Opis: A Brief History of Butte, Montana - Freeman Harry C.

Excerpt from A Brief History of Butte, Montana: The World's Greatest Mining Camp, Including a Story of Extraction and Treatment of Ores From Its Gigantic Copper Properties

OUT of the boundless West from time to time comes literature of every description concerning its resources, development, life, grandeur of scenery and every phase that can possibly serve as a vehicle to relieve the mind. One effort emanates from the pen of the student of events, who sees the unfolding of mighty things which shall leave their imprint upon the future of a great and growing nation. Another purports to be the work of the critic, who, after a superficial study of prevailing conditions, finds much delight in exaggerating the primitiveness of its institutions, the roughness of its life and the depravity of its public morality, with little or no thought as to the obstacles which have been overcome, the rapidity with which events have followed one another nor the influences which have been thrown about them. Still another is of a commercial character, inspired by the demand for sensational nonsense upon the part of the great newspapers of the East, who still find profit in stigmatizing this new country as abnormally "wild and woolly" in contra-distinction to the "civilized and effete East." The "cattle king," the "copper king," the "silver king" and a dozen other titles are still forced upon the credulity of the uninformed to assist in throwing an air of mystery and awe about this bountifully endowed country and to strengthen the stories of fabulous wealth popularly supposed to be found beneath every rock and along every stream thereof.

Some writers studiously adhere to the path of truthfulness; others assume that truthfulness is the last element required. The result can be but one. The average mind is confused and clouded. The resources of the country are admitted, but the state of society is too unattractive. Large opportunities are conceded, but it means a divorcement from all civilizing influences to grasp them. The delightful healthfulness of its climate is recognized, but the weather is too rigorous. Educational institutions are crude, plodding, and partake nothing of the higher standards.

Religious life is stunted and warped, and a thoughtful pulpit and a comfortable church home are impossible of attainment. A thousand things are lacking which are necessary and another thousand are present which must be eliminated to make the country tenable. And thus doth the imagination today perform the functions that should rest with certain knowledge, as much as was the case forty or forty-five years ago, when stories of Western exploration and discovery were beginning to work themselves from thence. At that time but little was known of true conditions. From California had come stories of great wealth and, in due course of time, the bones of many a hardy adventurer lay bleaching along the overland trails to guide other courageous spirits toward the setting sun. Fremont's expedition had added a little cumulative testimony to that of daring explorers who had previously sought the source of the great Missouri, but which still left to the imagination the task of adding all the details in arriving at any given fact concerning the whole West. The Mormons had shut themselves in along the banks of the Jordan and about the shores of Great Salt Lake, and details of their fanatical crimes ofttimes carried with them meager facts concerning the country contiguous, but to imagination was left the duty of setting the frame. As it was then, so it is now to almost as great an extent.

Misinformation has erected an average opinion concerning the Great West quite as much at variance with the true conditions as lack of information in the past has done. The West has developed so rapidly and transition from condition to condition has so speedily followed one another that today a new West is presented while the world is still wrestling with the trad

Szczegóły: A Brief History of Butte, Montana - Freeman Harry C.

Nazwa: A Brief History of Butte, Montana The World's Greatest Mining Camp, Including a Story of Extraction and Treatment of Ores From Its Gigantic Copper Properties (Classic Reprint)
Autor: Freeman Harry C.
Wydawnictwo: FB &c Ltd
Kod paskowy: 9781331621447
Języki: angielski
Ilość stron: 136
Format: 15.2x22.9cm
Oprawa: Miękka

Recenzje: A Brief History of Butte, Montana - Freeman Harry C.