Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1897-10-21
AShort Account Of Some Of the Most
Important Events in Its Ii fe, and
n Brief Mentioa Of some of Its lead
ing Business Man, Both FsAAa
and Pre.ent. BY 4
Rev. Father Hpepfert. s
IS !
Continued FROM lasNweek.)


The church fssThe shrine wherein
the: savage idolators first assemble,
humbly bend their knee, offer up their
prayers, pay homage to the true God,
''burn what they had adored, adore
what they had burnt" Thus Peter,
the Prince of the Apostles, upset in
Imperial Rome, the affairs of the pagan
divinities and, on the ruins, built up
the centre of the Church of Christ Cru
Gifted; thus Paul, the apostle of the
| Gentiles, proclaimed the Christian
doctrine before the Arcopagus of Ath-
ems, and taught it's learned Senators
the religion of the unknown Cod"
thus Patrick converted Erin's sons,
and transformed that privileged land
into the elsie of sages and saints"
thus Bonifacius reclaimed the Ger
mans, Augustine the English; thus
Francis Xaviour, with angel-like
swiftness, traversed India where, with
his own hand, he poured the reviving
water of Baptism on more than two
millions of infdels; thus Libermann,
through his disciples, in our own time,
penetrated into the gloomiest, un-
healthiest, deepest recesses of the
Dark Continent to relieve and enlight-
en- those that were growing anil sitting
in the darkness and in the shadow of
death; thus our Christian Christopher
Columbus christopher means Christ
bearer with Cross in hand, on Octo-
lbersl2th 1902, takes possession of the
New World, our own American CONT
nent.
Before such men, such heroes, such
saints, when things are viewed in the
supernatural light, Alexander, Caesar,
Napoleon, Lafayette or Washington,
Livingstone and Stanley must needs
stand back in the shade. The latter
looked to earth and time: the former
to heaven and eternity; the former to
churches, schools and immortal souls:
the latter to constitutions, military
power, factories, bodies and things
perishable.
The Christian heroes are generally
followed by the military forces of the
nations: colonies are formed: commerce
regulated: factories established; often
long after churches and schools had
been in existence. This is true histo-
ry,
In our own Eagle River region the
oldest pioneers, over 200 years ago,
were the missioners, the first explor-
ers; and their relations are extant.
These daring French priests followed
our every river, traversed our every
forest, visited our every lake, and
looking into the future, enlivened
them with the seed of our muscallonge
and other fishy tribes; and we, now,
reap the fruit of their labors, science
and foresight. This too, is true histO-
ry, and all this was accomplished, I'M
der the guidance of God and His
Church, long before any other white
man even dreamed of moving west or
northward for mercantile purposes. It
is only within the last quarter of our
10Th century that the commercial
world s attention was drawn to our
Northern region, and that the many
laborers required for the camps, the
mills and the factories, called for new
cities, new churches, new schools, new
ministers new teachers This is new
country.
The modern Indians are by no means
savage, cruel or immoral race.
Would to God that every white settler
did emulate their virtues, industry and
frugality, as they are practiced on in
dependent soil or ON their reservations.
The Indians too, were redeemed by
the Blood of Christ, and are neither to
be despised nor neglected. The tide
of invasion has carried away the In
dian shanties from where now stand
the comfortable dwellings, of the white
man. Amid the war of mill wheels,
the din of the factory whistles and the
clatter of trade, the people of the east
have gradually, almost suddenly pene-
trated into and taken possession of the
west and northwest, allured and at
tracted by the glitter of gold, the valu-