RANCHLANDS 109 



ness than in the early days in the West. The 

 general effect in the forest country, while of 

 course the species of plants are entirely differ- 

 ent, reminds the observer of the Louisiana and 

 Mississippi cane-brake lands and the country 

 along the Nueces. The activities of the set- 

 tlers in the open country are substantially those 

 with which I was familiar thirty years ago in 

 the cattle country of the West. In the forests 

 one is reminded more of early days on the 

 Ohio, the Yazoo, and the Red River of the 

 South. 



Certainly this is a country with a wonderful 

 future. It offers fine opportunities for settlers 

 who desire with the labor of their own hands 

 to make homes for themselves and their chil- 

 dren. This does not mean that all people who 

 go there will prosper, or that success will come 

 save at the price of labor and effort, of risk and 

 hardship. If any Americans have forgotten 

 how our own West in the pioneer days appealed 

 to an observer who was friendly, but who had 

 not the faintest glimmering of the pioneer 

 spirit, let them read "Martin Chuzzlewit." 

 Dickens represented the numerous men who 

 foolishly hope to enjoy pioneer triumphs and 

 yet escape pioneer risks and hardships and the 

 unlovely and wearing toil which is the essential 



