AMERICAN SETTLERS IN THE GREAT WEST. II 



The original thinker indeed, when you find him, 

 generally turns out to be somewhat of an eccentric. 

 He must be so in fact, or he would not have ventured 

 to separate himself from his fellows by adopting new 

 and probably unpopular opinions. 



Travelling through a new country therefore, where 

 everything is different to what it is at home, often 

 affords, as we venture to believe, the necessary impetus 

 to the mental faculties which makes a man think. 

 There, he must keep his eyes open, and observe, if 

 he would get along at all. This theory would seem 

 to receive a large amount of support from the well- 

 known and remarkably inventive capacity of the Ameri- 

 can people. It seems hard to come to any other 

 conclusion, than that this genius has been mainly 

 developed by the ready resource which a familiarity 

 with the shifts and expedients of wild life entails. 



It was in the western backwoods that Washington 

 learnt his business as a soldier, and laid the foundations 

 of that great reputation which has rendered his name 

 immortal. It was in the great prairie region of the 

 Far West, that almost all the United States Army 

 Officers, who rose to eminence or renown in the Civil 

 War (1861 1866), acquired that military training and 

 experience upon which their subsequent fame was 

 built up. It was there also that most of the European 

 immigrants, who during the present century have gone 

 to America in search of fortune, have turned their 

 footsteps. "Go West, young man," was the universal 

 formula of advice given to these new-comers upon 

 landing on the American shores ; and it was in the west 

 that most of the successful men of the present generation 

 have risen from poverty to position and affluence. 



