The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1899-05-26
MEMORIAL DAY NEXT.
Public Schools Instructed in Hon.
oring Hero Dead.
A DEWEY.vERMONTER HONORED.

Conduct C. A. X. AffairS-"ROwie Knife
Potter, Best-Known Wisconsin Man. Be
fore the War-Noted Hebrews and Rabbi
Kecht's Lectures-Austrian Prince Sees
Chippewa Falls Biggest Saw Mill.
Madison, May 23.-Following on the
rally of veterans at Milwaukee comes
Memorial Day-May &c. Superintendent
Harvey has issued a pamphlet full Of
suggestions to the public schools how to
get most out of the day. It begins with
a preface by superintendent Harvey in
which he reminds children that the
privileges they enjoy in receiving their
education free is characteristic of their
country, and not common to all the ma
tions of the earth. Then follows the
poem:
We are coming, Father Abraham, three
hundred thousand more,
From Mississippi's winding stream and
from New England's shore;
We leave our plows and workshops, our
wives and children dear,
With hearts too full for utterance, with
but a silent tear:
We care not look behind us, but stead
lastly before;
We are coming, Father Abraham, three
hundred thousand more!
There is an extract from McKinley's
speech at the Omaha Exposition and
James Whitcomb Riley's poem in an
swer to the daily inquiry, Whence the
name "Old Glory?'
And it spake, with a shake of the voice,
and it said
BY the driven snow white and the Nv-
ing blood-red
Of my bars, and their heaven of stars
overhead
By the symbol conjoined Of them all,
skyward cast,
AS I float from the steeple, or flap at the
mast,
Or droop DER the sod where the long
grasses nod,
My name is as old as the glory of God.
So 1 came by the name of
Old Glory.
1t is fitting our school children should
join in celebrating this great day to do
homage to the 100000 of Americas brave
sons who fell in battle during the mem
orable civil war, to the 100000 who died
of disease in that struggle. And on the
new death roll Spanish wary 5000 are
COuDlcI, LOO IL Jill Jul wv IL w iONOAioAAI'
A Memorial Day address by Senator
Spooner and other good things make up
the volume.
Captain Curtis, Literary and Brave.
General Harnden is the new COM
mander of the state G. A. r., and his
right-hand man assistant adjutant
generaD is Captain G. A. Curtis, Of
Madison. The Captain has lame leg
to show for his war service. He lives
in Madison and has bright family of
children, one of the boys being lieu
tenant in the present strife, and an
other being private secretary to Con-
gresham Dahle from this (MadisOn)
district. Captain Curtis was born in
Hallowell, Me-, two miles down the
Kennebec river from Bowie Knife" Pot
ter's Augusta, and was educated at the
Vermont Military College, and knew
Dewey Shortly after his graduation
the civil war broke out, and the sum-
mer of 81 found the young man on the
shores of the Potomac drilling recruits.
In 1862 be was transferred to the
west, and there took part in that re-
markable pursuit of the Confederate
general, Sibley. Then followed a period
of Indian fighting, lasting until 1869,
when he was placed in command Of
Fort Reynolds. In April of $50 Captain
Curtis was detailed as commandant at
the alma mater and has since been sta
toned at Shattuck, GAINESVILLE, Florida,
Gambler O., and Marmaduke Military
Institute at Sweet Springs, Mo. He is
also a writer of short stories and has
just now received an order from Harper
Bros. to compile all the stories that he
has written for them into book form.
A Bowie Knife in the Dark.
The late John F. Potter, three times
a congressman, was 81 years old. He
died at his home on Lake Beulah, Wal
worth county where he had lived since
he came to Wisconsin, a boy of 10, in
1886. In the years before the civil war
and during that time was no better
known Badger. The story of his &C
ceptance of a challenge, from Roger A.
Pryor, of Virginia, to fight a duel. when
both were members of congress, and
his selection of bowie knives in a closed
room in the District of Columbia made
him the hero of the north and served
the triple purpose of convincing the
southern fire eaters of the determine
ton and courage of the opponents of
slavery, Of making more certain the
right of free speech in the halls of con-
gress, and Of making dueling undesir-
able even for southern braggarts."
The terms were refused by Pryor, al
leging the barbarity of the terms pro-
posed. Potter was invited to banquets
in his honor. Public meetings in all
parts of the country passed enthusiast
tic resolutions and he was overwhelmed
with presents of bowie knives in minia-
ture, some of which are still preserved
in his home near Lake Beulah. The
| original bowie knife, which he would
have used if Pryor had not declined to
fight, was presented years ago to Law
renee college, Appleton, where it is
treasured as a relic Of permanent inter
est.
Potter was born in Augusta, Me- He
built his own log house, then boy of
10, on the lake by whose side he died.
Imagination helps US to realize sthe sit
uation of the young pioneer walking
| twenty-four miles to the postoffice and
| wheeling home in his barrow barrel
| of pork and barrel of buckwheat,
| which should serve as provisions for