of his own flesh are more
beloved.

Yes, truly, it is a bore. The thing is overdone. There is too much of
it. And yet--well, it is the very spirit of the West, a natural
expression of the pride of creation, for these men of to-day are
creating homes and towns, and doing it under fiercely competitive
conditions. They have builded upon their judgment and staked their all
upon the throw of fortune. They are pleased with their accomplishments
and vastly determined to bend the future to their ends. It is arrogance,
no doubt, but healthy and happy, and the very essence of youthful
accomplishment. And its very insistency and sincerity spell success, and
are invigorating to boot.

[Illustration: "The Palouse dweller pictures wheat fields." The grain
country of eastern Washington

From a photograph by Frank Palmer, Spokane, Wash.]

[Illustration: "The man from Boise describes God's country in terms of
sagebrush and brown plains"]

The old differences between East and West are no more, of course. Except
for a trifle more informality under the setting sun, clothes and their
wearing are the same. The Queen's English is butchered no more
distressingly in California than in Connecticut. Proportionately to
resources, educational opportunities are identical. Music and the arts
are no longer strangers where blow Pacific breezes, nor have they been
for decades. The West is wild and woolly no more, railroads have
replaced stagecoaches, fences bisect the ranges, free land is almost a
thing of the past. Yet, withal, existence for the peoples of the two
borders of our continent is not cast in an identical mold.

"Back East" residents are apt to regard the West as a land of
curiosities, human and natural. "Out West" dwellers are inclined to be
supercilious when they mention the ways of the Atlantic seaboard.

All statements to the contrary notwithstanding, East is East, and West
is West, no matter how fluently they mingle. The difference between them
is not to be defined by conversational metes and bounds. It is not
merely of miles, of scenery, or of manners, or even of enthusiasm. It
is, in fact, quite intangible, and yet it exists, as anyone who has
dwelt upon both sides of our continent realizes. Aside from the
trivialities--which are wrapt up in such words as "culture," "custom,"
"precedent," and the like--the fundamental, explanatory reason for the
intangible differences is one of years. Most of the West is buoyantly
youthful, s