Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1873-04-21
AyEIyERsARY TO BE CELEBRATED
a PROPER TASK FOX THE OLD
EnEUG

"A PROPER TASK FOX THE OLD
FOLKS.
II Is proposed to celebrate, in the
valley of the Mississippi, the anniver-
sary of the discovery OF the great river
nv Father Marquette and Monsieur
Toilet. Two hundred years will have
elapsed, on the seventeenth Of June
next, since this event. Marquette was
a good priest, resolved to preach the
gospel everywhere, and Joliet was q
i1Ilv French merchant. They descended
the river in boats from the mouth
of the Wisconsin to the mouth Of the
Arkansas. Five boatmen accompanied
the two gentlemen. 1t was on the tenth
of July, 1873, that these precursors
of civilization landed at the mouth OF
the Arkansas. On the seventeenth,
according to the French narrative pre-
served in Paris, they started on their re-
turn. and reached Green Bay, by way oil
Chicago, on the first of September. 1t
was the boat, as is supposed, OF Mar
ouette aud Joliet, which Captain Cow
don discovered three years ago beneath
the roots of q great tree certainly one
hundred and fifty years old, growing on
the hanks of the Mississippi near Napo-
leon. The boat was copper-fastened,
and Of the dimensions of the largest
steamboat yawl. The roots Of the lofty
cvpress were twined about it, and,
not long afterward, the river
swept away the tree, and, per-
haps, the last memorial, save Mar
uuette's journal of the voyage,
that remains of the discoverer
of the upper Mississippi. DeSoto pre-
ceded Marquette, as a discOverer.of the
Mississippi at Memphis, more than one
hundred years. If any celebration of
such events as that proposed be enacted,
we must perpetuate the name and
heroism of the Spanish knight rather
than of the French priest. 1t becomes
Memphis to celebrate the fame OF him
who made his compact with the
Chicsas on the mounds at Fort Pick
ering, during the reign of good
Queen Bess, when Sir Walter Raleigh
had hardly learned to love the fragrance
of the weed, and the value of the potato
was unknown in Ireland. In an un-
known age an unknown people would
have lighted signal fires upon this
mound, TO be answered by another on
the summit of the lofty mound forty
miles away, near Madison, which would
have telegraphed the strange story to
the Ioftier mound below Little Rock, and
thus the wonderful advent Of wonderful
men would have been made known
everywhere among the moundbuild-
ers. As it was, only few saw
ages were encountered here by De-
Soto, OF by Marquette, the latter
finding few signs Of human habitations,
or marks of human industry, along the
forest-erowned shores of the majestic
river. Marquette was brave old priest,
as DeSoto was tie most wonderful
hero and daring adventurer of his time;
and the living of to-day, if they them
selves would be honored, should not for
get to award to the marvellous men, |
whose names are inseparably linked
with the story of our lives, and with
that of the country we inhabit, proper
hOnors and tributes of proper praise.
There is propriety in the suggestion as
it affects Marquette and Joliet, and there
would be singular felicity of fact and
thought in the celebration, at the
Mound, by the Old Folks association,
Of the anniversary of the discovery of
the Mississippi by DeSoto.