NOVEMBER 149 



in a "Western State.'' Here are many volumes in 

 which early travelers or residents record their im- 

 pressions of the prairie country; early maps, in 

 which up to about 1867 the location of Indian 

 tribes is an important matter. Here is Tanner's 

 Vieiv of the Valley of the Mississippi, pubUshed in 

 1832, in the introduction of which we read : ' ' iVnd 

 soon the American who has not made the tour of 

 the Valley of the Mississippi will be considered a 

 man who has seen but little of his own country." 

 After eighty years, we may recommend this senti- 

 ment to some of our Yankee friends who consider 

 Chicago as far west as one need go to see ''his own 

 country," or whose "tour" of our Valley consists 

 of a Pullman ride on a limited train from Chicago 

 to Denver, Billings, or Moose Jaw. An original 

 signature by "Juhen Dubuc," dating from 1806, 

 recalls the large place the French people have had 

 in this region; the portraits of Appanoose, Ma- 

 haska, Keokuk, Tamah, Wapello, and Black Hawk 

 offer studies of intense interest and limitless sug- 

 gestion. From what a different world come these 

 rare or even unique manuscripts and portraits of 

 the Rossettis, of Tennyson, the Lyttons, and a hun- 

 dred other English celebrities ! 



In the various museums of the building are a 

 thousand memorials of the natural and social his- 

 tory of the state — remains of mastodon and mam- 

 moth, human bones from the Boone mound, pearls 



