Chronicles of Oklahoma

SOME OBSERVATIONS
Present-day civilization is making it exceedingly hard
for animals of all kinds to survive in their natural state. In
fact the earth is so completely preempted.by highly developed
nations, that even the inferior nations of man stand a poor
show of ever coming to. that degree of advancement which
the aggressive nations enjoy. In the life of nations it re-
quires eons of time to makepossible advanced growth; there
is nothing in the present environment of the Hottentot, or
the inhabitants of darkest Africa that will ever lead them to
advancement without help from the civilized world. They,
with other forms of life, have been driven to dwell in a rela-
tively fixed environment to which they have become adjusted,
and where, for the most part, they must forever remain.
Many species have become extinct, because of the on-
ward march of a civilization that has destroyed their one-
time favorable environment, and many primitive forms which
we have with us to-day, seem to be condemned to live forever
unchanged in their original environment.
While man holds sway, what chance hasthe less order of
creatures to take possession of the earth? In the days that
great bulky creatures ruled the,earth, they drove all lesser
animals to new modes of life and to new lines of development;
but man now drives everything hither ,and yon, and nothing
survives long that he dooms to destruction. In our day the
face of the American prairie hasbeen swept clean of a popu-
lation consisting of different tribes, and different animals,
that in your life-time, were distressingly numerous. Man still
needs the services of a variety of animals ranging from the
smallest to the largest; many of these he must look diligently
after with the greatest care, this is necessary for his own
preservation; while this is true, others have done their work
and may well be left to perish, or made to perish, as man de-
sires.
J. Y. BRYCE.
The story of the Great West is being told; and these
stories carry wonderful information concerning Oklahoma.
While this is the case, we feel like Chronicles of Oklahoma is

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