Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 7.pdf/10

4 Alleghanies on to the lonely fastnesses along the Ohio. And there was a bride in 1838 who left the gentle counsels of Mt. Holyoke to come with her husband, Elkanah Walker, to the far away shores of the Pacific; with merry heart she rode on horseback over weary miles of tiresome plain. And Narcissa Whitman came to sustain him who had work to do in this lonely West. Companies of women came, bearing in those emigrant wagons few worldly possessions but that which will enrich forevermore this northwest territory. Who can bind the sweet influences of these mothers? They bequeathed to their daughters the gentleness of ministering angels; the endurance of iron; the philosophical mind, that, looking before and after, believing all things work together for good, will plan large results and calmly direct and control forces to bring about those results.

There is in the western mind a peculiar power of organization and of working under organized direction. I have often noticed how natural it seems for a company of young college men to organize into something, elect officers, draft constitution and bylaws, and set to work—or to athletics. If several start on a day's tramp they come back an organized golf club. If two or three meet to study a few lines of the Æneid they call themselves Societas Quirinalis. A few years ago a class that happened to include but one man, organized, elected that man president, and then carried a motion compelling all members to wear ear-rings as a symbol of membership. A study of the records of the young men who have gone from our State to Eastern colleges will show that the majority of them have been elected to some undergraduate office, and the proportion of Oregon young men now instructing in Eastern institutions is surprising unless explained under the hypothesis that the western mind has peculiar qualities of effectiveness. The remarkable growth of remote