THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 



tie understood, and indeed not fully developed. Upon 

 this strange boundary of prosperity, which nature had 

 marked with indelible lines, the hosts engaged in the 

 third colonization era trembled and hesitated for several 

 years, then fell back baffled and disappointed. 



The first act in the drama of American settlement 

 ended in the eastern foothills of the Alleghany moun- 

 tains about 1770 ; the second, in the neighborhood of 

 the Mississippi river about 1860 ; the third, midway 

 on the plains of Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas 

 about 1890. For each of these historic periods we 

 might find a fit and speaking emblem in its character- 

 istic means of transportation. The emblem of the first 

 would be the little Mayflower, tossing on the billows of 

 the Atlantic ; that of the second, the heavily laden pack- 

 horse, threading his tortuous way through the tangle of 

 the untrodden forest; that of the third, the prairie 

 schooner, steering for the setting sun across the trackless 

 sea of the plains. 



The wonderful drama of American colonization has re- 

 served a fourth and .crowning act, for which the scenery 

 is arranged and the actors ready. 



