cial. They come to think they "know it all." Oregon got this notion in the days of its long isolation. It has not yet wholly recovered from the notion. Too fond it is still of the crude and restricted ideas that grew up in its early time. Man, centered on himself, always looks with suspicion, usually with disdain, upon the larger outward world.
In the middle of the Upper Mississippi Valley, in the states of Kentucky, Missouri, Indiana and Illinois, the people, at the time my observations began, were just beginning their change from the first pioneer conditions to the more varied life that resulted from growth of population, and from partial subjugation of the original forces of nature to the slow advance of town life.[1] They, through whom the change was effected, mostly came from the older states— from New England and New York. They brought "Yankee" customs into the West. They were mercantile traders or speculators, mostly; at first they were a class apart from the rough pioneers. They didn't like the rough life of the Woods or farms, but took up the professions or "kept store." They showed some study and refinement of dress, managed to afford better furniture—though, indeed, it was poor enough—and held their religious meetings quietly, while the pioneers liked the Cumberland Presbyterian revivals or Methodist camp meetings. There was little money. The hospitality of pioneer life caused things to be shared almost in common. In going about, the wayfarer stayed overnight at any house he met and was always welcome. Here and there an Eastern man—a man from the East—had set up a place where he kept travelers overnight, and charged them for the service. Such incidents were the talk of the neighborhood.
When we came to Oregon we found the conditions much changed. In many ways life here, sixty years ago, was more primitive than it was in the early times in Illinois and Missouri. But in others it was far more advanced. The difference was due to our proximity in Oregon to the sea. Naviga-
- ↑ Mr. Scott was born near Peoria, Illinois, February 1, 1838.
