The Nome daily nugget., 1935-02-02

~ At thirty he was the leader of
 S&NXIEe one of the most important explor-
 ing expeditions in the history ot the United States and that exploit made him the idol of the nation, the Lindbergh of hls day
 At thirty-three he was the governor of ter rtory of nearly a million square miles, wilder ness empire from which no less than 13 states were to be formed later. -
 And when he died at the age of thirty-ive there had been crowded into his brief career more of adventure and high enterprise and splendid achievement than in the lives of thou sands of his contemporaries who attained twice that age
 Meriwether Lewis was his name and it Is so invariably bracketed with that of William Clark that most Americans would not readily recog nize either name standing alone. But, taken to- gether the words Lewis and Clark have in stantaneous meaning for them. For they stand for what novelist has happily called "The Magnificent Adventure"-an exploring expedition into the vast Louisiana Purchase, wilderness journey of more than 5000 miles, most of 1t over trails never before trod by white men.
 But there was more to the association of Meri wether Lewis and William Clark than the link ing of their names in referring to their epic trail-blazing achievement They were the Damon and Pythias of American history Theirs was friendship that began in boyhood and continued to the day of Meriwether Lewis death; they were comrades Tn arms Tn the lndlan wars ana after their return from their western wayfaring they were associated in civil posts of high re- sponsibility-Lewis as governor of Louisiana Ter ritory and Clark as Indian agent, both with headquarters at St Louis. And even after the brief career of the new governor ended with his untimey death, the friendship of these two men had It's living symbol in the person of the Indian agents first-born, to whom he had given the name of Meriwether Lewis Clark
 Lewis and Clark have been much written about-but always together. Now for the first time one of them is singled out for "full-length biography" in the book, "Meriwether Lewis of Lewis and Clark" written by Charles Morrow Wilson and published recently by the Thomas Y Crowel company of New York In 1t he is de- picted as man of charming personality but a tragic figure withal-a lonely, silent breeding man, frustrated in the one great love affair of his life, torn with doubts as to whether not he was a failure and finally in black moment of despair ending that life which had so much of promise in 1t
 Lewis was born near Charlottesville in Abe marie county, Virginia, the scion of one of the most distinguished families of the state. One of hs great-uncles, Fielding Lewis, married sister of George Washington and others of his family were distinguished in the civil and military serv- ice of the state both before and after the Revo- lution. One of his uncles, Nickolas Lewis, a noted Indian fighter became young Meriwether's guardian after the death of the boys father and was influential in shaping his career, as was neighbor in Albemarle county, a red-haired freckled-faced hddleplaying lawyer named Thomas Jefferson, who in bankruptcy pro- ceeding saved the plantation of the widow Lewis from being seized by creditors.
 From the age of thirteen to eighteen Meri- wether was busy with his duties at a Latin school in Williamsburg, then he returned home to manage his mothers plantation. But from his childhood he had been a hunter, a rover in the forests and adventurer. So when Presi- dent Washington called out the militia of Vlr- ginia to help suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania, young Merlwether enlisted This brief military career gave him taste for more. Next he enlisted in the regular army and so satisfactory had been his record in the militia that he was commissioned an ensign and ordered to Philadelphia to serve on an ordnance detail that was preparing munitions for a real war that was looming over the western horizon
 Out in the Ohio valley the confederated tribes men had soundly whipped General Harmar and inflicted upon General St. Clair one of the worst defeats in the history of Indian warfare So General Wayne the Mad Anthony" of Stony Point fame in the Revolution, had been sent to chastise the Indians and in the summer of 1795 he led his wel-drilled troops northward from Fort Washington, near Cincinnati, to begin do- ing It.
 In Waynes rife corps was a young lieutenant from Kentucky named William Clark who kept a journal of the expedition, distinguished mainly by the fearful and wonderful spelling in It. But in this journal that summer was one significant entry-"Lewis came tonight-am much pleased" And well might Billy Clark be much pleased" for this was his friend of boyhood days back in yirginia-"Merne' Lewis.
 Back in the torested hills of Albemarle county the two had hunted together and in the closing years of the Revolution they had played soldier together "When the war was ended and the fighting men came home Merne and Billy lis tened to wondrous and romantic tales of rough and-ready combat, of the grimness and gayety of soldering and made sure VOWS to become military men," But when Lewis was ten and Clark fourteen their trails separated, for Clarks family moved over the mountains into the blue grass country of Kentucky. Now, however, they were together again, seeking the military glory they had promised themselves as boys, little realizing that they would win even greater re- nown together on another expedition of very different sort