The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-06-06
S0CIETY-DRAMATIC
eY RICHARD sPILLANE

In Statuary hall at Washington. the
yalhalla Of the great republic. you will
End a memorial to James Shields. MANY
If those who stop before the bit of stone
never heard Of Shields, or, if they have
heard. remember him; yet in all history
there are few men who were the peers
nj Shields in gallantry, in valorous en-
5eavor OF in remarkable experiences.
He was a fourteenth century character
in a nineteenth century setting, who
rIaved well his part from the day when.
q lad Of Is. he crossed the hills of Tv-
rome TO fight d duel with one Of We'll
Ungton's veterans, until, war-worn. bat
tIe-scarred, broken in body, Door in
nurse. but rich in honors and occupying
the highest Office the land Of his adop-
ton could give him, the curtain fen
and his wonderful career closed.
Shields was born I'm AltmOre. Ireland
May 1906. 1t was a time Of strife and
struggle. All Europe was in the thrOes
Of war. Mighty battles were being
fought, empires were crumbIing, thrones
were lettering and the whole world
seemed to be In CONFUSION. To the
home Of the Shields family came SOL
diers who had fought on the continent
OF in the peninsula under the Iron
Duke, OF in Italy, in Prussia. in Rus
STA or on the Danube under he great
Corsican. By the fireside at night the
warriors talked of sieges and sorties.
Of deeds of daring and devotion, Of cam
paigns and armies, Of the Little Cor
p0ral who daZZled the world with his
military genius, and OF the men who
crushed him on the field of Waterloo.
The boy who listened to these tales
was singularly impressionable and emo
tionaL Before he could read or write
he played the soldier. He drilled his
little playmates, built forts. charged
the enemy's intrenchments and fought
as only a boy, spurred by the enthu-
siasm Of youth, can fight Whatever
he got in the way of military prepara-
tiOn he obtained in those days. Great
soldier certainly he proved himself. He
could handle a brigade, but not a divi-
SION. Perhaps that was due to the fact
that the veterans who watched the boys
in battle and taught them what little
they knew of tactics We're soldiers Of
that school that embraced in its cur
rculum much of the pageantry and
heroiCs Of war with little of the science.
From one Of Wellingtons captains
Shields took lessons in workmanship,
and so adept did he prove himself that
he became one Of the best swordsmen
of his time.
The Lincoln "Duel."
Ireland offered little to a youth who
Craved adventure and whose dreams
were of the great world of achievement.
America seemed to the boy the land of
promise, and when he was 16 ne sailed
away across the Atlantic. One of his
uncles had been in the war Of the rev.
olution and in the war of 1872, but when
the youth reached America the uncle
was dead. Business had little attrac-
tiOn for Shields, so he turned to the sea
for a livelihood. The vessel on which
he shipped furnished more of excite
ment than he bargained for. It was
wrecked on the Carolina coast, and
when 1t struck, Shields. who was in the
rigging. was thrown to the deck and
had both legs broken.
Hardly had his bones mended than he
had his first chance in actual warfare
The Indians I'm Florida were making
trouble and an expedition was organ
ized 10 go against them. Shields volun-
teered He got a commission as a
lieutenant, served with distinction, re-
Ceived two slight wounds and, when the
Indians surrendered, ne turned to what
was then the far west. Out in Kas-
kaskia, H., then a frontier metropolis,
he established himself. Kaskaskia has
long since disappeared, swallowed up
by the Mississippi, but in those days il
was a trading post at which Indians,