,,drawings ,,by ,,frederic ,,remington ,illustration ,,new ,,york3 ,r4 ,h4 ,,russell ,,london3 ,,lawrence ,,bullen ,,mdcccxcvii ,copyright1 #ahig1 by ,robert ,howard ,russell4 ,printed in the ,united ,states4 ,concerning the ,contents ,,some time ago ,i was spending a driven but happy forenoon among those shops where guns1 and fishing tackle1 and tents1 and all the various necessities of a ,western holiday are found4 ,my time was crowded1 and against the column of items on my list only a few checks had been made1 when ,i reached 8,groceries40 ,now1 unless you have spent such forenoons and holidays yourself1 the visit among the guns and fishing tackle may seem to raise questions of greater moment than any which could occur in the grocery shop4 ,but this is not so4 ,a man soon learns what weapons he prefers1 and enters with his mind settled in advance2 whereas1 when it comes to evaporated vegetables1 condensed soups1 and pellets that can expand into a meal1 you pause over each novelty1 and with divided purpose wretchedly choose and unchoose until you are scarce more manlike than a woman4 ,at least1 such is my case2 and having no minutes to squander this forenoon1 ,i had pencilled my supplies to avoid discussion and temptation4 ,even while ,i was directing how ,i wished the parcels tied1 mentioning that they were to be much jolted on the backs of horses1 the shopman looked suddenly alert1 and said this sounded like a camping trip4 ,yes1 ,i told him in my elation1 ,i was bound for the head waters of ,wind ,river in ,wyoming4 ,instantly the merchant fell from him2 every trace of groceries left his expression2 his eye beamed with eagerness1 and he asked in the voice of one who gives the countersign1 8,have you ever been to ,arizona80 and hearing that ,i had1 8,i served there under ,crook60 he exclaimed4 ,then names of the ,north and the ,south came to his lips--,san ,carlos1 ,san ,simon1 the ,gila1 the ,chiricahuas1 the ,tonto ,basin1 the forks of the ,owyhee1 ,boise1 ,bidwell1 ,harney--he spoke of many familiar to me2 and next we were hard at it1 this old soldier and myself1 exchanging enthusiasms1 gossiping in comradeship among the dried prunes4 ,thus ,i wasted minutes that ,i could not spare1 yet lost nothing by it2 my parcels were put up right4 ,and when this errand was finished1 he watched me depart from the shop door1 and sighed1 8,i should like to see it all again60 ,since that day ,i have gone back to him1 not always to buy groceries1 but just to pass the word1 and thus in the midst of city streets to conjure up ,arizona1 or ,idaho1 or ,wyoming4 ,my journeys through those regions have come after his time4 ,i know none of his dangers and not many of his hardships4 ,but ,i too have seen ,summer and ,winter in the ,rocky ,mountains1 and the sun rise2 and have slept and marched on trails where he went once4 ,between us is established a freemasonry3 both of us have been out there2 both of us understand4 ,it matters not that one was an enlisted man campaigning against ,indians1 while the other is nothing but a voluntary pilgrim to the wilderness4 ,upon both alike has the wilderness set its spell4 ,yes2 we certainly understand4 ,and what is this spell8 ,scarcely danger1 for ,i have met no dangers worthy of the name4 ,scarcely freedom1 since the enlisted man can do by no means what he pleases4 ,scarcely the immortal lift and purity of that great air1 which ,i feel1 indeed1 but to which ,i can not remember hearing any trooper allude4 ,neither will the splendor of ,nature explain it2 the inspiring vastness1 the transfigurations of the sunset1 the swimming oceans of color1 rich1 subtle1 endless1 the more inexhaustible as the more observed4 ,only the pilgrims value these things4 ,the chance for riches it certainly is not1 nor the chance for crime4 ,crime and ,fortune are there as everywhere2 but the lost pocket-book is returned when it would not be in a city1 and you meet with few that are troubling about dollars4 ,bloody and sudden as death often is there1 it is not the planned murder so much as the quick blow of personal vengeance1 the primitive man dealing with his fellow as in justice he expects his fellow will deal with him4 ,finally1 it is not adventure alone4 ,though roving spirits have come to their own upon the plains1 and with ,indians and cattle-driving have let loose the fervid energy no town gave room for1 dreamers strayed there too1 many dreamers1 and found happiness4 ,in all of this ,i am speaking of the wilderness as it was once1 and almost is no more4 ,but you will find the dreamers still1 now and then1 riding alone from horizon to horizon1 paddling upon sequestered rivers1 hermiting in quiet cabins1 all of them escaped from social codes1 reaping the reward and paying the penalty in that archaic silence4 ,for indeed the silence of that world seems to have come unbroken from behind ,genesis1 to have been earlier than the beginning1 to make one with the planets1 to have known mysteries1 that dwindle ,rome to a show4 ,the little sounds of earth do not break it4 ,in it the painted ,indian walks naked1 the twin of its mystery4 ,in it you can wake or sleep1 and no man hinders4 ,whatever law there is1 rises from the ground or falls from the stars4 ,for the very living1 life seems to mingle with the origin before the dust has returned to dust4 ,that is the spell for trooper or for pilgrim4 ,from empire to empire1 our wise brains have devised conventions that we may live together1 but our unwise hearts crave the something that wisdom has renounced for us4 ,so most of those you will meet in the wilderness1 be they doers or dreamers1 have followed the heart's desire and escaped back to ,nature4 ,ah1 there is a lotus also in the ,west6 ,it has drugged many that have never returned4 ,but if you wisely tear yourself from it and re-enter the fold of civilization1 and in respectable content sell groceries1 for instance1 your heart will remind you of out there1 now and then1 a word like ,owyhee or ,wind ,river will give you a homesickness for the nameless magic of the plains4 ,those happy ones who have known it meet always in that freemasonry which set the soldier and me talking like old acquaintances4 ,and therefore ,i am going to show him these drawings2 for every one will speak to him of out there4 ,he will rejoice in their truth--indeed truth is a pale word--it is the vibrating thing itself which seems to rise out of these pages4 ,even to me they flash and throb with life ,i have lived1 and how much more to a man whose years preceded mine and who had dangers where ,i had none6 ,i have stood before many paintings of the ,west4 ,paintings of mountains1 paintings of buffalo1 paintings of ,indians--the whole mystic and heroic pageant of our ,american soil2 the only greatly romantic thing our generation has known1 the last greatly romantic thing our ,continent holds2 indeed the poetic episode most deeply native that we possess4 ,long before my eyes looked upon its beautiful domain1 ,i studied the paintings2 but when ,remington came with only a pencil1 ,i forgot the rest6 ,and now ,i have seen for myself1 and know how he has caught alive not only the roped calf1 or the troop cook sucking his comfortable corn-cob1 the day-by-day facts of the wilderness1 but the eternal note also1 the pity and the awe of that epic life4 ,he has made them visible by his art1 and set them down as a national treasure4 ,look at the ,pony ,war ,dance4 ,that wild fury of religion1 that splendor of savagery clashes down to us from the ,stone ,age4 ,if you will open the ,old ,testament where ,joshua delayed the course of the sun1 or they blew down a city wall with a trumpet1 you will come upon the same spirit4 ,look at the ,medicine-men and the lightning4 ,again man's untamed original soul communes with a ,god of vengeance and terror4 ,is it not like ,elijah and the fire-stroke from heaven upon the altar8 ,then turn to the ,sheep-herder's breakfast4 ,unless you have known that solitude1 no words of mine can tell you how ,remington has been a poet here4 ,with some lines and smears on paper he has expressed that lotus mystery of the wilderness4 ,he has taken a ragged vagrant with a frying-pan and connected him with the eternal4 ,the dog1 the pack-saddle1 the ass1 the dim sheep in the plain1 those tender outlines of bluffs and ridges--it is ,homer or the ,old ,testament again2 time and the present world have no part here6 ,perhaps you do not value all this as ,i do4 ,perhaps the seamy side shuts you from the rest1 and you shrink from the brutality of man and the suffering of beast4 ,i have heard people speak thus sometimes1 and give thanks for their books1 and their bathrooms1 for the opera1 and for ,europe where they can travel in a landscape seasoned by history4 ,well1 ,europe is richer1 much richer1 than any desert1 and it is toward its use and comprehension1 on the whole1 that our struggling faces are set4 ,our fond1 quack-ridden ,republic looks1 after all1 toward the old world for its teaching4 ,but we have a landscape seasoned by mystery1 where chiefs and heroes move1 fit subjects for the poet4 ,if you do not see this1 perhaps you are too near4 ,let me ask you to think of the bloody slaughters in ,homer1 and of all the great art you know from him to the present day2 has not the terrible its share of notice8 ,doubtless you would have stopped ,homer's reciting to you how bodies were hacked to pieces beneath the walls of ,troy1 and how swinish were sometimes the companions of ,ulysses4 ,but now you read it all with pleasure4 ,do you believe ,art would have amounted to much if it had excluded pain and ugliness and narrowed its gaze upon the beautiful alone8 ,at any rate ,i am glad that we have ,remington1 one of the kind that makes us aware of things we could not have seen for ourselves4 ,we have been scarce enough in native material for ,art to let go what the soil provides us4 ,we have often failed to value what the intelligent foreigner seizes upon at once4 ,and ,i think as the ,frontier recedes into tradition1 fewer of us will shrink from its details4 ,if ,remington did nothing further1 already has he achieved3 he has made a page of ,american history his own4 ,,owen ,,wister4 ,,drawings ,illustration3 ,forsythe's ,fight on the ,republican ,river1 #ahfh--,the ,charge of ,roman ,nose4 ,illustration3 ,coronado's ,march--,colorado4 ,illustration3 ,the ,missionary and the ,medicine ,man4 ,illustration3 ,hunting a ,beaver ,stream--#ahdj4 ,illustration3 ,the ,hungry ,winter4 ,illustration3 ,fight ,over a ,water ,hole4 ,illustration3 ,when ,his ,heart is ,bad4 ,illustration3 ,a ,citadel of the ,plains4 ,illustration3 ,on the ,northwest ,coast4 ,illustration3 ,the ,sheep ,herder's ,breakfast4 ,illustration3 ,the ,gold ,bug4 ,illustration3 ,an ,overland-,station3 ,indians ,coming in with the ,stage4 ,illustration3 ,the ,well in the ,desert4 ,illustration3 ,the ,borderland of the ,other ,tribe4 ,illustration3 ,her ,calf4 ,illustration3 ,a ,government ,pack ,train4 ,illustration3 ,the ,charge4 ,illustration3 ,the ,pony ,war-,dance4 ,illustration3 ,the ,coming ,storm4 ,illustration3 ,his ,death ,song4 ,illustration3 ,protecting a ,wagon ,train4 ,illustration3 ,the ,water in ,arizona4 ,illustration3 ,government ,scouts--,moonlight4 ,illustration3 ,a ,crow ,scout4 ,illustration3 ,a ,mountain ,lion ,hunting4 ,illustration3 ,coyotes4 ,illustration3 ,hostiles ,watching the ,column4 ,illustration3 ,satisfying the ,demands of ,justice3 ,the ,head4 ,illustration3 ,sketch-,book ,notes4 ,illustration3 ,the ,punchers4 ,illustration3 ,riding-,herd in the ,rain4 ,illustration3 ,mexican ,vaqueros ,breaking a 8,bronc40 ,illustration3 ,a 8,sun ,fisher40 ,illustration3 ,a ,running ,bucker4 ,illustration3 ,riding the ,range--,winter4 ,illustration3 ,snow ,indian1 or the ,northwest ,type4 ,illustration3 ,nez ,perc ,indian4 ,illustration3 ,a ,cheyenne ,warrior4 ,illustration3 ,a ,greaser4 ,illustration3 ,a ,captain of ,infantry in ,field ,rig4 ,illustration3 ,a 8,wind ,jammer40 ,illustration3 ,cavalry ,column ,out of ,forage4 ,illustration3 ,half-,breed ,horse ,thieves of the ,northwest4 ,illustration3 ,a ,misdeal4 ,illustration3 ,over the ,foot-,hills4 ,illustration3 ,taking the ,robe4 ,illustration3 ,cowboy ,leading ,calf4 ,illustration3 ,cow ,pony ,pathos4 ,illustration3 ,the ,cavalry ,cook with ,water4 ,illustration3 ,a ,modern ,cavalry ,camp4 ,illustration3 ,fox ,terriers ,fighting a ,badger4 ,illustration3 ,high ,finance at the ,cross-,roads4 ,illustration3 ,sketch-,book ,notes4 ,illustration3 ,the ,indian ,soldier4 ,illustration3 ,the ,squaw ,pony4 ,illustration3 ,u4 ,s4 ,dragoon1 '#dg4 ,illustration3 ,a ,scout1 #ahfh4 ,illustration3 ,u4 ,s4 ,cavalry ,officer on ,campaign4 ,illustration3 ,a ,reservation ,indian4 ,illustration3 ,solitude4 ,illustration3 ,the ,twilight of the ,indian4