Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1875-06-17
"The fibres OF the future States
We're plastic then. and warm,
And the moald of empire yet to be
Was rounding into FORM"


And the mosd of empire yet to be
Was rounding into FORM"
When landed in Prairie du Chen in Sep
TENDER, 1884, it was a military outpost. The
Indians filled the river and adjacent streams
with their bark canoes, and the smoke of his
wigwam gracefully curled" around the green
foliage Of the Islands. Every body here lived,
directly or indirectly, on Uucle Sam. He
came here every year and paid off the Indians
and soldiers. So marked was this dependence
of the settlers upon the army, that heard the
well remembered uncle Lisha" preach ser
mon once in the old court house. The Quar-
termaster and Commissary we're present He
compared his Lord and Master to these officials,
to whom you might 60 and get whatever you
wanted without money and without price.
Nobody but "Uncle 'Lisha" would ever have
though of comparing these unregenerate young
shoulder straps to the divine Saviour, or think
of installing Him in the quartermaster or COM
missary department at Prairie du Chen. But
it was decided hit, and the Quartermastcr,
after this, told me to let "Uncle 'Lisha" have
whatever he wanted, and | did.
nrst discovered it from the river. A regular
army was a novelty to me. Here was the
architecture of civilized man indeed, but men
not engaged in the employments of peace, as
had been accustomed to see them. It was an
aggregation of men armed and disciplined for
war. The untutored savage meets the pale
face, each in his warlike attire. The confines
of our territory next to savage ffe bristles
with bayonets and the merciless steel and iron
implements of slaughter, and wide mouth can
non peer from the port holes of fort and
fortress The uneducated savage understands
and respects these symbols of power, but the
B C's and spelling book, the daily newspaper
and tho H0Iv Rihlo-thqaa thOuOh thpV
sess thousand times the force of all the
artillery that was ever forged, you might hurl
at him from morning to night with as little
effect as popgun pellet against the walls of
Gibralta. The dominion which the white man
has acquired over the material forces of nature
so as to make him relatively omnipotent, the
Indian ascrbes to the partial dspensation of
the Great Spirit, not to those subtle nOiseless
processes that educate and develop the mind.
Il was annuity time when l lodged the first
night in Prairie du Chen, in what was after
wards known as the Ralto house, the then
Government Agency. The Winnebagoes were
enjoying their national drunk. General Street,
the Agent, and family, and Thomas P. Bur
nette, Esq. Sub Agent, an old friend from Paris
KY, occupied part OF the premises. Indians
alternately with dogs yawned, rolled and
snored upon the floor. | hardly ever spent a
revolved in body five hundred times in a--no,
in my bunk. My sensitive cuticle twinged
here and twitched there. | longed for day,
and it came with provoking hardness. l got
up, gathered an indian mirror-every Indian
has one. | looked in the glass | was as
spotted as a leopard, and quite as crosS. What
was the matter? | lifted my buffalo robe and
blanket, and such an uprising and commotion
among the generation of heas was never seen
before. They rose like clouds of dust after
a runaway mule team. began an indiscrimi-
nate war. / put my finger on him; he was
not there. Crush hint How could You crush
an an nated atom already crushed to the
smallest possible bulkg l was as helpless as
the Troj al hero when be tried to divide the
ghosts of Erebus with the sword And shall
these shameless cannibals be allowed to prey
upon visible, tangible flesh and blood and then
escape punishment in the labyrinth of their own
insignifcance? No. for says the poet,
Every hsa has something else to bite him,
And so tbs biter's bit, ad infnitum.
And exactly so, when your fellow citizen,
Mr.. Humphrey, began the manufacture of soap
in that ancient edifce, the nation of heas that
abhor soap suds and all cleanliness, began
their exodus from Prairie du Chien-"rhe
wicked flea when no man pursueth."
But vainly would l strive by anecdote, iest
or pleasantly to Danish those sad recollections
that force themselves into our hearts and de-
mand an expression in words to-day Where
is the aunt Eunice," the gifted fountain of |
kindness and humor, gifted by nature with an |
eloquence that could express the generosity of |
her heart, and that amiable family circle that |
surrounded her, of young ladies who well |
understood the mission of their sex, to attract |
refine, purify and finally conquer and capture |
the lords of creation What old settler or |
that time resident Of Prairie du Chen can |
ever forget those matronly friends of his |
youth whose hopeful word and heartfelt syn- |
pathy were his solace and encouragement, when |
kindred and parental roof were far away. |
Who could discuss the knotty questions of |
theology with more rest and acntcness than |
her we called "Sster Dandley?" Who de. |
lighted more in opening the treasures of her |
heart and telling all she knew, than Aunt |
Anna? These, and many more have migrated |
to that remote country, whence is no return
And where is "Uncle Ezekiel" who lived on |
Wonder mountain; as large of heart and bound |
less IN his hospitality, homey and earnest in |
his prayer, with an iron built physique as il |
he had been a round from the vertebral column
of old Time himself, could he secumb to the fell |
destroyer! And the quaint Uncle Lishn"
shall no longer point to fairer worlds and |
lead the way" Nay, he has gone to test the
reality of that hope in which he believed with
all his soul. Richer in the moment of death
than if the wealth OF the Indies lay at his feet.
"Oh. let me die the death of the righteous
and let my latter end be like hisn And where
10 the familiar form of John Thomas, and
the partner of his life, the father and mother
of those of thatname here to-day? Was there
naught in this earthly scene to interest them