Omaha daily bee., 1902-11-23

air, no nipping wind to give them a keen
appetite for roast turkey and strong ale.
and instead Of a rockbound coast with a
frosty east wind they will have soft, sleepy
shores. laved with blue seas OF everlast-
ing summer.
Before Thanksgiving day dawns on the
eastern coast Of the United States thou
sands Of Americans In the far world will
have celebrated theirs, When folk in San
Francisco are waking UP the day will have
been ended for many fellow citizens in for
eign cline.
a Flight of Empire.
And this great world holiday is that Of
a nation which was so circumscribed half
a century ago that in the year Of the sew
enth century the president, in his message
to congress, announced: 81 may add, as
somewhat remarkable, that among all the
thirty-one states there is none that is not,
TO a greater or less extent, bounded by the
| Atlantic ocean or the Gulf Of Mexico or one
of the great lakes"
In that message to congress the seer
tary Of war reported the arrival in Oregon
OF a regiment OF mounted rifemen that had
started from Fort L~eavenworth on May 10
Of the year before and reached Oregon City
on october 5. Thu news Of their arrival,
with the report Of the commanding ON
GER, reached the capital many months after
that. The quartermaster who was assigned
to the regiment travelled for nine days to
reach Fort Leavenworth from st. Louis.
He journeyed by steamer up the Missouri
and on the way his vessel passed a river
steamer that had lost thirty passengers
from cholera and had been abandoned on
the shore.
The regiment lost men all along the
line Of march from cholera. Graves OF
emigrants who had died from the same dis
ease we're found everywhere along the
trail.
The emigrants in that year carried the
cholera with them, and II remained among
them until they crossed the North Platte.
They scattered the infection through the
whole western country. and once the
troops came on a camp Of Indians with only
six persons LEFT alive out OF seventeen who
had made camp the night before.
In that November, while the message was
being written, a surveying party of army
engineers was in the field looking for a
route for a wagon road from St. Louis to
the great bend Of the Red river. Another
was trying to find a way through the Sac
ramento mountains.
The chief Of ordnance reported on the
alteration Of ia, 900 fint-lock muskets to
percussion arms.
The Indian agent at Santa Fe, New
| Mexico, then under military governorship
reported the successful liberation of four
men who had been prisoners among the
Navajo Indians from six to eighteen years.
The Navy of Then.
The secretary Of the navy reported that
there were in commission one razee, six
frigates, fifteen sloops OF war, four brigs,
two steam frigates, one steamer OF the
first class, three steamers less than first
class and FIVE receiving ships.
The sIoops-of-war Portsmouth, John
Adams and Dale, and the brigs Porpoise
and Perry were on the coast Of Africa hunt
ing slave traders.
The report says that occasional in
| stances have occurred of the interference
Of British cruisers with vessels bearing
| our flag on that coast on suspicion Of
their being s~lavers. but in each case the
offense has been atoned for by explana-
tions and apologies to our officers on those
stations"
The departure OF the relief expedition
to search for Sir John Franklin is also
mentioned in the Navy departments re-
port.
The secretary discusses the articles OF
war and says that "as the department con-
strues the act Just passed the punishment
Of whipping on board naval ships is en-
tirely abolished and he wants to know
what punishment shall take its place, be-
cause as 1t stands death is the only sum
mary punishment left for severe infrac-
tions Of discipline.
In discussing an appended suggestion of
the chief of construction, that naval sail
ing ships be fitted thereafter with steam
propellors to be used in time Of head
winds, he remarks that he would not rec
] ommend q large addition to this species OF
) naval force lest the progress Of invention