the postmaster. 
 The Drovers Hotel, kept by Harry E. A. Pickard, 
 faced on Santa Fe Avenue between Second and 
 Third and next door lived Com. Wetmore. 0. H. P. 
 Baxter's mill and residence stood on Main on op- 
 posite corners of Fifth Street. The ditch furnish- 
 ing the water power to the mill ran through the 
 mill and crossed Main Street at the alley beween 
 the Central Block and the McCarthy building just 
 south of Frank Pryor's store. There was nothing 
 south of the mill ditch except a heavy growth of 
 willows, and nothing south of the river except one 
 log house in the Grove near where Clark's well 
 
102 RANCH LIFE 
 
 and hotel are now located. The river, which now 
 runs straight, then ran very crooked, with a sharp 
 bend to the north. 
 
 South Pueblo did not exist until 1872, after 
 the D. & R. G. Railroad was built. Then a road 
 was opened now called Union Avenue and a wood- 
 en bridge erected over the river. Lower Santa 
 Fe Avenue, lower Main, Union Avenue and the 
 streets west and south of Fourth and Main have 
 all been filled for several feet, thus greatly chang- 
 ing the grade of the streets and altering the aspect 
 of that part of the city. The present city has 
 obliterated the contour and topographic features 
 of the old town of 1870. The filling up of the mill 
 ditch, the changing the river channel, the opening 
 of extensions of the old streets, cutting down some 
 and filling the low stretches of streets with six or 
 eight feet of dirt, the building of numerous 
 bridges across both the Arkansas and the Foun- 
 tain, but more especially the building of dwellings, 
 business blocks and other edifices necessary for a 
 population of fifty thousand, in place of six hun- 
 dred and sixty-six, have so metamorphosed the old 
 town of 1870, that even those who resided here 
 then cannot with the most vivid imagination re- 
 call, except in faintest memory, what the appear- 
 ance of the Pueblo of 1870 really was. 
 
 George A. Hinsdale lived near the corner of 
 Fourth and Main in a one-story adobe. He died 
 in January, 1874. He was a lawyer, a man of 
 
HISTORIC PUEBLO 103 
 
 intellect, and a prominent citizen. His memory is 
 honored, by the state in giving his name to Hins- 
 dale County, and locally in Pueblo by naming 
 after him the Hinsdale public school. There was 
 little on Main Street in his day. Could he see it 
 now, especially the corner of Fourth and Main, he 
 could not possibly recognize it. Absolutely noth- 
 ing remains in that region which was there at the 
 time of his death. Could he revisit the place in 
 1914 he would see the same natural features of 
 mountains, plains and sky, but scarcely a human 
 face that he would recognize and not a single 
 building on Main Street with which he was famil- 
 iar in 1874. 
 
 Men and the handiwork of men change abso- 
 lutely in a few years in this great growing west, 
 but nature changes so slowly and uniformly that 
 could Lieutenant Zebulon Pike in a hundred years 
 from now revisit the location of his camp on this 
 spot in 1806, he would see the same "great white 
 peak" named after him, and if he calculated at 
 that time the latitude, the longitude and the eleva- 
 tion, he would find that these were the same as 
 they were in 1806. But he would raise his hands 
 and brows in utter bewilderment at beholding the 
 great changes made by the hand of man. It is 
 thus apparent that nature has no time, as it is 
 conceived by man and that what man calls time is 
 simply his consciousness of changes in phenom- 
 ena. If there were no changes recognizable by 
 
104 RANCH LIFE 
 
 us in such phenomena as the rotation of the earth 
 on its axis, its annual revolution in its orbit, the 
 birth, growth and death of organisms, the speedy 
 decay of all that is made by the brains and hands 
 of man, we should not be conscious of that pe- 
 culiar conception we call "Time." Therefore, liv- 
 ing, forty years in Pueblo County means the un- 
 changing aspect of natural earth and skies, but 
 the rapid and very noticeable changes constantly 
 occurring in the puny works of man. 
 
 Allan A. Bradford was a delegate to Con- 
 gress in 1870. He, Henry C. Thatcher, Wilbur F. 
 Stone, George A. Hinsdale, George M. Chilcott, 
 George Q. Richmond and James McDonald were 
 the lawyers. None of these are now living in 
 Pueblo. All are dead except Wilbur F. Stone and 
 George Q. Richmond. Henry C. Thatcher after- 
 wards became Chief Justice, and Wilbur F. Stone 
 an Associate Justice of the State Supreme Court. 
 George Q. Richmond became a member of the 
 Court of Appeals. George M. Chilcott was twice 
 a delegate to Congress, and very efficient in pro- 
 curing federal legislation beneficial to this terri- 
 tory. When in 1882 Senator H. M. Teller was ap- 
 pointed in President Arthur's Cabinet as Secre- 
 tary of the Interior, Mr. Chilcott was appointed 
 by Governor F. W. Pitkin to fill Mr. Teller's unex- 
 pired term in the United States Senate. He took 
 his seat April 17th, 1882. 
 
 "The United States Land Office in Pueblo was 
 
HISTORIC PUEBLO 105 
 
 opened in 1871, and sold 80,719 acres of govern- 
 ment land that year." The development in 1871 
 was quite large, being only the effect of the pros- 
 pect of the coming of the D. & R. G. Railway 
 which did not reach the city until June, 1872. The 
 entire business of this town at that date, was 
 transacted on Santa Fe Avenue from First to 
 Sixth Streets. General Samuel Brown of Denver, 
 said that when he was United States District At- 
 torney, prior to 1870, whenever he came to Pueblo, 
 he always occupied the best room in the hotel, 
 which was the hay-mow. It was very comforta- 
 bly furnished when the guest brought his own 
 blankets. 
 
 The Southern Ute Indians passed through 
 once a year, and always camped near town for a 
 few days. Their picturesque appearance lent color 
 and quaintness to the streets. Their big chiefs 
 always rode ; and in going from one store to an- 
 other would always mount their ponies, even if 
 the distance was only a half block, carrying the 
 ends of the lariats across the sidewalks into the 
 stores, the cayuse ponies being tied to the other 
 ends in the street. These Indians spoke Spanish 
 and a little English; but used few words. Signs 
 and gesticulations make up the larger part of the 
 real Indian language. One day an Indian was 
 trying to buy some coffee. He laid down a ten- 
 cent piece on the counter saying, "coffee, ten cent, 
 swap." The grocer weighed out the coffee but 
 
106 RANCHLIFE 
 
 while it yet lay in the scale the quantity not satis- 
 fying the ideas of the Indian, he picked up the 
 coin, merely saying "no swap" and walked out. 
 
 In 1872 the court house, lately torn down, was 
 built. The coming of the Denver & Rio Grande 
 Railway was celebrated in the new court house 
 by a meeting addressed by Grace Greenwood and 
 other speakers. 
 
 The first city government was formed in 1873, 
 a mayor and council taking the place of former 
 town trustees. In 1876 the original Centennial 
 school house was built and in 1879 the Insane 
 Asylum established, with forty patients. 
 
 Good climate has much to do with the growth 
 of a city, although we must remember that St. 
 Petersburg, built by Peter the Great, in almost 
 an artic region, sixty degrees north latitude, is as 
 nearly an artificial city as man can produce. But 
 Peter had the resources of an immense empire at 
 his control with which to work. The example is 
 too costly to be followed, especially in a republic 
 like ours, where cities are built, not by emperors, 
 but by poor people who seek a milder climate in 
 which food can be cheaply produced. 
 
 A feature of the fitness of the locality in which 
 Pueblo is situated for a thriving city, is found in 
 the high average temperature of the valley in 
 which it is situated. The isothermal line, indicat- 
 ing fifty-two degrees Farenheit yearly average, 
 takes in Pueblo and Canon City by a sharp loop 
 
HISTORIC PUEBLO 107 
 
 leaving out the contiguous region. This is the 
 highest average temperature in Colorado on its 
 slope east of the mountains. This means grass, 
 vegetables and fruit, earlier than in other regions. 
 It means a milder winter climate. It puts a higher 
 percentage of sugar in the beets and more in- 
 tensely sweetens the famous cantaloupes. The 
 moisture is only twelve inches yearly on the aver- 
 age. The scant rainfall and the numerous sun- 
 shiny days insure the nutrition of the range 
 grass in the winter, account for the clear at- 
 mosphere so delicious to breathe, produce a 
 climate unsurpassed and exceedingly attractive 
 for happy homes and contentment. 
 
 Prior to its acquisition under the Treaty of 
 Guadeloupe Hidalgo, following the Mexican war 
 of 1847, the territory south of the Arkansas river 
 belonged to Mexico. South Pueblo lies upon a 
 part of the Nolan grant of 48,000 acres derived 
 from the government of Old Mexico. The same 
 persons who built the Denver & Rio Grande Rail- 
 way formed a corporation called "The Colorado 
 Coal and Iron Company" and acquired this grant. 
 It lies in the triangle formed by the Arkansas and 
 St. Charles rivers and the Greenhorn mountains. 
 This company established the city of South 
 Pueblo, which in 1886 was consolidated with old 
 Pueblo. 
 
 The real growth of Pueblo dates from the ad- 
 vent of the Denver & Rio Grande Railway. The 
 
108 RANCH LIFE 
 
 coming of that railway more than doubled the 
 population in a short time but the coming of the 
 Santa Fe Railway in March, 1876, did not produce 
 that effect. The building of the Steel Works in 
 1881 again doubled the population in two years. 
 
 After the discovery of carbonates at Leadville 
 and the extension of the D. & R. G. Railway up 
 the Arkansas river to that place, Mather and Geist 
 commenced the establishment of smelters. When 
 to these facts are added the later discovery of im- 
 mense beds of coal near by, the building of a city 
 of great importance at this point followed as 
 naturally as that railways are constructed along 
 water levels. 
 
 Now, in the year 1914, with smelters, steel 
 works, several railways, wholesale commercial 
 houses, manufacturing in various lines, thousands 
 of miles of irrigating ditches in the Arkansas 
 valley and the consequent cultivation of 500,000 
 acres of irrigated land tributary to the city, the 
 before mentioned pioneer features of the locality 
 have been obliterated. In those days Arkansas 
 river water was selling for 25c a barrel on the 
 streets without either ice or filtration and no 
 thought was then entertained that the river water 
 was anything but pure and healthy. 
 
 To have lived for forty years in a community 
 and witnessed its growth from an insignificant 
 village to a fair-sized city is a most interesting 
 experience. It would be still more interesting to 
 
HISTORIC PUEBLO 109 
 
 one who has lived here so long to witness the 
 growth during the next four decades. The founda- 
 tion only has yet been laid. The superstructure is 
 yet to arise. As the area of agricultural land and 
 the variety and quantity of mineral products shall 
 grow, so will the manufacturing industry and the 
 population increase in like ratio. No pioneer ever 
 thought that any more land could come under 
 cultivation than could be covered by the primitive 
 and rudely constructed ditches taken directly from 
 the streams. But now when flood water and sur- 
 face waters are being conserved in every arroya 
 and the underflow is being brought to the surface, 
 the probable number of acres that may eventu- 
 ally be cultivated on the eastern water shed of the 
 Rocky Mountains cannot now be estimated. A 
 large city will gradually develop here parallel 
 with the growth of the country. Larger manufac- 
 turing plants, more palatial residences, more blue 
 grass lawns, finer and more numerous schools 
 and churches will grace the mesas and bluffs ; and, 
 over all, the glorious sunshine from cloudless 
 skies will continue to shine, giving more abundant 
 life and power to a healthful, happy and long lived 
 race of Anglo-Saxon white people. This will not 
 be done in a few years. The possibilities of growth 
 will remain as long as the Rocky Mountains rear 
 their rugged heads into the clear blue of the 
 empyrean. "All things come to him who waits" 
 is not a truism confined to the individual alone, 
 
110 RANCHLIFE 
 
 but can well apply to the race, especially to the 
 white race which speaks the English language. It 
 is even now within the vision of some men in 
 Colorado that our state can and will eventually 
 support a population of four or five millions. 
 
 The development of a municipality has been 
 likened to that of an animal organism which grows 
 from a single aggregation of cells to a complex 
 body. The comparison, while not altogether com- 
 plete, yet in a crude way is true. The analogy 
 is not perfect because the special units which 
 make up the individual organism having un- 
 known millions of years behind them, are more 
 cohesive and uniform in their integration than 
 are the social units that make up the aggregate 
 of a community, which has had only a few thou- 
 sand years of existence. 
 
 The very early Pueblo could well be compared 
 to a young child crude in its ways governed by 
 no law except that of self-preservation and doing 
 only those things which pleased itself. Nearly 
 all the early inhabitants were adapted only to such 
 a life. When more complex methods became 
 necessary which required rigid city ordinances, 
 police and fire protection, religious and moral 
 supervision, the independent old pioneer declared 
 it was "gittin' too civilized" and moved to newer 
 localities better adapted to his established habits. 
 Those who remained were the more intellectual 
 who were able to learn the new ways and who had 
 
HISTORIC PUEBLO 111 
 
 acquired so much property, as to prevent a change 
 of location without too great a sacrifice. The con- 
 stant increase of population by birth and the ad- 
 vent of newcomers, the building of new houses, 
 the construction of railways and manufactories, 
 the opening of new farms in the adjacent country, 
 which gave trade to the merchants and furnished 
 sustenance to the people, made the comparison 
 to the growth of an animal organism a very strik- 
 ing one. In much the same way does the blood of 
 the body produce the cells that build up the bones 
 and muscles ; while both the social and the animal 
 organizations maintain themselves and enlarge 
 their functions, by increasing their correspond- 
 ence with a wider and more complex environment. 
 The lines of wagon roads, the commercial rail- 
 ways, telephones and telegraphs, which connect a 
 city to other cities and remote regions, may well 
 be compared with the nerves of the body through 
 which come the sensations that give the organism 
 its intelligence, its psychical function. These 
 avenues of communication civilize a city, brighten 
 its inhabitants, bring better houses, with more 
 luxuriant furnishings, set better tables, and make 
 schools, churches, and libraries necessities, just as 
 the nervous system in the body produces finer 
 mental qualities, as it becomes more complex or 
 better trained, more facile in its correspondence 
 with the outer world. To see for years, then, the 
 evolution of a city, is similar to watching the de- 
 
112 RANCH LIFE 
 
 velopment of a child in body and mind. The child 
 passes from a helpless ignorant condition, to a 
 positive dynamic, intellectual and moral force, as 
 its body grows and its brain expands, by means 
 of a physical and educational environment; first 
 in the family; then with its companions in the 
 community; in the common schools; the higher 
 schools, and finally at college, it is fitted for the 
 duties and responsibilities of complex citizenship. 
 The whole process in both a municipality and in 
 an organism is a constant readjustment of a de- 
 veloping organism with a constantly increasing 
 complexity of environment, the latter being static, 
 while the organism is the mobile factor of the 
 adaptation. That is, the same environment is al- 
 ways simple to the simplest organism, and com- 
 plex also to the most heterogenous organism. For 
 example, the astronomical-mathematical envir- 
 onment finally reached by Sir Isaac Newton, when 
 he discovered the principle of the attraction of 
 gravitation, existed just as statically, that is, 
 without change, when Newton was a baby in 
 arms, with an environment confined to the nurs- 
 ery; but he grew by education and study, by suc- 
 cessive steps, until the special avenues of his brain 
 finally reached the very complex and wide en- 
 vironment of the universe and its laws. He was 
 the evolving, changing factor, and not the stars 
 and the laws of their movement. The latter had 
 been complex, as he found them, for ages. Es- 
 
HISTORIC PUEBLO 113 
 
 pecially is the analogy between an organism, and 
 a municipality true, when an ethical comparison 
 is made of the iniquitous customs, which have a 
 tendency to disorganize society, and the individ- 
 ual habits which apparently demoralize the citi- 
 zen. The truth is commonly expressed in the well 
 known aphorism so much dwelt upon at present, 
 that governments and individuals must be equally 
 controlled by the same homely virtues of common 
 honesty. 
 
 In the early days strangers were few. Every 
 one knew or had a speaking acquaintance, with 
 every other one. A wonderful change has oc- 
 curred in that one can now walk the streets and 
 not recognize a tenth part of the people. Such a 
 transformation is not pleasant for the older peo- 
 ple. They sigh for "the good old times," prior to 
 the coming of the railways. In their declining 
 years, men and women make few friends, and the 
 dimming eyesight fails to become familiar with 
 the features of the young, who pass so quickly, 
 on nimble feet. The new modes of locomotion, by 
 bicycle, motor-cycle, automobile, and soon by fly- 
 ing machine, are altogether too swift for the old 
 people, who have spent the most of their lives in 
 more deliberate methods, in walking, on horse- 
 back, or in horse vehicles. But, in truth, the newer 
 ways are better for the young, and more condu- 
 cive to the proper evolution of the growing busi- 
 ness world. The swifter methods, making it pos- 
 
114 RANCHLIFE 
 
 sible to condense the time necessary to devote to 
 business, into fewer hours, will give more time for 
 mental and moral training, and to conserve health, 
 prolong life, and increase the happiness of man- 
 kind. The added leisure which should follow the 
 newer ways, with the intellectual habit, must give 
 refinement to a much larger class of people. With 
 the great increase of public schools, college and 
 university facilities, a very large number, who, 
 under the old and slower methods, would remain 
 in ignorance, and in unrefined habits of life, will 
 be added to the circle of intellectual people. It 
 is to be hoped that this circle will enlarge until 
 it will finally include the whole of our national 
 population. 
 
PIONEERS 
 
 An examination of the records of the Southern 
 Colorado Pioneer Association reveals the fact that 
 only thirty members came to Colorado as early 
 as 1860 or before. 
 
 The state was admitted in 1876, the centennial 
 year of the declaration of independence of the 
 United States. It has made its principal growth 
 since that date. 1876 is, therefore, a very appro- 
 priate year to mark the closing of the pioneer 
 period. It is appropriate for another reason. This 
 date gives the Southern Colorado Pioneer Associa- 
 tion the dignified number of three hundred and 
 fifty members. None of these three hundred and 
 fifty members have now been in the state less than 
 thirty-three years, and enough of them for fifty 
 years or more to give the classic touch of ancient 
 history which seems so attractive to the older in- 
 habitant. 
 
 It may be interesting as a historical fact to 
 say a word about the prestige that Pueblo holds 
 as the first important settlement of civilized peo- 
 ple in Colorado. 
 
 The following extracts are from "Semi-Cen- 
 
116 RANCH LIFE 
 
 tennial History of the State of Colorado" by 
 Jerome C. Smiley. 
 
 "A party of French traders built a trading- 
 post upon Colorado soil prior to the year 1763 
 * * * * Probability points to the locality at the 
 mouth of our Fountain Creek, in the eastern sec- 
 tion of Pueblo, as the place where this pioneer 
 business establishment was erected. So far as 
 known, this structure was the first habitation 
 built by white men in the land of Colorado; and 
 also, so far as known, the first in the entire region 
 of the Rockies north of the southern boundary of 
 our state." 
 
 The above extracts occur on page 43 of the 
 history and are authenticated by reference to Gen- 
 eral Amos Stoddard who wrote "Sketches of 
 Louisiana." This officer, then a captain, had 
 charge of the transfer of the upper Louisiana 
 Purchase from France to the United States at St. 
 Louis on March 9, 1804, the treaty of purchase 
 having been made by President Jefferson in 1803. 
 This fact gives to the site of Pueblo a very much 
 more ancient importance than had been claimed 
 for it. It seems, however, that this French trad- 
 ing house did not remain very long. It was seized 
 by the Spanish forces because it was located on 
 ground then claimed to be Spanish territory. It 
 is mentioned here simply to show that even far- 
 ther back in history than Pike's expedition, the 
 location of Pueblo was considered of such import- 
 
PIONEERS 117 
 
 ance as a trading point. It is only a straw to in- 
 dicate the eminent merits of the location as a 
 suitable site for a city. It is well known that 
 Pike camped here with twenty-two others, con- 
 stituting the whole of his exploring party, in 
 November, 1806. There was no other human be- 
 ing here at that time. Between then and 1846 
 three different expeditions came to this location, 
 Major Stephen S. Long in 1819; at that time no 
 trace of Pike's block house of 1806 remained. 
 Fowler came in 1822. Fremont's first visit to 
 Pueblo was in 1843. He found here at that time 
 a number of mountaineers, principally Americans, 
 who did some farming. He came again in 1845 
 and again in 1848, on his fatal passage which cost 
 the lives of so many men and horses, in the moun- 
 ains west of Wagon Wheel Gap. 
 
 Lieutenant Pike belonged to the class of heroes 
 of whom Christopher Columbus, Paul Jones, 
 Lewis, Clark and Fremont are types. They form 
 an advance guard of physical progress, intrepid, 
 fearless, unhesitating, always triumphant in 
 short, natural leaders. 
 
 Colonel Henry Inman, of the old regular army, 
 author of "The Old Santa Fe Trail," writes : "On 
 the original trail where now is situated the beauti- 
 ful city of Pueblo, the second place of importance 
 in Colorado, there was a little Indian trading post 
 called The Pueblo,' from which the present thriv- 
 ing place derived its name. The Atchison, To- 
 
118 RANCHLIFE 
 
 peka & Santa Fe Railroad practically follows the 
 same route that the traders did to reach Pueblo, 
 as it also does that which the freight caravans 
 later followed from the Missouri river direct to 
 Santa Fe. The old Pueblo fort as nearly as can 
 be determined now was built as early as 1840, 
 or not later than 1842, and as one authority states, 
 by George Simpson and his associates, Barclay 
 and Doyle. James Beckwourth claims to have 
 been the original projector of the fort and to 
 have given the general plan and its name, in 
 which I am inclined to believe he is correct. It 
 was a square fort of adobe, with circular bastions 
 at the corners, no part of the walls being more 
 than eight feet high." It was located a short 
 distance south of the present depot of the Atch- 
 ison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway. The river, at 
 the time it was built, ran close to it, but now some 
 distance to the south of it. It was at this fort that 
 the massacre by the Indians of seventeen men oc- 
 curred on Christmas Day of 1854. Jacob Beard 
 in writing a letter of late date upon this massa- 
 cre makes the following statements: 
 
 "There were two boys by the name of Sando- 
 val (Juan Isidro and Feliz), sons of the Senior 
 Sandoval, who was the head of the little colony, 
 which had gathered there for the purpose of mak- 
 ing a home and they had raised one crop and had 
 gathered it before the trouble or massacre. They 
 had taken up their land and planted their crop, 
 
PIONEERS 119 
 
 and gathered it ; but they had no improvements in 
 the way of buildings, but lived in the fort. 
 
 "About this time there was a report circulated 
 that the Utes were at war, and they had been at 
 peace for some time. The man in charge, San- 
 doval, did not know if this was a rumor or a fact, 
 but felt perfectly able to stand them off at the 
 fort and was on the lookout ; but along about this 
 time some of the party discovered a man coming 
 toward the fort on horseback, so they all waited 
 until he came up, knowing that the one man alone 
 could do no harm ; and when he got there he spoke 
 to them friendly, in the accustomed, 'how.' San- 
 doval was well acquainted with this Ute, but came 
 and says to him : 'We heard you were at war on 
 the fight.' And Blanco (the Indian) answered: 
 'Well, it looks like it, when I come here alone to 
 the fort.' So, they asked him in and gave him 
 something to eat; so then, after talking a while, 
 the chief asked Sandoval how he was on the shot. 
 As they had often shot at target practice for lit- 
 tle stakes several times before, this was a very 
 natural question to make. Sandoval answered, 
 "I think I can beat you yet.' The chief answered, 
 'All right; if you can, I have some nice buck 
 skins you can win.' At that they all started out 
 of the back door of the fort, and all the men (San- 
 doval's men) went with them to witness this 
 sport. They went to a big cottonwood tree and 
 stuck up a mark to shoot at. They shot two shots 
 
120 RANCH LIFE 
 
 one shot each. (This, as later was evident, was 
 a signal for two Indians to appear.) At that, two 
 warriors rode up friendly, and shook hands with 
 the party, as they were great hands to shake 
 hands when professing to be friendly. Then, they 
 fired four shots more at the mark, and then four 
 more warriors rode up, and shook hands as had 
 the other two who came previously, and acted in 
 the same friendly manner. And then the two con- 
 testants resumed the shooting at the mark, when 
 the balance of the Indian party rode up the 
 whole fifty now being on the ground. At this 
 time they gave up the friendly shooting match. 
 The Indian chief (Blanco) asked Sandoval if he 
 could not give his men something to eat, as they 
 were hungry; this he said he was willing to do, 
 and they all went into the fort, where a meal was 
 made ready for them to eat. And just about the 
 time they were finishing their meal some kind of 
 signal from the chief to his warriors must have 
 been made, as there was a concerted action taken 
 as they all grabbed all the arms in sight belonging 
 to the whites and began the killing; and this con- 
 tinued until they had them all killed, excepting 
 the two sons of Sandoval, the head man, and one 
 woman. The boys were seven and twelve years old. 
 The woman who was not killed the Indians took 
 with them as captive, and was later killed at a 
 spring by them, so it was related by the twelve- 
 year-old boy, son of Sandoval, after peace was 
 
PIONEERS 121 
 
 made, and he was returned to his people or the 
 government officials or officers. 
 
 "Referring again to the killing, will say: 
 "One man was shot through the cheeks, and 
 his tongue shot off; he only lived a few days, and 
 it was through him that it was learned all about 
 Tiow the massacre occurred. Poojr fellow he 
 couldn't talk, as his tongue was gone, but he was 
 a good sign talker he told the whole transaction 
 from beginning to end. His name was Romaldo, 
 but don't know his last name. This man, the only 
 one to escape, except the woman and the two boys 
 taken prisoners and he only escaped to live three 
 days. In the massacre at the fort, it is likely 
 that the woman was accidently killed when the 
 fighting and excitement was going on." 
 
 It will be noticed that James Beckwourth 
 claims to have given the name of Pueblo to the 
 place about 1840. There does not seem to be an- 
 other place in Colorado which can show a legiti- 
 mate origin as far back. It is evident that from 
 that date to the present time it has remained a 
 place of more or less importance, containing at all 
 times some American inhabitants. Bent's fort 
 was established in the Arkansas valley at an 
 earlier date and remains to this day an important 
 historical feature of the very early settlement of 
 the Arkansas valley. But the location of Bent's 
 fort was changed twice. 
 
122 RANCHLIFE 
 
 WHAT PARKMAN SAW. 
 
 Francis Parkman, Jr., and his relative, Quincy 
 A. Shaw, were young students from Boston, who 
 had been on a schoolboy escapade among the In- 
 dians near Fort Laramie. On their return trip 
 they rode from Fort Laramie to Pueblo in August, 
 1846. Parkman published a book called "Cali- 
 fornia and Oregon Trail," giving an account of 
 this western trip. He states in regard to Pueblo in 
 1846 : "We reached the edge of a hill from which 
 a welcome sight greeted us. The Arkansas ran 
 along the valley below, among woods and groves, 
 and closely nestled in the midst of wide cornfields 
 and green meadows, where cattle were grazing, 
 rose the low mud walls of the Pueblo." Parkman 
 had just crossed the site where Denver now 
 stands and had not seen a white man. He found 
 here a number of white men, Mexicans and In- 
 dians. A party of Mormons were encamped close 
 by. The fields were cultivated by white men, and 
 the curious part of the story is that every year 
 when the corn in the fields was ripening, several 
 thousand Arapahoe Indians came and camped 
 around Pueblo. The few white men were entirely 
 at their mercy and proffered them the use of the 
 corn and the fields. The Arapahoes helped them- 
 selves and even turned their ponies into the fields, 
 but were cunning enough to leave sufficient corn 
 to the farmers, to induce them to raise a crop the 
 succeeding season. 
 
PIONEERS 123 
 
 Parkman pays this tribute to the scenery along 
 the Arkansas river adjacent to Pueblo : "We could 
 look down the little valley of the Arkansas; a 
 beautiful scene, and doubly so to our eyes, so long 
 accustomed to deserts and mountains. Tall woods 
 lined the river, with green meadows on either 
 hand, and high bluffs quietly basking in the sun- 
 light, flanked the narrow valley." The Mormon 
 families mentioned by Parkman had come to 
 Pueblo at some time previous to August 1846. But 
 they were joined during September, November 
 and December of that year, by other Mormon fam- 
 ilies. Brigham Young, the head of the Mormon 
 colony, desiring to establish a Mormon settlement 
 somewhere in the west applied to the government 
 for military escort for his people. This occurred 
 at Council Bluffs, Iowa. As the Mexican War was 
 then being fought, it was suggested to Young that 
 he organize a battalion from his own members. 
 The government would muster them into the serv- 
 ice, arm and equip them and allow them at muster- 
 out to retain their arms and equipments. This 
 was done and the Mormon battalion accompanied 
 by their particular families marched in a south- 
 west direction toward Santa Fe by altogether a 
 different route from that taken by the main col- 
 umn of the Mormons to Salt Lake. They crossed 
 the Arkansas river somewhere in Kansas east 
 of Pueblo. "At this point Captain Higgins with 
 a guard of ten men was detailed to take a number 
 
124 RANCHLIPE 
 
 of families that accompanied the .battalion to 
 Pueblo, a Mexican town located farther up the 
 Arkansas river, to winter." This is the language 
 of D. Tyler on page 157 of his history of the 
 Mormon battalion. This was September 16, 1846. 
 These came to join those who had already pre- 
 ceded them, and the latter were those Parkman 
 and Shaw saw in August, 1846. Another detach- 
 ment was sent from the battalion on its arrival at 
 Santa Fe, to Pueblo for the winter. They ar- 
 rived at Pueblo November 17, and built eigh- 
 teen rooms fourteen feet square, of timber. 
 Still another detachment of fifty-five was sent 
 from some point beyond Santa Fe to Pueblo 
 to winter. This detachment arrived at Pueblo 
 December 24, 1846. The combined Mormon 
 detachment lived in log cabins and had plenty 
 to eat that winter. The book says that the valley 
 was well adapted to winter quarters. "What snow 
 fell soon melted and there was good grazing for 
 the animals." "On the fifteen of January, 1847, 
 nine wagons loaded with sixty days' rations for 
 the command arrived from Bent's fort." A part 
 of the Pueblo detachment in May, 1847, visited the 
 soda fountain, now Manitou, but found no settlers. 
 On May 24, 1847, the detachment left Pueblo and 
 marched toward Fort Laramie, on the Platte 
 river, California being their ultimate destination, 
 but disbanded when they arrived in Salt Lake. 
 The following extracts are taken from "Brigham 
 
PIONEERS 125 
 
 Young and His Mormon Empire," written by 
 George L. Knapp and Frank J. Cannon. 
 
 On page 136: "A party of Mormons from 
 Mississippi had gone west on the Santa Fe trail 
 to Pueblo, where they passed the winter along 
 with the invalids who had been left behind from 
 the Mormon battalion. * * * * The invalided 
 members of the Mormon battalion were already 
 marching north to join their brethren." This 
 occurred early in June, 1847. 
 
 On page 148: "July 29 (1847) Captain James 
 Brown came into camp bringing with him that 
 part of the Mormon battalion which had been left 
 at Pueblo, and the Mississippi Mormons who had 
 camped there through the previous winter. Men, 
 women and children, the newcomers numbered 
 two hundred and forty persons, and brought with 
 them sixty wagons, a hundred horses and mules, 
 and some three hundred head of cattle." This oc- 
 curred after the arrival of the colony of Mormons 
 under Brigham Young at the site of Salt Lake 
 City. It seems from the above record of the Mor- 
 mon battalion that it gave no protection to rhe 
 main column of emigrating Mormons led by Brig- 
 ham Young. This column moved from Council 
 Bluffs directly west to Fort Laramie in the region 
 now called Wyoming. It is barely possible that 
 the idea of protection by this battalion was not 
 entertained by Brigham Young. 
 
 One history says that about one hundred and 
 
126 RANCH LIFE 
 
 fifty people were living in and around the fort 
 of Pueblo in 1847, but the above extracts from 
 Mormon history indicate that there was a larger 
 number. A writer describes Pueblo in 1847 
 thus: "A small settlement chiefly composed of 
 old trappers and hunters; the male part of it 
 are mostly Americans (Missourians), French Can- 
 adians and Mexicans. It numbers about one hun- 
 dred and fifty * * * about sixty men 
 have wives and some have two. The wives were 
 of various Indian tribes as follows, viz.: Black- 
 feet, Assiniboines, Sioux, Arapahoes, Cheyennes, 
 Snakes and Comanches." It will thus be seen that 
 1846 and 1847 were important years for Pueblo. 
 The coming of Parkman and the different Mor- 
 mon detachments gave the name and location a 
 permanent place in history. 
 
 The old trappers and hunters of Pueblo fort 
 lived entirely upon game, and a great part of the 
 year without bread. Pueblo was one of the points 
 where the trappers sold their season's catch of 
 furs to the traders who came there at certain 
 dates to buy. In trapping and hunting these early 
 pioneers exceeded the Indians in skill and cun- 
 ning. The life was a hard one, but full of free- 
 dom, which made it so attractive to these simple 
 children of nature. Being constantly in the midst 
 of dangers they acquired great keenness of ob- 
 servation and skill in the use of firearms, and in 
 fact, in all the requirements of such a wild life. 
 
PIONEERS 127 
 
 It is pleasant to think about and dwell upon the 
 character and achievements of these early ex- 
 plorers. They are the true leaders of men, in 
 the making of a western empire in the Rocky and 
 Sierra Nevada mountains. To us they assume a 
 historical importance far superior to those who, 
 like Daniel Webster, announced in the Senate at 
 Washington, that this western country was an 
 arid desert which never could be occupied by civi- 
 lized people. Webster, as far as is known, never 
 came farther west than Ashland, near Lexington, 
 Kentucky, the home of Henry Clay. But Thomas 
 H. Benton, then a United States senator from 
 Missouri, advocated the resources of this region 
 and favored exploration of its territory. It was 
 he who, being the father-in-law of Fremont, pro- 
 cured from the general government orders for 
 Fremont's different expeditions. 
 
 DEBT TO PIONEERS. 
 
 The present inhabitants of Colorado are great- 
 ly indebted to such pathfinders as Pike, Long, 
 Fowler, Bent, Carson, Wooten, Fremont, Doyle, 
 Beckwourth, Maxwell, Tom Tobin and Prowers, 
 with a host of others whose names are not re- 
 corded, but whose bravery was just as great, who 
 made possible the present conditions in the Arkan- 
 sas valley. These were the adventurous heroes 
 who, in the midst of the Arapahoes, Cheyennes 
 
128 RANCH LIFE 
 
 and Utes, gained a foothold on the Arkansas river 
 in what is now Colorado. They were the fore- 
 runners of the present pioneers to whom we are 
 indebted for opening up and making habitable 
 this fruitful land of fertile soil and cloudless 
 skies; this land, where gold, silver, lead and cop- 
 per abound; the land of the riches of Leadville, 
 Cripple Creek, Gilpin and San Juan. These very 
 early Colorado pioneers will yet be held in still 
 greater regard by the coming generations of the 
 Arkansas valley when a fuller history of their 
 real achievements, and the sacrifices they made, 
 shall be written. The reward of their efforts they 
 never enjoyed; the mineral productions, rich 
 farms and orchard yields, those who come after 
 them will enjoy for all time. 
 
 We call ours a higher civilization, but it is not 
 higher in achievements. True, we have brick 
 houses, telephones, telegraphs, railroads; but 
 these men knew how to live in tents and adobe 
 cabins, to drive ox teams, or ride horseback with 
 the greatest skill. They had little use for school 
 houses or churches. The warlike environment 
 was incompatible with either the enjoyment of 
 religious ceremony, or the formal cultivation of 
 the intellect. But the pioneers, who every mo- 
 ment had to defend their lives and with most 
 strenuous exertions procured their sustentation 
 from the wild game and arid soil, in view of the 
 final results to the thousands who came after 
 
PIONEERS 129 
 
 them, were learning the most useful lessons and 
 exercising the highest type of unselfishness. This 
 was education more important by far than any 
 college can teach. This was the religion of science, 
 which is the struggle for existence and the sur- 
 vival of the fittest. They worked for the future 
 of the white race, sacrificing themselves uncon- 
 sciously for the benefit of those who would after- 
 wards permanently occupy the land. They were 
 plain people who valued a thing for its usefulness. 
 As a rule they were not educated in the schools. 
 The only language they knew was the western 
 vernacular; but at the same time they were most 
 highly educated in being strictly "on to their job." 
 Their work was of the highest importance to the 
 present inhabitants of Colorado, and we should 
 not let the memory of their deeds and their real 
 character, hidden beneath a rough exterior, die 
 out. They made the most exciting era in the his- 
 tory of the white race in deeds of real valor, with 
 no thought of their own aggrandizement, and with 
 the most unselfish hospitality. They were cruel 
 only to their enemies, to those who would murder 
 them. To their friends they were the embodiment 
 of kindness. Whatever faults or shortcomings 
 may characterize the western pioneers, timidity 
 was not one of them. Their physiques were of 
 the tough and enduring kind. Their courage was 
 never wanting. Their brains, while not always 
 tending toward theological, literary or scientific 
 
130 RANCH LIFE 
 
 thought, were quickly responsive to the practical 
 requirements of their environment. Nature was 
 kind to them because they were attentive to her. 
 With axes, rifles and plenty of ammunition they 
 boldly penetrated the miscalled "Great American 
 Desert," and subdued the primitive savage who, 
 in open defiance of the pressing necessity for geo- 
 graphical expansion of the crowded population of 
 other regions, refused to share in peace with them 
 this bqundless and almost uninhabited region. 
 They proved that domestic animals would flourish 
 where only wild game before existed, and that, 
 instead of a desert, the finest soil here lay fallow, 
 making the most profitable agriculture possible. 
 Then, when by their indomitable courage and 
 skill they had thus opened up the way for the com- 
 ing of the more timid and less unselfish brothers 
 whom they had left in the crowded and stagnant 
 surroundings of the east, they magnanimously 
 surrendered the field of wealth and empire their 
 own arms had won, and moved on to conquer new 
 worlds for other coming generations. 
 
 Those who are now (1914) enjoying the terri- 
 tory thus acquired, should honor in every possible 
 manner the achievements of the pioneers, and 
 hand the memory of them unsullied down to fu- 
 ture generations. The freedom and naturalism of 
 those days will never return. They live only in 
 tradition, song and story. 
 
 The Indians no longer roam the Arkansas val- 
 
PIONEERS 131 
 
 ley; the ranchman and the cowboy have evolved 
 into the farmer and horticulturist ; the buffalo and 
 antelope are no more; the ox team and its driver 
 are superseded by the railroad train. We, who 
 have experienced some of these forerunners of 
 civilization, know that the ruder conditions were 
 useful in their day and brought as much happi- 
 ness to the participants as the present conditions 
 bring to the people of this day. 
 
 Each condition has its repulsive features. But 
 it is doubtful whether there is more true man- 
 hood or less inhumanity, except in form, now than 
 in the pioneer days of 1846. The human evolu- 
 tion into new forms of society, into new morals, 
 into more intellect, is ever going on. But there 
 goes with every phase of the evolution a taint of 
 the former conditions, and perhaps, however high 
 humanity may yet rise, its roots must still remain 
 in the soil of its lowly origin. We can never get 
 away from human traits, nor from those of the 
 lower forms of animals from which we are de- 
 scended. The persistency of these traits should 
 convince us that perhaps it is not best that we 
 should get away from them. At any rate, we 
 are so closely connected in ties of time and blood 
 with those early pioneers that our lives of which 
 we boast, may not be really better in true moral- 
 ity, in real dignity of character, in the homely 
 virtues of honesty and service to mankind. 
 
 Each period of man's existence on earth has 
 
132 RANCH LIFE 
 
 its peculiar problems to solve. The work of the 
 pioneers of the Arkansas valley from 1846 to 
 1868 was to replace the savage or barbarous tribes 
 of redmen with the civilized race of white men. It 
 was an irrepressible conflict, which the redman 
 met in the only way he could understand. He 
 fought and died for his home. In ignorance, he 
 made many treaties that in the nature of things 
 could not be kept. He was cruel in his method 
 because he knew no other method. The whole con- 
 flict was a part of the universal struggle for ex- 
 istence constantly going on throughout nature. 
 The fittest survived, but during the struggle deeds 
 were enacted on both sides that will not bear the 
 light of the Golden Rule nor the Sermon on the 
 Mount. They are no more diabolical than those 
 which history records in every such race struggle, 
 which has always taken place in the natural geo- 
 graphical distribution of life on the earth. "Man's 
 inhumanity to man" always has made and per- 
 haps always will make "countless thousands 
 
"THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL" 
 
 The old Santa Fe Trail from St. Louis, Mis- 
 souri, to Santa Fe, New Mexico, was initiated on 
 the 15th of May, 1824. On that date eighty men 
 started with a wagon train loaded with merchan- 
 dise for Santa Fe. They returned in September 
 with their capital greatly increased in gold and 
 silver and $10,000 worth of furs. From the pres- 
 ent site of Kansas City they followed practically 
 the present route of the Atchison, Topeka and 
 Santa Fe Railway. That trail left the Arkansas 
 river at the present site of Las Animas and bore 
 toward the southwest. There was also a branch 
 of it, more often used, crossing the Arkansas near 
 Fort Lamed, Kansas, and coming into the valley 
 of the Cimmaron and crossing a corner of Baca 
 County, Colorado. From Las Animas, or rather 
 Bent's Fort, another brancTi came to Pueblo, Colo- 
 rado, and then turned south. In fact, the trail 
 to Pueblo, up the Arkansas river, was established 
 as early as 1806 by Zebulon M. Pike and his com- 
 panions, who finally arrived at Santa Fe by way 
 of the Wet Mountain Valley and the San Luis 
 Valley. However, there is no record of any other 
 effort to reach Santa Fe by way of Pike's route 
 beyond Pueblo. But it is evident that the trail 
 
134 RANCH LIFE 
 
 from Missouri by way of Pike's route up the 
 Arkansas river to Pueblo was used long before 
 the route via the Cimmaron to Santa Fe became 
 established. It has been thought best to mark the 
 old trail to Santa Fe. This crossed the Colorado 
 state line from Kansas near where Holly now 
 stands, ran on the north side of the Arkansas 
 river, and near to it, to the present site of La 
 Junta, then turning southwest, ran up Timpas 
 creek to Trinidad, leaving the State of Colorado 
 at the location of Lynn. The Daughters of the 
 American Revolution chose this route and have 
 placed markers along it. The old trail was in use 
 for fifty years. For that time it served every 
 function now performed by the modern railway, 
 and in addition throbbed with the hopes and fears 
 of the pioneer trailers along the monotonous 
 course. No one without having faced the savage 
 foe, lying in ambush, ready to murder the in- 
 vader of the west, can appreciate the debt we now 
 owe to the men and women who came by the old 
 Santa Fe Trail. The trail itself is a mere physi- 
 cal emblem of their valor and the contribution 
 they made to the onward march of civilization. 
 Their footsteps on this trail were not merely those 
 by which their savage foes could pursue and mur- 
 der them, but were "footprints on the sands of 
 time" from which further generations can draw 
 inspiration for still other, but no higher, per- 
 formance of great world deeds. 
 
EXTRACT FROM A PAPER READ BEFORE 
 
 THE STATE REALTY ASSOCIATION 
 
 OF COLORADO, AT DENVER, 
 
 JUNE 7, 1904 
 
 You are familiar with the present condition 
 of real estate. But many of you are not familiar 
 with the great changes since 1870. There are 
 others who could recite personal observations 
 back as far as 1858-9 and '60. But the growth of 
 Colorado from 1859 to 1870 was small compared 
 with any like period since. The building of Colo- 
 rado has been done since 1870. It was in that 
 year that the first railway ran into Denver the 
 Kansas Pacific, followed shortly by the Denver 
 Pacific from Cheyenne; being nearly simultane- 
 ous. 
 
 The United States census was then being 
 taken. In Denver it was four thousand seven hun- 
 dred and fifty-nine, in Pueblo six hundred and 
 sixty-six. Colorado had less than forty thousand. 
 
 There was no house at Colorado Springs. Colo- 
 rado City was then the metropolis of El Paso 
 County. Pike's Peak rose as grand then as now 
 above the clouds, while the sparkling soda and 
 iron springs at its foot were in a state of nature. 
 
136 RANCH LIFE 
 
 Manitou and the Garden of the Gods were un- 
 born. The present fanciful shapes given to the 
 numerous projecting rocks of that region and so 
 glibly described by vehicle drivers to susceptible 
 tourists, did not exist at that day. They are cre- 
 ations largely of the imagination, and serve the 
 commercial purposes of those now using them 
 with so much pecuniary profit. Colorado Springs 
 has grown from the log cabin eating house, built 
 in 1871 or 1872 just across the tracks from the 
 present D. & R. G. depot, to its present cosmopoli- 
 tan proportions. As late as 1868 the Cheyennes 
 made a raid along the site of where Colorado 
 Springs now stands and shot and scalped a sheep 
 herder named Baldwin, who was grazing his sheep 
 on that ground and watering them in the Monu- 
 ment in front of the present Antlers Hotel. 
 
 Pueblo is drawing from numerous localities 
 in Colorado the life blood of its prosperity; not 
 only this but every part of the State of Colorado 
 contributes more or less material to its manufac- 
 tures. Many localities outside of the state also 
 contribute to its business activity. In other words, 
 the prosperity of Pueblo, as also that of Denver 
 and Colorado Springs, is co-ordinated with all 
 other contiguous prosperity. So interwoven are 
 the combined commercial, mineral and agricul- 
 tural enterprises of the state and the nation that 
 depression in one locality is immediately felt in 
 all. So that Colorado as a whole, and its cities 
 
REALTY ASSOCIATION 137 
 
 and towns especially, as parts, can be prosperous 
 only as the nation, as a whole, is prosperous. This 
 teaches us that the basis of our efforts must neces- 
 sarily be along the correct business lines that 
 work out the industrial welfare at large. Any 
 other methods are short-sighted and ephemeral 
 and react in a disastrous way. 
 
 To teach these lessons, to get that co-ordinated 
 action which will strengthen and foster the 
 growth of all the parts, is the mission of a State 
 Realty Association. Isolation in business is sui- 
 cidal. Combination, co-ordination and co-opera- 
 tion are essential to development. In looking back 
 over the past we can see what marvels have been 
 wrought from the most unpromising outlook. At 
 first, in Colorado there was nothing perceptible 
 but rock-ribbed, barren mountains and treeless 
 prairies, where it looked as if a jack-rabbit could 
 not sustain life. But the gold digger soon found 
 riches in the unpromising rocks. The cattle raiser 
 discovered nutrition in the scant grasses. From 
 these primitive occupations what great things 
 have evolved ! The evolution has been a survival 
 of the fittest. The fittest were the man and the 
 method which best contributed to the development 
 of the soil and the mines. 
 
 In the business of real estate what curious 
 and unlocked for ups and downs have taken place ! 
 The weak have succumbed and the strong sur- 
 vived. Not the weak in the physical sense, but 
 
138 RANCH LIFE 
 
 those unfitted by the structure of their brains to 
 cope with the rhythmical and merciless causes of 
 commercialism in its struggle for individual as- 
 cendency; the overzealous, the too strenuous op- 
 timist, as well as the rattle-brained debtor who 
 always held only equities, who considered it bad 
 business to pay debts even when he had the 
 money. When the tide of prosperity ebbed the 
 latter was stranded high on the sands ; usually he 
 did not recover from his failures. 
 
 The business men who survive repeated panics 
 and never repudiate their debts are worthy of 
 study. Generally they are the ones who make the 
 least noise and attract the least attention. They 
 do not appear in daily life to have much business ; 
 they walk the streets leisurely without bluster or 
 hurry. The man who is always in a hurry is he 
 who does a petty business or who has too many 
 irons in the fire. 
 
 The great lesson, however, to be drawn from 
 these years of active struggle in a region whose 
 apparent features were so unpromising is the one 
 of proper methods the ethics of the soil. Real 
 estate dealers are engaged in the basic cause of 
 Anglo-Saxon superiority which is ownership of 
 the land. He who is without a legal footing upon 
 the land is poor indeed. No business of any de- 
 scription can be prosecuted without a hold upon 
 real estate; even a steamship line whose hulls are 
 in the water is valueless without a terminal on the 
 
REALTY ASSOCIATION 139 
 
 shore. The sustentation of every human body is 
 drawn from the ground. Land is therefore the 
 foundation of life itself. When the Normans 
 overran and conquered England the Anglo-Sax- 
 ons said to them, "You do the governing and we 
 will stick to our farms paying the tribute you 
 levy." This was agreed to; today the Anglo- 
 Saxons still hold the soil and the wealth of Eng- 
 land; while the only marks left of the Norman 
 power are the tinselry and ceremony fast fading 
 away from a civilization upon which the Anglo- 
 Saxon has forever fastened his name and prac- 
 tical sense. The same principle holds in this great 
 democratic nation. The real power will stay with 
 the owners of that realty without which com- 
 merce, manufacturing and agriculture are impos- 
 sible. 
 
PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES 
 
THE PERSONAL CHARACTER AND PUBLIC 
 SERVICES OF GEORGE WASHINGTON 
 
 These preliminary remarks were added to this 
 address when it was re-delivered to the student 
 body of Centennial High School. 
 
 The lesson intended to be conveyed in the ad- 
 dress about to be read is that true greatness is 
 within the reach of every boy or girl who possess- 
 es the right kind of an organism. There is no 
 reason why some boy in this audience should not 
 achieve what Washington did, provided the con- 
 ditions should again arise demanding the same 
 efforts. True greatness is not brought about by 
 a magic process impossible to the ordinary mortal. 
 It is the result of doing common things extraordi- 
 narily well. It is confined to no special class, but 
 more often emanates from humble, rather than 
 luxurious surroundings. Moreover, the great 
 lose their title when they cease to be in touch 
 with the common, every-day demands of life. 
 
 Neither is it official position that makes one 
 great. Those who have made themselves great 
 sometimes are placed in official position. Kings 
 and emperors, although born into high positions, 
 are generally stupid, while the thinkers of the 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON 143 
 
 world the real epoch makers, like Copernicus, 
 Newton, Darwin, Washington and Lincoln 
 spring from the common people. I will also say 
 to the girls now present, that the mothers of these 
 men were not society belles, but simple, plain, 
 earnest women, with more than ordinary common 
 sense. 
 
 This Address was first delivered to a Masonic 
 audience at Pueblo, Colorado, on an anniversary 
 of Washington's birthday. 
 
 I. The trend of latter day biography is to- 
 ward personality. The public want to know, in 
 addition to a man's public services, what manner 
 of human organism produces great results in this 
 world. The interests of science and philosophy 
 also demand that the personality of eminent men 
 be given in their biographies, along-side of their 
 services. Biology, especially that branch of it 
 treating of genesis and heredity, together with its 
 connected science, psychology, has been built up 
 as an inductive science by bringing together as 
 cause and effect organic peculiarities and the re- 
 sulting mentality. This connection in the written 
 lives of great men makes possible such truthful 
 generalizations as that "Great mothers have great 
 sons;" "Organisms inherit the fixed functional 
 characteristics of their ancestry;" and that "A 
 man is the organic registration of the predomi- 
 nant traits in the lives of his ancestry, back to the 
 beginning of life on the globe." Great advances 
 
144 RANCH LIFE 
 
 in anthropological science must be simultaneous 
 with equally important advance in its copious 
 source of inductive facts, the personality of con- 
 temporaneous biography. 
 
 II. In the case of General Washington, all 
 his biographers, from Weems, who was amongst 
 the first and whose school history was universal 
 in my boyhood days, down to the elaborate "Life" 
 by Washington Irving, said very little of his per- 
 sonal appearance and individuality. In fact, noth- 
 ing that would be of importance in formulating 
 any scientific inferences. Weems' ruling idea 
 seems to have been to make of him a model saint 
 for children to pattern after. He, therefore, gave 
 prominence to such fictions as his fervent devotion 
 to religious rites and the tradition of the hatchet 
 and cherry tree. Until within the last few years, 
 I think Washington was regarded more as an 
 ideal than a real character. Even the numerous 
 artists who painted his portraits, instead of pre- 
 senting him in his natural hair and every-day 
 clothes and postures, represented him in pow- 
 dered wig, laces and impossible positions. Stew- 
 art's bust portrait, from which nearly all the 
 modern prints of him are copied, is undoubtedly 
 largely fanciful, with a face more of an anthropo- 
 morphic demigod than that of a plain Virginia 
 farmer. Too many writers and artists seem to 
 think it necessary to clothe greatness in other 
 garb than the homely contour and habiliments of 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON 145 
 
 every-day manhood. Washington was a plain 
 man, uneducated in books, but possessed of un- 
 usual practical common sense. In the days of our 
 country's fathers, the art of taking sun portraits 
 had not been discovered. Daguerre had not in- 
 vented his process call the daguerrotype, followed 
 long after by the present invaluable methods of 
 photography. The latter presents the human face 
 and form as it is in nature, except the colorings. 
 One good photograph of Washington, as he spent 
 his days in his every-day attire at Mt. Vernon, or 
 in his camp at Valley Forge, for the purpose of 
 studying his person, would be worth more than all 
 the portraits ever painted of him. Fortunately 
 there was a life-mask taken from his face. I ex- 
 amined this mask, or a copy of it, in one of the 
 eastern art galleries. It was exceedingly interest- 
 ing. It showed a peculiar rigidity of his face, 
 which was undoubtedly the facial correlative of 
 that quality which gave so much dignity to his 
 presence. The chin was prominent, the whole 
 lower jaw large and finely moulded, the character- 
 istic of firmness and persistence. His nose was 
 slightly Roman, indicative of executive force ; the 
 eyes large and wide apart, showing breadth of 
 mental vision; the cheek-bones large and promi- 
 nent, characteristics of physical endurance; the 
 forehead prominent in the lower portion and slop- 
 ing back, showing him more of a utilitarian than 
 an intellectual idealist. We are told that his hair 
 
146 RANCHLIFE 
 
 was a deep brown, his complexion fair and color- 
 less, his face marked by smallpox. His eyes were 
 blue and rather dull. He measured 6 feet 31/2 
 inches in height, was large-boned and exceedingly 
 well muscled, carrying himself, especially on 
 horseback, most gracefully. His hands and feet 
 were very large, though not out of proportion. 
 Lafayette wrote that he had seen him sitting at 
 table two hours after dinner, eating nuts. These 
 details are very instructive, because they plainly 
 indicate to the student of ethnology the true 
 character of the man. They are infinitely more 
 valuable than the idle repetitions of mere neigh- 
 borhood traditions by purposeful biographers. 
 They indicate a powerful human, not saintly, or- 
 ganism, adapted to succeed in any active, manly 
 undertaking. They are the visible signs of strong 
 human traits, such as successful warriors habitu- 
 ally display. It is not the makeup of a scholar 
 or a poet, nor a dreamer, nor of a philosopher, 
 such as was Benjamin Franklin, nor of John Ad- 
 ams, the lawyer and orator, nor of Thomas Jef- 
 ferson, the author of the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence and a learned humanitarian. But it was the 
 organism of a statesman and soldier, who in the 
 troublous times of the Revolution, rose far su- 
 perior to all these contemporaries in the practical 
 power to grasp and put into operation the states- 
 manship and militarism necessary to the success- 
 ful separation of the colonies from the mother 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON 147 
 
 country. He not only carried the Revolution to a 
 successful issue, but was a master workman in 
 setting up the political machinery that has needed 
 but little repair for more than a century. 
 
 Washington has now been dead more than a 
 hundred years. As illustrative of the wonderful 
 correlation of his physical and mental powers, I 
 give the following analogues : For sixty-one years 
 after his death the nation looked in vain for an- 
 other built upon the same plan. But the seeking 
 was more or less a blind hunt, principally because 
 the people had access in his biographies, not to his 
 personal traits and physical and mental organiza- 
 tion, but only to his public acts, and to much fic- 
 tion about his supposed ethical and theological 
 opinions. But in 1860, in a haphazard way, they 
 stumbled upon the same type of greatness, em- 
 bodied in the same kind of organism, the same 
 height, large boned, less graceful in body and so- 
 cial functions, but containing a higher order of 
 pure intellect ; one who carried the nation through 
 a much larger and more difficult war than the 
 Revolution ; not, like Washington, as Commander- 
 in-chief in the field, but from his office in the 
 Capitol city of the country. 
 
 The co-incidence of the physical and mental 
 traits of the two greatest men in our history 
 shows that there is much more in personality 
 than was dreamed of by biographers a hundred 
 years ago. I say that Lincoln had a higher order 
 
148 RANCH LIFE 
 
 of mere intellect than Washington, but was per- 
 haps not thereby a greater man, in the common 
 acceptation of that word; for intellect is only a 
 part of mentality. For instance, it seems to be 
 pretty certain that Washington was only nominal- 
 ly the author of his "Farewell Address." Ford, 
 in his "True George Washington" says: "First 
 Madison was asked to prepare a draft, and from 
 this Washington drew up a paper which he sub- 
 mitted to Hamilton and Jay, with the request that 
 they put it in proper form." Hamilton made num- 
 erous changes, and wrote it in the language in 
 which we now have it. He made its tone less per- 
 sonal and gave it style and expression. But Lin- 
 coln needed no one to revise his Gettysburg ad- 
 dress or his second inaugural papers that will 
 stand beside the Farewell Address to the latest 
 stroke of time. Another instance: I met in the 
 War of the Rebellion, a great and most successful 
 general (I think him the greatest military genius 
 on the Union side of the Civil War), who re- 
 minded me of the personality of Washington as I 
 had read of him. He was, perhaps as tall, but 
 heavier, and had face and hair very much of the 
 same color. He was also a Virginian. His man- 
 ner was grave, his movements were slow, but he 
 was never unprepared and never taken by sur- 
 prise. He never lost a battle when he had per- 
 sonal control of the entire forces engaged. His 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON 149 
 
 name was George H. Thomas, but I like to call 
 him, "The Modern George Washington." 
 
 I love to study the personal peculiarities of 
 true men. If the theory of organic evolution is 
 correct, then the true character is more or less 
 disclosed in what may be called the general make- 
 up, that is in scientific language the morphol- 
 ogy and physiology of the organism. Not only 
 does the shape of the head and the physiognomy 
 determine character, but the shape of the body, 
 the hands, the feet, the mouth, ears, nose, as well 
 as the walk, the voice, the texture of the hair, 
 every motion of every part of the body, the hand 
 writing, the manner of shaking hands; in fact, 
 the aggregate, both structural and functional, of 
 the organism makes up character and determines 
 what each particular person must necessarily do 
 under any given circumstances, all through his 
 life. Benedict Arnold was perhaps a more intel- 
 lectual man than Washington, but not having 
 Washington's general make-up in other respects, 
 could not have accomplished what the latter did. 
 On the other hand, it would have been impossible 
 for Washington to become a traitor. To use a 
 slang phrase, which at the same time has a broad 
 scientific basis, it was because he "was not built 
 that way." So that a proper study of a man's 
 physique is necessary to a proper interpretation 
 of the causes of his successes as well as his fail- 
 ures. 
 
150 RANCHLIFE 
 
 III. Perhaps the predominant trait in Wash- 
 ington was thoroughness. He was honest, through 
 and through, and brought to the performance of 
 every duty, small as well as great, a resolute pur- 
 pose to do his "level best." His correspondence, 
 which was very voluminous, and which only lately 
 has been compiled and published, was of the most 
 painstaking and laborious character. He did not 
 dictate to a stenographer, but painfully wrote out 
 every word with his own fingers and with expres- 
 sions of the most elaborate politeness. His sur- 
 veys for Lord Fairfax, made when a very young 
 man, were most faithfully done. He avoided no 
 exposure to the weather, and made long journeys 
 into the western wilds, far from the comforts of 
 home and the allurements of society, while other 
 more showy young men were dawdling away their 
 precious days in the pleasures of society, but who 
 are now forgotten. His farming at Mount Vernon 
 is noted at this day as being the best and most 
 successful of his time. He laboriously and most 
 intelligently mastered every detail of it, making 
 maps of his fields and watching with his own eyes 
 the progress of all its operations. He incurred 
 his last sickness while riding in a storm to make 
 his daily inspections. Washington had that love 
 of the soil, that rural predilection so characteristic 
 of, and which has given, the Anglo-Saxon his su- 
 periority to other races in the practical affairs of 
 the world. The independence from patronage 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON 151 
 
 and paternalism that accompanies the pursuit of 
 agriculture, was, next to his physico-mental or- 
 ganism, perhaps the most potent factor in form- 
 ing his character. John Adams, in his speech in 
 the congress nominating him for Commander-in- 
 chief of the Colonial Armies, made a strong point 
 of this sturdy independence in Washington. No 
 public honors could wean him from his love for 
 the real source of his personal power and inde- 
 pendence the fair acres of Mount Vernon. 
 
 In the midst of his most arduous campaigns 
 as a soldier, he never neglected his farm. He re- 
 ceived long reports from his superintendent, and 
 wrote him at times as many as sixteen pages of 
 minute instructions, covering every detail of farm 
 ing operations. He was eager at the termination 
 of the war, to return to his favorite pursuit. But 
 mark the result of such sturdy independence. The 
 people, while filled with admiration for his mili- 
 tary career, were also unconsciously drawn to him 
 by this and other exhibitions of unselfishness, 
 while he had it in his power to make himself a 
 pensioner and a dependent on the public treasury. 
 They, therefore, determined to keep him in their 
 highest service. Honors came unsought to him, 
 who had the manhood to turn his back upon them. 
 It was his manly reliance upon personal effort in 
 the great struggle of life, that made others ready 
 to struggle for him. Every duty of his life, how- 
 ever small, was faithfully done, and thus he pre- 
 
152 RANCHLIPE 
 
 pared himself for the next. Therefore, he was 
 equal to every call as it came, however great. 
 What would have been laborious and difficult to 
 ordinary men, who never did small things well, 
 came easy to him. This trait stood him better 
 than college education, of which he had none. 
 
 While he did not spell well, and spoke no 
 language but his own, yet Patrick Henry said of 
 him, in the congress of 1774, that "in solid in- 
 formation and sound judgment, Colonel Washing- 
 ton is unquestionably the greatest man on the 
 floor." History recites his public life, but I like 
 best to dwell upon his private character, because 
 his splendid public career was made possible only 
 because of these admirable traits faithfully cul- 
 tivated in fhe obscurer and earlier half of his 
 career. His home was at Mount Vernon for forty- 
 six years two-thirds of his life. But he spent 
 only half of these years in the beloved quiet of 
 its exquisite surroundings; the other half being 
 devoted to the public service, away from home. 
 The twenty-three domestic years were the hap- 
 piest of his matured manhood. The plain country 
 mansion of colonial architecture, still preserved 
 through the munificence of the patriotic women of 
 our country, as it was when Washington trod its 
 floors, was baronial only in its hospitality. Com- 
 pared with the stately homes of Old England it is 
 simplicity itself. But what it lacks in magnifi- 
 cence or gilded splendor has been more than made 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON 153 
 
 up by the affections of the American people which 
 have settled upon it in one perpetual sunshine. 
 
 I turn with reluctance from so fascinating a 
 private character; but something more is ex- 
 pected to be said of his public career. Not only 
 the history of his country, but the world's his- 
 tory treats copiously of that. So seldom have the 
 centuries produced a really great man, that Car- 
 lyle, in his "Heroes and Hero Worship," refers 
 to only three great kings. Napoleon I and Fred- 
 erick the Great are two of these. In physical 
 stature they were dwarfs beside the stately Wash- 
 ington, while compared with what the latter has 
 done for mankind, their achievements dwindle 
 into insignificance. Washington never fought a 
 battle for conquest, yet he wrested a nascent im- 
 perial domain from the greatest power of the 
 world and handed it over to his fellow country- 
 men for the benefit of themselves and their suc- 
 cessors in perpetuity. Then, like another Cin- 
 cinnatus, he modestly retired to his farm refusing 
 any compensation except his necessary expenses 
 for such great services. But what was worth more 
 to him than gold the affections of the common 
 people of the whole world have enshrined his 
 name for all time. 
 
 Frederick and Napoleon bestowed the ill-got- 
 ten territory and plunder of their conquests upon 
 themselves and their families. Napoleon I, who 
 stands in history as a greater warrior was con- 
 
154 RANCHLIFE 
 
 quered by the nation that Washington successful- 
 ly resisted. He died a prisoner of that power, 
 while Washington passed away in the peaceful, 
 independent shades of his own home, in the midst 
 of an independent people made free by his own ef- 
 forts, mourned and beloved by Christendom, in- 
 cluding most of those against whom he had so 
 lately fought. 
 
 Every school boy knows the historical details 
 of the public services of Washington, therefore it 
 would be mere platitude to recite them here, but 
 significant fact shows what a dominating power 
 he was in the events then passing. From that day 
 in 1775, when, under the tree that still stands in 
 Cambridge, Massachusetts, he by vote of Congress 
 assumed command ofthe colonial army, until the 
 declaration of peace in 1783, he was always in 
 command personally directing all the movements 
 in the field. When battle reverses came, when his 
 trusted officers deserted him, when Congress it- 
 self was in doubt whether a change of command- 
 ers might not be best, he did not lose heart but 
 persevered to the end. Washington, Greene and 
 Knox were the three officers who began at the 
 beginning of the war and fought without waver- 
 ing to the close. Always at the front, amidst the 
 uncertaintain fortunes of battle, when weaker 
 officers lost their heads, Washington kept his eyes 
 of faith, like those of the eagle's to the sun, upon 
 the rising "Halo of triumph that he believed would 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON 155 
 
 ultimately fall, like a benediction upon the super- 
 human struggle that he and his ragged and foot- 
 sore yeomanry were then putting forth. 
 
 His transcendent public services to his own 
 country, looking back across the 19th Century to 
 the results, cannot be extolled too highly. But in 
 what splendor of diction can one couch the in- 
 direct effects they have had upon the personal 
 status of the masses throughout the world, in giv- 
 ing an impetus to the cause of universal freedom ? 
 The French Revolution did not occur until six 
 years after the achievement of American inde- 
 pendence. The two came too close together not 
 to have an inspirational connection. Little did 
 Louis XVI imagine that his assistance given so 
 opportunely to Washington in our struggle, (not 
 so much, however, to assist us as to punish George 
 III), would react in so few years on his own per- 
 son and throne in the way history records. Thus 
 the influence of the public services we are now 
 considering has permeated the atmosphere of 
 every monarchy in the world for a century, mak- 
 ing that atmosphere easier to breathe for the op- 
 pressed, and slowly corroding the chains that hold 
 monarchical peoples in what was before a hope- 
 less bondage. 
 
 In this light, how can we measure the height 
 and depth and breadth of the public services of 
 Washington? For it was he, next only to the all- 
 pervading spirit of resistance in the people of the 
 
156 RANCHLIFE 
 
 Colonies, that made our independence possible. 
 Had he faltered, or had there been a defect in his 
 organization, failure would undoubtedly have 
 come, instead of such glorious triumph. There 
 would have been darkness instead of the bright 
 light of freedom. 
 
 It is difficult to say how long, in case of such 
 failure, the independence of the Colonies may 
 have been delayed. But coming when it did by 
 the efforts of Washington, the resultant republic 
 is now, in the beginning of the 20th Century, so 
 great a power in the world, that monarchs every- 
 where are fearing it secretly, and publicly scramb- 
 ling among themselves for priority of alliance 
 with it. 
 
 The principle of freedom, held theretofore only 
 in theory by such men as Jean Jacques Rousseau, 
 at once thereafter became a practical force sweep- 
 ing monarchy from the Western continent and in 
 time will do the same in the Eastern. When that 
 time comes, in the slow evolution of humanity, the 
 paradox that nations of strong men as late as the 
 dawn of the twentieth century, allowed themselves 
 to be governed and oppressed by crowned tyrants, 
 will be classed with witchcraft and human slav- 
 ery, as one of the delusions that have, all through 
 man's history, sat like "an old man of the sea" 
 on the throne of human reason. 
 
 In this sense, the public services of Washing- 
 ton take rank as almost a new force in the evolu- 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON 157 
 
 tion of human society. Men of Eastern nations, 
 having before them the perpetual apparition of a 
 great republic, growing up beneath the setting 
 sun, as the apotheosis of the immortal principles 
 of the Declaration of Independence, must in time, 
 conclude that all men should be thus conditioned ; 
 that if there is any meaning in human existence, 
 then every combination of men should be domi- 
 nated by the will of its members only; that no 
 divine command has ever been given to any man 
 or set of men to govern and oppress the re- 
 mainder ; that all power, as a fundamental law of 
 society, must ultimately be derived from the con- 
 sent of those on whom the power so derived is to 
 be exerted. For 
 
 "Bequeathed from sire to son, 
 Freedom's battle, once begun 
 Is never lost, but ever won." 
 
THE BATTLE OF LEXINGTON 
 
 Read before the Pueblo Chapter of The 
 Daughters of The American Revolution. 
 
 April 19, 1889, being a beautiful sunshiny day, 
 two companions sojourning at Wellesley, Mass., 
 proceeded by private conveyance across country to 
 Lexington. The annual celebration of the battle 
 was to occur, Edward Everett Hale being the or- 
 ator. The distance, eleven miles (the same as 
 from Boston), the roads being fine, atmosphere 
 balmy and exhilirating, seemed much shorter. Oc- 
 casionally changing direction by way of a cross 
 road, they finally turned the horse's head toward 
 the historic village on a fine macadamized turn- 
 pike between two stone walls which stretched 
 ahead as far as eye could reach. They had al- 
 ready stopped and asked the way of almost every 
 one met in the road. Not that the sign boards on 
 the intersections did not point the correct way, 
 but those tourists felt the exuberance of the sun- 
 shine and the anticipation of enjoying a holiday 
 on the very spot where liberty was born 114 years 
 before. They wanted to impart some of this spirit 
 to those on the road who showed by their indif- 
 ference and the direction of their locomotion that 
 they did not know how the day should be spent 
 
BATTLE OF LEXINGTON 159 
 
 or did not care. To these companions it seemed 
 incredible that any one in Massachusetts could 
 stay away from such a celebration on such an an- 
 niversary. At one point just ahead of them driv- 
 ing out of a gate of an estate (all the places are 
 called estates) came a farmer in a one-horse 
 wagon not a "one-horse shay." He turned in a 
 direction showing his ignorance of the celebra- 
 tion. Being hailed and asked if these companions 
 were proceeding toward Lexington, he replied, 
 "Which Lexington? The town or the village?" 
 Not knowing that there were two Lexingtons, they 
 were somewhat surprised at his answering their 
 question by asking another; evidently he was a 
 true Yankee ! At a venture one of the companions 
 replied "village." He said, "Go straight ahead 
 and don't turn 'nary way.' " This straight answer 
 in crooked syntax by turning "nary way," enabled 
 the travelers to arrive in due time at their des- 
 tination. 
 
 These two companions entered so heartily into 
 the spirt of the day for many reasons; but the 
 principal one was that both of them were of New 
 England stock and descended from ancestors who 
 as early as 1638 came over and settled in New 
 England. 
 
 The most conspicuous object in the village of 
 Lexington is the common on which Captain John 
 Parker formed his crude company about 2 o'clock 
 the morning of the 19th of April, 1775. There 
 
160 RANCH LIFE 
 
 were about one hundred and thirty in line at that 
 time, pioneer patriots of all ages armed with a 
 variety of guns, with no uniforms; their hearts 
 filled with patriotism and personal bravery, but 
 without discipline. The Captain instructed them 
 to load their pieces but "not to fire the first shot." 
 He then sent forward some scouts who reported 
 "no enemy yet in sight." The company was dis- 
 missed after posting sentinels with instructions to 
 assemble again at the sound of the drums or the 
 firing of muskets. Some of them went to their 
 homes and others to the tavern at one corner of 
 the common. In the meantime let us inquire for 
 what this band of brave freemen was waiting? 
 
 The Boston massacre had occurred in 1770; 
 the tea was emptied into the harbor in 1773. Gen- 
 eral Gage, a British officer, had been made civil 
 governor of Massachusetts in 1774 by King 
 George III, and ordered to shut the port of Boston 
 and punish the ring leaders of the resistance then 
 rife to kingly authority. Massachusetts had been 
 declared in rebellion. Seven regiments of British 
 troops, under Lord Percy, were encamped on Bos- 
 ton Common in April, 1775. These troops were in- 
 structed to enforce the Colonial revenue laws of 
 England, which included the well known stamp 
 tax and duty on tea imported into the colonies. 
 The duty on tea was still in force. This taxation, 
 and in fact the power of the English parliament 
 to tax the colonies without their consent, was re- 
 
BATTLE OF LEXINGTON 1G1 
 
 sisted by the Americans. The colonies were not 
 represented in parliament and no steps had been 
 taken to give them this right. In fact representa- 
 tion so far away was considered impractical. This 
 resistance was really the same as a declaration 
 that taxes could not be laid except by the people 
 upon themselves. This was good English law. 
 This principle now lies at the very foundation of 
 present representative form of government in the 
 United States. The colonial stamp tax enacted in 
 1765 by England, was repealed in 1766, because it 
 could not be enforced against an unwilling people, 
 but a protest was signed by a large number of 
 members of parliament against such repeal. This 
 protest said, among other things, "this concession 
 tends to throw the whole British empire into a 
 state of confusion, as the plea of the North Amer- 
 ican colonies, of not being represented in parlia- 
 ment of Great Britain, may by the same reason- 
 ing, be extended to all persons in this island who 
 do not actually vote for members of parliament." 
 This was true. The true cause of the struggle for 
 liberty at Lexington, was the cause of disfran- 
 chised people everywhere. That is one reason why 
 the shot fired there was heard round the world. 
 In other words, struggles will always exist where 
 people do not govern themselves. The objection 
 of the Americans was not to the tax as onerous, 
 and in itself improper taxation, but that it should 
 be laid only by the people, by their representa- 
 
162 RANCH LIFE 
 
 tives, and for the benefit of the people. But here 
 was a proposition to tax the colonies, not for their 
 benefit, but to pay the King's retainers for holding 
 the colonies in subjection. This was the principle 
 at stake. The same kind of taxes have been 
 frequently laid since then in the United States; 
 notably the stamp taxes during the Civil War and 
 after the Spanish War. Tea has been made to pay 
 duty by Congress. But these taxes were levied 
 by the people's representatives and spent here 
 for purposes approved by the people. 
 
 Think if it be possible for intelligent men 
 and women to think such a paradox of England's 
 expecting to build up and hold the American col- 
 onies and at the same time suppress manufactur- 
 ing by them, prohibit importation from any coun- 
 try but England and rule them by the prerogative 
 of the King ! Also, do not delude yourselves with 
 the idea that such methods passed away from the 
 English mind with the success of our Revolution- 
 ary War. They are now doing the same and worse 
 in East India. 
 
 The presence of British troops in Boston by 
 order of King George III to enforce laws that had 
 already been declared illegal by the people of 
 Massachusetts, was in itself a state of war. But 
 the colony was not prepared for war, and its citi- 
 zens instinctively shrank from attacking the great 
 English nation, thus invoking a contest that 
 seemed hopeless to the colonists. The congress of 
 
BATTLE OF LEXINGTON 163 
 
 Massachusetts resolved against any act that could 
 be construed into a commencement of hostilities. 
 At this time, however, and before, nearly all the 
 colonies had taken some steps looking towards de- 
 fense. Patrick Henry delivered his famous speech 
 in the Virginia house of Burgesses sometime be- 
 fore ; but no formal action of separation had been 
 taken as yet, only an occasional suggestion of it. 
 That came later and only when the leaders dis- 
 covered that although they were in an almost 
 hopeless minority, yet the people possessed the 
 most sturdy spirit of resistance and willingness 
 to wage battle. And, as Richard Henry Lee said, 
 "He is thrice armed whose cause is just." 
 
 At Concord, a village a few miles west of Lex- 
 ington, the patriots had accumulated some ammu- 
 nition and a few pieces of artillery. General Gage 
 learned of this. He received instructions from the 
 king "to seize and secure all military stores of 
 every kind collected by the rebels." Hence the ad- 
 vance on the 19th day of April, 1775, by the Brit- 
 ish troops on Concord through Lexington. At this 
 time the eyes of Europe, as well as those of the 
 other colonies of America, were turned toward 
 Boston and its vicinity. For here James Otis and 
 Samuel Adams, the ablest statesmen of America, 
 resided and had raised the first alarm at the ag- 
 gressions of the King. They led in urging the 
 people to an early and constant resistance to 
 tyranny. With what he thought was great 
 
164 RANCH LIFE 
 
 secrecy and military chicanery, Gage instructed 
 Lord Percy to advance in the night to Concord, 
 capture or destroy these munitions of war and 
 disperse the local militia. But the patriot war- 
 riors anticipating such an advance, found means, 
 through Paul Revere and William Davis, to notify 
 Samuel Adams and John Hancock, who had previ- 
 ously gone to Lexington from Boston, of the time 
 of the advance. They informed the settlers every 
 where along the route, and Captain Parker's pres- 
 ence with his company of minute men on the Lex- 
 ington common in the early morning of April 19, 
 to meet the advance British troops, was the first 
 actual organized resistance to the British red 
 coats in battle array in the Revolutionary War. 
 The historian, George Bancroft, says, "The last 
 stars were vanishing from night when the fore- 
 most party led by Pitcairn, a major of marines, 
 was discovered advancing quickly and in silence." 
 The drums of the patriots sounded the alarm and 
 about sixty of those who had previously been in 
 line again rallied and formed across the common. 
 Major Pitcairn, riding in front of his troops, 
 came within a few rods of the patriot line, and 
 loudly and excitedly calling them rebels, ordered 
 them to lay down their arms and disperse. But, 
 seeing they did not do so, drew his pistol and 
 fired the first shot, giving the command at the 
 same time to his own troops to fire. Captain Par- 
 ker ordered his men to disperse. Some of them 
 
BATTLE OF LEXINGTON 165 
 
 in falling back fired their pieces at the British but 
 did no damage. There being eight hundred 
 troops under Pitcairn, the sixty minute men were 
 too few to resist. It may have occurred to the 
 British officer that this triumph ended the rebel- 
 lion; but by this timely retreat many lives were 
 saved. Later in the day Parker's men inflicted on 
 Pitcairn's retreating forces very great disaster. 
 
 The following minute men were killed by Pit- 
 cairn's soldiers in the first encounter : James Par- 
 ker, Isaac Muzzey, Robert Munroe, Asahel Porter, 
 Jonathan Harrington, Jr., Caleb Harrington, 
 Samuel Hadley and John Brown. Seven of the 
 men of Lexington and one of Woburn were killed 
 and nine wounded. The killed and wounded to- 
 gether constituted about one-fourth of the minute 
 men in line at the time of the firing. At one end of 
 this line they had stood, the patriot dead were bur- 
 ied and the line is distinctly marked by a monu- 
 ment and markers. Edward Everett, in his oration 
 at the dedication of this monument said, "Where 
 should a soldier lie but where he fell?" Many of 
 the original houses that surrounded the common 
 at the time of the battle are still preserved with 
 the bullet holes still in them. Metal plates at- 
 tached to the front of certain houses recite what 
 occurred. 
 
 These companions lingered long in and about 
 the historic spot and could hardly realize that a 
 hundred and fourteen years had passed, during 
 
166 RANCHLIFE 
 
 which a great nation of free people, whose nascent 
 independence from England had here its birth, 
 had grown, not in and around this first battlefield, 
 but so far away as to leave it practically in the 
 same primitive condition in which it existed in 
 1775. For this village today is nothing but the 
 embodiment of a sentiment resistance to tyran- 
 ny is the only hope of a free people and here it 
 was begun on the western continent. There was 
 nothing spectacular about this first battle for 
 American freedom; these men of Lexington were 
 simple in life and manner; they were silent and 
 earnest. They recognized their allegiance to Great 
 Britain and this made them hesitate to fire upon 
 the King's troops. It is a wonder, when Major Pit- 
 cairn called them rebels and commanded them to 
 disperse, that some of them did not do so. But the 
 true spirit of resistance to injustice and wrong 
 brought them together again late in the day. Had 
 they been disciplined and properly commanded it 
 is doubtful if the eight hundred British soldiers 
 would have marched any further toward Concord 
 where they did arrive about seven o'clock the same 
 morning. 
 
 On this one hundred and thirty-fourth year 
 since the battle of Lexington it is not necessary to 
 follow them in detail. But "pride goes before a 
 fall and a haughty spirit before destruction." 
 They were met at Concord by a larger number of 
 provincial militia than they had met at Lexing- 
 
BATTLE OF LEXINGTON 167 
 
 ton and retreated the way they came. It is a mat- 
 ter of history that the patriots, by abandoning all 
 order of battle and each acting almost alone, killed 
 and wounded from the woods on the sides of the 
 road during this retreat, a large number of Lord 
 Percy's forces. On the retreat of the British from 
 Concord back to Boston closely pursued by the 
 American militia, scarce ten of the Americans 
 were seen together ; yet to the British the wooded 
 hills and valleys seemed to swarm with them. 
 They were fine marksmen and did splendid exe- 
 cution on the conspicuous and exhausted red coats. 
 At a certain point between Concord and Lexing- 
 ton the Lexington minute men, still under the com- 
 mand of Captain John Parker, renewed the fight. 
 The old couplet says, 
 
 "He who fights and runs away, 
 Will live to fight another day." 
 
 But here, in the beginning of the struggle for 
 freedom, they lived to fight, most effectually the 
 same day. Major Pitcairn was later killed in the 
 battle of Bunker Hill. 
 
 The day preceding the battle of Lexington 
 very few thought there would be any shedding of 
 blood. The night after that battle Boston was 
 closely beleaguered by the Americans; the troops 
 of England being inside of the city limits. The 
 patriot troops that now besieged Boston had hur- 
 ried in from the surrounding country all through 
 
168 RANCHLIFE 
 
 the night after the battle of Lexington. The loss 
 of the Americans on that day was forty-nine 
 killed, thirty-four wounded and five missing. That 
 of the English was two hundred and seventy-three 
 killed, wounded and missing. 
 
 The talk of Edward Everett Hale at this an- 
 niversary of the battle was exceedingly interest- 
 ing. It was particularly directed to the school 
 children who were present in great numbers. As 
 a specimen of the manner in which the people of 
 New England, and especially Boston, have pre- 
 served in both tradition and print the minute his- 
 tory of every event in their lives, it was fine. This, 
 in contrast with Pennsylvania and Virginia, for 
 instance, is what has given Boston its primacy in 
 the early history of the country. It is the litera- 
 ture of New England that gives distinction and 
 historical perspective to its people far in excess of 
 other parts of the union. 
 
 Doctor Hale told of the important events in 
 the battle of Lexington with which he seemed 
 perfectly familiar, and then impressed on the 
 minds of the children that to them was intrusted 
 the task of further investigation and the handing 
 down to future generations those traditions yet 
 uncrystallized in print. A few of his peculiar 
 statements show how colored may become some 
 historical facts by repetition even in the imagi- 
 nation of so learned a doctor. He said that when 
 Lord Percy's main body of troops had crossed the 
 
BATTLE OF LEXINGTON 169 
 
 neck toward Lexington it was followed by the 
 baggage train. A colored man, seeing that this 
 train was unguarded, rallied some patriots and 
 captured it. "Now," said he, "I want to impress 
 on your minds that this was done by a colored 
 man." It was not the habit of the negro to per- 
 form military feats and especially so complex and 
 daring one as this ; that race is noted for its want 
 of martial spirit. When a history of the siege of 
 Boston was examined with reference to this cap- 
 ture, the hero of it turned out to be a half blood 
 Indian. This made the story more probable, for 
 both the white and the Indian races are beligerent 
 in temperament. Doctor Hale further remarked 
 that it was well known just where on Boston com- 
 mon Lord Percy's troops were camped and that 
 any one could at that time distinguish the place 
 of the camp, by the difference in the color of 
 the grass where the tents were pitched, from the 
 contiguous grass. This statement seemed very 
 far fetched after one hundred and fourteen years. 
 At least these companions could discover no such 
 distinction in the grass on Boston common. It 
 takes the artistic New England eye to determine 
 such shades of difference. 
 
 Doctor Kale's remarks were followed by those 
 of an aged gentleman named Brown, who said his 
 father stood in the line under Captain Parker on 
 Lexington common. His father had often talked 
 to him about the battle, and claimed to have fired 
 
170 RANCHLIPE 
 
 the last shot at the time of the retreat of the min- 
 ute men. This was very interesting. It brought 
 the reality of the battle more nearly to mind than 
 anything else heard or seen. That the son of one 
 of the participants should live to tell such a fact 
 a hundred and fourteen years after this battle, 
 was a remarkable instance that time is not a line 
 stretching indefinitely into the past, but merely 
 our consciousness of changes in phenomena. In 
 this instance, the term, "one hundred and four- 
 teen years," means a battle for human rights, a 
 soldier in that battle and his son relating to an 
 audience on the site of the battle, the pride that 
 swelled his heart because he was one link in that 
 chain of moving phenomena. The current concep- 
 tion of time is thus annihilated. 
 
 So far, mere events of the beginning of new 
 era in the world's political sociology have been 
 recited. This battle was the beginning of an age 
 of transition from monarchy and oppression to 
 freedom for the common people. As usual in all 
 such struggles a large number of Americans 
 argued with much plausibility for compromise 
 with King George III and many of them, called 
 Tories, remained loyal to England. At the be- 
 ginning of our Civil War, similar efforts to com- 
 promise were made. A compromise with the Con- 
 federates was at one time impending, by which 
 slavery would have been continued. Fortunately, 
 however, all efforts of that kind, both in the Rev- 
 
BATTLE OF LEXINGTON 171 
 
 olution and in the Civil War failed. Franklin had 
 been sent to London as a diplomat to try to settle 
 the points at issue between England and the Colo- 
 nies. He was the agent of Pennsylvania, Massa- 
 chusetts, New Jersey and Georgia. Fortunately 
 he was very wise and would not compromise prin- 
 ciple. Lord Chatham was our friend, but he was 
 not in the cabinet. How could so enlightened a 
 statesman become the minister to King George 
 III? of whom Buckle says, "Without knowledge, 
 without taste, without even a glimpse of one of 
 the sciences, or a feeling for one of the fine arts ; 
 education had done nothing to enlarge a mind 
 which nature had more than unusually contract- 
 ed.'* So devoid was he of moral sense that he per- 
 sonally encouraged the slave trade with the col- 
 onies. This was the grandfather of so humane 
 and enlightened a queen as Victoria. Chatham, 
 however, would not concede but what the king had 
 the legal right to hold his troops in the colonies. 
 But Franklin declared to him, "No accommoda- 
 tion can properly be entered into by the Ameri- 
 cans while the bayonet is at their breasts. To 
 have an agreement binding, all force must be 
 withdrawn." Chatham, after the act to regulate 
 Massachusetts had passed the house of commons, 
 addressed the house of Lords against the measure, 
 and in our behalf, in the finest logic and rhetoric. 
 After conducting Franklin to a conspicuous seat in 
 view of the whole house, with prophetic zeal he 
 
172 RANCHLIFE 
 
 said, "The first drop of blood shed in civil and un- 
 natural war will make a wound that years, per- 
 haps ages, may not heal." 
 
 We now know, one hundred and thirty-four 
 years after the first blood at Lexington, that this 
 prophecy is true. The house of Lords voted down 
 Lord Chatham's plan by a large majority, and 
 passed the act as it came from the other house. It 
 was well for America that it did so. It was bet- 
 ter, infinitely better, for the people to fight out 
 their complete independence, than to compromise 
 upon remaining a colony in subjection to a foreign 
 power, especially one whose only object was to ex- 
 ploit the colony for England's pecuniary benefit. 
 The sacrifice in that struggle was large and de- 
 plorable; but such questions, thus far in the 
 world's evolution, cannot be settled right without 
 war. An international peace conference is still a 
 future hope. A compromise would simply have 
 postponed the struggle to a later and perhaps 
 more hopeless date. 
 
 There has been an ocean of sentiment ex- 
 pressed upon this battle. George Bancroft in his 
 history of the United States, says, referring to the 
 slain minute men on Lexington common: "These 
 are the village heroes, who were more than of 
 noble blood, proving by their spirit that they were 
 of a race divine. 
 
 "* * * The light that led them on was com- 
 bined of rays from the whole history of the race. 
 
BATTLE OF LEXINGTON 173 
 
 * * * from the heroes and sages of republican 
 Greece and Rome ; * * * from the customs of 
 the Germans transmitted out of the forests to the 
 councils of Saxon England; from the burning 
 faith and courage of Martin Luther; * * 
 from the avenging fierceness of the Puritans, who 
 dashed the mitre on the ruins of the throne ; from 
 the bold dissent and creative self-assertion of the 
 earliest emigrants to Massachusetts; * * * 
 from the cloud of witnesses of all ages, to the real- 
 ity and rightfulness of human freedom." 
 
 The immediate cause of the battle of Lexing- 
 ton has already been referred to. What of its re- 
 mote cause and its astounding effect? Its cause 
 might really be traced back scientifically to the 
 very beginning of things in the nebulae from 
 which our solar system has evolved. For the 
 primal principle of the matter of that nebula was 
 condensation in such method as to finally produce 
 the harmony of that system as we now see it, in- 
 cluding life on the earth, and perhaps on the other 
 planets. That condensation, in the life of man- 
 kind, simply means the coming together of like 
 units, and the repulsion of unlike ones. It finally 
 means that the individuals who think alike come 
 together in a solid body, with a single purpose, as 
 the pilgrims of England did. Some of these fled 
 to Holland, and then on the Mayflower to the 
 shores of the new world. These pilgrims belonged 
 to the Roundheads and Puritans of England, who, 
 
174 RANCHLIPE 
 
 under Cromwell, resisted King Charles the First. 
 Those, who remained in England, experienced 
 their first battles for liberty at Naseby and Pres- 
 ton. The ancestors of these Puritans had fought 
 under Cromwell for the principle of the right of 
 taxation by the people only, a hundred years be- 
 fore ; it was natural for their descendants at Lex- 
 ington to do the same thing. It was just as 
 natural for George III and his adherents to oppose 
 this principle in America as it was for Charles I 
 and his adherents to oppose it in 1640. Crom- 
 well's war transferred the power of the king to 
 the parliament. But the revolution in this coun- 
 try begun at Lexington went a long step further 
 in abolishing entirely the power and the person 
 of the king and establishing the freedom of re- 
 ligion from state interference. 
 
 The rapidity with which the incoherency and 
 irresolution of the commencement at Lexington 
 strengthened into coherent purpose and broad- 
 ened ideas of what was possible and best, is as- 
 tonishing. The first ideas expressed after the 
 battle were, that the king would modify his de- 
 mands and withdraw the troops. But as the war 
 continued and spread, the very next year, separa- 
 tion was the object then aimed at, and the declar- 
 ation of such sentiment embodied in the great 
 heart cry of the common people everywhere "All 
 men are created equal." 
 
 The principle established by the whole his- 
 
BATTLE OF LEXINGTON 175 
 
 tory of the political struggle of the colonies from 
 1748 to the beginning of the War of the Revolution 
 is "that the colonies would not consent to unite 
 while that unity would place its concentrated ef- 
 fort under the arbitrary control of either the king 
 or parliament." They would unite for themselves, 
 but not for a power independent of themselves. 
 Even representation, if allowed, would have been 
 so feeble in parliament, that the compact English 
 members, with legislative aims so radically op- 
 posed to those of America, would still have given 
 the colonies, as it has been with Ireland, no real 
 relief. Nothing but independence could serve any 
 lasting good. As Mr. Lincoln said, in his famous 
 Gettysburg address, the struggle begun at Lexing- 
 ton "brought forth on this continent a new nation 
 conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposi- 
 tion that all men are equal." It has not only done 
 that, it has reacted on the old world in lightening 
 the burdens of the poor and lowly under mon- 
 archy. The revolution in France, by the common 
 people with the cry for bread, occurred only six 
 years after the close of ours. That commenced in 
 hate and revenge, in blood shed by the hands of 
 the insurgents; ours with the words of Captain 
 John Parker, "Don't fire the first shot." But the 
 French revolution, while failing at first, was a 
 blind and unconscious beginning which finally 
 culminated in a French republic which has come 
 to stay. Buckle gives our "Declaration of Inde- 
 
176 RANCH LIFE 
 
 pendence" followed by our successful struggle in 
 war as one of the proximate causes of the French 
 revolution. Everybody in France read our 
 Declaration of Independence, and the words pro- 
 duced great impressions on the brains of the 
 French people, who at that time had become great- 
 ly enlightened in physical science. All the com- 
 mon people of Europe are now in unrest and re- 
 sistence. They are gradually learning the ab- 
 surdity of being ruled by irresponsible kings. The 
 sun of liberty that shed its morning rays upon 
 Lexington is rising in Europe's horizon, and will 
 carry to the aroused hearts and intellects of its 
 people the words of our Declaration as an eternal 
 principle of human society, "All men are created 
 equal." Even Turkey and Persia are getting into 
 the line of constitutional government. The Em- 
 peror William Second has been disciplined by the 
 Reichstag. The remote causes of all these move- 
 ments could be traced parallel with the intellectual . 
 advances of the common people, especially in the 
 broadening power of the knowledge of physical 
 laws, particularly of biology and psychology. For 
 when men come to see that all men are alike in 
 natural origin and are subject to the same natural 
 infirmities then mere decorations of ribands, 
 tinselry and coats of arms will not deter them 
 from transforming such ideas into physical force. 
 While such great effects followed from our 
 Revolutionary War let us recognize its concrete 
 
BATTLE OF LEXINGTON 177 
 
 limitations. We are freed from the rule of an ar- 
 bitrary king across the ocean, and an arrogant 
 British parliament. We were left to form for our 
 selves a government according to our own ideas. 
 We did so, and have grown into a republic large in 
 territory, numbers and wealth. But it has not 
 brought the millenium. Men were not all made 
 moral and altruistic by it. The banishment of 
 Roger Williams, the awful practice of witchcraft 
 prior to the war of the Revolution, make us agree 
 with Phillip Brooks, who was "glad that the Puri- 
 tans lived in the days of yore, and equally glad 
 that they do not live now." But evils of the same 
 kind exist now in our republic and some of them 
 are caused by the necessity that existed at the 
 formation of our national constitution to form 
 some compromises. These compromises brought 
 on the Civil war and also the inequality in the 
 proper distribution of industrial wealth. But the 
 people have advanced in their ideas of govern- 
 ment steadily since 1789, and when the time shall 
 arrive that our legislative enactments and the pro- 
 ceedings of our courts shall no longer be copied 
 from those of England, a more perfect equality 
 of the people will gradually result. 
 
VIRGINIA AND MASSACHUSETTS 
 
 Delivered before the Southern Colorado Pio- 
 neer Association ; to the Pueblo Post G. A. R. and 
 other audiences, including the Soldiers Home, at 
 Monte Vista, Colorado. 
 
 The present-day civilized human being has a 
 periodical longing for change of place. He will 
 undergo the most disagreeable discomforts in 
 order to gratify a desire for what has now evolved 
 into an annual outing. When this fever seizes 
 one he will turn his back upon all home comforts, 
 however luxurious, such as beautiful rooms, a 
 library full of interesting books, a table loaded 
 with the most appetizing viands, served just as 
 the taste craves; upon leisure and privacy; the 
 society of life long friends; in short, upon all the 
 accumulations of a life time, which go to make his 
 life ideal; and for what? Just for a change. In 
 order to accomplish the desired change, he rides 
 upon a railroad train for three or four days, in 
 a hot, close, dusty car, filled with people, who are 
 utter strangers, with whom he does not care to 
 mingle ; sleeps in a narrow, stuffy couch, in which 
 a hundred others may have slept, in the same 
 
VIRGINIA 179 
 
 blankets; eats his meals in a dining car, of food 
 that he cannot digest, runs the risk of a train 
 wreck; and finally lands at an unseasonable hour 
 at his destination, tired, often half sick, to take 
 any room he can get at a hotel; which room may 
 be some better than the close quarters of a sleep- 
 ing car; but whose meals are largely repetitions 
 of those of a dining car. He does all this in order 
 to get away from the dull routine of business, 
 and the too oft repeated familiar objects at home. 
 But the motion of the train, and the flow of new 
 scenery, framed in the car window, as it flies 
 across the continent, at the rate of forty or fifty 
 miles an hour, is a welcome diversion from the 
 monotony of the few blocks of dull street, that 
 separate his residence from his business, at home. 
 But when he arrives at his destination, he breathes 
 a new atmosphere, filled perhaps with the salt of 
 the ocean, which has saturated the air by evapora- 
 tion from wide expanse of waters; which also 
 fascinates his vision with an unbounded ex- 
 panse of the sea. Although he has left at home 
 purer air, bluer, and more infinite skies, 
 brighter sunshine, the grandeur of the Rocky 
 Mountains, and the finer comforts of a home, 
 and troops of friends, he still enjoys what 
 otherwise would be the inferior attractions of his 
 sought-for environment, because it is a change. 
 What is the fundamental and scientific reason of 
 this anomaly? Why does man desire to leave the 
 
180 RANCH LIFE 
 
 location of the better immediate environment for 
 the inferior attractions of some far away, and 
 strange surroundings? It is because of the pe- 
 culiar formation of his brain and nervous system. 
 His life and health depend entirely upon the man- 
 ner his nervous system responds to his environ- 
 ment. Sensations are converted into thought and 
 psychical effects by the matter of the nerves them- 
 selves, in forming upon the cortex of the brain 
 the images of the objects making the sensations. 
 These nerves become tired, like the muscles of the 
 body, by the activity and consequent exhaustion of 
 molecular motion. The molecules become exhaust- 
 ed by reason of their great energy; they decay, 
 are carried away by the venous flow of blood, and 
 are being constantly renewed by the inflow of 
 arterial blood. Now, it is discovered, that if the 
 same sensations are repeated too often, the nerve 
 molecules cease to construct true images of ob- 
 jectivity or, at least, respond very feebly. The re- 
 sult is lassitude of the body, and a corresponding 
 enfeeblement of the psychical apparatus, whose 
 activities supply the effects which we are in the 
 habit of calling the mind. When such conditions 
 occur, they are the elements which constitute the 
 desire for a change of sensations by transferring 
 the body to new environment. The more radical 
 the change the quicker and more vivid is the re- 
 sponse of the molecular, or rather the metabolic 
 recovery, of the nervous system. This is the 
 
VIRGINIA 181 
 
 psychology of an annual outing. And this is the 
 true reason why with all its inconveniences a trip 
 from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic coast is 
 beneficial to the physical and mental being. 
 
 In planning such a trip, in the month of April 
 it is desirable to strike the coast at a point where 
 the temperature is neither too hot nor too cold, 
 and then to proceed north, as the season advances, 
 in a way, to enjoy about the same mildness. In 
 examining the map it seemed that Norfolk, Va., 
 offered such conditions, and such proved to be the 
 case. It is a beautiful city of 67,000 inhabitants, 
 the second largest in the state, and the first in 
 commerce, but not in manufacturing and trade. 
 It is located, not directly upon the shore of the At- 
 lantic Ocean, but upon an inlet, which opens out 
 into a very much larger body of water, called 
 Hampton Roads. This latter is the submerged 
 mouth of the James river, and is twelve miles 
 wide from Newport News to Norfolk. It is con- 
 tinuous with Chesapeake bay on the east of it, 
 which at that point is really the ocean. Histori- 
 cally, Norfolk, and vicinity, are most ancient and 
 interesting. Here, at Cape Henry, twenty miles 
 east of Norfolk, the point of land on the south 
 side of the junction of Chesapeake bay and Hamp- 
 ton Roads, in April, 1607, the English colony, of 
 which Captain John Smith was a member, first 
 landed. After some lingering about the adjacent 
 waters, one location of which was called by them 
 
182 RANCHLIFE 
 
 Point Comfort, they soon afterwards proceeded 
 up the James River, and located on James Island, 
 calling their village Jamestown. The names were 
 given because the King of England at that time 
 was James I, who claimed ownership of all the 
 land. In fact, nearly all the names in that region 
 of places, counties, towns and cities are those of 
 the royal family then reigning, or dictated by it. 
 The repetition in the English Colonies of America, 
 of names already used for other places was de- 
 cidedly unfortunate. The western states did not 
 generally make that mistake. The original names 
 of Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota 
 are so much better than New York and New Jer- 
 sey. The first river flowing nearly parallel with 
 the James, on the north, is the York. The two riv- 
 ers form a peninsula, which at Williamsburg is 
 only a few miles wide. On the York river is lo- 
 cated the village of Yorktown where Cornwallis 
 surrendered to General Washington in 1781. Still 
 further north runs the Rappahannock river, 
 where Fredericksburg is located. Up the James 
 river about ninety miles from Norfolk stands 
 Richmond, the capital of Virginia, with one 
 hundred and twenty-five thousand inhabitants. 
 Its most notable history covers its existence 
 as the capital of the Southern Confederacy. 
 On the north side of Hampton Roads lie Old Point 
 Comfort and Fortress Monroe of great import- 
 ance in the army and naval history of this coun- 
 
VIRGINIA 183 
 
 try. Close by Old Point is the Hampton Colored 
 School doing such an important work in the in- 
 dustrial education of negro youths. It was here 
 that Booker Washington was graduated. Twenty 
 miles south of Norfolk are the Dismal Swamp and 
 Drummond Lake, objects of much poetry and 
 local superstition. 
 
 From these facts it will be seen how exceed- 
 ingly interesting it is for a tourist to spend a 
 month in the city of Norfolk taking excursions to 
 the various accessible points of historical import- 
 ance. The United States maintains a Navy Yard 
 at Portsmouth, just across the harbor of Norfolk. 
 Three battle ships anchored there attracted much 
 attention. Nearly half of the population of Nor- 
 folk is negro, making a study of that race easy and 
 interesting. These negroes appeared to be the re- 
 liable laborers in the commerce and industries of 
 the region. Many of that race have become the 
 owners of farms on the peninsula, and while those 
 which fell under observation were not very pro- 
 ductive, being the old worn out soil of slave times, 
 yet the sense of possession, by right of purchase, 
 gives their owners great satisfaction, and inde- 
 pendence, and a living, without being subject to 
 the beck and call of an employer. The negroes 
 both in the city and country appeared to be con- 
 tented and happy, living their lives quietly, with 
 no unusual demonstration, except in the imagina- 
 tion of some of the more fastidious whites. They 
 
184 RANCHLIPE 
 
 were apparently the most valuable labor asset of 
 that region, as they undoubtedly are of the whole 
 South. Considering their late origin in darkest 
 Africa, and that less than fifty years ago they 
 were, as a race here, in hopeless slavery, wherein, 
 it was a crime to teach them to read, and without 
 any lawful right to accumulate property; their 
 present status, as to good common sense, educa- 
 tion, and wealth, is a marvelous advancement. 
 More development of brain will come to them, as 
 they are thrown more and more upon their own 
 efforts, in their hard struggle for existence. The 
 added power which will come to them, as the 
 Hampton and Tuskegee type of schools is multi- 
 plied, will greatly enlarge their opportunities for 
 a more scientific industrialism. In time, on ac- 
 count of this development, no one will think of 
 denying them, by law, the right of the voting fran- 
 chise. 
 
 Williamsburgh is a very old town. It was the 
 first capital of Virginia. The original settlers at 
 Jamestown, finding their first location an un- 
 healthy one, finally removed to this point. It 
 was here that Patrick Henry raised his eloquent 
 voice for freedom from English tyranny. William 
 Wirt was once a resident. Here is located William 
 and Mary college, established in 1693, from which 
 so many of the early patriots were graduated. 
 Thomas Jefferson became a student here in 1760 
 and after graduating practiced law in Williams- 
 
VIRGINIA 186 
 
 burgh. It is said that at first the officers and 
 teachers of the college were sent by royalty from 
 England and they were expected to make Episco- 
 palians of the Indians ; the whites generally being 
 already of that faith. But Dr. Small, the presi- 
 dent in 1760 was quasi-skeptic and certainly 
 Thomas Jefferson was far from orthodox. At the 
 close of a long life of most eminent usefulness 
 Jefferson considered it his most important work 
 that he was the author of the Virginia law giving 
 the people religious freedom. That college still 
 flourishes as a school, though compared with Har- 
 vard, its contemporary, which was established in 
 1636, it is very small. Why is it not as great as 
 Harvard and why is the population around the 
 mgnificent harbors of Hampton Roads not greater 
 than around the lesser waters of New York Har- 
 bor? The climate is more equable, and every 
 feature seems more propitious than those of New 
 England or New York. The only answer possi- 
 ble is, that the inherited reactionary spirit of 
 slavery still hangs like a funeral pall upon that 
 beautiful region. People both native and foreign 
 who are seeking a change of residence will not go 
 into the social atmosphere of reaction and exclu- 
 sion. 
 
 From Williamsburgh to Yorktown is a delight- 
 ful drive of twelve miles along primitive dirt 
 roads, bordered by a profusion of fragrant honey 
 suckle and the finest natural growth of beautiful 
 
186 RANCH LIFE 
 
 woods. Within a short distance of Williamsburgh 
 the Confederate works thrown up by Magruder in 
 1862 are plainly visible, as are similar works at 
 Yorktown, where McClellan's army halted for 
 several days, Magruder's inferior Confederate 
 forces, at the beginning of the Peninsula cam- 
 paign holding the line in front of the Union army. 
 Washington's little army approached Yorktown in 
 1781 by way of Williamsburgh in his march 
 against Cornwallis and a place on the road where 
 Washington's army rested and lunched, was 
 pointed out. A very beautiful monument has 
 been erected at Yorktown, by the general govern- 
 ment, in commemoration of Cornwallis' surrender. 
 In a recent paper upon "Washington and Caval- 
 ry/' by Charles Francis Adams, the following 
 words are used: "The Yorktown campaign of 
 1781 was the one real success to be set down to 
 Washington's military account. Boldly, as well 
 as brilliantly conceived, and in detail planned, it 
 was carried out with prescience, judgment, skill 
 and energy, and crowned by complete success. A 
 fine design strategically, too much praise cannot 
 be awarded to its execution." 
 
 At Yorktown the interesting old mansion of 
 General Nelson, a signer of the Declaration of 
 Independence and the governor of Virginia in 
 1781, was visited. He devoted his fortune to the 
 continental struggle, and at the siege of Yorktown 
 trained an American gun upon his own dwelling, 
 
VIRGINIA 187 
 
 when it was occcupied as headquarters by Corn- 
 wallis. 
 
 The distance from Williamsburgh to Freder- 
 icksburg is not very great, and on arriving here 
 the tourist will see still existing evidences of the 
 struggles which occurred between the opposing 
 forces during the Civil War. McDowell's Army 
 of the Rappahannock came from Washington, D. 
 C., in April, 1862, and occupied this place. It was 
 the first corps of the Army of the Potomac. Mc- 
 Clellan with the rest of the Army of the Potomac 
 was then on the Peninsula, having landed near 
 Yorktown, while McDowell's forces were sup- 
 posed to be a distant reserve and support to him, 
 and, at the same time, a defense to Washington, 
 D. C. What a delightful contrast the appearance 
 of Fredericksburg presents now, compared with 
 that of 1862. The desolation that existed here in 
 April, 1862, is practically indescribable, and the 
 peaceful, prosperous, commercial, and industrial 
 condition now existing is in very delightful con- 
 trast to what it was then. This contrast should 
 be a lesson among a thousand others that war 
 should occur only as a last resort; and then only 
 for the purpose of saving honor, or life. A short 
 walk brought the tourist to the wall at the foot of 
 Mary's Hill, where occurred such a slaughter of 
 Burnside's forces on the 13th of December, 1862, 
 in the great battle of Fredericksburg. The Con- 
 federate trenches are still visible. As the tourist 
 
188 RANCHLIFE 
 
 walks along these, on a peaceful sunny afternoon 
 and sees only the quiet and prosperous city lying 
 stretched on the plain below, he asks himself 
 "why is it so quiet and peaceful now, and in 1862 
 so menacing and horrible?" The answer is, be- 
 cause "man's inhumanity to man/' in the form of 
 human slavery, in this nation, has ceased. 
 
 At both Norfolk and Williamsburgh meetings 
 were witnessed of the surviving Confederate sold- 
 iers in their war time uniforms, and carrying 
 their old flags. These flags were very numerous, 
 in their decoration of soldiers' graves, on their 
 memorial day. Their orators habitually eulogize, 
 on such occasions, not only their achievements in 
 battle, which is proper, but the principle for which 
 they fought. Yet, on other occasions, they declare 
 their devotion to the Nation's flag, and the present 
 Union. It is undoubtedly this duplicity, together 
 with their hostile attitude towards the rights of 
 the black race, which is so unattractive to the im- 
 migrant, and which turns "westward the star of 
 empire," which otherwise, would turn southward. 
 Foreign immigrants cannot understand state 
 rights. They know only the national government, 
 and refuse to settle among a people, who are con- 
 stantly agitating such abtruse political questions, 
 and inserting in their laws the word "white." 
 
 Legally, of course, Virginia is as free a state 
 as Massachusetts or any of the northern states, 
 but the blight of the former condition is still ap- 
 
 
VIRGINIA 189 
 
 parent in the character and spirit of the people. 
 The old ideas of the 18th and first half of the 19th 
 century pervade the native whites. They have no 
 scientific or philosophic plan of dealing with civic 
 life. They are reactionaries and standpatters. 
 How long it will be before this spirit will die out 
 in the southern states it is hard to tell. It cer- 
 tainly will take many generations. Common 
 schools and country newspapers will have to be 
 greatly increased in number. The negroes them- 
 selves will eventually accomplish this, as they will 
 sometime own most of the property and the cap- 
 ital, not acquired by northern immigrants. 
 
 There is not the least doubt but that with 
 proper industrial education the efficiency of the 
 negro as a producer could be increased many fold. 
 It is singular that the southern whites do not see 
 the immense advantage to the south this process 
 would bring to them. But, with the example of 
 the Hampton School directly before them, they de- 
 clare that the negro should not be educated. They 
 strongly oppose woman and negro suffrage the 
 women themselves do. They oppose any measure 
 to elevate the negro, and frown upon any effort 
 to lift woman out of that peculiar mode of thought 
 generated by slavery and rebellion. The public 
 school system in the south is very crude, compared 
 with that of the north. Booker Washington says : 
 "Taking the southern states as a whole, about 
 $10.23 per capita is spent in educating the average 
 
190 RANCH LIFE 
 
 white boy or girl, and the sum of $2.82 per capita, 
 in educating the average black child." In Colo- 
 rado there is spent $49.26 per capita of average 
 attendance and $7.02 per capita of total popula- 
 tion and, of course, this is not far from the aver- 
 age in the whole northern states; while the same 
 items in Mississippi are $10.43 and $1.49. Their 
 cities do not grow until northern business men go 
 down, and show them how to beautify and enlarge. 
 There would be little real manufacturing in the 
 south, except for the advent of capitalists and me- 
 chanics from outside localities, where slavery has 
 never existed. They learned nothing from the 
 war, except to patiently submit to being unwilling 
 members of the Union. It is frequently said that 
 some of the old Confederate soldiers are glad that 
 they were defeated and that slavery was abol- 
 ished. But, it appears as if nearly all of them 
 regret their defeat and would today re-establish 
 slavery, if it were legal to do so. They venerate 
 the Confederate flag, publish Confederate news- 
 papers, and rear monuments to such wretches as 
 Wirz and others. They were not satisfied to place 
 the statue of Lee in the capitol at Washington, in 
 the dress of a citizen of the requblic, but in that 
 of a Confederate soldier. They teach their chil- 
 dren in the schools that the principles fought for 
 in the Civil War by them were eternally right, not 
 that slavery in itself was right, but that the war 
 was waged by them to preserve state rights 
 
VIRGINIA 191 
 
 against federal encroachment. They justify slav- 
 ery on the ground that the northern states also 
 held slaves at one time, and only abolished that 
 institution because it was unprofitable. In Vir- 
 ginia they say now that Massachusetts sold their 
 slaves to the south and then made war upon the 
 south to free them. Very few slaves were ever 
 held in Massachusetts. Slavery died out there 
 long before the Revolutionary War, because the 
 general sentiment of the people was strongly 
 against it. To hold the Civil War contingent of 
 that state as consciously fighting in Virginia, in 
 the Civil War, to free the slaves, sold by their 
 forefathers a hundred years before, requires a 
 most wonderful stretch of imagination. But when 
 Lee as a soldier of the Union Army, in 1860, 
 wrote letters condemning secession in strong 
 terms, and then in 1861 deserted the Union to aid 
 secession, there is a short and conscious connec- 
 tion between the profession and the performance. 
 Bancroft, in his history of the United States, 
 says, that the first expedition of an English colony 
 to Virginia, that of Jamestown, consisted of one 
 hundred and five persons. Of these considerably 
 more than half were so-called gentlemen, entirely 
 incapable of doing the hard labor of house build- 
 ing, or cultivating the soil. He says "of the one 
 hundred and five, on the list of emigrants, there 
 were but twelve laborers and a very few mechan- 
 ics." There were forty-eight gentlemen to four car- 
 
192 RANCH LIFE 
 
 penters, and no men with families. Contrast 
 this with the Pilgrim Colony, which came on 
 the ship Mayflower, without royal charter, 
 followed by the ill will and frowns of King 
 James I. It consisted of one hundred and two per- 
 sons. Only forty-one of these were men, the rest 
 women and children, the families of the forty- 
 one men. They came thirteen years after the 
 first colony of Jamestown. There was not in 
 the English sense, a gentleman among them. They 
 landed on a bleak and barren coast, five hundred 
 miles north of the Jamestown colony. Each man 
 built his own house, and here democratic liberty 
 and independent Christian worship started into 
 being." Here also Thanksgiving Day originated 
 and has been perpetuated to the present. 
 
 Is it not plausible that the difference in the in- 
 stitutions and character of the men of New Eng- 
 land and those of Virginia, which developed and 
 widened, as the years passed and which finally 
 culminated in the Civil War, should be simply a 
 difference in the character and temperament of 
 the two original colonies, and of the subsequent 
 immigrants, attracted by these peculiar features 
 to the two regions. After the beheading of Charles 
 I, in 1649, and Cromwell's accession to the ruler- 
 ship of England, cavaliers in large numbers emi- 
 grated from England to Virginia. Being adher- 
 ents of royalty and the state church they could not 
 come to New England, where they would have 
 
VIRGINIA 193 
 
 been unwelcome and with whose puritan life they 
 could not coalesce. But they settled among their 
 co-believers in church and state in Virginia, many 
 of them opening up large plantations. The de- 
 mand for African slaves immediately increased 
 and these were furnished by the Dutch slave trad- 
 ers. Such historic examples make it clear that the 
 subsequent character of the state was fixed by the 
 beliefs and practices of the original settlers in 
 both Massachusetts and Virginia. Virginia be- 
 came a tobacco producing state dependent on slave 
 labor, while New England developed ship build- 
 ing and manufacturing, requiring skilled labor, 
 which could be done by free white persons only. 
 A most striking illustration of the present differ- 
 ence between the two regions as shown in its men 
 is given by The National Tribune, a paper pub- 
 lished in Washington, D. C., as follows : 
 
 "It is found in this country that Massachusetts 
 leads in prominent men, and Connecticut is always 
 second, with the southern states far behind in the 
 production of noted men. For example, in Lip- 
 pincott's Biographical Dictionary for 1895, there 
 were three thousand two hundred and twenty- 
 seven names of native-born Americans. Of these 
 seven hundred and eleven were born in Massa- 
 chusetts and two hundred and thirty-one in Vir- 
 ginia. The men who received special adjectives 
 of praise were three hundred and twenty, of whom 
 ninety-five were born in Massachusetts and twen- 
 
194 RANCHLIFE 
 
 ty-three in Virginia. Those who received unusual 
 space were two hundred and thirty-four, of 
 whom sixty-seven were born in Massachusetts, 
 and only twenty in Virginia. Americans about 
 whom books have been written numbered one hun- 
 dred and twenty-nine, of whom thirty-nine were 
 born in Massachusetts and eighteen in Virginia. 
 Of bankers, merchants, lawyers, politicians, of- 
 ficials, engineers, manufacturers and soldiers there 
 were one thousand two hundred and sixty-six 
 men, of whom two hundred and thirty-five were 
 born in Massachusetts and one hundred and forty- 
 three in Virginia. 'Who's Who in America' has 
 fourteen thousand two hundred and twenty-seven 
 names, of which one thousand six hundred and 
 fifty were born in Massachusetts and four hundred 
 and ninety-three in Virginia. Of the thirteen Orig- 
 inal States Massachusetts has always produced 
 twice as many eminent men as Virginia. The ratio 
 also rises higher when only those who have re- 
 ceived adjectives of praise in their biographies are 
 considered. Nine-tenths of the names in the Dic- 
 tionary are mere dry statements of birth, career 
 and death. Of those who received adjectives of 
 praise, Massachusetts born has three and eight- 
 tenths per cent., while Virginia has only six- 
 tenths of one per cent." 
 
 Without having gone into the character of the 
 other colonies, which settled the original southern 
 states, there is little doubt that a similar compari- 
 
VIRGINIA 195 
 
 son could be made between them, and the first set- 
 tlers of the other northern states. It is the dif- 
 ference between the cavalier and the earnest com- 
 mon people. It is the difference in principle be- 
 tween feudalism and democracy. It is the dif- 
 ference between good and bad methods of view- 
 ing, and conducting, the social and governmental 
 affairs of life. 
 
 In strong contrast with the spirit of the peo- 
 ple of Virginia, it was delightful, after three 
 weeks delay at Washington, D. C. and Atlantic 
 City, N. J., to finally arrive in, and witness the 
 spirit of New England, where the stars and stripes 
 were always, and the only flag, in evidence; and 
 where the word "white" is not inserted in law, or 
 constitution. The laws of a people should be 
 made for all, whatever color. The soil of New 
 England has been in cultivation, about as long as 
 that of Virginia. But how different its appear- 
 ance! Where New England soil has ceased to be 
 productive it has been made fairly productive by 
 the application of fertilizers; or wealth, accumu- 
 lated in other pursuits, has converted it into beau- 
 tiful homes. Granite walls, some of them beauti- 
 ful, inclosing the lands, houses and parks, adorn 
 the land. Thrift and enterprise are everywhere 
 to be seen in that favored clime. There is a life, 
 and snappiness in the air of New England, which 
 one does not find further south, and the people 
 partake of these differences. The varied indus- 
 
196 RANCH LIFE 
 
 tries, from the making of a wood spool, to that 
 of building a steel ship, came by inheritance to 
 that people. Their forefathers trained their 
 hands, and brains in a variety of handicraft. Some 
 of the puritan blacksmiths made the most ex- 
 quisite silverware. Paul Revere was a silversmith, 
 Franklin, a printer, John Hancock, a merchant. 
 The farmers were also fishermen, or hotel keep- 
 ers; or turned their varied capacities to any in- 
 dustry that would be profitable. The pilgrims and 
 puritans thrived by the work of their own hands, 
 not by those of slaves. They lifted the granite 
 stones from most unpromising lands, with their 
 own hands; frequently built their houses and 
 fences of the stones, and made fortunes by work- 
 ing at profitable industries, without any aristo- 
 cratic dignity to maintain. Both New England 
 and Virginia have done much to preserve the land- 
 marks of early and Revolutionary times. The 
 woman's society for the preservation of these 
 landmarks in Virginia has done wonders at 
 Jamestown, Williamsburgh, Yorktown and Fred- 
 ericksburg. It is astonishing to see so much of 
 the ruins at Jamestown restored by these ladies. 
 These remains are three hundred years old. At 
 Fredericksburg, they have preserved the house, 
 once the home of Washington's mother, and built 
 to her, in the cemetery, a fine granite monument, 
 to replace an old one. 
 
 The patriotism of Virginia, and that of New 
 
VIRGINIA 197 
 
 England, in the years preceding the Revolution, 
 were contemporaneous, and equal in value. But 
 to Massachusetts fell the first conflict of arms at 
 Lexington. No people could have met the condi- 
 tions of 1775 better. Possessing nervous temper- 
 aments of the most inflammable kind, they waited 
 with wonderful patience, until the king's troops 
 fired the first shot in actual war at Lexington, at 
 early dawn on April 19th, 1775. Fortunately for 
 the result of that conflict, the British troops kept 
 together in compact form and did not throw out 
 skirmishers. The patriots, though armed, were 
 entirely without discipline and knew nothing of 
 regimentation. Adopting the only mode of war- 
 fare of which they had any knowledge, that is, 
 the Indian method, they beat back the British 
 forces, with great slaughter, in much the same 
 manner that Braddock's defeat was accomplished 
 in Pennsylvania by the Indians in 1755. 
 
 The history of the pioneer immigrants of New 
 England has always been fascinating. Their very 
 fanaticism was only an evolved function of their 
 earnest and sturdy manhood. They were not aris- 
 tocrats, nor descendants of these, but they were in- 
 telligent middle class people. They were always 
 willing to undergo any necessary suffering and 
 deprivation, in order to preserve their independ- 
 ence, and virile beliefs; and intermingled, with 
 their supernatural ideas, appeared in bold relief 
 always the homely and honest virtues of love of 
 
198 RANCHLIFE 
 
 freedom, unconquerable resistance to tyranny, un- 
 tiring industry, and thriftiness. So intense were 
 these admirable qualities that today, their de- 
 scendants, not only in New England, but through- 
 out the Nation, give a like tone to American so- 
 ciety. The spirit, manifested at Lexington, and 
 Bunker Hill, pervades the people wherever the de- 
 scendants of the pilgrims and puritans have mi- 
 grated. The ringing oratory of James Otis, and 
 Samuel Adams, in delineating the tyranny of 
 George III, and elucidating the rights of man, is 
 known to every reader of American history 
 throughout the land. It is a shining and perpetual 
 part of the history of our country. This is a 
 precious inheritance, worth more than the physi- 
 cal wealth of the nation. In and around Boston 
 the esteem in which these men, as well as the 
 memory of Franklin and Paul Revere, is held, is 
 shown in the numerous monuments, and tablets 
 erected to them. We must not let the emotion 
 of patriotism blind us to the fact however, that 
 Otis, Hancock, Samuel Adams, Franklin, Revere 
 and Washington, himself, were men of only 
 human traits. They were not saints, nor angels. 
 It is more than probable that those who were 
 closest to them, while living, saw little difference 
 between them and other men. Yet there was this 
 difference, not apparent to their contemporaries, 
 but very apparent to us, that they did a work so 
 remarkable, as to be carried down in history, as 
 
VIRGINIA 199 
 
 of basic value to the country, and which will 
 abide, in the uplift of mankind for all time ; (while 
 others of more strict moral character than some 
 of these patriots, are now forgotten). First of 
 all, they were lovers of freedom and fighters 
 against oppression. The route taken by Paul Re- 
 vere, in his midnight ride to alarm the settlers 
 at the approach of the British forces to Lexington 
 and Concord, is preserved by frequent tablets, 
 especially the spot where he was captured. In 
 fact all the occurrences from the massacre on 
 State Street, in March 1770, to the evacuation of 
 Boston by the red coats, in March 1776, are pre- 
 served most minutely. 
 
 In this six years of anxiety, fear, frequent ap- 
 peals to the better sense of the British parliament, 
 of conflict in arms against the large forces of a 
 great kingdom, by a handful of colonists, poor, un- 
 trained in warfare, they actually lost but few men, 
 although, at the evacuation, the English General 
 Howe had a trained and veteran army of about 
 8,000 men. The Declaration of Independence had 
 not yet been framed. But this defeat of royalty 
 by the middle classes of the people, in forcing the 
 British to evacuate Boston, left at least four of 
 the New England states free from future inva- 
 sion. This was accomplished by the yeoman of 
 New England, commanded after the battle of 
 Bunker Hill by Washington, who was a Virginian. 
 Thus New England and Virginia joined hands in 
 
200 RANCH LIFE 
 
 a common purpose. After Washington took com- 
 mand, during the siege of Boston, the loss to the 
 patriots was less than twenty. "The liberation of 
 New England cost altogether less than two hun- 
 dred lives in battle." Their descendants, in the late 
 Civil War, inherited the indomitable courage and 
 patriotism of their fathers. The record of losses 
 in New England regiments in the Civil War will 
 stand beside that of their ancestors in the Revo- 
 lution, as being more remarkable for its large 
 number, but not more praiseworthy and patriotic 
 than are the small number of losses in the earlier 
 conflicts at Boston and vicinity. 
 
OUR FLAG 
 
 Read before Pueblo Post Grand Army of the 
 Republic. 
 
 Ever since June 14th, 1777, the Stars and 
 Stripes have been the legal emblem of the inde- 
 pendence of this country. The law, making thir- 
 teen stripes alternate white and red, and thirteen 
 stars on a blue field the flag of the independent 
 United States, was enacted on that date. Before 
 the Declaration of Independence, the flag dis- 
 played the <f Cross of St. George" of England, more 
 or less modified. A historian says, "It is uncer- 
 tain what flag, if any was used by the Americans 
 at Bunker Hill." At one time the patriots used 
 the white flag, with a green pine tree called the 
 "Pine Tree Flag." 
 
 Commodore Esek Hopkins, when in command 
 of the American fleet prior to 1776 used a yellow 
 ensign, with the device of a rattlesnake in the at- 
 titude of striking, and the words, "Don't tread 
 on me" The snake on these flags generally bore 
 thirteen rattles ; and was sometimes coiled around 
 the trunk of the pine tree. But from the time of 
 the official act of 1777, the Stars and Stripes were 
 the ensign of the Revolutionary forces. 
 
 The war of 1812 was fought under a flag of 
 fifteen stripes and fifteen stars, emblematic of the 
 number of states then composing the Union. Soon 
 
202 RANCH LIFE 
 
 after this war, the original number of stripes was 
 restored; and the number of states represented, 
 as at first, by the number of stars, a new star to be 
 added each 4th of July, after the admission of a 
 new state. 
 
 So much for the history of our flag an ac- 
 count of which any of you can read in the en- 
 cyclopedia, a book which Humboldt once called 
 "The Ass's Bridge." Over this bridge many an 
 orator crosses to fame. 
 
 But this glorious emblem not only represents 
 the independence of our country; it speaks its 
 greatness also. The white stars on a blue field, 
 are the testimony of a growth. From thirteen 
 weak states the republic has grown to forty-eight 
 sturdy commonwealths, the provincial centers of 
 commercial, agricultural and manufacturing ac- 
 tivity. It might be interesting to conjecture what 
 astonishment and new-born pride Washington 
 would now express, could he view with his 
 placid blue eyes, again in the flesh, the present 
 greatness of this Union, increased from 3,000,000 
 inhabitants, scattered along the Atlantic sea coast, 
 to 98,000,000 stretching from ocean to ocean and 
 all bearing aloft the flag of his choice, with not a 
 star dimmed nor a stripe erased. 
 
 This flag also represents not only the greatness 
 of the country but its republican form of govern- 
 ment. The blue union surmounted by the white 
 stars is emblematic of our national motto, "Many 
 
OUR FLAG 203 
 
 in One." Although our country is made up of sev- 
 eral separate states, each of which has a star on 
 the flag, no state has a separate flag. This fact 
 adds dignity and power to the national ensign. 
 The same stars and stripes float from the state 
 house of every commonwealth; and from the 
 school house of every district in this broad land, 
 the eyes of the united American citizenship look 
 with patriotic affection to its bright and beauti- 
 ful folds, as the emblem of our only allegiance. 
 
 But above and over all, this flag of ours, bears 
 aloft the patriotism of the people, and the valor 
 of the Union arms. This particular form of cloth 
 and color was originally made the emblem of na- 
 tionality by act of congress. It has since been 
 made significant as such emblem, in the eyes of 
 the whole people of this broad land, because it 
 represents their valor and achievement. Under it 
 the armies of the republic have marched to tri- 
 umph in five wars. It inspired the feeble bat- 
 talions of Washington to deeds of heroic valor 
 against the armies of a mighty nation, the only 
 one whom the invincible Bonaparte feared. Who 
 can tell what aid the charm and spell of its pres- 
 ence gave to the war-like spirit of the Continental 
 troops, in winning what appeared at the time, a 
 hopeless victory. This emblem brings down to 
 us the living witness of their love of freedom, 
 their warlike spirit, their self-sacrificing patriot- 
 ism. 
 
204 RANCH LIFE 
 
 It waved over our victorious battleships in the 
 war of 1812. Twice only it has headed armies 
 of conquest. Scott landed a handful of troops, 
 planted it in 1847, in the Imperial City of Mexico. 
 The Philippine war against the natives, while a 
 natural result of a humanitarian war against 
 Spain, yet must be classed as one of conquest. In 
 the Civil War in which served two million citi- 
 zen soldiers our flag represented Union against 
 Disunion. Four of the states, represented in the 
 thirteen stripes, endeavored to dissolve the Union. 
 It puzzled them to find a fit emblem for disunion. 
 Governor Wise of Virginia wanted the rebels to 
 fight the battles of disintegration under the old 
 flag. But how could that be done, when its thir- 
 teen stripes meant union with the states against 
 whom they were at war. They were compelled to 
 adopt a strange, and therefore an unknown flag, 
 around which no memories of the past clung, and 
 to fire upon one, under which many of them had 
 achieved renown in Mexico and the Indian wars; 
 under which, their leaders had been educated at 
 West Point; under whose aegis, their homes had 
 been protected and their states grown to power. 
 These memories should have made it difficult for 
 them to fire at the old flag. Many of them did 
 feel this influence. They should have been thrilled 
 with emotions of patriotism and sentiment for 
 the Union when they saw themselves arrayed 
 against it in battle, but they are as silent as the 
 
OUR FLAG 205 
 
 grave today on this point. Let us hope that those 
 of them who are living today are glad that they 
 did not succeed in striking down "our flag" and 
 erecting in its place, in such feeble government as 
 they could have formed, either one of the four 
 flags, which at different times they successively 
 adopted, in their impossible efforts to find a fitting 
 emblem of so illogical a phenomenon. 
 
 Soldiers! This flag which so inspired you at 
 Antietam, Gettysburg, Vicksburg and Chicka- 
 mauga, means more to you than to those who 
 never stood in the deadly fire of battle. To others 
 it is an emblem of Peace, Plenty and Power. To 
 you it signifies all these and more. It is hallowed 
 to you by the blood of your fellow comrades, the 
 sacrifice and sufferings of two million volunteers, 
 who fought their misguided countrymen in its de- 
 fense. 
 
 With the memories of all the wars through 
 which it has so triumphantly waved, brightening 
 its colors, inspiring coming generations to never 
 let it be lowered in the cause of humanity, let us 
 hope that hereafter it may become an ensign of 
 Peace only. It may yet become the aegis of a 
 continent; under a larger interpretation of the 
 Monroe Doctrine; one that the world will acqui- 
 esce in, as international law. 
 
 Then it will, in truth become a 
 "Flag of the free heart's hope and home, 
 By Angel hands to valor given." 
 
LINCOLN-WASHINGTON CAMPFIRE 
 
 Read before Upton Post, Grand Army of the 
 Republic, Pueblo, Colo., February 21, 1901. 
 
 If a person totally ignorant of its contents had 
 a library to arrange he would most likely place the 
 books in their cases according to size and color. 
 This would satisfy his eye and also his intellect, 
 until he became acquainted with the subjects 
 treated in the volumes. Then his mind would be- 
 come restless and discontented with the first ar- 
 rangement. He would rearrange them on their 
 shelves according to their subjects. He would 
 make an intellectual classification according to in- 
 ternal not external features. This classification 
 would be along the lines of thought expressed by 
 the authors. He would then discover how much 
 more satisfying is this grouping of the volumes 
 according to the ideas expressed; not only to the 
 mind but to the eye; because whatever is intel- 
 lectual is at the same time physically gratifying. 
 
 It is the same with all classification. The 
 power properly to classify according to abiding 
 qualities is the very highest in the intellect of man. 
 Take the system of nature for an example. Lin- 
 naeus in the first half of the 18th century made a 
 classification of the animal and vegetable king- 
 
LINCOLN-WASHINGTON 207 
 
 doms, which was approved of by all intelligent 
 naturalists until the time of Cuvier in the 19th 
 century. Cuvier made a very much better one, be- 
 cause he based his classification, for the first time, 
 upon the homologies of internal structure. But 
 scientists are now, since the hypothesis of evolu- 
 tion is almost universally admitted, asking for a 
 better classification than Cuvier's and will some 
 day get it, based upon still deeper and more con- 
 stant uniformity of development throughout all 
 nature, organic and inorganic. 
 
 These observations will apply equally well to 
 the classification of men. Human organisms must 
 not be grouped according to size, nor place and 
 date of birth, nor according to the clothes they 
 wear that has been settled ever since Thomas 
 Carlyle wrote Sartor-Resartus ; but by the abiding 
 data of achievement; principally by what they do 
 for the real benefit of mankind. Those who origi- 
 nate new thoughts, and point out new ways for 
 men to evolve toward perfection are placed in the 
 highest class. 
 
 It is fortunate for the dual purpose of this 
 meeting that Washington and Lincoln were born 
 in the same month; but for the purpose of com- 
 paring them as men, that fact is of no importance. 
 The orators who will later address you will com- 
 pare the mental traits of these two historic char- 
 acters showing wherein, by their achievements, 
 they have exhibited great qualities in common, 
 
208 RANCH LIFE 
 
 and wherein, notwithstanding their physical and 
 mental likenesses, they also differ from each other. 
 
 It is not the intention to anticipate the 
 thoughts of either orator, yet at the close of their 
 orations it may be predicted that you will find 
 that these two most eminent of Americans will be 
 classified in your minds as alike in their fund of 
 common honesty, unbounded loyalty to duty, and 
 the wonderfully sagacious comprehension of those 
 functions of a government whose power is derived 
 from the consent of the governed. 
 
 By great personal endurance and mental pow- 
 er Washington achieved what Lincoln preserved, 
 viz. : "A government of the people, by the people, 
 and for the people." Washington's place, high 
 above all other men, had been fixed long before 
 Lincoln was born. When Lincoln first began to 
 attract the attention of the country, most men not 
 recognizing the precious jewel hidden beneath the 
 awkward and homely exterior, classified him by 
 his outward appearance. Even his own secretary 
 of war called him a gorilla. But ever since his 
 Gettysburg address and his second inaugural the 
 consensus of the most intellectual judgment of 
 mankind has been classifying him by his internal 
 mental qualities until today, he who was the 
 humblest of American boys stands upon the same 
 historical niche with the illustrious Father of our 
 Country, and for real original ability is the most 
 colossal figure in American history. 
 
PRESIDENT McKINLEY 
 
 Read at the Opera House meeting the Sunday 
 after his assassination. 
 
 There lies in state at Buffalo, N. Y., the body 
 of a man who, aside from the public positions he 
 held, would be entitled to the tribute the whole 
 world is now paying to his memory. This is true, 
 because he is a typical American citizen. 
 
 Wm. McKinley was born in comparative ob- 
 scurity in the middle west and grew to manhood 
 without the influence of wealth or position. But 
 he was endowed with a brain which compelled 
 him to meet the requirements of the time with 
 successful determination. By always doing the 
 duty next to him, he performed every task with 
 ease and eminent success. The conditions sur- 
 rounding him were no different from those facing 
 every boy of his age in the state of Ohio. His 
 success came as the years rolled by, in the unusual 
 way in which he met those conditions. It was 
 this power in him to wrest that elusive thing 
 called success from his environment, that makes 
 him now an object of so much devotion and dis- 
 tinguishes him from the thousands of his con- 
 
210 RANCH LIFE 
 
 temporaries who grew up in the same surround- 
 ings. 
 
 We are told that his real career began when at 
 the age of eighteen, in June, 1861, he enlisted as 
 a private in Company E, 23rd Ohio Infantry. 
 
 His service lasted four years from that date. 
 It was fourteen months before he received a com- 
 mission as second lieutenant. He always re- 
 ferred with great pride to the period he served 
 as an enlisted man. He successively became first 
 lieutenant at the age of twenty and captain at 
 twenty-one. Near the close of the war, he was 
 commissioned by that other martyr of the assass- 
 in's bullet, Abraham Lincoln, as major by brevet, 
 for gallant and meritorious services in battle. 
 
 His regiment served principally in West Vir- 
 ginia but it was also in the thick of the battles of 
 South Mountain and Antietam. This regiment, 
 in addition to its honorable record in the battles 
 of the war, was especially distinguished for the 
 number of men on its rolls who subsequently be- 
 came famous. General William S. Rosecrans was 
 its first colonel, Rutherford B. Hayes, a field of- 
 ficer, and among others Stanley Mathews, who 
 afterwards became one of the judges of the Su- 
 preme Court of the United States. It furnished 
 two presidents, Hayes and McKinley. Hayes was 
 much older than McKinley and after the war he 
 often spoke in public of the gallantry and efficien- 
 cy of the latter. But, bear in mind, he was not 
 

 PRESIDENT McKINLEY 211 
 
 only brave in battle, he performed every duty 
 with high, conscientious intelligence. Many were 
 brave in battle who were otherwise worthless. But 
 the one who, like McKinley, proved brave and 
 equally efficient in the performance of every other 
 duty and exhibited high intellect in doing it, was 
 rare. 
 
 The 23rd Ohio stands in history as one of the 
 noted three hundred fighting regiments. 
 
 By reason of his service in the Civil War, he 
 became a member of the Grand Army of the Re- 
 public and of the Military Order of the Loyal 
 Legion. He retained these memberships to the 
 day of his death. He always took special pride 
 in these military orders and treated his comrades 
 with special consideration. 
 
 But do not misunderstand this tribute to his 
 memory by his comrades of the Grand Army. 
 Great and urgent as the war of 1861 was, the 
 Grand Army does not desire to hold up to your 
 gaze any man's record in that, or any other war, 
 so as to obscure or shut out from your contempla- 
 tion the greater and more important period of his 
 civil life. The military is and always should be 
 subordinate to the civil. "Peace hath her vic- 
 tories, no less renowned than war." The normal 
 status of a republic, especially, is that of peaceful 
 industry of its entire people and he who exerts 
 his powers to maintain this most desirable condi- 
 
212 RANCH LIFE 
 
 tion is the one who should receive your highest 
 encomiums. 
 
 At the same time we do not forget that the 
 war of 1861 was not a normal but a civil war. 
 Those who enlisted in the Union volunteer army 
 were not soldiers in the technical sense of that 
 word. They were civilians who dropped for the 
 time being their industrial pursuits to ward off 
 a blow aimed at the integrity of the Union. When 
 that assailant was so disabled that he could not 
 repeat the attack he was forgiven and these civil- 
 ians who had organized themselves into com- 
 panies in uniform, after the manner of the regu- 
 lar army, the better to enable them to do the dis- 
 abling, picked up again their peaceful occupa- 
 tions as if nothing had happened. 
 
 So that McKinley's service in that war was 
 more a part of his career as a citizen of the re- 
 public than as a mere soldier. It may be called 
 an incident, a very important one, of course, of 
 his remarkable public life. You are more or less 
 familiar with the mere outlines of his public 
 career. A close inspection of them will give the 
 moralist and the philosopher ample material from 
 which to draw the fundamental laws of human 
 success. He was a model son, an ideal husband, 
 a tender and considerate friend. Perhaps no gov- 
 ernor of a state and no legislator in the halls of 
 congress brought to those high positions more con- 
 scientious devotion to duty nor a higher equip- 
 
PRESIDENT McKINLEY 213 
 
 ment for the intelligent performance of it. Few 
 legislators have succeeded in attaching their 
 names to a conspicuous statute such as the Mc- 
 Kinley tariff act. Only four presidents have car- 
 ried a war to a successful issue during their ad- 
 ministrations. These were Madison, Polk, Lin- 
 coln and McKinley. These are all the wars our 
 government has engaged in. Every one was won. 
 
 The Revolutionary War ended prior to the 
 formation of the Constitution. 
 
 We stand today, not only bowed with grief 
 but horror stricken at the dastardly manner of 
 President McKinley's death. The nation is 
 stunned and powerless for the moment, at the in- 
 ability of organized government to prevent the 
 assassination of its chief magistrate by the most 
 insignificant and contemptible of mankind. Mon- 
 archial governments have in vain enacted the most 
 stringent measures and marshalled the most ef- 
 ficient constabulary to provide against such ter- 
 rible contingencies. What, then, can a republican 
 government do? If there is any law that will 
 eliminate the disorderly element whose instinct is 
 to kill let us hasten to enact it. But in doing so 
 be as discriminating and conservative as William 
 McKinley would be were he alive. Do not involve 
 the innocent with the guilty, nor curtail the rights 
 of free speech. In a time when the emotions are 
 greatly aroused, the power of reason is largely in 
 abeyance and remedial or preventative measures 
 
214 RANCH LIFE 
 
 enacted at such times are apt to be repealed when 
 the excitement subsides and reason resumes her 
 sway. Prevention will come naturally in time 
 by the gradual development of the intellect, large- 
 ly by proper educational methods, which reach the 
 lower stratum of people. Anything else will 
 necessarily be spasmodic and more or less inef- 
 fectual. 
 
 Let us hope that this great calamity and the 
 ceremonies connected with it will serve to fur- 
 ther educate the world in two ways. 
 
 First To the orderly, organized and well dis- 
 posed, it will teach that republican government 
 has come to stay; that succession and perpetuity 
 are as certain here as in a monarchy, and more so. 
 If the present form of government is not disturbed 
 by it, it should end the frequent talk about a 
 stronger one. 
 
 Second To the disorderly element it should 
 teach, if it is possible to penetrate such dense 
 ignorance, that the bullet of the assassin kills only 
 the body of the victim but leaves his fame and 
 memory made all the brighter thereby, still a 
 precious example and heritage; that the govern- 
 ment is not in the least affected ; and that by such 
 methods they cannot accomplish a single essential 
 change in social conditions that would be of the 
 least benefit even to themselves. 
 
AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE 
 THE SOCIETY OF THE ARMY OF THE 
 CUMBERLAND AT CHATTANOOGA, 
 TENNESSEE, OCTOBER 16TH, 1907. 
 
 (REVISED) 
 
 THE FIELD OF OPERATIONS. 
 
 Like the "old, old stories" of love, the achieve- 
 ments of the Army of the Cumberland are ever 
 fresh and interesting to the participants. The 
 more the record is studied the more wonderful 
 becomes the history. The accounts of very few 
 campaigns made by single armies throughout the 
 world's war record, can compare with it. 
 
 General James A. Garfield, at the meeting in 
 Cleveland, Ohio, in 1870, delivered a splendid ora- 
 tion on the Life and Character of General George 
 H. Thomas, in which he so well describes the cen- 
 tral field of operation in the Civil War that it is 
 quoted here. "It is now easy to see that between 
 the northern and southern states there are three 
 great natural pathways of invasion; and to put 
 down the rebellion it was necessary that each of 
 these be traversed and held by a great army. The 
 first was the long and narrow slope from the chain 
 
216 RANCHLIFE 
 
 of the Allegheny and Cumberland mountains to 
 the Atlantic coast. The second was the western 
 slope from the same mountain chain to the Ohio, 
 the Tennessee, and Tombigbee rivers, and extend- 
 ing southward to the Gulf. The third was the 
 Mississippi river itself, and the immediate terri- 
 tory along its banks. 
 
 Peculiarities of topography and surroundings 
 required, for each of these lines, different modes 
 of supplying an army and of conducting cam- 
 paigns. The army of the east which operated on 
 the first line, was in a great part supplied from 
 the sea, and many of its operations were carried 
 on in connection with the navy. The army on the 
 third or western line was supplied from the 
 Mississippi river, and the gun boat service formed 
 a novel and important feature in its military op- 
 erations. 
 
 The Army of the Cumberland held the center 
 line, which was in many respects the most dif- 
 ficult of all. There could be but little naval co- 
 operation with its movements; and only for a 
 short distance could it be supplied by river trans- 
 portation. Its main supply was by a single line 
 of railroad, running hundreds of miles among a 
 hostile population, and requiring a heavy force 
 for its protection. The great central pathway led 
 into the heart of the rebellion. It crossed the only 
 line of railway (the Memphis & Charleston) 
 which united the eastern and western states of 
 
CHATTANOOGA ADDRESS 217 
 
 the Confederacy. Extraordinary obstacles lay in 
 the pathway of an army moving southward over 
 this central route. Besides the broad and deep 
 rivers which cross it, the great mountain chain 
 itself, bending sharply near the Georgia line, 
 sweeps westward until it loses itself in the low 
 sand hills and plains of Alabama and Mississippi, 
 thus presenting a most formidable barrier to an 
 army invading the Gulf states. 
 
 The great gateway of the mountain chain is 
 at Chattanooga, where the Tennessee river bursts 
 through the barrier." 
 
 Is that not a brilliant description of the field 
 of operations in which the Army of the Cumber- 
 land fought and maneuvered? Note the contrast 
 he draws between the difficulties of that field and 
 the lesser physical impediments in the lines of 
 operations of other armies in the Civil War. This 
 is, in itself, a fine, indirect tribute to the valor 
 and achievements of the Army of the Cumber- 
 land. 
 
 OUR COMMANDERS. 
 
 It was on this difficult line of advance that our 
 army, made up of the sturdy boys of the west, 
 were mobilized and commanded in succession by 
 Generals Robert Anderson, W. T. Sherman, D. C. 
 Buell, W. S. Rosecrans and at last by that peer- 
 less soldier, General George H. Thomas. Generals 
 
218 RANCH LIFE 
 
 Anderson and Sherman did not long continue in 
 command. 
 
 GENERAL GEORGE H. THOMAS. 
 
 Thomas commanded either a division or a 
 corps from the beginning, under Anderson, for a 
 very short time; with Rosecrans for a year; and 
 during the operations of Buell, lasting less than a 
 year, he headed a division, and part of the time, 
 was designated by the War Department as second 
 in command. In the battle of Perryville he held 
 this anomalous position. At Stone's River he 
 commanded the center, where, with some move- 
 ment of his forces, first to the front, and then 
 back to the original line, he formed the pivot, 
 when victory perched on the standards of General 
 Rosecrans. At Chickamauga the same western 
 troops, on the second day, formed a semi-circle, of 
 twenty-five thousand strong, around their leader, 
 General Thomas, and beat back with terrible 
 slaughter sixty thousand troops of the enemy. 
 These Union troops fell back from that field only 
 when they were ready to form a new line at Ross- 
 ville. This new line was not attacked. A south- 
 ern writer, speaking of this battle of Chicka- 
 mauga says : "A southern victory, by the gauge of 
 battle, it was in reality a northern victory by the 
 gauge of results. As a fight, the southerners won 
 it; as a battle it was a northern victory. For the 
 
CHATTANOOGA ADDRESS 219 
 
 victory belongs to the man who holds, who reaps 
 the ultimate fruit, and where was Bragg at the 
 wind-up? Instead of being in Chattanooga, his 
 enemy were there, master of the place, and later, 
 of the very field Bragg's troops had won." 
 
 Except a short service as colonel of the Sec- 
 ond Cavalry, in the valley of the Shenandoah, just 
 before and during the battle of the first Bull Run, 
 General Thomas' entire service, during the Civil 
 War, was with this army. While other command- 
 ers of the Army of the Cumberland remained with 
 us for fractional periods only, he organized the 
 nucleus brigade, and from that time remained a 
 general officer in the center field. Not only this, 
 but after the war he was made commander of 
 this department under re-construction. He was 
 the persistent, constructive force, personified. To 
 him, more than to any other, are we indebted for 
 what our society now represents. He gave us 
 victories as well as organization. 
 
 It is well remembered by many of you that 
 when the Fourteenth Army Corps arrived at 
 Washington, D. C., in May, 1865, by way of the 
 "March to the Sea" and the Carolina campaign, 
 General Thomas was there to meet and review us. 
 He had finished up the war in his department, by 
 the decisive battle of Nashville, and the cavalry 
 raid in Alabama, led by General James H. Wilson ; 
 and then, treating his first love, the old Fourteenth 
 Corps, as still officially attached to his command, 
 
220 RANCH LIFE 
 
 came to bid us farewell. In his final report, he 
 gives the official movements of this corps just as 
 if it were under his immediate command, although 
 he remained at Chattanooga, and it marched away 
 on that long campaign, under another army name. 
 
 General Thomas never did anything requiring 
 an apology, or suppression. He never omitted to 
 do with consummate ability the duty next to him. 
 Even when he seemed to be disobeying urgent or- 
 ders just before the battle of Nashville, those who 
 gave the orders, hastened after the battle to say 
 that General Thomas was right, and they were 
 wrong. 
 
 The history of the Civil War is challenged to 
 show tactics so effective, and on such a large scale, 
 in the midst of battle, as the disposition of the re- 
 maining forces at Chickamauga after the break 
 on the right. 
 
 At Missionary Ridge, with the threat of Gener- 
 al Grant ringing in his ears, he was absolutely cor- 
 rect in doing nothing ; while the Army of the Cum- 
 berland scaled the heights and won a victory for 
 their beloved commander, against the plans and 
 intentions of General Grant. He won victories 
 whether he was active, or passive. His army was 
 an automatic machine, because with Thomas in 
 command, it was so well adjusted and balanced, 
 that the men instinctively knew what the move- 
 ments should or would be whether orders were 
 orally given or not. This might be called telepa- 
 
CHATTANOOGA ADDRESS 221 
 
 thy, but it was rather the effect of long discipline 
 under command of one who made no mistakes. 
 
 THE OLD ARMY OF THE OHIO. 
 
 Down to and including the battle of Chicka- 
 mauga the old and original Army of the Ohio, 
 whose name was changed in October, 1862, to the 
 Army of the Cumberland, made its marches and 
 fought its battles on the field above described by 
 General Garfield without outside aid. The nucleus 
 of it was the brigade which General Thomas or- 
 ganized at camp Dick Robinson in 1861. That 
 brigade was made up of infantry regiments from 
 Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee. With 
 them, and other later additions, all formed into a 
 division, he fought the battle of Mill Springs a 
 great victory. The Confederate line extended from 
 Columbus, Kentucky, through Forts Henry, Don- 
 elson and the town of Bowling Green to Mill 
 Springs, all strongly fortified. Its right was 
 turned and defeated by General Thomas at Mill 
 Springs a month before Grant defeated the left at 
 Forts Henry and Donelson. 
 
 Although its permanent name, "The Army of 
 the Cumberland," was not given to it until after 
 the battle of Perryville, yet this army, as it 
 marched out of Louisville, on October 1st, 1862, 
 in pursuit of the Confederate forces under Gen- 
 erals Bragg and Kirby Smith, was essentially the 
 
222 RANCH LIFE 
 
 same organization, composed of the same state 
 troops, who made all its subsequent marches, and 
 fought all its battles, until it occupied Chatta- 
 nooga in September, 1863. These troops came 
 from the middle west the most of them from 
 what was originally the northwest territory, north 
 of the Ohio river. These were the states of Ohio, 
 Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minne- 
 sota. Kentucky contributed seventeen regiments 
 of infantry and cavalry, Missouri two, Kansas 
 one, and Pennsylvania three infantry and some 
 cavalry regiments; Tennessee furnished two cav- 
 alry regiments and some infantry. Thus it was 
 composed almost entirely of western troops. 
 
 THE PERSONNEL OF THE UNION 
 ARMIES. 
 
 The Union armies at the beginning of the Civil 
 War were made up of volunteers, who sought en- 
 listment, and who understood the object of their 
 service. This fact accounts for their unusual in- 
 telligence. They did not come from communities 
 where every man is enrolled in the army as soon 
 as he arrives at the age of manhood, and in time 
 of war, is sent to the front without his consent. 
 Every monarchy, in order to maintain itself, has 
 such a military establishment, whose service is 
 not of the soldier's choosing, nor within his 
 
CHATTANOOGA ADDRESS 223 
 
 knowledge, and for which he has no personal in- 
 terest. Our volunteer did not consider himself 
 separate and distinct from either his family or 
 civil affairs at home. He still remained a citizen. 
 Usually he had a farm, or business awaiting his 
 return. He wrote freely his thoughts from the 
 front to those he left behind, whether they were 
 in criticism or approval of the movements of the 
 army, or of the civil policy of the government. His 
 letters frequently contained truer accounts of 
 movements and battles than some of the official 
 reports. From these letters, could they be col- 
 lected and properly edited, a minute history of 
 the war could be compiled, which would bring to 
 light many a fact now unknown, because these 
 letters were written without the idea of publica- 
 tion present in the mind. He carried the right of 
 franchise with him, and voted in camp for state 
 and national candidates; and the ballots were 
 counted as faithfully as those cast in the peaceful 
 precincts of the township polling place at home. 
 He received frequent furloughs to visit his fam- 
 ily and friends. The private was often brighter 
 and knew more than his officer. But he as faith- 
 fully obeyed his officer's commands as if the re- 
 verse condition existed. He was not marching or 
 fighting blindly for a king or an emperor, but for 
 himself, who was the real sovereign of this re- 
 public. Notwithstanding he was a sovereign and 
 knew the object of his fighting, he soon learned 
 
224 RANCH LIFE 
 
 "there is a moral quality in a bright belt-plate 
 and a clean gun." But that fact did not prevent 
 him, when the "cause" was won, from laying them 
 aside, and resuming his peaceful citizenship. He 
 had no intention of allowing war to become his 
 profession. The service in the Civil War is now 
 to a certain extent a part also of his civil fate. 
 As, while he was a volunteer soldier, he did not 
 isolate his life then from his citizenship; so now 
 he does not forget in the later years of his life 
 those strenuous days of battles and marches. He 
 maintains the memory of them by attending the 
 meetings and ceremonies of his Grand Army post, 
 and has devoted a portion of his time, since the 
 close of the war, to preserving and correcting the 
 history of it. His service in the war was a unique 
 part of his life, and mingles naturally with the 
 greater, and more important civilian years of it, 
 because he never in his own mind separated the 
 two periods. They merge naturally into each 
 other. 
 
 Such was the personnel of the Army of the 
 Cumberland. 
 
 ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE ARMY OF 
 THE CUMBERLAND. 
 
 The army thus formed, alone, fought four im- 
 portant battles on the field so eloquently described 
 by General Garfield Mill Springs, Perryville, 
 
CHATTANOOGA ADDRESS 225 
 
 Stone's river and Chickamauga penetrated the 
 enemy's territory twice, as far as the Tennessee 
 river; assisted in snatching victory from impend- 
 ing defeat at Shiloh, and in September, 1863, held 
 Chattanooga, the gateway to the southwest. 
 
 REINFORCEMENTS. 
 
 Here for the first time it was reinforced by 
 troops from other armies. The Army of the 
 Tennessee, which under General Grant had opened 
 the Mississippi, touched elbows with us at Mis- 
 sionary Ridge. The Eleventh and Twelfth Corps 
 came, at the same time, from the Army of the 
 Potomac, led by General Joseph Hooker, and were 
 made a constituent part of the Army of the Cum- 
 berland, being subsequently consolidated into the 
 Twentieth Corps. These combined forces won 
 the battles around Chattanooga in November, 
 1863, and together with the Twenty-third Corps, 
 called then the Army of the Ohio, under General 
 Schofield, made the triumphant campaign to At- 
 lanta in 1864. 
 
 When these reinforcements came to us, in 
 October, 1863, we hailed them with acclamation. 
 We honor them now, by giving them the credit of 
 being the bravest of comrades. They greatly 
 lightened the difficulties of the Atlanta campaign. 
 But let it be ever borne in mind, that the old Army 
 
226 RANCHLIFE 
 
 of the Cumberland under Generals Rosecrans and 
 Thomas, with an army about equal in numbers to 
 the Confederate Army, opposed to them, made up 
 of western troops, had already won a goal in the 
 heart of the Confederacy, over the most difficult 
 of all lines of operation. They held it until re- 
 inforcements came, having just fought, at Chicka- 
 mauga, a battle against superior numbers, in 
 which a greater number of the enemy was killed 
 and wounded, than in any other battle of the war. 
 
 THE ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. 
 
 It may be idle to discuss now, whether the 
 Army of the Cumberland, as it camped around 
 Ringgold, Georgia, on May 6th, 1864, in sole com- 
 mand of General Thomas could have successfully 
 made the Atlanta campaign alone. The official 
 returns then give it, including General Hooker's 
 reinforcements from the east, an aggregate of 
 60,773. This is considerably more than the Con- 
 federate General Joseph E. Johnston claimed to 
 have at Dalton, Georgia, on the same date. The 
 aggregate of the two Union Armies of the Ten- 
 nessee and the Ohio was about 38,000. However, 
 it may be conjectured, that could General Thomas 
 have had his line to the rear fully protected by 
 other troops, and been in sole command on that 
 march, the military history of it might have been 
 quite different from what it is. Some things may 
 
CHATTANOOGA ADDRESS 227 
 
 pretty certainly be predicated of such a conjectural 
 campaign. The battle of Resaca and the charge at 
 Kenesaw would not have occurred in the precise 
 way they did occur. There would likely have been 
 but one great battle and that, if won by General 
 Thomas, would have been decisive. However, it 
 was natural and proper for the War Department 
 to send the reinforcements in the way it did, and 
 from the troops most available, and in as large 
 numbers as possible. However, they should have 
 been reinforcements to the Army of the Cumber- 
 land, and not in the nature of an absorption of that 
 army into a new department, upon the old center 
 field, under a commander coming from another 
 field. 
 
 General Thomas, who was then in command 
 of the Army of the Cumberland, had a successful 
 record behind him which should have insured him 
 the necessary rank, and the continued supremacy 
 in his own department. Whatever was done, how- 
 ever, which we may now wish had not been done, 
 did not thereby obliterate the achievements of the 
 Army of the Cumberland down to and including 
 the taking of Chattanooga, and holding it from 
 September, 1863, to the close of the war. These, 
 together with its subsequent career, as the center 
 and pivot of the Atlanta campaign ; its winning of 
 Franklin and Nashville, after more than half of 
 its force had been detached, and marched to the 
 sea, gave it a permanent standing unsurpassed in 
 
228 
 
 RANCH LIFE 
 
 the world's military history. It is our duty, as a 
 society, to protect and uphold that record as long 
 as there shall remain a living member, without, 
 however, detracting for a moment, in any particu- 
 lar, from the merit of those gallant reinforce- 
 ments from the east, and from the west, who made 
 the Atlanta campaign much easier than it other- 
 wise would have been. 
 
 As said by General John M. Palmer in his ad- 
 dress at the Cleveland, Ohio, meeting in 1870 : "It 
 makes no difference that some fought and strug- 
 gled on the Potomac, on the Mississippi, or on the 
 seaboard, or that their lines of operation were 
 crossed by the Tennessee and the Cumberland 
 they battled for common objects, they saddened at 
 common defeats, and shouted in triumph over vic- 
 tories wherever won. And when the flag of re- 
 sistance to the national authority went down in 
 northern Virginia, in North Carolina and west of 
 the Mississippi, and when the white wings of 
 peace again returned to gladden all, all shared 
 in the joy of that happy hour." 
 
 THE ARMY STOOD FOR PEACE NOT 
 WAR. 
 
 The splendid Army of the Cumberland, who 
 made this record in its country's history, although 
 clothed in the panoply of war, stood not for war, 
 in the technical sense of that word, but for peace. 
 
CHATTANOOGA ADDRESS 229 
 
 The word war, although applied to what was done, 
 in the Civil War, is coupled also, in its general 
 definition, with conquest for power, with murder 
 without cause, with wanton destruction for ag- 
 grandizement, with tyranny, slavery and personal 
 government. Our army was the instrument, by 
 means of certain methods, popularly called war, 
 of ultimate peace a peace that preceding events 
 had shown, could be preserved by armed offense 
 and defense only. And whatever offensive move- 
 ments became necessary by the Union army in 
 that conflict, were done alone for the destruction of 
 the immediate armed menace, against which they 
 were aimed. The situation was comparable to a 
 man who, while pursuing his ordinary peaceful 
 avocation, has suddenly discovered an enemy 
 pointing a loaded firearm at him and his home, 
 with deadly intent. The threatened destruction of 
 the Union was a menace to the peace and security 
 of every person and every home. The only reaction 
 adequate to meet such a menace, was to drop the 
 tools of industry and destroy the enemy. This re- 
 quired the use of the only means adequate to ac- 
 complish the end ; and that is called war, when the 
 menace is to the nation at large, and the enemy is 
 counted by the thousands. The citizens of the 
 Union became organized by regimentation into 
 bodies moving by the command of one officer. 
 This made them into armies, and the result was 
 what is called war. Such rules of the art of war 
 
 
230 RANCH LIFE 
 
 were applied as were necessary to make them ef- 
 ficient, in producing the result for which they 
 were organized. Very few regiments of this army 
 could have been enlisted into a regular army for 
 continuous service, whether war existed or not, 
 also to expect such citizen soldiers to accomplish 
 in any more than a crude way, and in prolonged 
 time, what the Union forces accomplished, was un- 
 philosophical, and unscientific. The majority of 
 every volunteer army in the Civil War was not 
 technically military. War was not a chosen pro- 
 fession with them, only a necessary condition for 
 the time being. As said by General Benjamin 
 Harrison, "The problem was to make the best pos- 
 sible soldier, and at the same time to save the 
 citizen." 
 
 THE MEANING OP OUR ORGANIZA- 
 TION. 
 
 We are formed into this Society of the Army 
 of the Cumberland, not because these military 
 achievements were deeds of cruel warfare ; not be- 
 cause of mere physical triumph over the foe, who 
 at the same time was a blood relation, but because 
 these deeds were the only practical methods to 
 win an enduring peace and bring back that con- 
 dition of civilized, representative, industrial free- 
 dom, crystalized into the Union, and most con- 
 ducive to the physical, intellectual, and ethical ad- 
 
CHATTANOOGA ADDRESS 231 
 
 vancement, of not only this, but of all future gen- 
 erations of Americans. By the term Americans 
 is meant the whole people without distinction of 
 color, race or sex. Recognizing that nations are 
 built up by productive industry, we are not here 
 to advocate war in any other sense than as an 
 avenue to peace. For this purpose it is necessary 
 and worthwhile. The forty-two years that have 
 come and gone, since the close of the Civil War, 
 bear ample witness, in the facts of the wonder- 
 ful expansion of our country in population and 
 wealth, and the great prosperity of the common 
 people, in the south as well as in the north, to the 
 immense benefits which followed the re-establish- 
 ment, on a firm basis, of the union of these United 
 States. 
 
 We know that these results followed the re- 
 union of the States. We do not know that they 
 would have followed disunion. The death of se- 
 cession, and the abolition of slavery, were worth 
 the war which so thoroughly accomplished these 
 two things. They, and not the love of war in it- 
 self, were the final aim of the struggle on the part 
 of the Union men. 
 
 The immense destruction of life and property 
 in all wars; the loss to the people in material 
 wealth by diverting the energies from the chan- 
 nels of constructive industry, into those of de- 
 structive militarism; and the wonderful advance- 
 ment in all ways under peace, compared to the 
 
232 RANCHLIFE 
 
 retrogression under the reign of war, we hope will 
 postpone, not only in this nation, but in the world 
 at large, any war, until all other means have been 
 thoroughly tried and exhausted. The history of 
 all wars teach the nations the necessity for finally 
 abolishing war and relying upon arbitration in 
 settling all questions of difference. It is well 
 known, however, that the Civil War was the last 
 resort after all other means to preserve the Union 
 had been exhausted; it was a justifiable conflict 
 for the object obtained. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM FORMER 
 ADDRESSES. 
 
 At the meeting of our society in September, 
 1874, Colonel Stanley Matthews delivered the ad- 
 dress. It is an able, philosophical oration. Among 
 other wise things, he said: (I quote him in sep- 
 arate, unconnected paragraphs.) 
 
 "To every man the question is put," (he was 
 then referring to the beginning of the war), 
 "whether he would continue to have a country, or 
 give it up ; for although, whatever the result might 
 have been, new allegiances would doubtless have 
 sprung up ; yet the old one, with all its traditions 
 and aspirations, would have been annihilated and 
 to us and our people the old one was the only pos- 
 sible one." But, I will add, "without slavery." 
 
 "The seceding states had no just cause for 
 
CHATTANOOGA ADDRESS 233 
 
 complaint," (I am still quoting), "much less one 
 justifying separation against either the general 
 government, or the people of their sister states. 
 The successful establishment of the Southern 
 Confederacy so far as human speculation can 
 penetrate a hypothetical future meant complete 
 disintegration and the rivalries and wars of the 
 petty states; or a reconstruction of a new Union 
 in which the principles of personal freedom 
 should be subordinated to the necessities of an em- 
 pire founded expressly for the perpetuation of 
 negro slavery. That meant, in its turn, of course, 
 simply a new rebellion in favor of human liberty. 
 Hence, unless all history be a lie and if anything 
 certain can be predicted of our knowledge of 
 human nature, the war sooner or later was inevi- 
 table." 
 
 This meant that an institution so firmly recog- 
 nized in the compromise of the national constitu- 
 tion, and established so widely in thirteen states, 
 as slavery then was, could only be terminated by 
 the arbitrament of war. 
 
 Colonel Matthews further says, in speaking 
 of the Confederate leaders who brought on the re- 
 bellion, "If those leaders had been statesmen, 
 with sagacity to read aright the lessons of their 
 time, they would have prepared a peaceful way to 
 the inevitable result, and set their house in order 
 for the advent of its new master; but to this 
 height they could not rise. They deceived none 
 
234 RANCHLIFE 
 
 but themselves and because of their rage and 
 folly, became the ministers of their own fate." 
 The following paragraph, though written only 
 nine years after the close of the war, yet is just 
 as true now, forty-two years after. 
 
 "During the progress of the war from its be- 
 ginning to its end, and throughout the whole per- 
 iod since elapsed, there has not been a time when 
 it was not the sincere desire of the people of the 
 north, that the southern states should have a 
 share in their prosperity, and recovering from the 
 loss and waste of war, and the confusion, anarchy 
 and bad government, which were its necessary, 
 but temporary consequences, reach a standard of 
 wealth, security and happiness, which they had 
 never before attained. Such, I am sure is the 
 prevailing and general feeling today. The 
 waste of war is repaired by the arts of peace in 
 an incredibly short time." Is not this apparent 
 now throughout the south? 
 
 BENEFITS OF THE WAR TO THE 
 SOUTH. 
 
 Time has shown that the people of the seceding 
 states have been great gainers by the war. It is 
 not to be asserted that the comparatively few 
 slave-holders were gainers, from their view point. 
 But the present prosperous condition of the com- 
 
CHATTANOOGA ADDRESS 235 
 
 mercial, agricultural and working classes in the 
 south, together with the growth of manufactur- 
 ing, is an eloquent tribute to the final results. This 
 fine metropolis of Chattanooga, one of the indus- 
 trial centers of the whole country, would be im- 
 possible under slavery. "Here," says a writer 
 in the October, 1907, number of the "Taylor-Trot- 
 wood Magazine" of Nashville, Tenn., "where con- 
 tending armies had striven for their rights not half 
 a century before, what a change has come over 
 the dream of their desire! A change, I am 
 bound to admit, made possible by defeat." The 
 production of cotton, the staple which was 
 thought to depend upon slavery for its profitable 
 culture, has greatly increased under free labor. 
 The war simply changed the form of labor from 
 slave to free and left it where it was before the 
 war, where it has done more in connection with 
 white labor, for the real prosperity of the south 
 in forty-two years, than it did under slavery for 
 the whole time of its existence. Statistics show 
 the immense increase of production in the south, 
 without the aid of immigration, to be phenomenal. 
 Had the war taken away from the south its ac- 
 climated laborers, the south may now think that 
 it would have been a blessing ; but it is more prob- 
 able it would have been a calamity. The disturb- 
 ances caused by this change in the form of labor 
 were inevitable, but temporary. Under freedom, 
 this labor can become more and more efficient, but 
 
236 RANCHLIFE 
 
 under slavery its production would have re- 
 mained practically stationary. 
 
 General Thruston, in his Toledo address in 
 1890, said, "Union and freedom are better than 
 dismemberment and slavery better for the 
 south, better for the north, better for mankind." 
 
 In a late article in "The Taylor-Trotwood 
 Magazine," John Trotwood Moore, a southerner, 
 said, "In thinking of Stonewall Jackson and 
 Johnson" (Albert Sidney) "did God in His wis- 
 dom know it was best that the Confederacy should 
 not be, as we all now know it?" 
 
 The following paragraphs are quoted from 
 General Benjamin Harrison's oration at Toledo 
 in 1880, to this society: 
 
 "When we must forbear to speak of the cause 
 for which we fought, it will be in order to forbear 
 to mention that we fought at all." 
 
 He said further: "We have believed, and I 
 trust the faith is not delusive, that the war settled 
 some questions around which an angry debate had 
 long raged. Did the government at Washington 
 occupy its forts, arsenals and custom houses, in 
 the several states, by lease, terminal at the will 
 of the state in which they were situated? Did it 
 collect custom dues and exercise judicial func- 
 tions, only during state sufferance? Was the al- 
 legiance, and service of the citizen due to it direct- 
 ly as of right, or might he be absolved from both 
 by the ordinances of a state? Might it pass its 
 
CHATTANOOGA ADDRESS 237 
 
 soldiers through a state without asking the per- 
 mission of the state authorities; or might Mary- 
 land and Virginia shut out the gathering army 
 from the beleaguered capitol? Upon these vital 
 questions I believe the country will insist that the 
 debate has been closed forever. No appeal lies 
 from Nashville, no writ of error from Appomat- 
 tox. The creed of our martyred President is the 
 people's creed. 'I hold/ said Mr. Lincoln in his 
 inaugural, 'that in contemplation of universal law 
 and of the constitution the union of these states is 
 perpetual/ ' 
 
 Quotations have been made from addresses de- 
 livered long years ago. Further extracts might be 
 made, did time permit, greatly to our instruction, 
 from later addresses, but the members of this so- 
 ciety have the volumes. They contain valuable 
 treasures of history, philosophy, political economy 
 and especially the science of "common sense." 
 
 THE LEGAL CLAIMS FOR SECESSION. 
 
 The Civil War showed, not that the National 
 Constitution was inadequate, as a charter by 
 which to guide the ship of state, but it did show 
 the weakness still abiding in the human intellect 
 and human character, when that charter was 
 given a construction to meet an unexpected dan- 
 ger. 
 
238 RANCHLIFE 
 
 The questions just quoted, referred to by Gen- 
 eral Harrison as being settled by the Civil War, 
 are those depending on a construction of certain 
 articles of the old constitution. On these matters 
 no change has been made since the war in the ex- 
 press terms of that instrument. The only amend- 
 ments since the war, to the written constitution, 
 are the 13th, 14th and 15th. These are intended 
 to regulate the changed relation of the former 
 slaves whom the old constitution treated as chat- 
 tels, not as citizens. No amendment was deemed 
 necessary regarding secession. When our Civil 
 War confronted the nation it was immediately 
 announced by the then executive department of 
 the government, the only department that could 
 exert its direct power to suppress the rebellion, 
 that under the constitution, a state could not be 
 coerced. President Buchanan ignored the fact 
 that the people of a state were first the citizens 
 of a nation and could lawfully be coerced into 
 obeying the national constitution and laws, for 
 these were paramount to any state constitution 
 and law. This, of course, the confederate denies, 
 but he can not at the same time deny that the re- 
 sult shows that the construction of constitution 
 and laws which gave union instead of disunion, ap- 
 pears now to have been the wiser. But as rebellion 
 waxed in strength and became more aggressive, 
 after Mr. Lincoln became the executive, the people 
 of the north and the Union lovers of the south did 
 
CHATTANOOGA ADDRESS 239 
 
 not care whether such a war-like condition was 
 provided for in the constitution or not. It would 
 have been unwise to mention therein the possibil- 
 ity of the dissolution of the Union. 
 
 There must abide in every aggregate of people, 
 who have evolved into a nation, so virile as the 
 United States then was, the tacit right of self- 
 preservation. And if the written charter omitted 
 to provide for any lurking menace that might arise 
 against the integrity of such a union; or could 
 it be construed as tacitly allowing such an anomaly 
 as secession, the people determined to let the con- 
 stitution remain in abeyance until the danger 
 should be destroyed. Senator Matthew H. Car- 
 penter, of Wisconsin, declared in the United States 
 Senate, that pending a state of civil war the con- 
 stitution was in abeyance, and this was the bottom 
 principle of Oliver P. Morton's great senatorial 
 speech on Reconstruction. 
 
 It would be impossible to formulate a system 
 of government by a written constitution provid- 
 ing in express terms against every future danger. 
 No one claims that our representative form of gov- 
 ernment is perfect. A government by the ballot 
 of the majority could only become perfect, when 
 the individuals composing that majority, and their 
 chosen representatives, shall attain perfection. 
 That condition may never be reached. But we 
 claim that a representative form of government 
 is the best adaptation to the present welfare of the 
 
240 RANCHLIFE 
 
 common people, and the national constitution as 
 now amended is the written embodiment of it. The 
 process of its improvement, a very complex one, 
 depends upon a parallel growing complexity in the 
 human brain, and an increasing and more effi- 
 cient system of universal education. This educa- 
 tion should not be confined to books, but reach out 
 to facts, natural principles and proper methods 
 of reasoning. 
 
 HOW THE CIVIL WAR COULD HAVE 
 BEEN PREVENTED. 
 
 When every member of society shall be in- 
 tellectually convinced that there is no effect with- 
 out its natural cause, then those effects whose 
 cause is under human control can also be brought 
 under the same control. The natural cause of the 
 Civil War was negro slavery, and its offense to 
 civilization. The war never would have occurred 
 had slavery never existed. The failure of the sup- 
 porters of negro slavery to perceive that it could 
 not be continued in the face of almost universal 
 disapproval throughout the civilized world, 
 brought on the calamity of the Civil War. In 
 other words, the principles incorporated into the 
 13th, 14th and 15th amendments should have been 
 made a part of the constitution at the time of its 
 adoption in 1789. This would have been done, 
 could the makers of the constitution have forseen 
 that Civil War of such magnitude must come in 
 
CHATTANOOGA ADDRESS 241 
 
 to, for any cause?" It is a curious fact in the 
 time, as a result of compromising with such an 
 institution. So that, whenever the people who 
 control affairs shall come to comprehend, as a mat- 
 ter of course, that every effect, such as war, has a 
 cause under their control, they will necessarily 
 prevent so disastrous an effect by controlling the 
 cause. In proportion as this active wisdom is put 
 into operation will the expense and annoyance of 
 reconstructive legislation be eliminated. 
 
 Men capable of correctly reasoning out to a 
 logical conclusion human thoughts and actions, re- 
 quire no other guidance to keep them in the 
 straight and narrow path. True righteousness 
 follows a true conception of cause and effect. The 
 Bourbon dynasty of France were incapable of 
 perceiving the French revolution as a result of 
 their selfish policy. In every nation questions 
 fully as important as that of negro slavery are 
 confronting those who have the power to solve 
 them, in a way either to promote a desirable ef- 
 fect or bring a disastrous one. 
 
 THE PHILOSOPHY OP WAR. 
 
 We can now get a broader and truer perspec- 
 tive of the causes and results of the Civil War. 
 Yet higher and deeper than the causes of a single 
 war, there rises on the horizon of thought the 
 question, "Why an armed conflict is ever resorted 
 history of peoples and a testimony to the ex- 
 
242 RANCH LIFE 
 
 cessively slow evolution of the reasoning power 
 of the human brain, that war has been the actual 
 occupation of individuals, tribes and nations much 
 of the time of their existence. That people should 
 go to killing each other for difference of opinions, 
 or for trifling misunderstandings, or for the ac- 
 quisition of property or trade, can be explained 
 only on the principle in all organic life of the 
 struggle for existence and the survival of the fit- 
 test. The fittest always has made and always will 
 make war of one sort or another on the unfit. 
 Neither the evolution of reason, nor the develop- 
 ment of consciousness seems to do more than mod- 
 ify the form of it. Civilization has simply refined 
 the cruelties of nature and of barbarism. Actual 
 war by the clash of arms is only one phase of the 
 universal struggle for existence that has been go- 
 ing on since the beginning of historical time. The 
 evidence constantly before our eyes of all organ- 
 isms preying on each other, the stronger devour- 
 ing the weaker, is pretty conclusive evidence that 
 the same habit existed prior to historical time. 
 
 We can therefore logically conclude that such 
 persistence of struggle and war has a natural 
 cause most likely in the fact that in proportion 
 only as the weak and vicious are eliminated there 
 will be progress toward the strong and righteous. 
 
 Not only the better adapted in animal organ- 
 isms, including man, but the fitter forms of so- 
 ciety, of ethics, of religions are growing and 
 
CHATTANOOGA ADDRESS 243 
 
 strengthening at the expense of the unfit. This is 
 the meaning of the decay of former civilizations, 
 and the gradual upbuilding of systems better suit- 
 ed to the higher welfare of the individual and the , 
 race. It is the world's progress from darkness to 
 light. In the struggle between freedom and slav- 
 ery, freedom will always prevail in the end, be- 
 cause the general conditions in an atmosphere of 
 freedom are more compatible with the strength 
 and welfare of society, than the general condi- 
 tions of slavery. 
 
 By constant warfare in some of its aspects 
 have the peoples of the earth shaped their com- 
 munities into their present forms. Every nation, 
 and its peculiar civilization, exist today by virtue 
 of this universal struggle. But in few of them do 
 the people yet enjoy in full measure "life, liberty 
 and the pursuit of happiness." Until they do the 
 struggle will continue. 
 
 The world process is an evolution, through 
 both peaceful changes and revolution. War has 
 been a potent factor, which may become less and 
 less frequent, but only as man becomes more intel- 
 ligent. Knowledge is power; but it must be the 
 right kind of knowledge. It must be knowledge 
 of nature and her laws. 
 
 Thanks to James Watt, the discoverer of steam 
 as a motive power, international intercourse at 
 last is slowly bringing about the true brotherhood 
 of man. This discovery, which seems so essential 
 
244 RANCH LIFE 
 
 was made only after the coal measures of the earth 
 had remained unutilized since the carboniferous 
 epoch, and thousands of years after man had be- 
 come a tool making biped. Yet its present appli- 
 cation to the great welfare and progress of man- 
 kind is paying a good interest for the whole time, 
 on nature's investment of carbon in that far off 
 age. Facility of intercourse by ocean and rail, 
 is teaching all nations, and all peoples, that some 
 differences, which heretofore engendered hate and 
 war, can be remedied by peaceful means; that in 
 all the fundamental and essential humanitarian 
 principles mankind are the same everywhere. The 
 golden rule is the one common creed of all relig- 
 ions. When these ideas begin to take possession 
 of nations, a Hague Peace Conference results. 
 That tribunal is yet only tentative, but we may 
 well watch its growth. This growth will be slow, 
 until monarchy ceases to dominate it. At first it 
 will formulate more humane laws of war; it will 
 undertake to maintain the present balance of 
 power. Disarmament is now opposed by those 
 who dominate on sea and land. It will at first be 
 left to the option of the different powers whether 
 in any special emergency they will obey its rules 
 or not. It will take a long period to bring them 
 to the right point of agreeing to the absolute rule 
 of justice, and doing the right for the right's sake. 
 It is plain that these results cannot come until 
 the people rule themselves. 
 
THE BASIS OF REPRESENTATIVE 
 GOVERNMENT 
 
 The following paper was read before the 
 Eclectic Club of Pueblo : 
 
 The broader and deeper the foundations of a 
 representative government are laid the higher the 
 superstructure will eventually rise. It does not 
 follow from this that every people is at present 
 fitted to adopt this form of government. But every 
 people if left to a free choice instinctively adopts 
 the form of government best fitted to their condi- 
 tion of mental development. The strength of it 
 depends upon this natural co-ordination of intel- 
 lectual conception and sociological functions. The 
 Arab who wanders in tribes on a desert, or the 
 American Indian who leads a hunter's life could 
 not tolerate a civilized form of permanent govern- 
 ment, in which lying, stealing and murder are 
 prohibited. Nor could an Englishman, nor an 
 American endure the life of an Arab or an Indian. 
 We must always remember that governments are 
 formed not for experimenting in high ideals, for- 
 mulated by scholars and philosophers, but for the 
 material interests of the members; that the 
 
246 RANCH LIFE 
 
 phrase "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi- 
 ness," used in our declaration of independence, 
 means only this: Everywhere on the earth, so- 
 ciety is made up of all classes of both sexes, from 
 the most ignorant up to the most intellectual. Each 
 member of it stands the equal of every other in 
 the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happi- 
 ness. To this assertion should also be added that 
 each one has an equal right to the full enjoyments 
 of the products of his own labor, manual and 
 mental. These are the principles that should lie 
 at the foundation of every representative govern- 
 ment, and in order to preserve them each member 
 of all classes should have an equal share in the 
 making and executing of the laws which are sup- 
 posed to be enacted for their preservation. Let us 
 consider for a few minutes how far this is done in 
 the most representative government, that of the 
 United States. 
 
 In the American colonies from 1619 to 1789 
 there was more or less restriction upon the voting 
 franchise. At first in Virginia and New England 
 nearly all the male inhabitants had a voice in pub- 
 lic affairs. Nearly all the settlers were English- 
 men whose views upon all questions of general im- 
 port to the community at large, coincided. But 
 when men of other blood and other religious opin- 
 ions, together with "indented servants/' trans- 
 ported felons and negroes, came in, electoral qual- 
 ifications varied greatly. The most prominent 
 
BASIS OF GOVERNMENT 247 
 
 tests for voting were religious professions and 
 possession of property. But in 1789, when the 
 Constitution of the United States was adopted, 
 there was nothing said in that instrument about 
 the qualifications of voters. That regulation was 
 reserved to the states, each deciding the matter in 
 its own way. The election of president and mem- 
 bers of congress was and is the act of the aggre- 
 gate body of voters, qualified by the laws of the 
 several states. The religious test did not long sur- 
 vive. Massachusetts repealed hers as early as 
 1664. Perhaps no religious test now exists in this 
 country. The last survival of it was that of the 
 old constitution of South Carolina. It was omit- 
 ted in the new one adopted in 1790. The wording 
 was "every white freeman who acknowledges the 
 being of a God and believes in a future state of 
 rewards and punishments." A property, or tax 
 qualification had a more persistent life. 
 
 Independence from British authority brought 
 about some extension of the suffrage, not to any 
 distinct class, but by reducing the number of tests. 
 The revolutionary statesmen were not consistent 
 in practically carrying out their declaration in 
 theory, that all governments should derive their 
 powers from the consent of the governed. How- 
 ever, from 1739 to 1884 freehold franchise had 
 gradually given away, in most of the states, to 
 what was called manhood suffrage. That is, all 
 native born white males of age were allowed to 
 
248 RANCHLIFE 
 
 vote upon taking the freeman's oath. Finally, 
 after the Civil War, under the reconstruction acts, 
 the former slave states extended the suffrage to 
 the black males of age. The fifteenth amendment 
 prescribed, not a qualification for voters, but a 
 penalty of a proportional reduction in the repre- 
 sentatives in the lower house of congress of any 
 states that should make a discrimination against 
 former slaves as voters. This was the first ex- 
 tension of the franchise in this country that in- 
 cluded a great number, or class. As is well 
 known, this has now been practically annulled by 
 every former slave state. As a class the former 
 slaves have been disfranchised. Every one con- 
 cedes the propriety of excluding minors and the 
 mentally impotent. Therefore, the question to dis- 
 cuss in this paper is the propriety of re-enfran- 
 chising the blacks and extending the suffrage to 
 the gentler sex. With these extensions made, our 
 government would then be a democracy, not only 
 in name, but really one where the power of gov- 
 ernment would be derived from the consent of the 
 governed. 
 
 There is also the question which is occasionally 
 mentioned, viz. : that of restricting the franchise 
 by a property qualification, or an educational test. 
 It is scarcely necessary to discuss the futility of a 
 property or tax qualification. This has generally 
 been abandoned, because the practical working of 
 such a test showed its impotency in raising the 
 
BASIS OF GOVERNMENT 249 
 
 efficiency of the ballot. Office seekers, or others 
 interested, paid the tax or transferred sufficient 
 property temporarily to enable the disfranchised 
 to vote. But the great objection to this test is that 
 governments are and should be instituted for the 
 protection and guarantee of personal rights to a 
 much larger extent than for the enforcement of 
 property rights. Until education becomes more 
 universal there will be a large amount of ignor- 
 ance of book knowledge among men and women. 
 But books are made from knowledge first obtained 
 without them. Intelligence and power to act for 
 the best interests of the community are not neces- 
 sarily derived from books. It has been truly said 
 that "the man who is on to his job is educated." 
 To understand his personal and property rights, 
 and therefore the rights of others, it is not essen- 
 tial that a man should read and write any Ian- 
 gauge. But it would be better if he were educated 
 in books provided the book knowledge consisted of 
 the practical duties of citizenship and the real 
 rights of man. 
 
 It has been frequently said that the men who 
 sell their votes for money are ignorant men and 
 therefore an educational qualification should be 
 required. But whoever sells his vote is being paid 
 by an educated man. The crime of buying in this 
 case is worse than the selling. And in nearly all 
 cases the office seeker who is being elected by 
 the corruption of the franchise is himself what is 
 
250 RANCH LIFE 
 
 termed an educated man. But that fact does not 
 prevent him, when elected by such votes, availing 
 himself of such support to plunder the people in 
 the exercise of his office, nor, if a legislator does 
 it prevent him from enacting bad laws. A fuller 
 discussion of the educational test, than the limit 
 of this paper will permit, would show that the 
 most of the oppression and injustice of govern- 
 ment are accomplished by the so-called educated. 
 Book knowledge does not change the organic dis- 
 honesty of any brain. It only multiplies the aven- 
 ues of its exploitations. Lincoln Steffens has an 
 article in McClure's for February, 1905, exposing 
 the rottenness of politics in Rhode Island. 
 
 "The Public" makes this comment on it : "This 
 story has several lessons. The most important is 
 its deadly comment upon the pleasant notion that 
 government by the 'better classes' would be better 
 government. Rhode Island is governed by the 
 'better classes.' But if there is a more putres- 
 cent government in the whole country, no one has 
 yet discovered it. The more the facts are known 
 the clearer does the truth become, as Jenkin Lloyd 
 Jones declared it at the Russian sympathy meet- 
 ing in Chicago last Sunday, but although govern- 
 ment by all the people is far from perfect, history 
 tells of no other kind of government as good." 
 
 Of course, as near as possible, the people of a 
 democracy should have a united political aim, and 
 that is the maintenance of the form of govern- 
 
BASIS OF GOVERNMENT 251 
 
 ment. Therefore, immigrants should be excluded 
 from the franchise until they become citizens and 
 thus show that they have the same motives and 
 aims that natives have. So far the foreign immi- 
 gration into the United States has been a great 
 success. Those who remain and become citizens 
 are loyal and patriotic. They are the most in- 
 dustrious part of our population. 
 
 Any representative government should be a 
 reflection of the average desires and needs of its 
 people. It cannot be long bad for that people, for 
 in a government like ours the average of intelli- 
 gence and proper conception of human rights is 
 always rising. A readjustment of means to ends 
 is therefore habitual. These adjustments cannot 
 be made without friction. There will always be 
 the large number who cannot quite comprehend 
 the fundamental principles, and of course, misuse 
 the power of franchise. There will be the smaller 
 class of idealists who shoot over the heads of the 
 masses expecting all people to be philosophers. It 
 is likely that the true mean lies in giving a voice 
 to every sane person of mature age who works in 
 harmony with the general welfare. 
 
 Upon an examination of the conditions in our 
 great free United States, it is a paradox that what 
 our fathers declared, viz. : "That all governments 
 derive their just powers from the consent of the 
 governed," is not carried out. More than half of 
 the people are excluded from the franchise by 
 
252 RANCH LIFE 
 
 either color or sex. The same arguments are be- 
 ing used in opposition to the extension of the fran- 
 chise to these two classes that have always been 
 urged by the governing power throughout Christ- 
 endom in opposition to any extension. But at the 
 bottom the real reason why those in power oppose 
 it is that each extension loosens the power of the 
 few over the rights of the many. 
 
 Every thoughtful American can perceive there 
 is yet lacking in our laws a proper balance be- 
 tween the conservation of personal rights and the 
 undue care the law and the lawmakers give to 
 mere property rights. It may be that a widen- 
 ing of the voting power to those classes who have 
 more of the very important rights of the person 
 than the rights of property to protect, would tend 
 to change this balance to the side of justice. It 
 may be true that the two disfranchised classes at 
 present are ignorant of this condition of the 
 economic balance of the laws of our country; 
 yet they belong to the propertyless citizenship. 
 Whenever the privilege and responsibility of 
 suffrage are placed upon them, they begin to ex- 
 ercise a power that tends toward their enlighten- 
 ment as to the real meaning of representative 
 government. Of course, the process may be slow. 
 It may take a long time before their ballots may 
 become effective along these lines ; yet there is no 
 other process that can be substituted for the ballot 
 that will be so effective. Many of the negroes 
 
BASIS OF GOVERNMENT 253 
 
 may for a long time sell their votes to the highest 
 bidder. The only use the ex-slaves could see for 
 freedom at first was to get a living without work. 
 Their naivete argument was that if they had to 
 work for a living they saw no difference between 
 working as a slave and a freeman. But there is 
 an immense difference. Such colored men as 
 Booker Washington finally saw it and are now fast 
 educating the colored population into a knowledge 
 of the possibilities and advantages of free labor. 
 They could not do this had slavery been continued, 
 but in that event any change from the former 
 mental paralysis would be hopeless. Selling their 
 votes is an infinite advance on the part of the 
 black men from selling their bodies and labor. 
 Under freedom and the power of suffrage they 
 will gradually grow out of the bondage of ignor- 
 ance and corruption, but not without both freedom 
 and suffrage. In fact they are not free without 
 the suffrage. 
 
 The negroes of the south wherever they have 
 opportunity are improving by schools, but faster 
 by being thrown upon their own responsibility in 
 making a living. They are now making good 
 soldiers in the regular army. "There are nine 
 million two hundred and four thousand five hun- 
 dred and thirty-one negroes in the United States, 
 including Porto Rico and Hawaii. Nine-tenths of 
 them live in the south one-third of its popula- 
 tion. Seventy-seven per cent work on seven hun- 
 
254 RANCH LIFE 
 
 dred and forty-six thousand farms, of which twen- 
 ty-one per cent are absolutely and four per cent 
 partially owned by negroes. There are twenty-one 
 thousand negro carpenters, twenty thousand bar- 
 bers and nearly as many doctors, sixteen thousand 
 ministers, fifteen thousand masons, twelve thou- 
 sand dressmakers, ten thousand engineers and 
 firemen, five thousand shoemakers, four thousand 
 musicians, two thousand actors and show-men, 
 one thousand lawyers (which seems too many.) 
 Since 1890 negro illiteracy has shrunk from fifty- 
 seven to forty-four and five-tenths per cent. Sta- 
 tistics are rather stupid fellows, but these look 
 bright and full of hope." (Extract from Every- 
 body's Magazine.) 
 
 Former slave holders, who brought them from 
 their native wilderness and made slaves of them 
 in such immense numbers are thereby estopped 
 from complaining, that they are here and part of 
 the people to be reckoned with as persons who 
 have personal rights. These former masters seem 
 to think that the negroes have no rights unless 
 they can change their color and become refined 
 and intellectual in a single generation. 
 
 If these negroes were not here, but were now 
 liable to come here from Central Africa in any 
 numbers of their own accord an efficient exclusion 
 act would be desirable. But they are here in im- 
 mense numbers, brought against their consent. 
 They speak our language, as a result of slavery 
 
BASIS OF GOVERNMENT 255 
 
 are dreadfully ignorant, uncouth, as a matter of 
 course, with no proper sense of rights of prop- 
 erty or of the white man's morality, but fast learn- 
 ing it all. They have already learned all of the 
 white man's injustice, oppression and the most 
 of his immorality. The problem is to make the 
 best terms with the conditions. Their legal and 
 political rights will be better cared for in their 
 own keeping than in the keeping of their former 
 masters or any other persons. Of course they will 
 blunder and fall. But even then it is better to 
 persist in the correct principle, even if all of 
 them should be incarcerated once a year for mis- 
 demeanors and crimes. It is "the white man's 
 burden," picked up so eagerly by him in Africa, 
 which he is now so anxiously trying to unload, 
 but which he finds has turned to an "old man of 
 the sea" to ride on his neck until nature has been 
 sufficiently revenged for the unspeakable crime of 
 slavery. 
 
 If in the twentieth century female suffrage 
 should be accomplished it must be done by thrust- 
 ing it upon the gentler sex, for they show a won- 
 derful apathy concerning it and even where it is 
 in force, as in Colorado, there is apparently small 
 appreciation of the great moral power it is capa- 
 ble of becoming. This is a discouraging feature. 
 Perhaps a majority of the women do not want or 
 do not care for the voting franchise but reforma- 
 tion in the franchise will eventually come by their 
 
256 RANCHLIFE 
 
 use of the ballot. I think most of the women in 
 Colorado vote at all the elections. It may be that 
 changes for the better in our politics have not yet 
 come with woman suffrage. But time will work 
 wonders. Locally when the women once under- 
 stand that a candidate for office is immoral they 
 will defeat him. As a class they do not yet com- 
 prehend in the slightest degree the great power 
 of organization, nor the real necessity for voting 
 independent of politics. Most men do not. But 
 these achievements will come eventually and 
 women can always be trusted as a class to vote 
 in the way they think the interests of their chil- 
 dren lie. It has been said that politics unsexes 
 the woman. It may be; cases can be cited where 
 the privilege has brought forward those on whom 
 sex hung very lightly before. But we have seen 
 thousands of them quietly exercising the suffrage 
 as modestly and unassumingly as they do all other 
 duties. 
 
 We cannot attribute any of the present politi- 
 cal ills in Colorado to women suffrage. It is here 
 to stay, and it would be wise for other states to 
 follow our example, whether the women express 
 a desire for it or not. It is the introduction of an 
 element into the political conditions that can work 
 no harm to the state, and that is capable of be- 
 coming in time a great factor for purity and re- 
 finement, and therefore of strength. 
 
 As the human brain is evolved into a higher 
 
BASIS OF GOVERNMENT 257 
 
 and broader correspondence with the facts of 
 natural ethics, in the same proportion one per- 
 ceives that his own individual welface depends 
 upon the universal principle of welfare to every 
 individual. The ultimate goal of evolution in this 
 direction is that the social compact must be based 
 upon the broadest reach of the voting power to 
 every mature and sane member who bears any of 
 the burdens of government, and who has either 
 the rights of person or property to maintain. 
 
MISCELLANIES 
 
OUR NEGRO CITIZENS 
 
 It is interesting to observe the evolution of the 
 citizenship of the freed colored race in this coun- 
 try since the Civil War. 
 
 The progress made by it has been, in the ag- 
 gregate, phenomenal. In viewing this progress, 
 consideration must be given to the conditions of 
 the race in the country of its origin and the fur- 
 ther fact that until 1865 it was held in slavery in 
 the southern states. At the period of their emanci- 
 pation scarcely any of the colored people could 
 read or write and few were possessed of any 
 property. The slave states prohibited them by 
 law from acquiring either property or education. 
 Neither had they to any great extent been trained 
 in any skilled labor. The industry required by the 
 slave owner and most profitable to him, was the 
 agriculture adapted to cotton raising. That was 
 done without skill. The method was the crude one 
 of raising a crop of cotton, year after year, until 
 the soil was practically exhausted. So that the 
 colored race forty-six years ago in this country 
 stood without resources other than the power to 
 work with his hands, not with his head, at only 
 
OUR NEGRO CITIZENS 261 
 
 the unskilled and menial occupations. It was 
 therefore impossible for a man with a black skin 
 to enter at once, when freedom came to him, into 
 competition in any trade or business with a white 
 man. He was looked upon by the community as 
 fit only for a slave, as having no claims upon the 
 wealth his hands had produced for an opportunity 
 to make his way in the world. From this view- 
 point how could the thoughtful white man expect 
 that the negro could possibly make the progress 
 he has made since the civil war? It is pitiful to 
 hear an opinion many times expressed, especially 
 in the old slave-holding states, that the race has 
 made no advancement, and that it is not worthy of 
 being educated like the white race. Those who 
 express this opinion declare that it is not intelli- 
 gent enough to have the voting franchise, and at 
 the same time would deprive it of the means of 
 education. But in the face of such opposition, it 
 is a well known fact that the negro race has made 
 remarkable advance in both education and the ac- 
 quisition of property. It is pretty certain that 
 had the white race been in exactly the same con- 
 dition that the negro race was forty-six years ago, 
 mentally and morally, it would have made no more 
 progress than has the negro race. It is surpris- 
 ing to see the evident success of the Hampton 
 School at Hampton, Va. There are several hun- 
 dred colored boys and girls being educated in use- 
 ful industries. Booker Washington's school in 
 
262 RANCH LIFE 
 
 Alabama is a wonderful success. There are others 
 in the south, and the colored people are eager for 
 education along industrial lines. The southern 
 states could make no better investment than to es- 
 tablish enough schools of the Tuskegee type to 
 give every colored boy and girl a practical and 
 technical education, sufficient to enable him to 
 earn an honorable and self-respecting living, and 
 at the same time to fit him for exercising the vot- 
 ing franchise in an intelligent and upright way. 
 The manual labor of the south is mostly colored. 
 Its efficiency is in exact proportion to the acquired 
 intelligence of the workers. To deprive these 
 workers of the means of making that labor skill- 
 ful and profitable by the use of industrial and 
 scientific schools, is a policy so short sighted that 
 one stands amazed that the southern white people 
 take so little interest in a subject of so great mo- 
 ment to themselves. The very crimes which the 
 white southern people most detest are committed, 
 not by the educated, but the ignorant negroes, and 
 by only a very few of these. The situation shows 
 that the progress made, and to be made, arises 
 largely out of the effort and determination of 
 the colored people themselves. They are receiv- 
 ing some help from white philanthropists, but 
 not enough. They have this consolation, that 
 when they have once risen to the ultimate power, 
 always gained by successful peoples, after their 
 struggles for industrial and political emancipa- 
 
OUR NEGRO CITIZENS 263 
 
 tion, there will be less likelihood of reaction, 
 or of weak conditions, than if they had a 
 surplus of opportunity thrust upon them, with- 
 out such effort on their part. The colored 
 race can now point to individual instances of 
 conspicuous achievement, but the main goal 
 the elevation of the race in citizenship and in- 
 dustrial power should be the constant aim. 
 Fortunately as a class it is hopeful and humble. 
 It is not combative, nor impatient; and when one 
 of its members performs a notable act, such as 
 sharing with Peary the honor of reaching the 
 North Pole, there is no offensive boastfulness. 
 They have quite universally been deprived of the 
 voting privilege in the south, which the law gave 
 them, yet they do not disturb the peace and quiet 
 of the land, as would the white race, under similar 
 circumstances. They will recover the franchise 
 sometime, and much sooner by patient effort to fit 
 themselves better for it, than if they tried by 
 force, to recover it. "All things come to him who 
 waits." 
 
 There are a number of farms on the Virginia 
 peninsula now owned by colored men. The land 
 is generally worn out. The crops look poor to a 
 Coloradoan. There is no evidence of great wealth. 
 But the very fact of ownership in the soil, al- 
 though so poor, gives the farmer a feeling of in- 
 dependence. In time they will be able to fertilize 
 the farms and raise crops that will furnish them a 
 
264 RANCH LIFE 
 
 surplus. The lessons in scientific agriculture, 
 taught at Hampton, Tuskegee and other schools 
 will some day bring these old wornout lands into 
 greater production, than they were in old slave 
 days, and the descendants of the present colored 
 owners will be the "lords of the manor.'* 
 
 The prospects of the colored people are much 
 better when they are located in the north in small 
 numbers. The laws of Colorado give them the 
 franchise, and there is no disposition to deprive 
 them of it. The voting franchise in this state is 
 now about as universal as it well can be. It is legal 
 to all people of mature age, irrespective of sex, 
 or color, who have lived in the state a sufficient 
 length of time. The power of this great body of 
 voters has been greatly enlarged by the law giv- 
 ing it the right of the referendum, and initiative, 
 and the recall. The new charter of the City of 
 Pueblo increases that power, so that here we have 
 in reality "a government by the people, of the 
 people, and for the people," to a much larger ex- 
 tent than in most other communities. So much 
 power brings a corresponding responsibility, 
 which requires for its proper exercise the utmost 
 care and study. Such enlarged rights and powers 
 present a condition which will produce the higher 
 type of manhood, and the most satisfactory op- 
 portunities for individual achievement. 
 
REMARKS MADE AT THE SEMI-CENTENNIAL 
 
 RE-UNION AT CLERMONT ACADEMY 
 
 OF OHIO IN 1887 
 
 (This academy was established in 1837 by 
 James K. Parker, who was still the principal of 
 the school at this reunion. It was beautifully 
 located on the Ohio river, twenty miles east of 
 Cincinnati, Ohio, in Clermont County. The writer 
 attended this school for three years during his 
 boyhood. He remembers it now with great af- 
 fection.) 
 
 In 1829 Carlyle called this a mechanical age. 
 If he lived at the present time he would still ad- 
 here to that definition. For while the steam en- 
 gine had at that time been invented, electricity 
 was not yet under control and no Edison had actu- 
 ally made a profession of electrical invention. So 
 much has been done in material progress in the 
 last fifty years, that not only do we cross the con- 
 tinents and oceans by machinery, but all business, 
 all professions and our very senses are run by it. 
 Hearing has been enlarged beyond the sphere of 
 vision by the telephone, while the phonograph and 
 the graphophone convey our voices and speech 
 to the remotest points of the compass. The heat 
 
266 RANCH LIFE 
 
 that warms us and the light that turns night into 
 day are produced by machinery. We have what 
 are called machine governments, machine politics, 
 and too much machine religion. Education is get- 
 ting to be too mechanical. The public school suf- 
 fers by machine politics. Letter writing is done 
 by machinery, though it is not conceivable that a 
 real sympathetic love letter such as we composed 
 in old times, say thirty-five years ago, could be 
 dictated to a short hand expert or struck off by the 
 private secretary on the typewriter. The grapho- 
 phone might do for this purpose, for with this one 
 not only conveys the language of affection, but the 
 tones of the sympathetic voice without the inter- 
 position of a third person. 
 
 What strides has material progress made in 
 half a century! Geography has to be re-con- 
 structed every five years. Cities and states more 
 populous than any that existed fifty years ago, 
 outside of New York, have developed upon what 
 our school atlases taught us then was the great 
 American Desert. 
 
 Reading is now taught before spelling, though 
 the alphabet has not yet been abolished. Arith- 
 metic, I believe, remains about the same as then. 
 Two and two still make four. But the combina- 
 tions that are made with figures in these days 
 were unheard of in our school days. The differ- 
 ential rates of common carriers ; the figuring that 
 shows it is worth much more to haul a short dis- 
 
CLERMONT ACADEMY 267 
 
 tance on a railroad than a long one; that a man 
 who lives like a millionaire may yet have no prop- 
 erty to tax are problems untaught in our simpler 
 times. Writing with pen and ink will soon be a 
 lost art. 
 
 Now if the three Rs are superseded, what will 
 be left worth going to school for? How much 
 above these do many of us who left school thirty- 
 four years ago remember? Have we looked in our 
 algebras and chemistries since? Can we still dem- 
 onstrate the problems of Euclid or repeat the 
 Greek alphabet ? Yes ! Those of us who were fortu- 
 nate enough to attend Clermont Academy have 
 something more than these to remember. There 
 are some truths which the Moloch of machinery is 
 unable to "crush to earth." It is possible for mech- 
 anism of man to produce a perfectly formed grain 
 of wheat, or a tree that would be as beautiful as 
 nature produces ; but it is impossible for it to give 
 to either the power to grow. 
 
 So there is in the brain of man a something 
 that is the same today that it was fifty years ago 
 and will be the same forever. Changes may be 
 never so rapid in the material world they do not 
 satisfy the cravings of this inner man. It is 
 reached only by the fundamental, moral and altru- 
 istic truths that remain unchanged from age to 
 age. 
 
 These were taught us at Clermont Academy 
 day by day so that in after years when our weary 
 
268 RANCH LIFE 
 
 feet came to two paths well worn by those who 
 had gone before, one leading to the right and the 
 other to the wrong, the lessons here taught were 
 with us like guardian angels to guide us in the 
 right way. 
 
REMARKS UPON JAMES K. PARKER 
 AND WIFE, 1901 
 
 The following letter fully explains itself : 
 
 May 27, 1901. 
 
 Your surmise was correct. I was surprised to 
 receive your invitation to give an address at the 
 unveiling of the monument to James K. Parker, 
 which now serves as a memorial to both him and 
 his wife. 
 
 I cannot express in words sufficiently strong 
 my regret that another engagement will prevent 
 my acceptance. It is a rare opportunity for one 
 who holds these two in such high esteem, to meet 
 again and perhaps for the last time, his fellow 
 students of Clermont Academy and tell them what 
 great influence the teachings of these devoted, 
 pure and self-sacrificing Christians, have had for 
 forty-six eventful years upon his life and char- 
 acter. It has been that length of time since I 
 stepped from the door of the little brick school 
 house in the valley of Boat Run, carrying with me 
 out into the world beyond, what proved, unknown 
 then to me, a pure and fragrant memory of the 
 happiest years of my boyhood. In the innocence 
 
270 RANCH LIFE 
 
 of my youth, I then imagined that the store of 
 facts, gleaned by hard study from the pages of 
 Ray's second part Algebra, Pinneo's Analytical 
 Grammar, Parker's Aids to English Composition, 
 Caesar's Latin Commentaries, Bullion's Greek 
 Reader, Davies' Legendre and Somebody's Chem- 
 istry, would be the mental equipment that would 
 smooth the pathway up the heights of success. 
 
 Yet I am exceedingly sorry that I shall be un- 
 able to confess at the foot of this monument to 
 the students of the present time who may be there 
 assembled on June 27th, that this conception of 
 what part of the school work stays by the mature 
 man is a delusion. I have forgotten the little 
 Latin I ever knew, cannot repeat the Greek Alpha- 
 bet, and this reply to your kind invitation will 
 prove to you that "Aids to English Composition" 
 did not aid. 
 
 At one time, Dr. Charles Parker gave his lec- 
 tures on anatomy. I met him thirty-two years 
 after. He could not recall that he had ever de- 
 livered these lectures and I could not tell him the 
 substance of them. I even have doubts about the 
 correctness of the titles above given of the text 
 books then used. But if these intellectual aids 
 have not abided what is the persistent influence 
 upon after-life that has made so distinct and 
 sweet the memory of these beloved teachers? 
 
 It was the constant example of their upright 
 walk and their oral daily teaching of ethics and 
 
JAMBS K. PARKER 271 
 
 morality, more as a casual adjunct to the regular 
 curriculum, than as a required study. For ex- 
 ample, it was the habit of the teacher to write 
 upon the blackboard each day some questions in 
 business or social ethics and ask for voluntary 
 answers in writing. These set in motion trains of 
 altruistic thought that have never since ceased 
 moving. The answer to these blackboard ques- 
 tions have been constantly demanded in the prac- 
 tical routine of daily life ever since, and must be 
 given correctly by every one, whether he has had 
 the lessons at school or not, or the better traits of 
 manhood may be lost and life may become a fail- 
 ure. 
 
 It is well known that these teachers were thor- 
 oughly saturated with the love of all mankind, ir- 
 respective of race, color or sex. The brotherhood 
 of man was to them a living principle. These 
 facts were constantly before the eyes of all their 
 students. Those who were impressed by them 
 never forgot them. So that the lesson of the lives 
 of these teachers is that while the intellectual 
 training of our schools is of the utmost value in 
 giving birth to dynamic thought, yet the details 
 of the text books fade away as character is 
 formed. The truth that persists is the funda- 
 mental ethics of conduct, which fits into that sub- 
 tle thing called manhood. I remain, 
 Very truly yours, 
 
THE SENSIBLE CHINESE 
 
 It is very interesting to call attention to the 
 sensible manner in which the Chinese have late- 
 ly changed their form of government. The Chi- 
 nese empire has been always represented as abso- 
 lute and tyrannical. It is generally conceived 
 that the people of China have been heretofore en- 
 tirely devoted to the imperial dynasty, and that 
 they are a people so confirmed and fixed in their 
 beliefs and habits that no change in their form of 
 government could be reasonably anticipated. But 
 the sudden rise of political rebellion in certain 
 provinces, and the rapid spread of a republican 
 feeling, followed by organized armies, to make 
 practical the reform desired, have astonished the 
 world. There has been considerable fighting be- 
 tween these armed forces of democracy and the 
 imperial army; but the final victory has been on 
 the side of rebellion. The Royal Highness soon 
 discovered that it could not depend upon its own 
 soldiers, who were imbued with the new ideas, 
 and that the people throughout the country were, 
 by an overwhelming majority, in favor of abolish- 
 ing the reigning dynasty, and establishing in its 
 
THE SENSIBLE CHINESE 273 
 
 place a president and legislature elected by the 
 people. Now has come the news that the emperor 
 and his family have acually abdicated, thus as- 
 suring to the people the most important revolution 
 that has ever taken place in China. 
 
 It may be well enough for us to wait a suf- 
 ficient time for the testing of the new order of 
 administration, before making up our minds that 
 so important a change in oriental government will 
 become actually established. The intention of this 
 article is to express belief that the Chinese people 
 are too intelligent as a nation, their intellects are 
 too keen, to inaugurate such a reform, without 
 the necessary will power and practical sense to 
 make it permanent. It depends, of course, entire- 
 ly upon the character of those upon whom the 
 voting franchise may rest, whether a representa- 
 tive form of government can be maintained. But 
 the republican form of government will undoubt- 
 edly become permanent, unless those who take the 
 reins of the new government find by experience, 
 that some modification, on account of the peculiar 
 mentality of the people, may be necessary. 
 
 It would naturallyappear to an American, or 
 to an Englishman, or to any European, that the 
 agreement entered into between the leaders of 
 the republican movement and the imperialists, 
 namely : that the emperor and his household shall 
 live in the boundaries of China, be protected in 
 persons and property, and have a large pension 
 
274 RANCH LIFE 
 
 from the new government, is an unwise and 
 menacing arrangement. The white man's way, 
 formerly, of doing such things is to behead, or 
 exile, all pretenders to thrones. Contrast not only 
 this feature of oriental revolution, but the whole 
 proceeding since the republicans marshalled their 
 forces at Nanking and sent their demands to 
 Peking for the abdication of the emperor, to the 
 present time, with the course, of Cromwell in the 
 English Revolution, but more aptly still with the 
 French Revolution of 1790. Both the English and 
 French were cruel and brutal on both sides of 
 their long and bloody wars. Charles I was be- 
 headed and his son exiled; Louis XVI and Marie 
 Antoinette were both guillotined and their young 
 son killed. And after all the senseless sacrifice 
 of human lives, done that liberty and equality 
 might reign in those Christian lands, the mon- 
 archy was finally re-established in both nations. 
 How comparatively bloodless and peaceful has 
 been the same struggle in the ancient and heathen 
 China ; and how much more according to the true 
 interpretation of the Golden Rule, have the fol- 
 lowers, not of Christ, but of Confucius, brought 
 about the recognition of the right of man to gov- 
 ern himself. 
 
 A people who will cherish and protect their 
 monarch after forcing him with so little show of 
 actual compulsion to abdicate in favor of a re- 
 public, are not likely through sheer weakness in 
 
THE SENSIBLE CHINESE 275 
 
 themselves to re-establish that monarch in power 
 again. These Chinese people who we have not 
 heretofore looked upon as being as worthy as the 
 white races, have certainly shown themselves not 
 inferior in very many respects, but especially in 
 their last masterly and fundamental achievement 
 they are entitled to our respect and admiration. 
 They have given us, also, added cause to feel 
 prouder of our own form of government in the 
 fact that the new president and cabinet of China 
 have declared that they will model their constitu- 
 tion and laws after those of the United States. It 
 is to be hoped they will administer them better. 
 The seed of democracy has been planted in a soil 
 heretofore considered fruitful only of the most 
 abject and absolute imperialism. 
 
TWENTY-FIRST WISCONSIN 
 REGIMENTAL ASSOCIATION 
 
 Dear Comrades of the Twenty-First Wisconsin 
 Infantry : I am glad that I was mustered into the 
 United States military service just fifty years ago 
 with the Twenty-first Wisconsin Infantry. There 
 are several good reasons for this feeling. The 
 most cogent of them, for the present purpose of 
 this paper, is that it has given me a social rela- 
 tion to the surviving members of the regiment 
 which has grown in intensity as the years have 
 so rapidly flown, and has, also, become brighter 
 as the number of the survivors have become less. 
 It is to me very regretful that our social relation- 
 ship has not been one of a more personal touch. 
 It would have been more delightful to me had I 
 been so situated during these fifty years that I 
 could have grasped the hands and daily seen the 
 light of the eyes of my comrades, as neighbors, 
 living side by side. Yet memory and imagination 
 are quickened and made real by absence, when 
 that absence is vivified by occasional communica- 
 tion and annual reunions. One consolation for 
 absence is that it is sad and pathetic to daily see 
 each other grow old and tottering down the de- 
 cline of life. When I see a comrade growing old, 
 it is remindful that I look the same to him that 
 
WARLETTER 277 
 
 he does to me. I prefer to remember you as young 
 men with eager enthusiasm holding up your right 
 hands at the muster-in in the ranks, to pledge 
 your best service to your government in the war. 
 But it is philosophic and grateful to be cheerful 
 and resigned in the face of the inevitable havoc 
 time makes in our lives. What is without remedy 
 should be without regard. When we thoroughly 
 learn that the succession of those phenomena, 
 which we are in the habit of calling birth, life and 
 death, are natural, necessary and unavoidable, we 
 throw regrets and complainings to the winds. In 
 fact, old age should be the most profitable part of 
 life, for then we are in the maturity of our mental 
 powers, and wealthy in experience and moral dis- 
 cipline. At that time should come leisure to think 
 of those things most congenial to us. Memory, 
 then, of the occurrences of early life is the bright- 
 est and best. The delight of action, which gave 
 youth so much pleasure, in old age is replaced by 
 the more peaceful and delicious exercise of con- 
 templation and recollection. So every time of life 
 has its compensations, those of our time being the 
 sweetest and brightest. 
 
 It is certain that we can all recall the vivid 
 scenes through which we passed, and the panor- 
 amic and spectacular ones of the Civil War, more 
 vividly now than we ever could before. Those 
 who were present at Camp Bragg, in Oshkosh, on 
 the 5th of September, 1862, can see, in memory, 
 
278 RANCH LIFE 
 
 as plain as they did on that memorable day, by the 
 actual vision, the full ranks of the regiment drawn 
 up in line, taking the oath to serve faithfully, as 
 soldiers, the United States of America. From 
 that day until you were mustered out at Mil- 
 waukee, June 17, 1865, you were the active par- 
 ticipants, constantly at the front, in a war un- 
 equalled in history for its magnitude and for what 
 it accomplished. You started out to prevent a 
 dissolution of the nation and came back triumph- 
 ant. How different it would have been if you had 
 returned unsuccessful! I have said above that 
 the love I bear for the survivors of the Twenty- 
 first Wisconsin Regimental Association is the 
 most cogent reason for being glad of my service 
 with the regiment. The second reason is my pride 
 in the record the regiment made in the war. It 
 would merely be a repetition of what I have so 
 often written and spoken to you in the past, should 
 I undertake to recite those splendid services. 
 Your record is far above the average, you being 
 one of the 282 regiments which made the greatest 
 sacrifice of life on the field of battle. You were, 
 during your whole term of service, always at the 
 front. You were never at a post in the rear, or 
 the garrison of a fort, or guard to a railroad. 
 From the time you struck the enemy on Oct. 8, 
 1862, at Perryville, Kentucky, a little over a month 
 from muster-in, you were always up against and 
 pursuing him. From Perryville you pushed on 
 
WARLETTER 279 
 
 to Stone's River, thence on the Tellahoma cam- 
 paign and to Chickamauga. After the battle of 
 Chickamauga followed Lookout Mountain and 
 Missionary Ridge. Then came the terrible cam- 
 paign for Atlanta, in which you bore a most dis- 
 tinguished part, losing one-third of your number, 
 in a battle of four months' duration, and tri- 
 umphantly marching into Atlanta Sept. 8, 1864, 
 just two years and three days after being mus- 
 tered in. From Atlanta you followed Hood's army 
 back to Chattanooga, and then turned your faces 
 to the east and marched to Savannah by Dec. 12, 
 
 1864. On that and the following campaign 
 through the Carolinas, in the winter of 1864 and 
 '65, you were always in presence of the enemy. 
 He could not stop your triumphant march, nor 
 much delay the inevitable end, but in his despera- 
 tion he struck you again on the 19th of March, 
 
 1865, at Bentonville, North Carolina, in a battle 
 which ended his career, but not until many of our 
 brave men fought their last fight. This battle 
 proved not only the last fight for those who were 
 killed on that field, but for all of us, and for the 
 enemy. Lee soon surrendered at Appomattox and 
 this was followed by that of the Confederate army 
 to our forces near Durham, North Carolina. Trac- 
 ing thus, in your own minds, your career from its 
 beginning to its final ending, you can see what a 
 large factor the Twenty-first Wisconsin Infantry 
 was in the active front movements for nearly 
 
280 RANCH LIFE 
 
 three years. Wherever the Army of the Cumber- 
 land went, and whatever it did in that time, there 
 this regiment also went and did. It is a record to 
 be proud of, and fifty years after your muster-in 
 is a fitting time to celebrate it and publish that 
 record to the world. You lost 350 killed and 
 wounded and 183 from the exposure and the 
 necessary consequences of such arduous cam- 
 paigns. Our grief goes out to those who were the 
 sacrifice. They were heroes. It was through them 
 that the triumph was made possible. It was a 
 bitter sacrifice for their families to make. But 
 we must look also at what was gained for our 
 country and for mankind at large, in return for 
 these precious lives. Time has healed the wounds 
 and many of the survivors have passed away, but 
 our great country goes on by the impetus that the 
 Union army, with your aid, gave it fifty years 
 ago, and will go on forever. That war eradicated 
 the only deadly germs that were feeding at the 
 vitals of our country and menacing its life, send- 
 ing it forth upon a career of health and prosperity 
 that will compensate for all the sacrifices made. 
 What you did then is recorded in our history and 
 will never be forgotten by the lovers of free gov- 
 ernments everywhere. Man is benefitted and 
 made happy, not by what he receives, but by what 
 he gives. 
 
 With great affection, I remain. 
 
 Your old comrade, 
 
THE MOCKING BIRD 
 
 Los Angeles, California, May 27th, 1903. 
 
 Every morning and evening a mocking bird 
 saturates the air near my sleeping room with such 
 notes as only that species of bird can make. At 
 first I thought he was a tame bird in a cage ; but 
 I soon caught sight of him sitting on the arm of 
 a telephone pole, as if to send by wire to other 
 peoples the exquisite music of his song. He would 
 occasionally fly up so gracefully, all the time sing- 
 ing, until it would seem that his little throat would 
 wear out its mechanism. Yet he never tired. I 
 listened and watched, and watched and listened. 
 I wondered where he learned all his various notes 
 and gamuts! They seemed infinite and without 
 limit in either high or low octave. If he has no 
 song of his own I wonder where he learned the 
 boundless variety, the illimitable trills and quav- 
 ers, the medley of all bird song ? Then the timbre ! 
 One note was sufficient to inform the hearer that 
 this could be only the mocking bird. He never 
 dwelt long on any bird's solo. The harmonious 
 blending of melodies, with the most elaborate 
 variations, required the undivided attention of 
 the listener to distinguish the mocking of other 
 
282 RANCH LIFE 
 
 birds from what would seem to be the original 
 song of songs. 
 
 Has this spirit of song the gift of telepathy 
 by which he instinctively imitates the bird music 
 of the continent ? Has he the throat structure, in 
 combination, of all song birds? Or is it true that 
 spirits do exist and that this is the embodiment of 
 the spirit of the bird orchestra of the globe? He 
 is as graceful in body and movement as he is in 
 music. His wings rise and fall in perfect rhythm 
 with his notes, filling the eye as well as ear of the 
 enchanted beholder with the most exquisite be- 
 wilderment. When watching and listening I think 
 of Shelley's "Ode to a Sky Lark/' 'That singing 
 still doth soar, and soaring ever singest." Yet 
 that bird had only one song. Here is one which 
 has that and all others. And he sings that better 
 than can the sky-lark. He sings the songs of all 
 birds more enchantingly than they do. 
 
 Here in Los Angeles, he seems to dwell in con- 
 genial surroundings. This city is named after 
 the Angels. The birds are perhaps the only real 
 unselfish angels that ever existed here and as near 
 what angels should be as anything that ever exist- 
 ed. The angels of theology are about as useless 
 an invention as we could think of. But here in 
 the mocking bird is an angel of song, whose ex- 
 istence is real, whose presense and music entrance, 
 who carries the listening mortal to a subjective 
 world of beauty and joy while yet his feet are 
 
THE MOCKING BIRD 283 
 
 left to rest on the good mother earth and where 
 this real angel of song leaves him to enjoy in 
 addition to the mocking bird's heaven of music 
 also the divinity of the gorgeous flowers, trees, 
 blue sky and the ever restless flow of the Pacific's 
 breakers. I wonder how many of the hundred 
 thousand pairs of ears and eyes of this city could 
 appreciate the significance of this application of 
 the phrase, "Los Angeles." 
 
 I should think that this little wee sprite of 
 melody, did he know anything except the quintes- 
 sence of harmony, would scorn his human sur- 
 roundings whose ears seem attuned only to the 
 music of the dollar. In another sense than the 
 imitation of the songs of other warblers, this 
 "mocking bird" should be a real mocker of the 
 sordid environment of a city and hie himself away 
 to the real beauties of more tropical climes, un- 
 haunted by the human race, where his lofty un- 
 selfish music would be in more harmonious keep- 
 ing with untainted nature, heard only by his own 
 species, for whom he intends it. Still, here, he 
 sings apparently unconscious of his surroundings 
 and careless whether human ears are enraptured 
 and human hearts gladdened, so that his bird mate 
 is made happy thereby. His instinct is to sing his 
 best, knowing that no note is lost. It fits some- 
 where in the natural correlation of all organic 
 life. What is most beautiful, is also perhaps the 
 most useful. Then sing on, thou rhythmic angel 
 
284 RANCH LIFE 
 
 of harmony! In any setting, whether in wilder- 
 ness or city, you are worth a thousand miles of 
 desert journeying to see and hear! There will 
 always be some hearts and ears, either of bird 
 or man, to be enraptured by thee and to such you 
 will be constantly creating a new earth which will 
 thus become also the only real heaven ! 
 
EMINENT MEN OF THE PAST 
 
 A certain writer has compiled "A Statistical 
 Study of Eminent Men." The author has tabu- 
 lated one thousand names of historical men in the 
 order of prominence in history and biography. 
 He does not pretend that they are the greatest 
 men, for there are many very mediocre char- 
 acters whose prominence is accidental, such as 
 kings, etc. 
 
 He has arranged the names by hundreds put- 
 ting the most eminent in the first hundred and the 
 next most eminent in the second hundred so on 
 down to the tenth hundred. Each hundred is ar- 
 ranged on the same principle the one of the 
 greatest prominence being placed first. It is a 
 very curious and instructive list; not so much for 
 the value of the names themselves as for the 
 photograph it gives of the thoughts and mental 
 tendencies of the average people whose opinions 
 give prominence to men and things. 
 
 The list says in plainest import : "We, the mak- 
 ers of books and the recorders of the ideas of the 
 people of the civilized world, give here the names 
 of those men, now deceased, whom we and the 
 people regard as the real leaders and makers of 
 
286 RANCH LIFE 
 
 our civilization. These are the men whom we 
 choose to honor. They are the reflex of our views 
 and of the degree of evolution of our intellects 
 from the lower order from which generic man has 
 descended." 
 
 Napoleon I comes first and Shakespeare sec- 
 ond. War, in its most aggressive and unjust as- 
 pects comes before literature in its highest expres- 
 sion of complex metaphysical and historical 
 thought. 
 
 Thirty-two Americans are mentioned in the 
 catalogue. In the first hundred are Washington, 
 Lincoln, Franklin and Jefferson, in the order 
 named; in the second hundred, Grant, John Ad- 
 ams, Webster; in the third hundred, Alexander 
 Hamilton and Andrew Jackson; fourth hundred, 
 Longfellow, Prescott, Channing, Washington Irv- 
 ing, Sherman; fifth hundred, Emerson, Seward, 
 Madison, Farragut, J. Q. Adams; sixth hundred, 
 Hawthorne, James Fennimore Cooper, Tom Paine, 
 Lee and Garrison; seventh hundred, Henry Clay; 
 eighth hundred, Patrick Henry, Fulton, Sumner, 
 Parker, P. H. Sheridan ; and in the ninth hundred, 
 Bonner and Monroe. 
 
 Of this list Lincoln, Grant, Sherman, Farra- 
 gut, Lee and Sheridan were made famous by the 
 Civil War, for as above indicated, the list includes 
 the names of those most written about, not the 
 greatest or noblest. 
 
 If the names were placed in the order of bene- 
 
BMINENTMEN 287 
 
 fits to the human race done by these men, Na- 
 poleon could not come first, nor even Shakespeare 
 second. In accordance with this idea Copernicus, 
 Newton and Darwin should be at the head. Watt 
 is not mentioned at all and Arkwright is obscure. 
 Cromwell, by far the greatest ruler England ever 
 had, is obscure. 
 
 The list shows that literature, at least history 
 and biography, have been subservient to political 
 and ruling power. Warriors and kings and those 
 who write most approvingly of them are not the 
 great or noble men of the world, but rather those 
 who, like Cromwell, broke their power. The 
 author of the Magna Charta of England, and of 
 the Declaration of Independence in the United 
 States, the makers of laws for the curbing of 
 tyranny and the protection of the rights of the 
 people are the true heroes who should be most 
 written about, and receive the highest honors. 
 
 Columbus should rank high but the discoverers 
 of great natural truths that emancipate the in- 
 tellects of the people from the grip of superstition 
 and delusion are the greatest Copernicus, New- 
 ton and Darwin. 
 
 In the sixth hundred, Robert E. Lee is sand- 
 wiched between Tom Paine and William Lloyd 
 Garrison. If there were any method by which 
 Lee's supposed spirit could revisit the earth it 
 undoubtedly would undergo a very long journey 
 to protest against being crowded on one side by 
 
288 RANCH LIFE 
 
 the author of "The Age of Reason" and on the 
 other by the original abolitionist who, according 
 to Confederate belief, did what he could to bring 
 on the Civil War. 
 
 The list although compiled by the author is not 
 his creation ; it is the unconscious and undesigned 
 concensus of the literary world, a segregation as 
 natural as that which occurs when the action of 
 water carries the mountain tops and sides to a 
 lower level. The heaviest boulders are precipi- 
 tated first and are covered by regular layers of 
 those less and less in size and weight, the finest 
 and lightest being on top in the form of soil. 
 
 No two individuals using their own intellect- 
 ual preferences would compile the same list of 
 names in the same order. A theologian would 
 give prominence to those men whose line of 
 thought and action is such as he is most interested 
 in and which he thinks is of the most importance 
 to the welfare of mankind. A scientist would 
 naturally differ from the theologian and place 
 Copernicus and Darwin high on the list. A states- 
 man would place first on the list the names of 
 those who have controlled the politics of the world. 
 The financier and the business man would make 
 still another order of merit. 
 
 But here is a list taken from the opinions ex- 
 pressed by all these classes combined and ar- 
 ranged impartially by an able author and thinker 
 who says that he himself would not put Napoleon 
 
EM INENT MEN 289 
 
 at the head. It would be exceedingly difficult to 
 compile such a list of those who have been of the 
 greatest benefit to mankind. The relative merits 
 of men of ideas and men of affairs, of the discov- 
 erers of new abstract truths and of inventors of 
 applied science and mechanics, would be difficult 
 to determine. Who is the greater Copernicus, 
 or Newton, or Darwin, or Watt, or Arkwright? 
 He who discovers the indestructibility of matter 
 or the persistence of force, or he who teaches the 
 world that all men are equal before the law ? Was 
 it greater to fight the successful battles against 
 tyrants, or to write the Magna Charta or the 
 Declaration of Independence? 
 
 It seems the writers of history, biography and 
 of current literature generally lay greater stress 
 upon and give more prominence to a successful 
 warrior and to a warrior for conquest. This will 
 not be the case when war passes away by the evo- 
 lution of the higher intellect of men, and arbitra- 
 tion settles the differences of nations. How dif- 
 ferent will a list of this kind be made up a thou- 
 sand years from now, when man's ideas will have 
 changed upon the question of evolution and the- 
 ology. In a thousand years from now the knowl- 
 edge and beliefs of mankind will have so far ad- 
 vanced in science, especially in the investigation 
 of natural phenomena, that the ideas and opinions 
 at present entertained will be correspondingly 
 modified. The time will come when the people will 
 
290 RANCH LIFE 
 
 see that real power proceeds not from kings and 
 rulers downward, but from the people upward. 
 Kings and hereditary rulers will not absorb all 
 thought and attention. Greatness then must be 
 recognized, not as abiding in those who cultivate 
 fear and duress, but rather in men who confer 
 upon mankind real benefits however humble they 
 may be. He who does most to hasten the day when 
 men will seek truth alone and do the right for the 
 right's sake will then be not only the greatest but 
 the most eminent. 
 
DEATH AND THE SOUL 
 
 It would seem, figuratively speaking, that a 
 race is going on in the organic world between life 
 and its apparent rival, death. So far life has the 
 advantage in the human race, but if the tempera- 
 ture of the earth from which we draw all that con- 
 tributes to what is called our physical life, if not 
 all there is in the organic, shall fall only a trifle 
 more, all life would quietly cease. Physicists tell 
 us that the earth is very gradually cooling. If the 
 diameter of the sun is lessening year by year and 
 the shell of the earth growing thicker, it does not 
 require the scientific knowledge of the expert to 
 tell us that sometime solar heat, the probable 
 source of all life, will fail to give just the right 
 quantity and quality. President Jordan has said 
 that if a thermometer could be constructed long 
 enough to measure all the probable variations of 
 the temperature of the universe, the space marked 
 thereon in which life on this globe is possible 
 would be infinitesimal. Undoubtedly if a calendar 
 of eons in which this universe has existed in some 
 form could be constructed and so subdivided as to 
 be comprehensible by man, the minute space 
 
292 RANCH LIFE 
 
 thereon indicating the period in which life in any 
 of its present forms could continue to exist would 
 be hardly perceptible to the human eye. So that 
 what is of immense importance, viz.: ourselves 
 and our relation to space and time, is of the small- 
 est consequence when once we realize our true re- 
 lation to the universe. These facts are worth 
 knowing. But they do not lead us to neglect the 
 care we should take of ourselves and of our civili- 
 zation. 
 
 Death is a phenomenon no more mysterious 
 than life, or many of the functions of either the 
 organic or inorganic worlds. More mysterious is 
 it that as the earth revolves on its axis we do not 
 drop into space. The power of gravitation hold- 
 ing like a vice the atoms of all globes and the liv- 
 ing organisms on their surface to what is called 
 their centers of gravity, is more mysterious than 
 any phenomenon connected with either life or 
 death. So it is with every operation of natural 
 law. Spencer says that, life is the integration of 
 matter and the dissipation of motion and that 
 death is the reverse of this. At first reading this 
 definition does not seem to mean anything to most 
 of us. This because we have been taught that 
 death is not purely a natural process, but an in- 
 vented excresence, intended to punish man for 
 some ancestral sin and that it can be avoided by a 
 devised propitiation. But intellectual men have 
 not been quite content with this definition and 
 
DEATH AND THE SOUL 293 
 
 what is called scientific investigation (that is, 
 "close observation, frequently repeated so as to 
 eliminate the possibility of erroneous seeing; ex- 
 periments checked and controlled in every direc- 
 tion in which fallacies might arise; continuous 
 reflection on appearances and phenomena ob- 
 served, and logically reasoning out their meaning 
 and the conclusions to be drawn from them"), 
 has culminated in the Spencerian definition, which 
 means that death, like life, is a phase of the per- 
 petual interchange of matter and motion that al- 
 ways has gone on and always will go on through- 
 out the universe. The sadness, the grief, the tears 
 and bitterness of human beings now attending 
 death can be overcome by a true knowledge of the 
 natural necessity for death; the victory of the 
 grave is a delusion in an intellectual sense, because 
 death is a natural phenomenon of the reversal of 
 the life processes plainly seen by the eye of science 
 as unavoidable and necessary. In other words, 
 man should not cease dying a natural death. The 
 postponement of it to the last necessary hour, 
 however, is now the life-work of the physician 
 and should be the most important study of each 
 individual. When this is done, then the individual 
 himself is reconciled, yea, even longs for the con- 
 summation and his friends will then see that emo- 
 tion of grief is not a logical result of a desirable 
 and inevitable and benevolent law of nature. When 
 man shall comprehend all the laws of his being, 
 
294 RANCH LIFE 
 
 when he comes to see that his well-being absolute- 
 ly depends on the degree of perfection of his 
 knowledge of and correspondence with nature 
 and her laws, the length of his life, probably can 
 be very greatly prolonged ; at least until the weak- 
 ness of old age makes life a burden and death only 
 a relief. 
 
 Human emotion and faith say, "The Lord 
 giveth and the Lord taketh; blessed be the name 
 of the Lord." This means that whatever occurs in 
 the perpetual aparition constantly before the hu- 
 man senses; that is, in nature, is right in the be- 
 liefs of the people because a Providence creates 
 the elements of the apparition and rules all the 
 manifestations. The most accurate thought of 
 the scientist concurs in the results thus reached 
 by theology, viz. : that whatever occurs in nature 
 is not only right in itself, but for the best welfare 
 of the human race. Therefore, to the scientific 
 eye, death being a natural objective process, what- 
 ever else it may be, is also a necessary process for 
 the good of the human race. In other words life 
 and death are surely only different phases of the 
 same objective phenomenon. Man is born not 
 only into life but unto death. His chief function 
 seems to be to continue the life of the race. When 
 he has accomplished this natural process, it seems 
 to be a law running through the whole organic 
 realm that he must change his form and thus give 
 place and opportunity to his offspring to continue 
 
DEATH AND THE SOUL 296 
 
 the perpetual round and perhaps a continual 
 progress, not in each incident but in the aggre- 
 gate. Innumerable lower organisms die in the 
 process of producing new life. In these instances, 
 however, the new organisms not being very com- 
 plex, are self-supporting from birth. But with 
 heterogeneous man, natural death comes after 
 years of care for new offspring; this care being 
 necessary to defend and nurture the weakness in- 
 herent in the heterogeneousness. The long years 
 of prolongation of human infancy generate what 
 we call altruism, the love and beneficences that 
 manifest the functions of what we call the soul. 
 
 This word "soul" is another term that in any 
 treatise upon death demands consideration. The 
 idea seems to have had its origin with Socrates, 
 only about five hundred years before Christ. It is 
 curious not only to study the origin and evolution 
 of the word, but the various definitions now and 
 heretofore attached to it. It did not have a theo- 
 logical nor a Christian origin. The Hebrew the- 
 ology which did not include it, if it recognized im- 
 mortality at all, applied it to the body which was 
 to be resurrected. Socrates thought soul was an 
 entity that survived the body. The consensus of 
 theological thought seems now to have adopted the 
 same view and settled upon a belief that some- 
 where in the human organism existing in an un- 
 defined shape, is something that will continue in- 
 dividual conscious existence after death. It is 
 
296 RANCHLIFE 
 
 not claimed that it is founded on more than faith 
 and hope. For even so sincere a believer in the 
 orthodox Christian doctrines as Professor Joseph 
 Le Conte, a scientific evolutionist of the first-class, 
 says that nothing in the operations of the highest 
 human brain can be perceived by the best scien- 
 tific investigations, but molecular motion. Yet, 
 science in the person of its most advanced and 
 radical representative, Professor Ernst Haeckel, 
 adopts the word "soul," a term whose birth was 
 Pagan and whose sacredness and human exclusive- 
 ness have been vitalized by Christianity. Prof. 
 Haeckel gives it a far wider and even a cosmic ap- 
 plication. He claims there is not only a world- 
 soul, but that each atom of matter throughout in- 
 finite space has a soul of its own that will never 
 die; that is, the atom and its soul are both im- 
 mortal. While theologians believe in the immor- 
 tality of the conscious individual, science teaches 
 an objective immortality of the atoms and their 
 souls. These souls of atoms being units of cos- 
 mical energy and the atoms being units of matter 
 are both indestructible. It is evident, however, 
 that the two conceptions of immortality are quite 
 different in meaning. Thus we have the double 
 assertion of both faith and science that there is an 
 immortality; that while dissolution inevitably 
 comes to the organism, it is simply a change of 
 form, never annihilation. 
 
DEATH 
 
 There are two views of death worth mention- 
 ing. One is the theological view that it was im- 
 posed by an all-wise Creator on account of the 
 sins of mankind and that when life ceases there is 
 a spiritual form in shape like the body and en- 
 dowed with consciousness that survives in some 
 way and abides somewhere. It is not claimed by 
 theology that any other life-forms than those of 
 human beings have a spirit form. 
 
 But all organisms, both animal and vegetable, 
 are constantly being born and are always dying. 
 So that the theological theory of death is not broad 
 enough to cover the facts of life and death. A 
 theory that is not all inclusive does not long re- 
 main satisfactory. A few men of penetrating in- 
 tellects there always are in this world who have 
 the power to delve to the bottom of nature's laws, 
 who are also willing to concede existing theories 
 until the facts of phenomena establish a broader 
 and more probable one. It has been so in the in- 
 vestigations of the facts of death. This phenom- 
 enon is so closely connected with the phenomenon 
 we call life, that in order to understand the one, 
 
298 RANCH LIFE 
 
 it is necessary to know also the visible factors of 
 the other. Hence biology, or the science of life, 
 has made wonderful advancement in the last half 
 century. 
 
 It is established that all life forms, from the 
 almost imperceptible lichen that makes only a lit- 
 tle colored spot on the exposed rocks on the tops of 
 mountains and in the Arctic regions, to the most 
 intellectual human being, are composed of just 
 two things, matter and motion; that matter is 
 what may be termed consolidated motion; that 
 motion is cosmic energy. Therefore, in their ulti- 
 mate meaning both are one. Two other facts 
 have also been established. Matter is indestructi- 
 ble and motion, or energy, is never lost and never 
 created. Therefore the term death does not apply 
 to these constituent elements of every organism. 
 Immortality is thus established for the only two 
 things that enter into the making up of all forms, 
 whether they are organic or inorganic. Matter 
 and motion make up the universe, that is, space 
 and its contents, so far as the human senses can 
 penetrate. Therefore all life forms, wherever they 
 exist, being only temporary combinations of these 
 two universal things, viz.: matter and motion, 
 have come into being by the condensation of that 
 matter and motion, which have been dissipated 
 from other life forms, that have ceased to exist, 
 that is, have died. 
 
 From this explanation, which is too condensed 
 
DEATH 299 
 
 in form, perhaps, to be very clear, it follows that 
 what we call death is only a change of form of 
 the matter and motion of the body and that the 
 essential things of which our bodies are composed, 
 never die. In this sense science agrees with the- 
 ology in the theory of immortality. There is a 
 constant succession of life forms on the globe 
 made possible only by the alternate phenomena we 
 call birth and death. Birth is not possible without 
 death. The two go hand in hand, the one as neces- 
 sary to existence as the other. This is the true 
 scientific meaning of death. It is part of and 
 necessary to life. It is not intended by this that 
 the death of a single organism is necessary to the 
 life of that organism. But the death of any organ- 
 ism is necessary to the life of the other organisms 
 that may subsequently be formed. There would be 
 no general succession of life on this globe, without 
 the death, at some time, of all the organisms that 
 come into existence. 
 
 If these statements are true there certainly is 
 a very important human lesson to be derived from 
 them. If they should become apparent to the ma- 
 jority of mankind then the present attitude to- 
 wards death must become greatly changed. Death 
 will be looked upon as natural and not mysterious. 
 If it is necessary in the support of life in the ag- 
 gregate, then in the abstract it should not be de- 
 plored. But notwithstanding these general prin- 
 ciples, we do deplore death, because it deprives us 
 
300 RANCH LIFE 
 
 of the society of our friends. It takes away 
 from us the pleasure of social and intellectual in- 
 tercourse with those we love. It will eventually 
 take us away from the pleasures, the sweetness 
 of life and reduce each of us to inorganic matter, 
 without motion. In these senses death will always 
 be repulsive to mankind. We love the blessed 
 springtime because it is the season of birth. Na- 
 ture is then bringing life into the world. On the 
 contrary winter is the season of death, when the 
 life forms that came into existence in the spring- 
 time are dead. Yet not forever dead. Springtime 
 follows the death of winter and new forms more 
 beautiful and more useful than the old ones again 
 gladden our senses. This succession could not oc- 
 cur unless death, the repulsive, abides side by 
 side with birth, the attractive and pleasure giving. 
 That is, without winter there would be no spring. 
 This theory of the necessary existence of that 
 phenomenon called death is in accordance with the 
 observed facts, in that great panorama, called 
 Nature. 
 
A SIXTH SENSE 
 
 ("Phychologists are tending toward a belief 
 that there is a sixth sense and that it is most im- 
 portant of all. That all men receive impressions 
 that do not come through seeing, smelling, tasting 
 or feeling, can hardly be denied. One meets a man 
 or woman and gets an impression that he or she 
 is honest or dishonest, selfish or benevolent, an 
 intriguer or open-minded, and the impression 
 comes through some other channel than the five 
 senses. 
 
 Then sometimes a whole community is ob- 
 sessed with one idea. It may be art, or a real 
 estate speculation, but all receive impressions 
 very much alike. This impression is not conveyed 
 to the brain by any of the five senses, yet it carries 
 as complete an idea as that of heat or cold 
 which is conveyed by the sense of feeling. Such 
 things have been called psychological waves, but 
 a psychological wave is not perceived by any one 
 of the five senses. The theory of a sixth sense 
 rests on much more substantial grounds than that 
 of 'the fourth dimension' over which there has 
 been much academic discussion" Omaha World- 
 Herald.) 
 
302 RANCH LIFE 
 
 No published work of an eminent psychologist 
 mentions a sixth sense. The paragraph quoted 
 above is likely a fair sample of the thoughts of 
 newspaper writers upon that subject and some 
 members of the literary clubs argue in favor of 
 telepathy being a sixth sense. Bnt there is no 
 foundation in science for such a proposition. The 
 writer quoted above is very unfortunate in his il- 
 lustrations. Notwithstanding he says the impres- 
 sions mentioned are not conveyed to the brain by 
 any of the five senses, yet they are so conveyed. 
 When one meets a fellow-being whatever impres- 
 sion he receives comes from the sense of sight. 
 However complicated or abstruse the consequent 
 conception, it is the result of sense impression, 
 calling up by the association cross nerve-fibers of 
 the brain previous impressions of a similar kind. 
 The image of the object seen and the association 
 image of former experience of the same kind, such 
 as the physical marks of the face, head, walk and 
 general mien of men, coalesce into an image on the 
 brain of the probable character of the person ob- 
 served. The subtle conceptions thus formed from 
 such impressions are frequently called intuitions, 
 but they are not a sixth sense. Intuition, how- 
 ever, comes from sense-impressions. Only the 
 person of considerable experience of sense impres- 
 sions ever has intuitions. Babes, being without 
 experience, have none. Instincts are inherited 
 sense-impressions of the race. The habits of birds, 
 
A SIXTH SENSE 303 
 
 in accurately catching flies or insects on first 
 emerging from their shells, or in nest building, 
 are the inherited tendencies of the race of birds 
 acquired in unknown centuries of time, from the 
 beginning of true bird life. Such instincts come 
 through the senses of the bird's ancestors. 
 
 The harmonious working together of the five 
 senses produces conception, sometimes so ob- 
 scurely connected with sense impressions that at 
 first view they appear to have no such connection. 
 But they always do have, and so far in the ex- 
 istence of the human race the five senses have 
 been amply sufficient for the evolution and per- 
 petuation of the race. Memory is the power of 
 the brain to recall the experiences of the past as 
 if they were present; and reason, which is the 
 power of seeing the unknown from the known, 
 may be said to present the future, as if present. 
 But both of these come to us only by the experi- 
 ences we have had through our senses and cannot 
 exist without ample former sense impressions. 
 All the powers of the brain are simply the result 
 of the correspondence of the brain through the 
 five senses with its environment. Some brains 
 have a very wide and complex environment; 
 others a narrow, simple one. The kind of corre- 
 spondence depends upon the power of the brain, 
 resulting from two sources, viz. : the inherited or- 
 gan and its education, through the five senses, by 
 schools, or by every day experience. John Stuart 
 
304 RANCH LIFE 
 
 Mill, the philosopher and logician, has said, "the 
 notion that truths external to the mind may be 
 known by intuition, or consciousness, independent- 
 ly of observation and experience, is, I am per- 
 suaded, in these times, the great intellectual sup- 
 port of false doctrines and institutions. By the 
 aid of this theory, every inveterate belief, and 
 every intense feeling, of which the origin is not 
 remembered, is enabled to dispense with the obli- 
 gation of justifying itself by reason." 
 
 William James, the psychologist, perhaps the 
 highest authority on this subject in the United 
 States, in his book 'The Meaning of Truth," says, 
 "Our ideas and concepts and scientific theories 
 pass for true, only so far as they harmoniously 
 lead back to the world of sense." 
 
THE NEBULAR THEORY 
 
 A writer on chemistry says that when Lord 
 Rosse's telescope was installed, it was found that 
 many nebulae were resolvable into stars. This 
 fact gave the nebular theory of the origin of stel- 
 lar globes a temporary set-back. But the spect- 
 roscope soon found among these nebulae some 
 that were true clouds of incandescent gas. But, 
 lo and behold they were of the simplest compo- 
 sition; hydrogen and nitrogen were their chief 
 constituents. How then could worlds like ours 
 originate from them? Only upon the theory that 
 substances are chemically built up from one or 
 two simple elements, perhaps from hydrogen 
 alone, that being the lighest. In other words, that 
 all combinations of matter are resolvable ulti- 
 mately into a single type of molecule or atom, 
 which accounts for the uniformity of nature. 
 
 So it was with the theory of a substance called 
 ether, that is supposed to occupy space and all 
 substances. The theory of light being produced 
 by undulation made it necessary to assume a sub- 
 stance in which the motion producing light, heat, 
 etc., could make undulatory waves. But if that 
 
306 RANCH LIFE 
 
 substance was composed of atoms, like all other 
 matter, it could not fill all space. There would be 
 interstices unfilled between these tactical parti- 
 cles. So it was assumed that ether must be a 
 homogenous, imponderable gas, continuous in 
 space and that filled all space. 
 
BOOMERANG FEATURES OF WAR 
 
 The means of distribution of men and of the 
 handiwork of men contribute to the permanent 
 establishment of peace. The interests of every na- 
 tion are so widely spread by the facilities of com- 
 merce that in whatever direction a great nation 
 should make war it would be like the boomerang, 
 striking back to the aggressor. If Germany should 
 make war on England, land its army on the island 
 and loot the Bank of England, it would break 
 every bank in Berlin. Should England make war 
 on the United States and bombard New York 
 City, she would destroy as much property belong- 
 ing to Englishmen as she would that of Ameri- 
 cans. Wherever these nations would make war 
 they would be destroying their own market. Per- 
 haps the Balkans were justified in the war against 
 Turkey, because Turkey was a merciless tyrant 
 not longer to be endured. But the powers should 
 not now interfere except to see that the Turks do 
 not regain that which they have lost, and only to 
 see that the Balkans get the full territory their 
 arms have conquered. 
 
KEPLER'S THREE LAWS OF 
 PLANETARY MOTION 
 
 First The orbits of planets are not circles, 
 but ellipses with two foci, the sun being at one 
 focus. 
 
 Second The radius vector of the plane of a 
 planet's orbit passes over the same area, in the 
 same time, at all parts of the orbit. 
 
 Third The square of the planet's period is 
 proportionate to the cube of the planet's mean dis- 
 tance from the sun. 
 
 From these laws, Newton calculated the prin- 
 ciples of the attraction of gravitation. Yet Kep- 
 ler, who lived from 1571 to 1630, in Germany, was 
 always impecunious, and spent half his life trying 
 to collect a wretchedly small salary of a King 
 Rudolph eight thousand crowns were due him 
 at his death. 
 
 Kepler although a profound mathematician 
 and astronomer, was exceedingly superstitious. 
 Although he had the ability to discover the above 
 three laws of planetary motion, yet he believed 
 that such planets and all stars were held in place 
 by an angel at each star. 
 
KEPLER'S THREE LAWS 309 
 
 Sir Isaac Newton, who was also a believer in 
 the supernatural, discovered that stars and plan- 
 ets were not held in place by angels, but naturally 
 by the attraction of gravitation. 
 
THE WONDERFUL CAPABILITIES 
 OF THE BRAIN 
 
 So numerous are the nerves in the brain that 
 a man could not count them in a lifetime. One has 
 only to think of the infinite number of combina- 
 tions possible to the molecules of these innumera- 
 ble strands of mobile matter to perceive the al- 
 most infinite ideas and images the "mind" is capa- 
 ble of forming. The wonder is not that the 
 psychic effects are so numerous and wonderful, 
 but that they are not more profound and that 
 knowledge is so limited. A knowledge of the 
 anatomy and physiology of the brain in its psych- 
 ical power of the multiplication of effects by the 
 physical explosion of its organic molecules, carries 
 with it the absolute exclusion of any idea that 
 other than these material combinations and ex- 
 plosions is requisite in producing what are called 
 mental effects. 
 
EARLY ADVOCATES OF WOMEN'S 
 SUFFRAGE 
 
 It is a prevalent idea that the question of 
 woman's suffrage is of recent origin, but the fol- 
 lowing note will show that it existed in some form 
 in England at an early date. 
 
 John Stuart Mill, as early as 1823, expressed 
 himself in favor of woman's suffrage in England. 
 See P. 104, "Autobiography." Jeremy Bentham 
 agreed with him. 
 
 In politics, also, Mr. Mill and his disciples had 
 unbounded confidence in two things: Representa- 
 tive government, and complete freedom of discus- 
 sion. Bentham looked upon a king as noxious. 
 
 Mill advocated woman suffrage in parliament 
 in 1866.