Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1934-09-20
Prepared by National Geographic Society.
washington. D. C.-WNU Service.

PSYCHOLOGISTS have uncov.
~ cred near Morrisville, New
n York, walled tunnel and well.
like enclosure ten feet under
ground which is something of mys-
terry. Who dug it and for what pur-
pose it was used, is a problem his.
tOrians are attempting to solve.
New York, the Empire state, from
colonial times has been a state Of
startling discoveries and marvellous
development.
More than II years before Plymouth
Rock and less than three years after
Jamestown, a sword-girt figure in
steel corselet and plumed helmet stood
proudly defiant before a band of hos
tile Indians. The scene was the shore
of lake In a mountain-bordered val
ley, the time the morning Of July 80,
1909.
AS the redskin warriors rush toward
him with bloodcurdling war cries, the
intrepid adventurer is unperturbed.
Not until the savages approach within
bOwshot does he move. Then he raises
his flaring- muzZled arquebus and fires
Three Of the four leaden slugs find
their mark. Two chiefs fall dead and
one of their braves clutches at a NOR
tai wound.
Samuel de Champlain, the great
French explorer, to win the favor of
the Hurons of the st. Lawrence coun-
try, thus brought war into that de-
lectable land which we now call the
state of New York.
The immediate result of that shot
on the shores of Lake Champlain was
victory. Though the martial Iroquois
for generations had schooled them
selves to face death in every form that
savage cunning and barbaric cruelty
could invent, still, for the moment, they
could not stand up against this new,
strange weapon that spoke with the
voice of thunder and flashed with the
tongue of lightning.
Shot Gave Region to the English.
Who can measure the full conse-
Quences of that shotl
The enmity toward the French it
engendered in the breasts of the Iro-
quois forever sealed that land to
French colonization and made the Iro-
quois lifelong allies Of the English,
VINO were soon to arrive.
1t made northeastern New York the
Belgium Of the colonial wars, with the
FERTILE Champlain valley as the imme-
dlate objective, but with all America as
the ultimate prize. It raised Crown
Point and Ticonderoga, and led Wolfe
and Montcalm-the one to victory and
the other to defeat, but both to death
to that fateful field on the Plains Of
Abraham before Quebec.
That shot, indeed, led to the lowering
OF the flag Of France from the para
pets Of New France and to the hoist
ing Of the Union Jack of Britain over
ne ATTITUDES above the st. Lawrence.
One well might believe New York
would speak French today instead of
english; that there would be no United
states, If Champlain had come first to
tne forest at the foot of the Adiron-
uacKs with peace instead of war.
Statistics seldom sparkle, but once
IN a while some of them tell so elo-
quent story that they are actually
dramatic. Their measure of New
lork's place in our country's economic
situation discloses that the state, with
VII one-sixtieth of the nations land
ana only one-tenth of its population,
contributes five-eighths of its bank
eiearing; earns one-third of its taxable
income; possesses one-fourth of its
OanK deposits; produces one-seventh
VI lts manufactures. In scores Of
otner ways they add to this brilliant
record of human achievement.
whoever wanders from the overpow.
erlng roar Of the mighty, man-made
canyons OF Manhattan, up the Hud-
SUI and through the Mohawk valley to
Dunalo' and thence to the inspiring
tuunuers of the waters of Niagara,
uoung as he goes the mighty artery Of
.olnmerce and industry that ties them
.Ogether, discovers that within ten
IuiieS OF this most-traveled lane In
anerica ~ per cent of the states pop
ulatlon work like the beavers that once
,Oamed where they live, to serve
varied needs OF the nation.
What the Erie Canal Meant.
view York's people have ever been
.eauy to capitalize every advantage
VI geography. They built their chief
sy at the crossroads between New
th 81 and the seaboard colonies far
oa er south. Presently foreign shipping
in He IN Increasing volume, and count
'ns houses fourished.