The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1925-04-23

Jim Hennepin, who liked to attach
to his name the words "Of Virginia"
was the last of a line which had been
brought to American soil by a refugee
Huguenot connected d%istantly with the
great explorer of the headwaters of the
Mississippi. There are those who re
member him in his eScapades in Dan
Vile, and felt relief when his father,
who had himself dissipated the small
remainder Of the Hennepin wealth
and tobacco lands in futile specula-
tions through a Washington broker,
said to Jim, "You can go down to your
mothers sister in Texas. She will put
you up and I have a job all ready for
you with a cotton buying and commits
sion house in Dallas. There is moth
ing left in my own pockets. The only
genius you have is for getting into
trouble; your only talent Is for figures.
AS time goes on the accountant is play
ing an ever-growing part in American
business, just as the drunkard is play
ing a lesser part. DO you get my mean
ing, SOM"
This accounted for the presence OF
Jim Hennepin in Texas. He had been
there two years. Compton Parmalee
& Co. had found nothing to criticize in
his bookkeeping. In fact, it had quail
ties of genius which sometimes make
bookkeeping not only a cold record, but
a vitalized inspiration of business.
Hennepin was a useful addition to
Compton Parmalee's small staff. He
drank at the club, but with a modera-
ton considering his resistance to the
effect of alcohol. He vas a popular
young man in Dallas, and the fact that
so many men in that Texas city have
now forgotten that they ever heard OF
this youth is only a commentary upon
the truth that the impressions most OF
us make are not even fine scratches
when times roller has passed once or
twice over mems memory and today
has become so much more important
than yesterday and that which is in
sight covers that which is gone like
new strata in a geological period.
1t would be untrue to deny that Jim
Hennepin was an attractive figure. If
he had craft and vi~ciousness, as some
have said he had, it was belied by
the Hennepin smile-an inviting smile
invoking the cheer of the moment like
a smile of q boy. Furthermore, he was
tall and graceful, like an oarsman In
an English college eight. He was more
like the bad son of IN earl than q
bookkeeper, and persons often in.
uuired who he was, especially before
they had heard him speak in his care
free modern American slang figures
and were surprised to find that he was
older than he looked, had fought his
education for several wasted years al
the University of Virginia and wa:
earning forty-three dollars a week ant
spending fifty-nine when he was owe
thirty.
The first time he ever saw Brent
Selcoss was one morning when he hat
come back from a vacation Of severa
weeks at some ranch among the peca1
trees in Coleman. His vacations hat
become a mystery to other young me-
who were employed all that appeared
necessary was for Jim to go to Comp
ton Parmalee and tell him when h
would be back. 1t was ascribed to hi
magic quality of persuasion. SOM
said that if Hennepin smiled ant
asked in his inviting, breathless nan
ner there would be no surprise TO fine
that the President of the United States
had allowed him to take the whole O
Alaska under the Homestead act. AnC
vet. though no one in Dallas ther
knew 1t, this was the man OF IN
checked wild youth. who had beaten
$500