Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-12-04
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In Longmeadow a man could not help
practicing argument. 1 also practiced ora
tory And all the time practiced the
| Iroquoise tongue as we'll as English and
| French and began the. translation of
books into the language of the nation
| hoped to build That Indians made unsta-
BILE material for the white man to handle
1 would not believe. Skenedonk was not
unstable. His faithfulness was a rock.
For some reason. and 1 think it was
the reach of Pastor Storrs. men in other
places began to seek me. The vital cur
rents of life indeed sped through us on the
| Hartford and Springfield stage road. 1t
! happened that Skenedonk and were max
ing my annual journey to st. Regis when
the first steamboat accomplished it's trip
on the Hudson river. About the time that
the Wisconsin country was included in
| Illinois territory, 1 decided to write let
ter to Madame Tank at Green Bay, and
insist on knowing my story as she be-
lieved she knew it. Yet L hesitated; and
finally did not do it. I found afterwards
that there was no postoffice at Green Bay.
A carrier, sent by the officers of the
fort and villagers, brought mail from
Chicago. He had two hundred miles of
wilderness to traverse, and his blankets
and provisions as well as the mail to car
ry and he did this at the risk of his life
among wild men and beasts.
The form of religion was always triv-
ial matter to me. i neversceased to love
the sacrifice of the mass, which was an
abomination and an idolatrous practice
to Pastor Storrs. The pageantry of the
Roman church that first mothered and
nurtured me touches me to this day. 1
love the stern and knotty argument, the
sermon with heads and sequences, of the
New England Congregat ionalists. For this
cathoIcity Catholics have upbraided me,
churchmen rebuIzed me, and dissenters de-
MED that had any religion at all.
When the Episcopal bishop of New
York showed me kindness, and Pastor
Storrs warned me against being proselyt-
ed, 1 could not tell him the charm in the
form of worship practiced by the woman
loved. There was not conscious min
ute when I forgot her. Yet nobody in
Longmeadow knew of her existence. In
my most remorseful days, comparing my
self with PastOE~Storrs, ] was never sor-
ry / had chung to her and begged her not
to let me go alone. For some of our sins
are so honestly the expression of nature
that justification breaks through them
On the western border there was trou-
BILE with dissatisfied Indians, and on the
sea there was trouble with the British, DO
that people began to talk of war long be-
fore it was declared, and to blame Presi-
dent Madison for his over-caution in af-
fairs. A battle was fought at Tippecanoe
In the Indian Territory, which silenced the
Indians for a while. But every one knew
that the English stood behind them. Mill
tia was mustered, the army recruited,
and embargo laid upon shipping in the
ports, and all things were put forward in
April of the year, before war was de-
clared in June
1 had influence with our tribes. The
government offered me well paid COM
mission to act as its secret agent. Pastor
Storrs and the Williamses, who had been
nurturing a missionary. were smitten with
grief to see him rise and leap into camps
and fields eager for the open world, the
wilderness smell; the council, where the
red mans mind, a trembling balance,
could be turned by vivid language; eager.
in fact, to live where history was being
made. M t4 tD
The pastor had clothed me in his mind
with ministerial gown and band, and the
martial blood that quickened he counted
an Iroquoise strain. Yet so inconsistent
is human nature, so given to forms
which it calls creeds. that when I
afterwards put on the surplice and read
prayers to my adopted people, he count
ed it as great a detection as taking to
saddle and spur. We cannot leave the ex
preston Of our lives to those better quail
fed than we are. however dear they may
be-. had to pack my saddlebags and be
gone, loving Longmeadow none the less
because 1 grieved it, knowing that it
would not approve of me more if stayed
and failed to do my natural part.
The snuffbox and the missal which had
belonged to my family in France 1 always
carried with me. And very little could be
transported on the road we took.
John Williams, who came to Longmead-
ow in deerslins, and paraded his burn
ished red poll among the hated Williams
es. abetted me in turning from the mis-
sionary field to the arena of war, and
never left me. 1t was Skenedonk who
served the United States with Drawn
and endurance, while / put such policy
and color into my harangues as 1 could
command We shared our meals, our
camps, our beds of leaves together. The
life at Longmeadow had knit me to good
use. I could fast or feast, ride or march.
take the buckskins. or the soldiers uni
form.
OF this service I shall write down only
what goes to the making of the story.
The government was pleased to commend
it. and it may be found written in other
annals than mine.
Great latitude was permitted us in our
orders. We spent year in the north.
NV skin darkened and toughened under
exposure until said to Skenedonk: Il am
turning an Indian" and he, jealous of
my French blood. denied it.
In July we had to thread trails he knew
by the lake toward Sandusky. There was
no horse path wide enough for us to ride
abreast. Brush swished along our legs,
and green walls shut our views on each
side The land dipped towards its basin.
Buckeye and gigantic chestnut trees, ma
pie and oak, passed us from rank to rank
of endles forest. SlSenedonk rode ahead.
watching for every sign and change, as a
pilot now watches the shifting of the cur
rent. So we had done all day, and so
we were doing when fading light warned
us to camp.
A voice literally cried out OF the Wild
eFness, startling the horses and ringing
among the tree trunks:
1.-THE spirit of the Lord is upon me,
and He hath anointed md to blow the
trumpet in the wilderness, and sound an
alarm in the forest; for behold the tribes
of the heather are round about your