The daily Alaskan., 1908-07-25
WHITMAN WILDRIDE
1t Was Worth Three Stars to the
 American Flag.
SAVED US VAST TERRITORY.

The Porilous Journey of Four Thou
 sand Miles From Oregon 10 Washing
 ton Made by a Brave Man and tho
 Results Which Followed In lts Wake.
 The ride of Marcus Whitman was over snow capped mountains and along dark ravlnes. travelled only by savage men. It was a plunge through icy rlv. CTS and across trackless prairles, a ride of 4,OOO miles across a continent in the dead of winter to save mighty territory to the Union.
 Compared with this what was the feat of Paul Revere, who rode eight cen miles on calm night In April to arouse a handful of sleeping patriots and thereby save the powder at Con. cord?
 Wh!tmau's ride saved three stars to the American flag It was made in 1S42,
 In l792. during the first administra- tlon of Washington, Captain Robert Gray, who had already carried the American aag around the globe, dis, covered the mouth of the Columbia river He sailed several miles up the great stream and landed and took pos session in the name of the United States.
 In 1895, under JelTerson's admlnistra- ton. this y&Jt territory was explored by Captains Lewis and Clark, whose reports were popular reading for our grandfuthcrs, but the extent and value of this distant possession were very slightly understood, and no attempt at colonization was made save the estab- !lshment Of the fur trading station of Astoria in lSli.
 Strangely enough, England, too, claimed this same territory by virtue of rights ceded to 1t by Russia and also by the Vancouver surveys of l792. The Uudsou's Bay company eStabliSh' ed anumbcr of trading posts and filled the country with adventurous fur trad CTS. So here was a vast territory, as large as New England and the state of indiana combined, which seemed to be without any positive ownership. But for Marcus Whitman it would have been lost to the Union.
 It was in lS&G that Dr. Whitman and a man of the name of Spauldmg, with their yonnc wives. inc first white wo- men that ever crossed the Rocky mountains. entered the valley of the Columbia and founded a mission of the American board They had been sent out to Christlau.2c the Indians, but Whitman was also Co build a state,
 He was at this time thirty-Gye years old. In his journeys 10 and fro for tue mission he soon saw the vast pos abilities of the country, and he saw, too. that the English were already ap- prlsed of this and were rapidly pour-' ing into the territory. Under the terms of the treaties of ISIS and 1928 1t was the tacit belief that whichever nation ality settled and organized the splen- did territory would hold it. If Eng land and the English fur traders had been successful in their plans, the three great states Of Washington, Ore, gou and Idaho would now constitute part of British Columbia. But 1t was Eot destined to be.
 In the fall of 1912 1t looked as if there would bc great lnpouring of English into the territory, and Dr. Whitman took the alarm. There was no time to lose. The authorities at Washington must bc warned Hastily bidding his wife adicu, Dr. Whitman started on his hazardous journey. The perils. hurdshlps and delays he en- countercd on the way we can but rJiutly conceive. ,.is feet were frozen, he nearly starved, and once e-came very near to losing his life. He kept pushing right on, and at the end of five terrible months he reached Wash iugton.
 He arrived there worn. bearded, strangely picturesque figure, clad en- tirely in bucksldn and fur, a typical man of the praIrlcs. He asked audi ence of President Tyler and Secretary of State Webster, and 1t was accorded him. All clad as he was, with his frozen limbs, just in from bis 4,OQO mile ride. Whitman appeared before