The way to the West, and the lives of three early Americans, Boone--Crockett--Carson . ges of the Eockies whose wealth the trappers hadnot suspected, Montana, Idaho, Colorado, Nevada—all these might be called a part of the scheme ofCalifornia. New and splendid empires were found-ed, new standards of civilization were erected in therecent wilderness. The grand and alluring story ofthe West went on apace for yet a little time. But these times were not to endure. There cameswiftly the Western rush of population, which sweptoff the map the free lands of all our Western vast American pub
The way to the West, and the lives of three early Americans, Boone--Crockett--Carson . ges of the Eockies whose wealth the trappers hadnot suspected, Montana, Idaho, Colorado, Nevada—all these might be called a part of the scheme ofCalifornia. New and splendid empires were found-ed, new standards of civilization were erected in therecent wilderness. The grand and alluring story ofthe West went on apace for yet a little time. But these times were not to endure. There cameswiftly the Western rush of population, which sweptoff the map the free lands of all our Western vast American public, mad with the lust of land,raped the Indian reservations from those that hadfrail title given them in the honor of a great nation;so that thus one more bar was broken between theEast and the West. Home-building, farm-makingman came close on the heels of trapper and traderand nomad cattle driver. The hordes of the landseekers held their lotteries even in the desert oncedreaded by the travelers of the old Santa Fe cities were builded in that waterless waste :%... (i- THE IRON TRAILS 385 where Jedediah Smith, the first transcontinentaltraveler, lost his life in mid-continent. Xever a bitof open land was left in all the West; or if therewere such land remaining, it was of a quality thatwould once have been viewed with contempt. The story of the swift changes wrought by theiron trails is such as not to afford complete satis-faction in the contemplation; yet we may calmly re-view the different stages of that story. First weliad the day of competitive railway building, whenthere were not enougli railroads for the demands ofa vast and unsettled region whose resources ap-pealed to a population. Then we came rapidly tothe time of too many railroads; of attempts to adjustan unprofita])le competition; of combinations, ofarrangements, agreements, mergers; and of popularand governmental action upon such mergers. To-dayall America is districted and divided among afew gre
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherindia, bookyear1903
