ATDTDA (2): The American Cowboy (53.3)

[Paul Nightingale]

Lew's progress continues guided by forces he cannot quite fathom. The text
draws attention to this aspect of the narrative, top of 51: "It must have
been that Austrian Archduke." By inference, then. Or: to be explained only
after the event. As Professor Vanderjuice says: "Cause and effect? How the
dickens do I know?" (53).

With the culture of terrorism proving profitable, Nate tells Lew (51) he
must go west ...

"Go West, young man!" is the phrase always associated with Horace Greeley,
newspaper editor and mid-century failed Presidential candidate. "Go West,
and grow up with the country."

However, according to Coy F. Cross (Go West, Young Man! Horace Greeley's
Vision for America, University of New Mexico Press, 1995), Greeley did not
originate the phrase. This honour belongs to another journalist, John B. L.
Soule, of the Terre Haute, Indiana, Express. Greeley's name, then, signifies
the ideological function of the words, rather than authorship.

"This legendary advice, which Greeley did not originate but did popularize
to the point that it has been forever associated with his name, remains part
of the nation's continuing conversation with itself on matters of history
and culture. Nothing so appropriately captures in a single declarative
sentence the youthful, adventurous, acquisitive optimism that energized
thousands of mid-nineteenth century men and women to relocate beyond the
Mississippi." (From the Introduction, by Jo Ann Manfra, to: Horace Greeley,
An Overland Journey from New York to San Francisco in the Summer of 1859,
University of Nebraska Press, 1999, v. Manfra points out that Greeley did
not follow his own advice.)

Ironic, then, that Lew goes West because the Old West no longer exists.
Professor Vanderjuice's description of the Wisterian Cowboy (top pf 53) is
precisely an invention of nostalgia.