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Show PIONEERS OF THE FRONTIER Red-Blooded Men and Women Were Those Who Carved an Empire From Wilderness. No doubt the "run of the continent" has improved the fiber of the American Ameri-can people. Of course, the well established estab-lished and the intellectuals had no motive mo-tive to seek the west; but in energy and venturesomeness those who sought the frontier were superior to the average of those in their class who stayed behind. It was the pike rather than the carp that found their way out of the pool. Now, in the main, those who pushed through the open door of opportunity left more children than their fellows who did not. Often themselves members of large families, they had fecundity, as it were, in the blood. With land abundant and the outlook encouraging, they married earlier. In the narrow life of the young west, love and family were stronger interests than in the older society; hence all married. Thanks to cheap living and to the need of helpers, the big family was welcomed. Living by agriculture, the Iwest knew little of cities, manufactures, social rivalry, luxury and a serving class, all foes of rapid multiplication. From "Origins of the American People," by Prof. Edward A. Ross, in the Century. |