It was not so with the American West.

Here was not the place of the rich man but of the poor man, and he had no one to aid him or encourage him.

Perhaps no man ever understood the American West who did not himself go there and make his living in that country, as did the men who found it and held it first.

Each life on our old frontier was a personal adventure.

The individual had no government behind him and he lacked even the protection of any law.
Our frontier crawled west from the first seaport settlements, afoot, on horseback, in barges, or with slow wagon-trains.