The French in the Heart of AmericaFinley, John H. (John Huston)
History
The French in the Heart of America
Finley, John H. (John Huston)
Canada -- History -- To 1763 (New France); French -- North America; Mississippi River Valley -- History
hotels, fifty grocery stores, six printing-offices, and three daily
papers--about as striking and unpleasant a contrast to that peaceful life
on the St. Lawrence as one can well imagine. Practically all of the
available land (nearly two million acres) was taken during the course of a
few days.
At the later opening of another tract one hundred thousand persons took
part in the race for the "last of the people's land." And these scenes but
illustrate the rough races to the gold-fields and the iron mountains and
the oil-wells, in eagerness to seize whatever earth had to offer and turn
it to immediate wealth--rough, restless precursors, producers, poets eager
for to-day, yet coming by and by, as we have seen, to be ready to spend
for to-morrow, building schools and universities, enlarging the field of
public provision and service, and filling the land, once neighborly,
individualistic, with institutions of philanthropy.
But the habitant of that farther valley is considerate neither of himself
nor of generous nature. He is ready to spend his all, or her all, of to-
day for to-day and for to-morrow, and to some extent unselfishly, but not
to save it. He lives "angerously" and takes all the risks. His thought of
the future is not nepotic or thrifty; it is likely to be altruistic,
publicistic. I suppose that the constitution and laws of Oklahoma, whose
land was the last to be added to the public domain and its commonwealth
among the last to the roll of States, has been more generous-minded toward
its children than any other. It set apart not only sections sixteen and
thirty-six in every township for the public schools; it reserved two more
sections in every township for kindred uses. But in all this, as I pointed
out, it is spending for the future, not saving, hoarding.
The nepotic conservationist of the St. Lawrence, fixed in his place, saves
because if he leaves but an exhausted field behind him he is robbing his
children and grandchildren of their rightful, personal heritage. The
"boomer" of Oklahoma exploits and spends lavishly because of a sublime
confidence in the illimitability of the resources of nature and in the
resourcefulness of the coming generations.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account