I have now to put against that wonderful background, dim as it is, the new
habitants. I suggested earlier the emergence of their gaunt figures from
the forests and the processional of their ships of the prairies through
the tall grass that seemed as the sea itself.
I had in my thought to speak of these new inhabitants as workers, but that
word has in it too much of the suggestion of endless, hopeless, playless
labor. Yet they are workers all-or nearly all. There are some tramps,
vagrants, idlers, to be sure, the spray of that restless sea. But when a
man of great wealth wishes to give up systematic work he generally goes
out of the valley or begins a migratory life, as do the wild birds of the
valley.
But these busy, ever-working people of the valley are better characterized
by other names, and they may be divided into three overlapping classes:
I. The precursors, those that run before, the explorers, the discoverers,
the inventors, the prophets.
II. The producers, those, literally, who lead forth: the dukes, marshals,
generals of democracy, bringers forth of things from the ground, the
waters, by brain and muscle; and the transporters of the things brought
forth to the places of need.
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