Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 1.djvu/460

 American Anthropologist

��NEW SERIES

��Vol. i July, 1899 No « 3

��THE TREND OF HUMAN PROGRESS 1

By VV J McGEE

One summer noonday in early youth I approached the verge of the bluff-line overlooking the Mississippi midlength of its upper course, and for the first time looked down on the broad Father of Waters. Southward the shimmering surface stretched away between bordering bluffs with a belt of bottomland on the farther side, until it faded in the distance; northward it soon disappeared beyond a bold headland ; but I already knew from the books and from the talk of my elders that it was a river. The sight was an inspiration, and left lasting impression. An hour afterward I was at the brink, vaguely disappointed to find the half-idealized thing of majesty nothing but muddy water lapping lazily against a crumbling beach. Recalling my precon- ception of the river, I scanned the breeze-troubled expanse to see which way the waters flowed ; but in vain. Turning away, I saw a group of urchins lounging on a low lumber-pile, and, ap- proaching in due awe of the superior wisdom and prowess of the city boy, I inquired of these long-time residents on the river bank

1 Address of the President of the Anthropological Society of Washington, de- livered before the Washington Academy of Sciences and affiliated societies, February 28, 1899.

AM. ANTH. N. S., I— 26

401

�� �