The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1922-03-03
CHAPTER |.

carriers and the big, low-lying. wheat
laden steel freighters from Lake Sill
perior push out from the Straits or
Mackinac and dispute the right or
way, in the iSlanu-divided channei.
with the white-and-gold. electric-ligh'-
cd, wireless.eQuipped passenger stea"'-
ers bound for Detroit and Runa'o'
there is a copse Of pine and hemlock
back from the shingly beach. From
this copse-tlark. blue, primeral. silent
Mt most times as when the Great Mani
ton ruled his inland waters-there
comes at time Of storm sound ike
the booming Of an old Indian drum.
This drum beat, SO the tradition says.
whenever the lake took II life: and.
MS a sig,, perhaps that 1t is still the
Nanitou who rules the waters In spite
Of all the commerce OF the cities. the
drum still beats its roll for every ship
lost on the lake one beat for every
life.
So--men say--,hcy heard and count
cd the beatingS Of the drum tn thirty
five upon the hour when, us afterward
they learned. the great steel steamer
Wenota sank with twenty-four OF Its
crew and eleven passengers: s"--men
say--they heard the requiem Of the
five who went down with the schooner
Grant; and OF the seventeen lost with
fhe Susan Hart: and so If score OF
ships more. Once only. 1t Is told. has
the drum counted wrong.
At the aeight of the great storm Of
December. 1895, tbs. drum beat the
roll Of sinking ship. One, two,
.three-the hearers counted the drum
heats, time and again. In their inter-
mitte1t booming, to twenty.four. They
waited. therefore, for report Of ship
lost with twenty-four lives: no such
news came. The new steel freighter
Miwaka, on her maiden trip during
the storm with twenty-tive--not twen-
ty-fcur--aboard never made her port !:
no news wns eyer heard from her; NO
wreckagc ever was found. On this &C
count, throughout the families whose
fathers brothers and sons were tho
officers and crew of the Mlwnka. there
stirred for II time a desperate BELIEF
that one of the men on the Mlwnka
was saved that somewhere. somehow.
he was alive and might return. The
day Of the destruction Of the Miwnka
was fixed as December = by the time
ut which she passed the government
lookout at the straits; the hour was
fixed as five o'clock In the morning
only by the sounding Of the drum.
Storm.--thc singing. frozen slert
slash Of the February norther whls-
thing down the foe. jammcd length Of
the lake--was assaulting Chicago. So
heavy was this frost on the panes Of
the Fort Dearborn club--one Of the
men---thnt the great log fires blazing
on the open hearths added appreciablc
light us well as warmth to the rooms.
Tho few members present ut this
hour Of the afternoon showed by their
lazy attitudes and the icsultoriness
of their conversation the dulling OF
vitality which warmth and shelter
bring on II day Of cold and storm. On
one. however. the storm had had con-
trnry effect. With swift. uneven steps
l,c paced now ono room. now another {:
from time to time he stopped ab.
,ruptly by II window. scrnped from It
with finger nall the frost, stared out
for IN Instant through the little open.
ing he had made. then resumed as alb
ruptly his nervous pacing with a man.
ner so uneasy and distraught that,
since his arrival at the club an hour
before, none even among those who
knew him best had vcntured to speak
to him.
The man who was pacing restleSsly
and alone the rooms of the Fort Dear
horn club on this stormy afternoon
was the man who, to most people, bod
led forth the HE underlying all other
commerce thercabouts but the least
known, the life OF the lakes. ST..
The lakes, which mark uumistak-
ably those who yet their living from
thcn. had ppt their marks on him.
Though he WIS slight In frame with a
spare. almost ascetic leanness. he had
the wiry strength and endurance OF
the man whose youth had been passed
upon the water. He WINS very chose
to sixty now. but his thick, straight
hair was still let black except FOR Il
slash of pure white above unc temple ::
his browS were black above his deep
blue eyes. His acuuantanceS. in ex'
planning him 10 strangers. said he had
lived too much by himself Of late: he
and one nun servant shared the great
house which had been unchanged-.and
In which nothing appeared To have
needed replacins-sincc his wife lett
him. suddenly and unaccountahNy,
abou: twenty years before. People
said he looked more French. referring
to his father who was known to have
been skin-hunter north Of Lake Su,
,perior in the SOS but who later mar.