| Show I SOME CHARACTERISTICS There is a world of comfort satisfaction satisfac-tion and real Independence surrounding the isolated rancher the snowbound hermit of the mountain or plain nro vided he is supplied with orovlslons and fuel for the winter and has plent of books and pacers to read Commenting upon this life a local contemporary says Hedged in by snow and bound in an atmosphere which often is Intensely I cold naturally the ranch is often alone for weeks at a time and to an outsider the sense of lonelinesS must I be something terrible But the statement I state-ment is added that men so environed do not crave sympathy That is true The man is there with his books and with the daily paper when it can reach him and he has his domestic animals around him and why should he be lonely This is the way or the faculty of ranchers miners and farmers of the United Strftes more than it is in any other land The eager desire to learn the disposition to take an interest la all public questions the tendency to be always improving the mind to be Increasing the store of general information infor-mation are traits in the character of the American masses which are more characteristically American than any others perhaps These are traits that under the influence In-fluence of a free press are becomlnr more nronounced all the time The moderate cost of daily newspapers their splendid facilities for gathering news from every part of the globe the modern methods of conducting public libraries the nominal price of standard books and magazinesthese have stimulated stim-ulated Americans to an almost feverish eagerness to know the times and im prove their opportunities Nor is it confined to the lonely cabin on the mountainside or the sodhut hidden in the coulee of the lalns where solitude almost forces one to bury himself in books In every hamlet ham-let upon almost every farm In all this lend there are boys or girls or hired men trying to educate themselves at least on current affairs There are trainmen who thus employ em-ploy their spare moments clerks who devote their evenings to study and artisans of every class who imnrove their breathing spells In the same way It may be said It has been said that we are a nation of hustlers and smat terers The first is true the second is probably true to a large extent But a people with this insatiable thirst for knowledge this omnivorous reading indicates a spirit that is bound to place the American people at the head of the arocession This Is a nation of learners If not of learning and the nation that learns as the masses the poor the lowly anil I the lonely go on readingand learning I and exercising the glorious privileges I of free thought and free speech is tha I n nation that will some day If it does not already lead the march of progress The lonely rancher In the mountains bending over a thumbworn book before a blazing fire the miner resting after meal time with a daily paper in his hand the farmers wife perusing her magazine as she makes her daily journey jour-ney upon the treadmill of domestic careeach of these is the incarnation I of the genius of the American neoole j j To understand them Is to comprehend I the progress the stability and the des I I tiny of this republic |
