Show WI c S 4 5 5 J k The Magic 1 of a Vision Born of an Old Age-Old Desire DesIre To To Have and to Hold HoldBy Holdi r- r U t i By VICTOR MURDOCK Letter in Harpers Harper's Magazine It What is land hunger Pecuniary interest Oh Ob no A struggle for lor CI existence The cities seemed to offer the popular specific for that not the frontier I f No Land hunger is compounded of the hopes I I of the centuries of and crofter clinging to I the manorial c of Sir Edwin Sandys Sandya with the brain of the trudging tree blazing George Washing Washing- i brain of the trudging tree George V Washing Washington ton of ve veterans of 1776 with warrants of Mexican k- k survivors with scrip of Yazoo opportunities Connecticut Connecticut Con Con- reserve offerings of pre-emption pre squatter sovereignty homesteading of a vast army of or the vigorous rigorous vanguard of the race moved mightily forward not by necessity Or r by hopi hope of wealth but by the vision that is born of traditional desire f and nd commands men men not to the measure of of dollars and cents cent but to the throbbing c drumbeat at of a mighty instinct of dominion It will not respond to the direction of sentiment sentiment nor can adventure adventurA lure Jure or necessity drive it I know th the poets paint for the pioneer a picture with warmth of or sun the scent of flowers the caress of g gentle winds the tha fragrance of news news' new new- s' s mown hay the stimulation of rain upon a dusty field the song of of birds the th satisfaction of achievement the comforts of earned repose but I doubt the cU cacy of the ertis ad advertisement ment I know that the econ economists mists balance bi birth th rate against available land areas and graph population pressures to prove that necessity is in ink command k But it is not so The pioneer is moved by something mora more than economic necessity greater than adventure deeper deep r th than n poetry that is isi i to say he is po possessed essed by the magie of a vision born of an old age-old desire desire to to have and to hold The echo of it trembled in Touchstones Touchstone's nimble brain as he ho surveyed survey sur sur- surveyed vey d and presented A Audrey rey An ill favored thing sir But mine own I 1 |