The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-11-06

Smith d Co., of Jamestown Va In
corporated in 1907.
III.
Let no one lightly regard the name of
Smith. Did not the Smith sit next the
priest as the priest sat next the king at
wassail board in the heroic age? And
does not his trade lineage run up to
Tubal-cain, seventh from Adam, and
proprietor of the first rolling mill and
brass foundry eastward of Eden? There
fore, let no Smith dilute his name with
an or Y, nor hyphenate it at either
end with a less ancient and honorable
appellation.
John Smith. Of Lincolnshire, with York
and Lancaster blood in him, was no
discredit to his ancestors, even if he did
run away from school and home and
Ship himself all aboard Of Ship
Foreign countries for to see.
He saw them to some purpose and as a
soldier of fortune, as Ashton his contem-
porary calls him, in France and the low
countries in Italy and Pennsylvania,
fighting Spaniard, Turk and Tartar. The
last knight Grant of English chivalry In
quest of adventure, he tits in tournament
of whose severed heads is blazoned on
his heraldic escutcheon by order of Prince
Sigismund Bathor. Fortune turning, he
becomes the slave of a Bashaw and the
favorite of a princess at Constantinople,
escapes, turns up in Barbary, fights
pirates, shares booty and finally returns
to England to hear Of recent American
discoveries, among them ''the blessed
herb tobacco casts in his lot with Cos
,@11 Il. IL
sail for Virginia and to search for the
South sea as the repository Of immense
riches.
What they did find on the 18th Of April,
1907, was a great store of roast oysters
left by decamping natives, and nothing
more valuable than the pearls in the
shells. It was the beginning of a well
known story of disappointment and sick
ness, disaster and death, Of which only
the literary side can be touched upon
here
Reading the melancholy account of the
encampment on the flats by the tidewater
of the James river, it would not be fair
to expect great achievements in literature
amidst such surroundings.
Yet the redoubtable Smith who had
hewn his way through the world with a
sword. does not hesitate to pick up the
quill of a wild goose-the best of pens
for the story of a chase for gold such
as he had to record. To be sure ne is
as apologetic as any new author, and
fortifies himself at the start with the
remark that other soldiers have writ
with their pens what their swords have
done, and he counts it no disgrace to
follow their example, as others since have
followed his. But his manner of writ
ing suggests the sword rather than the
pen, stabbing upon paper as with
dagger point his sharp sentences. 1t is
not the clerlzly style, but that of a SOL
der. hirsute and bristling with helmet,
back and breast plate, sitting in a hut
Of logs and mud armed and prepared for
morning calls of aboriginal visitors on
mischief bent, interrupted on every page
by business or brawl of comrades, and
for days together by expeditions of dis
covery or diplomacy In savage wilds. Yet
out Of this turmoil and distraction he
contrives to wrest letters which shall
induce other Englishmen of spirit to join
the little company for it's advantage and
their own. What Is known as the True
Relation or "News from Virginia"
doubtless contains the substance of those
early letters How much it was tamper-
ed with later must be left to the critics
to settle among themselves, but there
are passages in it that bear the ear
mark of Capt. John. For example. "The
next day came first an Indian, then an
other as ambassadors to speak with me.
Our discourse was, that what spades
shovels, swords or tools they had stolen,
to bring home Gf not the next day they
should hang). The next news was they
had taken two Of our men, ranging in
the woods, which mischief no punish
ment will prevent but hanging, and these
they should redeem with their own. Six
teen or eighteen thus Drawing us to our
doors we desired to sally upon them, that
they might know what we burst to do,
and at night manned our barge and burnt
their. towns and destroyed and spoiled
what we could, but they brought our
men and freely delivered them. The pres
ident released one, the rest we brought,
well guarded, to morning and evening
prayers. Our men all in arms, their
trembling fear then caused them much
sorrow which till then scoffed and scorn-
ed at what we burst do. The council