Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-10-24
THE PARKMAN CENTENARY
Rv Frederic j. Haskin

4 OOID II oOStOh AZ
| States has produced several histor-
ians of note but Parkman Is more
and more regarded as the historian
who set down in an enduring manner
| the real story of North America. In
view of the fact that his histories
deal about as much with Canada as
with the territory now embraced
| within the United States, he is vener-
! atea as much by the British En-
| pire as he Is by this country. Cele-
| brations are being held this year in
the United States and in England
| and Canada to mmemorate his
! great work and centenary editions
/ of his histories are being published.
! WhatA Is especially interesting
/ about Francis Parkman is that he
followed a system which modern
historians might do well TO initiate.
He suffered from poor health all his
life but despite this handicap he
produced eleven volumes of North
American history which still stand
as classics, and, because of the I'M
usual method which he used, doubt
less will so stand to the end of time.
Francis Parkman suffered from a
nervous complaint and from weak
eyesight to such an extent that he
was unable to read for more than
five minutes at a time. The writing
of history is supposed to require as
much If not more painstaking re-
search and reading OF old records
as any science. Parkman read for
five minutes at a time and then had
relatives read to him until he again.
after q rest, was able to take up the
reading anew. lie was too poor to
employ secretaries.
The fact that makes him so pre-
eminently the historian of North
America is that he early reached the
conclusion that in order to write
history accurately a man should have
intimate knowledge of the things
about which he intended to write.
The task he set himself was, in gen.
era1, the writing of tho history of
the conquest by the white man of the
domains of the Indian. He realized
that to se Able to write intelligently
and graphically about so broad "a
subject he should have first hand in
formation. He felt that a man of
his w time should regard it as
his duty to obtain this information
because delay would mean the utter
disappearance OF the atmosphere and
background and of the very types of
which he meant to write.
=
The story he planned was a story
OF white mar against Indian. The
White man already had made it very
clear that he was the conqueror.
The indian was fast disappearing.
In a few years one side of the pic
ture would be gone never to be seen
again. So, despite pain, infrmity and
almost blindness, he set out to see
the indian in his native haunts. Com
mentators declare that had Park
man rested and taken proper treat
ment he might have ridded himself
OF his nervous affliction and Of his
inirmity. 1t is the general opinion
of his contemporaries that he made
his illness chronic by going into the
wilderness in search of the data
which he considered Indispensable to
his work.
First he explored thoroughly the
woods and lakes of the border land
between the United States and Can
ada and then he set out for the
west. The numerous herds Of buffalo
still traversed the prairies and savage
Indians, still hopeful that some day
they would drive the white invader
from the continent, pitched their te-
PEGS everywhere west of the Mississ-
ippi River.
Half blind and suffering pain
Parkman hunted the buffalo to get
the spirit of the wild life. He says
himself In one of his letters that
without the tonic of the chase he
could scarce sit in the saddle" On
one occasion for five days he fol-
lowed a tribe of Ogillallah Indians
and having caught up with them
after tremendous exertions, he
made friends and accompanied them
for many weeks in their nomadic
wandEings so as to catch the idea
of early American life.
Much of the history of North AM
erica is intertwined with the mis-
sionary work OF the Jesuit fathers.
To enable him to understand their
point of view in undergoing hard
ships, ParlSman became for a time
an inmate of the Convent OF the Pas
sionist Fathers at Rome. There he
sought to catch some inkling of the
spiritual exaltation which drove the
Jesults into untrodden wilds.
.
Asked to explain why he went to
such pains to prepare himself for
writing he explained that, in his
opinion, the historian should not be
Just the pale student, glued to his
desk, whose natural fruit Is that pal
lid and efHasculate scholarship of
which New England has too many
examples" In another place he said
For the student there is, in its sea-
son. no better place than the saddle
and no better companion than the
rifle or the oar"
All this outdoor experience enab-
led Parkman to give to his history
a feeling of reality. Persons who
have read Parkman's descriptions
Of the upper Hudson country and
subsequently have sailed up that
river, have declared that they felt
themselves among familiar sur
roundfngs, so graphic and realistic
had been the descriptions which the
historian had set down. Every point
OF land. every wide proepect of river
had been described in Parkman's
pages so that actual sight OF 1t SEEM
ed like returning to behold a familiar
vista.
Tho u,onId noo.to-Af., T. I.--