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Show The Pathfinders ,rpHE Daughters of the American Revolution -s have traced out the trails of Daniel Boone in North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia, Vir-ginia, made between 17G6 and 1775; erected and dedicated a monument to him at Cumberland Gap, where three states join. That is as it should be. A great old pathfinder was Daniel Boone. He was a pioneer In the business, a little Columbus in his way; among rude mountains amid hostile savages, . making his way amid nature's loneliness until the rough paths gave way to the beautiful blue grass valleys, which he pictured on his return. By the way, what a theme it would make for a painter to group those old trail blazers in one ,, great picture. How people would flock to see it; ' what .ould the movies pay for it! There would be Columbus on his little ship's deck, his eyes strained toward the west. Then would come Ponce de Leon, his eyes strained the same way; then Balboa on a mountain top with the great Pacific asleep in the distance, then Boone, then Sam Houston, then Kit Carson, followed fol-lowed by Bonneville, Bridger, Fremont, and the most plcturesquo liar of them all, Jim Beckwith. To the north would be Lewis and Clark and Father de Smet. Those are a few of the band, but they make up a wonderful company. Then the motives that drove them on, if they could only be depicted, how fascinating the story would be! We know a few of them. Columbus was seeing the backdoor of India and did not dream that a continent was in his path. Ponce de Leon followed a hope that could he but find a certain spring his youth might be perpetuated forever; Boone, we suspect, had a divided motive he wanted new tobacco lands and more and bigger big-ger wild game; Lewis and Clark went on a special mission to discover what kind of a country came to us by the Louisiana purchase. Father dp Smet, like St. Patrick, wanted to tell the savages the loveliness of a Christian life. Fremont had married the daughter of an imperious im-perious old chap who looked upon Fremont as a dude, and Fremont wanted to show him that ho had as good stuff as had the savage father-in-law. Moreover, he had in his soul a dream of sometime being president of the United States, to show his wife that she made no mistake in marrying him. Old Sam Houston had received a heart-wound which shattered his life and like a wounded Hon he went into the wild to lick that wound in silence and wait for death. Carson was, perhaps, the most natural explorer explor-er of them all. He wanted to see what the veil of the wilderness held hidden. He wanted no body-guard;" he had no fear; he courted hardships, hard-ships, he looked upon savage nature, savage man and savage beast as companions and strode on curious to see what he could find. A great band were they; they should be grouped and painted and as much as can bo discerned dis-cerned of their souls should be brought out in the picture. A monument to them should be upreared in Washington. It would attract more and more attention as the oncoming years brought their wonders. From that monument, the progress could bo measured. In the material age that is upon us, it would bo good to turn to the group to learn how much can be done, on an unpropitious field, when high purposes and brave hearts adopt means to ends, go out and from nothing achieve immortality. Romulus with oxen and a crooked stick for a plow marked out the boundaries of a city. That city expanded until from it the rule of all the civilized civ-ilized world was compassed. Our original pathfinders path-finders were greater than Romulus. |