The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1917-02-10

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William Henry Harrison! Vincennes |
was 118 years old; the man thirty |
eight. There had never been anything |
commonplace in the existence of place |
or man. Each had already had his
| tory whose telling must move the heart
more than with trumpet.
The face of the man was the face
| of the soldier-strong, reSolute, proud,
| indomitable. But it was likewise the
| face of the man of the people, the
man in whom they trusted for his
calm patience and his warm friendli-
ness. With what unfaltering devotion
had they come to rely on him! And
how the men and women Of the wilder
ness. seeing that tall and martial fig
ure pass, paused to mark that long,
grave face, the eyes deep-set under
bushy brows on either side the lengthy,
humorous nose, and smiled in love and
deep regard in answer to the slow
smile of the wide and kindly mouth.
What had he not done for them!
He was a warm admirer of the
democratic Jefferson and he was an
aristocrat of the new territory. STEPPED
in the classic scholarship of the Old
Dominion, the son of a signer of the
Declaration of Independence, at
eighteen he had chosen to leave be
hind him the culture of the older
states and to plunge into the rude but
generous wilderness. At twenty-eight
| Of he Ind
tory. At thirty, master Of an empire
|, of 15O,OO0,OOO acres, ruler over a prov
/ ince twice as large as England and
J Ireland, larger, indeed, than all Of
France.
Within the ten years following his
appointment as governor, the negotia-
, tor, with absolute power, of treaties
which added to the new nation fifty
millions of acres, a domain large as
England and Scotland combined. At
thirty-one, holding in his hand for five
= months the destinies of a tract of
g 100000 square miles, an imperial
4 province greater than any other one
e man ever controlled in the history OF
the United States, before or since -
Opposed to him the great protago-
q mist of the tragic drama of the savage
q Tecumseh. Ruler of Eve Indian tribes
: master mind of the great Indian con
e federacy of another score Of tribes
: Chief Of 5000 warriors, ranging over
100000 miles Of territory.
e Harrison had pOliced the same terri
= tory with exactly twenty backwoods
s men. Twenty men to guard an empire
0 They threaded their ways through
+ the wilderness from st. Louis to De
{. troit. They reported to him at Vim
o cennes.
I On this enormous stage the curtain
is about to be lifted on the titanic due
{ of the West.
= The group of men, lolling in tn
shadows by the Jefferson house, begal
to speak of the latest dispatches from
the East. News had just come tina
the younger Wellesley had driven Mas
sena's French columns off the field o
Fuentes-de- Onoro, adding to the lau
rels gained at Talavera and Busacc
Napoleon was beginning to wonde
at this Englishman. The Little Corpo
raj himself was snarling at the Rus
n sian bear; the White Gar was dis
4 obeying his commands to starve tn
trade of England by closing the port
of the Continent. England, driven t
desperation, was Selling American sea
men on the pretext that they wer
Englishmen, and forcing them to serv
against the French; and still the goN
eminent at Washington kept up II
endless attempts to stop these insult
by #erds, verbs, words
The little group of Westerners III
der the stars of the wilderness fe
themselves hopelessly remote from th
. world of leadership; their affair
seemed petty and narrow. David La
renee alone, gazing silently over tn
broad prairies, misty under the newt
risen moon, and remembering tn
crowded cities of his native Englan'
suddenly saw how great prize tn
ample lands would be to her and sa
as in vision Of what mighty statul
were these backwoodsmen who bel
the land for America.
The feeling of apprehension whie
=. had been growing all summer SCENE
to have reached an uncomfortable pitc
1t was inevitable that something shou
happen.
rel In the skies Of early September
comet cleaned, a miraculous porter
th But nothing happened.
ay The men and women continued the
Int speculations as to Tecumseh's wher
ir, abouts and intentions. They invent'
he new theories each hour and eve
lid other hour they turned old theori
nm over and over till they were threa
vn. bare and people got tired Of hearil