The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1899-04-29

military spirit which pervaded the air,
fought sham battles. he always in
sisted upon personating "Old zack,"
assigning the part Of Santa Anna to
some one else, an app6rtionment of
~'characters sometimes resulting in a
mutiny.
One night one of the younger set,
then a "6-year-old," and not allowed to
go with the big boys, recalls the fasci-
nation which his society had for him,
and the hair-erecting stories of the
yellow-back variety with which he
sometimes RECALLED him. On a certain
memorable evening the smaller boy,
stealing away from home at dusk,
Joined young Dewey and two of his
associates and accompanied them up a
deep ravine to an old-fashioned saw
mill, which they set in motion, the
douLle object thus accomplished being
the seeing of "the old thing shake
itself to pieces" and the securing of a
days holiday for their friend, the mil
ler's son, by the suspension of opera
lions consequent upon draining the
pond.
The immense amount of snow which
falls in the mountains and valleys Of
New England and the large deposits Of
ice which form its rivers make the
breaking up of winter in that far
northern climate a period to which
every boy endowed with a spirit of
adventure looks eagerly forward.
Two small rivers, the Winooski and
the Onic1. come together in Montpelier
in such a way as to form the letter T,
and around this letter the town is
built. In the spring, when these streams
are swollen by the melting SHOWS and
pieces of ice are hurried along by the
current, the boy who gets upon the
smallest "cake" which will bear his
Notwithstanding often in water four
OF five inches deep-and succeeds in
effecting a landing upon the mass OF
pulverized ice, interspersed with huge
end-wise and criss-cross blocks, which
lodges six miles below, becomes the
hero Of the hour.
On such occasions young Dewey was
in his element, leading the way in
every daring enterprise and acquiring
that hardihood and utter disregard Of
danger Of which the victory at Manila
was the glorious outcome. 1t was
while guiding his ice raft past bridges
and piers, over cross-currents formed
by the influx of lesser tributaries and
around quick bends in the river, that
he learned his first lessons in the
science of navigation.
What man has done, man a do"
was the motto which formed the pro-
polling power of his young life, carry
ing him through every boyish under
taking. Who knows but that it may
have inspired his later achievements
as we'll?
OF his experience at the Washington
County grammar school in Montpelier,
| the first educational institution which
he attended, much has already been
written. Its pupils, taught by first
one teacher and then another, had ac-
quired the reputation of being rather
difficult subjects, and Dewey is said to
have taken an active part in the ini-
tiatory hazing to which each new prin-
cipal was subjected and to have been
the r%ing-leader in the revolts which
marked the remainder of his connec-
ton with the school.
When the Hon. Zebina K. Pangborn,
ex-mayor of Jersey City,, and now the
! editor and proprietor of the Jersey City
Evening Journal, consented to take
charge of these refractory young peo-
pie at a salary of $6.25 a week, it was
with the determination to establish a
system of discipline among them to
which they were strangers. Dewey,
being the first to rebel, was made an
example of after the manner already
described.
It is said that, meeting Maj. Pang-
born in Washington two years ago, the
admiral told him that all that was
worthy of consideration in his char
acter had its beginning on that day.