ELKLAND. 



III. 

 OLD-TIMERS. 



ERNEST SETON THOMPSON. 



In previous letters I have written of the 

 game. Let me now, for a time, make game 

 of man. 



Some of the American magazines have, 

 for years past, been feeding the people on 

 accounts of personages who played more 

 or less prominent parts in the politics of 

 Europe ioo or 1,000 years ago. Although 

 these same histories are perfectly well- 

 known and already fully remarked on in 

 ioo different forms the discovery of a few 

 trifling personal letters, or peculiarities; 

 the accidental turning up of a new anec- 

 dote, or another doubtful portrait, is con- 

 sidered sufficient justification for a new re- 

 hash of the man's entire history. Within 

 a few months the transfer, from England 

 to Germany, of a wretched little barren 

 rock, off the coast of Europe; and in South 

 America a squabble over an inaccessible 

 strip of jungle has called forth whole li- 

 braries of historical documents and reports. 



All this, while a stupendous historical 

 event — a vast revolution, is going on and 

 is, under our very eyes, nearly completed — 

 unnoted, unheeded, unheralded, and, to 

 any adequate historian utterly unknown. 



1 refer to " The Winning of the West " as 

 it has been styled by one who, in advance 

 of his time, has realized its importance. 



This Westward march of the white race 

 has at last been completed, and a vast em- 

 pire finally wrested from a weaker race. 

 Thus, though the fate of a continent of 

 land, untold treasures of gold and millions 

 of human beings have been decided within 



2 generations — after thousands of battles 

 and thousands of deeds of incredible hero- 

 ism on both sides, it has not yet occurred 

 to the average historian, that here is any 

 event worth writing about. 



Why? I don't know. I suppose the fash- 

 ion is not yet set. Or, some may say it is 

 too soon. We cannot write, historically, 

 about an event when it is before us. This 

 may be true, but what about the materials 

 for the history when the time does come? 

 It does not yet exist on paper. The men 

 are dying out who made this epoch and 

 who know the story of it. When the event 

 is consummated, and the time ripe for the 

 great historian who is to come, and tell 

 how the empire was won, he will be un- 

 able to build his book for lack of proper 

 records.* 



Let me now adjure every man, who bears 

 in his head a scrap of the history of the 

 West, to put it on file somewhere — in Rec- 

 reation, for instance. Let him write it as 

 a history if he will and fail of greatness as 

 he may, but let him put it where the real 

 historian may find it, cull it and mill it till 

 he gets out of it all the priceless stuff it 

 contains. So let the chronicler go on gath- 

 ering till he shall have collected all the 

 precious metal necessary for that glorious, 



* Bancroft's " Pacific States," Appleton's " Story of the 

 West" series of books, and many papers published in pre- 

 vious issues of Recreation should be excepted from this 

 general statement. — Editor. 



J. F. YANCEY. 

 Has been on the plains and in the mountains since 1851. 



golden web that is to attest the greatness 

 alike of the recorder and of the event. 



Now by way of setting a good example, 

 away up here in Yancey's log shanty, in the 

 Yellowstone Valley, let me jot down a few 

 stories from the lips of Old-timers; of 

 pioneers; of founders of this empire, who 

 pass and repass and silently, almost mourn- 

 fully regard the new race of whites that is 

 succeeding them. 



"Uncle John" Yancey himself, is a good 

 example of the old-timer; as rugged as a 

 mountain and as gentle as snow. 



Born in Kentucky, in 1835, of the famous 



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