Page:History of Oregon Literature.djvu/113

 One of the small Applegate boys, who later became a well known Oregon orator, was said by his Uncle Jesse to have secured his education by reading the stray leaves of books thrown away on the Oregon Trail. Space was at a premium in the covered wagons but there were a few books, and these began to be part of the cargoes of ships. The Multnomah Circulating Library was established at Oregon City in 1845.

The most inspiring picture, however, of those early days is of Ewing Young, treated coolly by the Hudson's Bay Company and, through the imperative contagion of their disfavor, coolly by his neighbors. This man who was about to use for anti-prohibition purposes a caldron he had secured from dismantled Fort William, had the works of Shakespeare in two volumes, of which Professor F. G. Young said:

".. . it should be noticed that the records show among his belongings a two-volume edition of Shakespeare that he had probably borne along with him through almost interminable wanderings as a trapper and trader, from his eastern Tennessee home along the Santa Fe trail, on beaver hunting trips into the northern provinces of Mexico, back and forth between New Mexico and California, up and down and across the wide dimensions of California and then on that terrifying trip with nearly a hundred horses through the Rogue River Indian country to Oregon. His mental calibre was such that he found his real refreshment and recreation in having his thought move along with that of this mental giant of the ages."

At the sale of Ewing Young's estate, C. M. Walker bought the two volumes for $3.50. But in the "Minets of Ewing Youngs Sail" an item also shows seven books, titles not indicated, which were sold to George Gay for