West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1885-04-10
A MAN AND A BROTHER,
A True Story OF the Gallant Act
OF = Fettered Prisoner.


The chief told the story. He said il
was tr,ei and whatever else might be
said Of him, no one had ever accused
him of telling falsehood willfully in
his life. A rigid dsoiplinarian. and
something Of martinez in the service
OF the great trading company at whose
head he stood in America, in his own
house he was simply the perfect host,
the most courteous and tho most hos
pitable of mon. When his subordinate
| oil ers came from the interior to the
capital, his residence was their natural
resort of an evening when the business
OF the day was done. Twice / heard
him tell the story that am about to
narratc here, each time with the same
words and with the same gestures.
believe it to be true, and when he said
he witnessed the incident which is the
center of it, have no doubt whatever
but TIM. he did see il 1t is IA story
finely touched with that human interest
which appeals tn all hearts. | have
never thought Of ii without cling that
! there Is grandeur and dignity in life
that go far to cOuntcrbalance its too an
parent mcanncssc. and its too evident
sins.
The story tsclf takes MS back dozen
years or more. TO sOmcwhere about
1870, when the Northwestern States aud
provinces were in the first dawn of the
! day OF that amazing vigor which has
surprised and as,onishcd the world.
Chicago, standing ON the eastern edge
o. MS vast territory, had not ye, tri-
Gmphantly emerged from its baptism of
fire. The smoke of Milwaukee hung
ke cloud over the Yves ern shores of
Lake Michigan. 81. Paul and Mime
apolis, young twin giants of lusty
growth, were rapidly rising into inn
POI tance in the higher waters of the
Mississippi, while four hundred and
fifty miles north of them Fort Garry,
on the banks of the Red River, had
hardly as yet begun TO show the prom
ise that its de ,cendant, WINNIPEG, more
than fultills of being the capital of Cen
ira Canada.
That day Of beginnings had features
of its own, some OF which have disap-
peared already, and all of which are
fated eventually 10 pass away. For one
thing, the western man Is fast diving
out; the railways, rather than the "a
looms, have killed him To some extent
he s1il survives in the cowboy OF Mon
tana and the Rocky Mountains; but no
writer has so far had either the temeritv
or the strength of Imagination TO invest
him with the p picturesque and some
times tender coloring of that romance
IN which the Westerner has been painted
for Us.
Among these features so rapidly pass
ing away none was more constantly
part OF the scene, and none more char
acteristic and noticeable, than the flat
hOttomed, heavy-looking. stern-wheel
propeller-the true pioneer in the West
OF civilization when as yet railways
were not Creeping up the shallow
waters OF some stream hardly broader
than the steamer itself crashing through
the oyerhanging branches, shooting
rapids and jumping sand banks, never
safe from "snags, with its driving
wheel gashed and mangled bv the float
ing drift-timber, it held bravoly ON its
way, carrying supplies for the distant
set lements. Time was no great object.
50 long rs il got Har. The pre- ent
writer well remembers i'm 1874 spending
three days in getting over sixty miles of
the snaky bends and tOrtuOus twists Of
the Red Lake River from Crookston TO
Grand Forks. in Northern Dakota, in
just such n steamer. Now the ra lwavs
have driven It away far nOrthward and
westward, north a. far as the Saskatchc-
wan and the Peace River and wes' as
far as the smaller tributaries of the
Yellowstone and the Missouri.
During the summer of 1870, we will
say, one Of these steamers was making
its way down the Red River of the
North for Fargo. In design and APP
pearance IL was Of the usual Western
type. And the Red River is Of the
same general order as most streams Of
the West-a shallow IigLag of
stream. apparently going nowhere in
particular, but, for al that, i'm its own
leisurely fashion, knowing its own
business yere we'll as il heads north
ward for Lake Winnepcg now wide.
now narrow, with here "a bluff Of pop
lar or oak upon its banks, and there
belt Of willow bending down into the
YellOw-brOwn waters. with n few sOli-
tarv lOg shanties at wide intervals tell
OF the settlers presence.
There are but few passcr ns on the
cabin deck Of the stcnr- one or two
officers Of the Hud o., Bay Company
going on 10 the posts i'm the wilder
ness, q number Of farmers and emil
grants intending 10 take UP home
steads % Manitoba. One Of the Hud-
sot Bay Company officers has with
aim his young wife and "a child % tuv
girl three years old a pretty. pratt
fling fearless fascinating Young
woman She is eycrybody's pcf from
the rather d8ndr wheelsmon. who tries
to entlce her up to his pilot-boN. which
towers above the vessel. down tJ the
gr'zlled, grimy deck hands whose &C
quamtance She has somehow or other
made on the lower deck
On the floor OF this lower decl,.
whittier she has been taken bv beer
nurse she has seen three men lying
bound chaiuod hand and foot They
arc ON their WAY 10 Doc tried 90 Fargo.
and the Sheriff. who has affected their