OCR Text |
Show AFTEH THE GOLD DOOMS ImiMirlanra ol HraMlnm In Il.l.iula- luf I ni.ul.lloa. Tho law that settlers follow the Hue of least rc-sl.tanco suffers an exception when men nro seeking gold In the natural order of things population wi uld have worked Itself In a continuous continu-ous progreaslon toward the ltorky Mountains, crossing them only by compulsion as the Mleghanlrs were crossed nnd the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers Hut where thrre Is gold In sight there Is no law Humanity Human-ity goes Into Alaska with ths same blind avidity tint It went Into California Califor-nia fifty years agj, with the esme fatuousness fatu-ousness that It swept to Pikes Peak In 185S Population forsook all Ita domiciles Its patronages and Its prosperity, pros-perity, In tho Argonaut period and HUB MAItY CRAia LAWTON as If drhen by some monstrous wind surged over tho uneven earth to ths Pacific nnd to tho Uockles Tho whole world knows how It did so, and the suffering that ensued la as common s story as the fortunes that were won Hut the thing that Is not known, the matter of lasting Importance thai Is most often overlooked Is the migratory migra-tory reaction, the settling back ot tho b'B flood to tho places In which, either by necessity or by the choice. It must finally rest Tho character of the great west, tho trammlsaourl, with Its multiple variations, U determined by this phenomenon A map and a book of census statistics will tell the story It Is the story of tho oil from tho pitcher again Men and women touched the crest of tho continent at Leadvlllo, In Colorado In 1858, but fell back onto tho plains again before the '(Os were expired The Mormon emigration filled the valley of the Jordan In 1847, but tho general tldo of people either went to the lower valleys of tho Racrumento anil tho Ran Joao.utn on tho oriental side of the Blerrn Notadas or receded on tho eastern slope of tho Itovkles Successive mining discoveries enticed rushes of prospectors Into northern Idaho and Ilrltlsh Columbia but the treat" mats of the movers went back Into the warmer regions of Csllfa", and Oregon Where tho OoB iWk 'd the Consolldaied Virgin! '" r mints once magnetised so "' tiers as to beguile congress JnW ra Ing a itste of Ncvads there I'" left now but the evldtnc ol " been and the promlw of w" "' ' when the Immigration , of ttl -gins to mnc ngaln for MH. B" promises than acres of orn J" i mere tilling cf the soil '"Vl'ii limber for the mere hewing oJtn w The mesas of the two fr"""a territories. Arliona and M '" , seem to have nlieorbed hMl trsdera and ndcnturrs that we nt imo them as the sandy soil of tb?r "' areas drink In the freshets from the mountains. Alnslecs Ms'"10' |