The Rich Hill tribune. (Rich Hill, Mo.) 1903-1911, 1904-12-29
Halley's Bluffs.
BY w. o. ATKEsoN.
cHAPTER 4

~NNstaebf ~ AeNN 1~st~-~' -
beneath the stately peeanS and wide
spreading elms, whose dense foliage
was a real comfort ~ Summer and
a protection to their humble home
when the rude blasts of Winter
swept down upon them from the
treeless prairies of the northwest.
These great kings Of the Primeyal
forests were from four TO FIVE feet
in diameter, and stood more than
one hundred feet high. They struck
their roots deep into the richest soil
to be found in the world. Plenty
of moisture from below and rain
and sun light from above, during
years and ages past, had developed
along these rivers q race of majestic
oceans, elms, wainu,s. syeamores.
hiekorie., haekberies, and birches.
All these varieties stood in stately
grandeur shout the home of the
Papins. These trees spoke their
own language to these children OF
France and they were loved and en-
joyed by those who had made their
home beneath t he ir protecting
branches. Here they enjoyed to
the u,termost the undisturbed ey
preston Of Nature as she lowered
above them. reflectIng the lights
and shadows of a setting sun in
May, or as she lay spread out be-
fore them along the Usage and ,hs
Marias des Cygnes, and on the linn.
nless prairies 10 the northwest.
Here they talked of Franee-of the
cruel days Of '95, OF Robespiene,
Danion, Mirabeau, and the great
Napoleon Bonaparte; and here
they talked Of the missionaries and
the children of the Osages, whom
the good missionaues had lett com.
Portable New England homes to
rescue from ignorance and SIN.
MslieOuu Pspin was a student oi
the Indian character and habits.
From him, in these delightful even
ing chats, Auguste learned that
chastity and social virtue were not
among the striking and admirable
characteristics of the females OF
"squaws". But the squaws OF the
Usage tribe were industrious. pa
tient, heroic, of splendid physique
aud more regular featured than the
other tribes in that section OF
the West. They were straight as
an arrow and as graceful as the wild
swans on the waters of the Marlas
des Cygnes, from which, by the
way, the river takes is name, Ma
rias dss CYgnes, meaning in Span
ish, the river OF swans or more lit
orally . nyeT Of white swans. I'm
like the Kaws and some OF the othe'
tribes who had dwell, upon tbs
open, sun beat prairies for uneount-
ed generations, their houses being
Ia the dense forests along the riyers,
the Osages were not so dark ano
swarthY in complexion, not So
weather worn In appearance a.
the prairie tribe. Ank this char,
aeteTisiie Of their appearance ws'
much more marked in the "squaw'
than IN the'bueks"oF male nembv'
OF tie tribe.
| From Madame Papin, Augusl
had learned that theve were SONS
half breeds among them, sons anS
daughters of French fur traders
and that hali-breed "squaws' wer'
strangely beautiful, having iahsri,e'
much of the complexion, chsrsete
and spTighslinsss Of their Frenel
fathers. For years past the yoonl
seions OF old and respectable Ffenel
families Of ST. LOUIS bad visited ,h'
osages to trade and buy tur. o.
one of these trips handsom'
young FTenehnan, with plsn'y o
idle time, spent months AZ III
Usage village hun,iOg. This wa
ia the Autumn Of 1906, sooa aiss
he Loalalsna purchase lgsn Ma