Item 003

THE PIONEER

January 11, 1868, page 17 (Illustrated Article)

America’s "peculiar and appropriate sons," not, however, absolutely unknown, as Scott boasted England’s yeomen were, to all other hands, are the Pioneers. They are the true and natural children of the Pilgrims, and pioneer and pilgrim have grown to be, in fact and meaning, almost synonymous. The love of religious freedom impelled the Pilgrims to settle the bleak coasts of New England; the love of personal liberty leads the pioneer to penetrate the dismal forest or embark, as it were, on the boundless prairies of the West. The one has settled New England, the other is settling America; and the same principles which were sown by the Pilgrim are being scattered broadcast throughout the continent by the pioneers.

The popular idea of the pioneer is expressed in our beautiful illustration on the preceding page. Here the settler in the Far West is resting momentarily from his work in felling the sturdy forest trees to make room for the delicate wheat-stem or corn-stalk, and quaffs, not a "cup of sack," but wholesome and pure water from the neighboring spring, smiling his thanks on the boy who has been his cup-bearer. In the distance is the hut—settlers huts are always temporary-looking affairs, as if the occupants meant to be up and further away the moment the coming of another family gave the neighborhood the unwelcome appearance of being "too thickly settled"—and near by the wife is engaged in washing. But the woodsman is not, as is popularly conceived, the only pioneer in America; the race is to be found in every branch of business and in every profession. Astors on a small scale preceded our soldiers in the occupation of Alaska, and the American far trade has already been commenced there. Politicians are already prospecting in St. Thomas; pioneer engineers have toiled up the Sierra Nevada, and leaped across the prairies of Nebraska and Colorado to the foot of the Rocky Mountains. There is progress every where, and the van-guard—the pioneers of civilization—are actuated and inspired by the principles which have made America free and glorious.

January 11, 1868, page 17 (Illustrated Article)

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