Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1899-10-01
J. BULL, LANI THIEF
ALWAYS ON ALERTFoR WHAT
 IS NOT HIS.
How Oregon Was savd from His
 capacious Paw-The sbry Of Ride Across the Continent, b Fred Myron Coiby.

Colby.
 There is a story of aride, back
 the middle of the centur, that should be more familiar to our loys and glris. It was far more imporant ride than
 Paul ReYere's. The hen of Longfel-
 lows famous poem rode eghteeD miles,
 one summer night, to rouse few
 sleeping patriots, and so aved the gull
 powder at Concord. The ride of Mar
 GUS Whitman was overi snow capped
 mountains and along ark rayines
 travelled only by savag beasts and
 savage men. It was punge through
 icy rivers, and across tackles prai-
 ries, ride of four thmsand miles
 across continent, in the dead of win \ ter, to save mighty territory 10 the l Union. There are few eynts in Amer iAan history more striking than this, or moAe deserving of remenbranee. It is a st61y that patriotic people ought never Ao forget The country now con stituting the great statesOf Oregon and Washingt was embraed ia the ser
 ritory cede to the United States by the Louisiana purchase, in 1903; but our government had prior claim upon the countrywide tight of discovery. Tn 1792, during thS first administration os Washington, Cant. Robert Gray, who had already carEiAd the American flag around the globdsSsiss scoyerqd the mouth of the Columbia rivefS He sailed sey- eral miles up the great stream, and landed and took possession in the name of the United States lNI 1895. under Jefferson's administration this vast territory was explored by Capts. Lewis and Clark, whose reports were popular reading for our grandfathers; hut the extent and value of this distant pos session was very slightly underste )d, and no attempt at colonization was made, save the establishment of the fur-trading station of Astoria in 1811. Strangely enough, England too, claimed this same territory by virtue of rights ceded to it by Russia and also by the Vancouver surveys of 1792 The Hudson's Bay Company established q number of trading-posts, and filled the country with adventurous fur-traders
 So here was a vast territory, as large as New England and the state of In- diana combined, which seemed to be without any positive ownership. But for Marcus Whitman it would have been lost to the Union It was in 1886 that Dr. Whitman and a man by the name of Spaulding, with their young wives, the first white women that ever crossed the Rocky Mountains. entered the valley of the Columbia, and found ed a mission of the American Board. They had been sent out to Christian ize the Indians, but Whitman was also to build a state. He was at this time 35 years old. In his journeys to and fro for the mission, he soon saw the vast possibilities of the country, and he saw, too. that the English were al- ready apprised of this, and were rap idly pouring into the territory. Under the terms of the treaties of 1918 and 1928, it was the tacit belief that which ever nationality settled and organized the territory, that nation would hold it. If England and the English fur traders had been successful in their plans, the three great states of Wash ington. Oregon ana Idaho would now constitute part of British Columbia. But 1t was not destined to be. In the fall of 1S42 it looked as if there would be great inpouring of English into the territory, and pr. Whitman took the alarm. There was no time to lose. The authorities at Washington must be warned Hastily bidding his wife adieu, Dr. Whitman mounted his horse and started on his hazardous journey. Of the ,,or,ls. hardships and delays he encountered on the way we cannot stop to tell. His feet were frozen, he near ly st ved, and o1cs came very near losing his life ill a great snoWstorm. But nothing stayed him. He kept push ing right on, and at the end of five ter rible months he reached Washington. He arrived there worn. bearded, strangely picturesque figure. clad en- tirely in buckskin and fur, typical man of the prairies. He asked audi ence of President Tyler and Secretary of State Webster. and it was accorded him. All clad as he was. with his frozen limbs, just in from his 4,o00 miles ride, Whitman appeared before the two great men to plead for Oregon. His statement was a revelation to the adminl lion Previous to Whitman's visit f was the general idea in con gress that Oregon was a barren. worth
 less country, fit only for wild beasts
 and wild men, He opened the eyes
 or the government to the limitless
 wealth and splendid resources of that
 western territory He told them of it's
 great rivers and fertile valleys. it's
 mountains covered with forests and it's
 Ilhes hlled with precious treasures.
 lie lie showed them that 1t was coun-
 ". s,T .s,, @9fjo keeping. and that it must
 fo' iali into he hands of the English.
 ne spoke as man inspired and his
 MoFas were needed. What followed
 fhe Aofgaa satlon or companies of emi-
 grants the rapid settlement ~, of inc h, fer