the sunshine, and we
are not only Colorado, but Colorado Claro! [Applause.]

Practically, as little is known of the great West by you of the East as
was known a century ago of New England by our British cousins. Your
interest in us is, unfortunately, largely the interest on our mortgages,
your attitude toward us is somewhat critical, and the New England heart
is rarely aroused respecting the West except when some noble Indian,
after painting himself and everything else within his reach red, is sent
to his happy hunting grounds. [Laughter.] Yet, toward the savage, as in
all things, do not blame us if we follow the Christian example set us by
our forefathers. We read that the Court at Plymouth, more than fifty
years after the colony was founded, ordered "That whosoever shall shoot
off any gun on any unnecessary occasion, or at any game whatsoever,
except an Indian or a wolf, shall forfeit five shillings for every such
shot"; and our pious ancestors popped over many an Indian on their way
to Divine worship. [Laughter.] But when in Colorado, settled less than a
generation ago, the old New England heredity works itself out and an
occasional Indian is peppered, the East raises its hands in horror, and
our offending cowboys could not find admittance even to an Andover
Probation Society. [Laughter.]

Where we have a chance to work without precedent, we can point with
pride of a certain sort to methods at least peaceful. When Mexico was
conquered, we found ourselves with many thousand Mexicans on hand. I
don't know how they managed it elsewhere, but in Colorado we not only
took them by the hand and taught them our ways, but both political
parties inaugurated a beautiful and generous custom, since more honored
in the breach than in the observance, which gave these vanquished people
an insight into and an interest in the workings of republican
institutions which was marvellous: a custom of presenting to each head
of a household, being a voter, on election day, from one to five dollars
in our native silver. [Great laughter.]

If Virginia was the mother of Presidents, New England is the mother of
States. Of the population of the Western States born in the United
States, some five per cent, are of New England birth, and of the native
population more than half can trace a New England ancestry. Often one
generation sought a resting-place in Ohio, and its successor in Illinois
or in Iowa, but you will find that the ancestor, less tha