ADDRESSES OF MAJOR LACEY 309 



amid the clouds of tradition and obscurity. The prairie 

 schooner of the great West is still remembered as a re- 

 cent institution. How new these old settlers are. 



Did you ever think what God did to prepare this land 

 for the old settlers? Its geological history is written in 

 the thousands of feet of limestone of the state, the coal, 

 the drift, and the soil. Air, fire, water, glaciers, wind, 

 hail, sleet, and ages of time gradually prepared the sur- 

 face of the Northwest to be the garden that it now is. 



When I see one of the gigantic boulders from Hudson's 

 Bay lying imbedded in the soil, where the ice laid it so 

 many ages ago, I always feel like taking off my hat, for 

 he is the real old settler. 



The great garden called Iowa lies almost like a square 

 block, with ninety-nine counties like a checkerboard upon 

 its surface. It slopes from 1,500 feet above the sea in 

 the northwest to 600 feet at the southeast corner, with 

 streams flowing down this gentle slope from west to east. 



In a moist climate and fertile soil are found her chief 

 wealth. The coal, gypsum, lead, and clay furnish great 

 resources of ordinary wealth ; and in your own county the 

 Colfax Springs water offers a sanitarium to all. 



Every country looks back to its first settlers. The In- 

 dian who first occupied this land was but a wanderer. He 

 lived upon the soil but did not occupy it; of necessity his 

 occupation was but temporary. But the present occu- 

 pants of Iowa have fixed themselves in the soil ; they have 

 come to stay. Ours is the newest race on earth. That 

 country is a new country, indeed, where the old settler 

 lives to celebrate his own arrival. We may search in 

 vain for the origin of the Aryan race, but we know where 

 the settlers of Iowa came from. All nations mingled to 

 create the American. 



The Celt, the Greek, the Teuton all combine. With all 

 the Anglo-Saxon love of liberty and aptitude of self-gov- 



