TRAGEDIES ON THE JOURNEY WEST.

TRAGEDIES ON THE JOURNEY WEST. I have on the wall of my office two paintings made my daughter Annalisa when she was fourteen. They are companion pieces about the trips made west by pioneers after the Civil War. One shows an early morning scene with a woman preparing breakfast and a covered wagon in the background which would contain all that the settlers were taking with them from the civilization they knew. The second one is set later on the journey. It is snowing, the settlers are trudging through a dark forest, past household furnishings, including a clock and a table, that have been jettisoned by pioneers that came before them—jettisoned to make the travel easier for the horses, jettisoned because the issue is now survival rather than the amenities of civilization. (This wikipedia article gives an estimate that one tenth of the emigrants perished on the way west.)