The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1886-12-02

this continent. Before Hendrix Hud-
son set foot on the island of Manhattan,
and while Henry Nv. still sat on the
throne of France, the Hurons pointed
out the site whereon il is built to Cham
plain, the founder of Quebec, as the
natural gateway to @the vast seas of
sweet water" and then was born in the
brain Of the great French navigator the
dream of New France" which
should extend from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, and have Quebec and Detroit
as its eastern and western fortresses.
This dream was inherited by the
French monarchs; but it was not till
ninety years later that one of them at
tempted to make it a reality. Then
Louis XIV. commissioned the Sieuf
Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, who
from 1894 to 1899 had been in COM
mand at Mackinaw, to found at De-
troit settlement and erect there
fort to hold the region of the Great
Lakes for the French Government.
This was done, and Detroit, under the
successive reigns of Henry w., Louis
NIL, NV, and XIV, was for nearly
sixty years q French town. bit of
Sunny France" hidden away in the
western wilderness; and such it might
have remained to this day had not
Wolfe, one dark night in September,
1895, scaled the heights of Quebec, and
on the Plains of Abraham changed the
fate of North America. The surrender
of Detroit soon followed the conquest
of Quebec, and then it became an En-
glish town, and the western headquar-
tiers of the British power in Ameri-
ca. 1t so remained-the extreme post
of Western civilization until July IL,
1856, when, in pursuance of the peace Of
1888, it was quietly transferred to the
United States. Thus we see that De-
troit has had q unique history. Three
times has it changed it's nationality,
and with each change assumed totally
different characteristics. At first it
was French, then English, and last of
all American, and in the present town
may be seen curious blending of the
traits of these various peoples. The
old French habitant and the courtly
English resident have long slumbered
in their graves, but the close OBJ
server will detect that their spir-
it's still walk abroad, and perambulate
its streets arm In arm with the
irrepressible Yankee, who, in his seven
league boots, is now striding across the
continent. Brother Jonathan has
everywhere the astonishing energy
which, in we'll nigh a single day, raised
Chicago from its ashes; but here he
has been held in check by those old
worthless, who have now and then whis-
pered in his ear the fable of the hare
and the tortoise. This accounts for
the fact that Detroit is to-day q curl
Gus compound of modern progress and
old-time conservatism--a city of vast
enterprises, but enterprises based on a
broad, substantial, and enduring basis.
In the summer of 1925, cannon
planted at intervals along the line of
the Erie Canal, all the way from AL
bany TO Buffalo, announced that Clin-
tons great work was completed, and
the West married to the East by bond
that is indissoluble. Its gates were no
sooner opened than q tide of emf ra-
ton set through them westward. Soon
all over New England and Eastern New
York whole families, and in some in
stances whole hamlets, were on the
move, and such an exodus followed as
never was seen except when the Israel
ties came up out of Egypt, and the
Kalmucks fed across the steppes of
Asia At one time it seemed that rural
New England would be depopulated.
It's best and youngest blood joined in
the exodus; and to this fact may be
traced the high character and wonder
full enterprise of the West OF to-day.
The first wave rested for q while in
Western New York, and then the
gathering tide swept gradually west
ward along the lakes and the Ohio.
and finally, in 1880, it touched the
shores of Michigan. Then for the first
time Detroit became in reality an
American town.
In the beginning CT 1880 Detroit
numbered 2,222 people; that is, it stood
precisely where it was in 1903; and
this during quarter of a century
when the population of the country
generally had increased in a ratio alto
gether unparalleled in history. But
now the old town began to feel the
general impetus. 1t increased four
fold in the next ten years; and thus it
has gone on ever since, doubling about
every decade, till now it numbers, with
its suburbs, fully 200,0 souls.-Ed-
m1LHd Kirke, A1 Hdrper's Magazine.