For, observe, it was an assemblage of two hundred thousand
_young_ men--not simpering, dainty, kid-gloved weaklings, but stalwart,
muscular, dauntless young braves, brimful of push and energy, and royally
endowed with every attribute that goes to make up a peerless and
magnificent manhood--the very pick and choice of the world's glorious
ones." [Footnote: Roughing It.]
In even as recent a period as the twenty years from 1880 to 1900, the
population of Minnesota increased 124 per cent; Nebraska, 135 per cent; and
Colorado, 177 per cent. This increase indicates something of the strenuous
work necessary on the physical side to prepare comfortable permanent homes
in the country, town, and city, and to plan and execute the other material
adaptations necessary for progressive civilized life and trade. It is
manifest that such a period of stress is not favorable to the development
of literature. Although the population of California increased 60 per cent
and that of the state of Washington 120 per cent between 1900 and 1910, the
extreme stress, due to pioneer life and to rapid increase in population,
has already abated in the vast majority of places throughout the West,
which is rapidly becoming as stable as any other section of the country.
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