Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 26.djvu/65

Rh great and trying adventure of crossing the plains with the migration of 1852. Arriving here, his father's accumulations were exhausted, he did his share towards supporting the Scott household, but was left to his own resources for earning the means to attend college. The beginning in this was made through the use of an ax to secure which he had to have a loan. Applying his powerful native intellect with indefatigable energy and with unremitting study of the best books he rose gradually from the level of association with the day laborer to regular companionship in his reading with the best minds of all ages. Having thus shared the conditions of life from the humblest planes he retained a keen interest in the lot of every class through which he rose to become the managing editor of the metropolitan daily, the counsellor and guide of the commonwealth.

Through his assiduous reading and thought on the most fundamental interests in human experience he saw in clear perspective the course of change down through the centuries. The meaning of the occupation by the white man of the Pacific coast in all its relations was clear to him. As he had grown up with the country he was doubly at home in the discussion of any phase of the history of the Pacific Northwest. The following is a list of the subjects under which the compiler grouped the selections used: Discovery, exploration and acquisition; pioneer settlement, especially around Champoeg and Puget Sound centers; Indian affairs—wars and treaties; nomenclature of the Pacific Northwest; varied matters in the earlier and later periods; Oregon colleges; Oregon and California, Northern Pacific and Union Pacific railroads and railroad miscellany; political comment on the admission of Oregon, slavery, the Civil War and the party contests; climate, floods; biographies and obituaries of notable Oregonians.

The agency of change that probably had deepest appeal to him was the railroad. All of volume four is taken up with an account of the development of the railway