He spoke on the proposal to fix a mail-route from Missouri to the mouth of the Columbia River in that far-off land.

Hear this great man who knows whereof he speaks.

He is very bitter.

'What do we want with this vast, worthless area--this region of savages and wild beasts, of deserts, of shifting sands and whirlwinds of dust, of cactus and prairie-dogs?
To what use could we ever hope to put these great deserts or those endless mountain ranges, impenetrable and covered to their very base with eternal snows?
What can we ever hope to do with that Western coast, a coast of three thousand miles, rock-bound, cheerless, uninviting, and not a harbour on it.

Mr.
President, I will never vote one cent from the public treasury to place the Pacific Coast one inch nearer to Boston than it now is!'" The girl had been making little impatient flights about the room, as if awaiting an opportunity to interrupt the old man's harangue, but even as she paused to speak, he began again: "There, laddie, do you hear him ?--arid deserts, shifting sand, snow and ice, wild beasts and wilder men--that is where Israel of the last days shall be hidden to wait for the second coming of God's Christ.