USA > Wisconsin > An illustrated history of Wisconsin from prehistoric to present periods : the story of the state interspersed with realistic and romantic events > Part 25
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"Russell's arguments prevailed; he was given full power to tame the offending editor."
" I would like to see the proprietor," said Russell, the St. Paul foreman, now a rich mine owner. 'I'm the editor and also own the paper,' said a sallow, hungry looking little man, with a high forehead and stoop shoulders.' "
" I am one of the owners of the Montana mine your paper has been making war on. I don't come here to find fault, but to ask a favor of you. I know you are an honest, fair man, and that you think you are doing the proper thing by the public in warning it against putting money into something it knows so little about. Now, I'm the last man
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OUR FRIEND'S STORY.
in the world to attempt to improperly influence a publisher. I've been in the business myself and know all about their sensitiveness when it comes to making propositions for the purchase of their influence in favor of men, measures and things, which they have a suspicion are not just right. The favor I want of you is this: You go or send a trusted reporter to Montana and examine the property. The company will pay all of your expenses, in advance. If you find that the property is not just what we have represented it in our advertisement, why, we want you to pitch into us with new energy. If it is good property-if you find mines there-why, say what you think of them. Isn't that a fair proposition?"
"The little man thought it was, and accepted. Russell gave him $500 for the trip and said if it cost more he would make it good. The New York editor reported to me at Helena and I sent a good man with him to the mines, giving him strict instructions that he be given a chance to talk to the shriveled Indian who gave us our first impression that there was metal in our mountain. He spent three or four days looking over the property; was shown rich ore from four or five different veins and given specimens from each vein to take home.
" After spending a day or two in Helena the little editor left for home. I sent a verbal message to my partner and hoped he would call upon him as soon as he reached New York, or ask Russell to call at his newspaper office.
"Without first going to his home the editor called at the company's office on Broadway. Russell was there and took him in charge. He imparted to Russell that the company had underestimated the value of the property. It was covered with mines. An old Indian had shown him a dozen places where ore had been picked out to a greater or less extent for forty years. Then he read Russell a three column article on the mines, in which he confessed that he had misrepresented them, stating that he had spent several days in a scientific, critical examina- tion of the property, and closed by predicting that within five years the $1,000,000 worth of stock offered for sale would be worth $5,000, 000. Russell ordered 10,000 extra copies of the paper, and gave the converted editor as large an advertisement as appeared in the dailies. Within a week all the leading dailies in New York had reproduced the little editor's article-at so much a line, of course-and each in an editorial item, called attention to the article-paid for, of course-stating that it was from the paper which had condemned the company and its mines, and that the article was the result of a personal inspection of the great property by the editor. Ten days later the last of the million dollars worth of stock had exchanged hands, and my partner and I, paying our share of expenses-the advertising being the chief item-had $490,000 besides the $100,000 for a half interest, and a half a million in shares, which could have been sold at a premium. It was said, at that time,
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OUR FRIEND'S STORY.
that mining stock had never before sold at par, in New York, under similar circumstances.
"The work of developing the mines was commenced, as promised. They were better than the most extravagant claims had made them appear. Six years ago Russell and I, after having divided profits to the amount of something over a million dollars, sold out for $2,000,000.
""' Old man,' said Russell, after we had closed up our business and divided equally the big receipts, ' I'm ready to knock off; I'm done wor- rying myself with business from this on; I'm done with hard work; I've got money enough. You go back east, buy a bank, marry and enjoy life, and I'll see the world.'
"The night before we parted he spoke of our first meeting in St. Paul and the narrow escape he ' had from doing the meanest thing of my life -discharge you on the ground that you were slow and black- smithy as a printer.' I have not met him since, though we correspond regularly. He was in Egypt two months ago; does not expect to come back for several years.
"I reached Chicago three years ago. My new name? Oh, that was legalized by the Oregon legislature years ago. It answered the purpose; it made my old name disappear until day before yesterday when you unearthed it and brought me up standing. Two years ago my best stroke of good fortune occurred. I was spending an evening at the home of one of our directors. Living with the family was a young lady, a niece of the director's wife, who had been left without a home in con- sequence of the death of her grandparents with whom she had lived from her childhood, both of her parents having died when she was little more than a baby. Her black eyes, brown hair, soft hands and marked intel. ligence reminded me of someone else. Her name was Myra Wood Smith, daughter of Lillian Wood Smith. Now it is Mrs. Charles F. Williams. The F. in my name is for Fowler-Charles Fowler Williams, at your service."
Charley will attend the next reunion of our brigade.
Children's Corner.
Gnoma
The Queen of Fairies,
Nosettam S.K
WHEN Fantaze, Mignon, and Marguerite, after gathering flowers one bright morning in early June, went into the edge of the forest and sat down beside a beautiful spring bordered with fern and sweet-smelling grasses, they felt that they must surely be near Fairyland, and so they were, for, hardly were they seated, when the Queen of Fairies came up from the bottom of the spring, with a golden wand in one hand.
After shaking the pearly drops of water from her silvery hair, she thus addressed them: "I expected you, little ones. I am Gnoma, the Queen of Fairies. Anything you wish for shall be granted."
One of the little girls, after whispering a short time with her companions, said, "We would each like to have our own way for one week."
"It will be granted," the Fairy Queen said, "and any- thing you wish for during the week, shall be granted also, provided that if any of you shall do more harm than good with
II
GNOMA, THE QUEEN OF FAIRIES.
the power I give you, she shall, when we meet again at this place one week hence, be turned into a witch, and go to the moon on a broomstick." Gnoma waved her wand, and instantly disappeared in the spring, while the little girls started for home with their flowers.
Mignon lived with her widowed mother, and was the daughter of a poor but talented musician, who had died when Mignon was only eight years of age; but, young as she was, she could play the violin beautifully, and many a franc-piece she earned by teaching the young village girls to play the violin and dance the minuet.
Mignon had longed for a musical educa- tion, and, while going home that day naturally said to herself, "Oh! I do wish that I could attend the Conservatory of Music."
Imagine her delight upon arriving home, to find that her uncle, one of the directors of the Paris Conservatory of Music, had come to make the necessary arrangements to take Mignon and her mother back to Paris with him.
Fantaze was the handsome, pet- ted and spoiled child of a wealthy burgomaster, who had died and left willful Fantaze in the care of an aged and nearly blind grandmother. As soon as Fantaze had left her companions that day, she wished for "a coach and four," and, presto! she immediately found a beautiful coach and liveried coachman beside her. She then wished for a beautiful silk attire and a waiting-maid, and instantly she found herself attired in silks, and seated in the carriage beside a French waiting-maid. She then directed the coachman to drive them through the village, and great was the havoc she made. She turned boys into
III
GNOMA, THE QUEEN OF FAIRIES.
colts, and girls, that she did not like, into ravens, and, in fact, she had the whole town in an uproar.
After enjoying this sport for a time, she drove up to her grandmother's cottage, and when the old lady saw her, she surely thought her grandchild was masquerading, and when she mildly scolded her, Fantaze turned her into a donkey, and had her driven out on the common.
Marguerite was the only daughter of a brave soldier, who had died while defending his country. She was named by her father, after the wild marguerites that grew so profusely near the country village. Marguerite was unlike her other com- panions. She was a sweet, full-faced, large-eyed, open-hearted little creature, who had absorbed so much of the natural poetry and tenderness of the flowers she tended in her mother's gar- den, that it would have been next to impossible for her to be other than a true-hearted, affectionate girl. Marguerite, after leaving her companions, had walked leisurely through the fields, occasionally stopping to pick wild flowers, until considerable time had elapsed; so, when she finally came near the highway she saw several village boys stoning an aged donkey. Her heart melted at once, and she said, "Oh, how I wish that donkey was a little girl, so I could have a companion." At once the donkey changed into a bright-eyed little girl, who went home with Marguerite, while the boys were so badly scared at the transformation, that they scampered homeward. When Mar- guerite with her companion arrived home, she found her mother in bed, threatened with a dangerous fever. The village doctor had called, bled her, and left leeches.
Poor little Marguerite forgot the Fairy Queen, and at once bathed her mother's head, gave her cooling drinks, and soothed her to sleep; then she got down on her knees, and prayed earnestly that her mother might speedily recover, and that the country her father had died for might recognize his meri- torious service by caring for the aged mother. At midnight the mother awoke, and felt so well that little Marguerite went to her room and was soon fast asleep. Long before little
IV
GNOMA, THE QUEEN OF FAIRIES.
Marguerite awoke in the morning her mother was well and beside her bed. Early that morning the village postmaster had called and left a large government envelope, which contained the news that the dead soldier's widow and daughter had been suitably provided for.
The week passed rapidly enough. Marguerite, her com- panion and mother visited the sick in the village, and it appeared as though their presence brought health, sunshine and happiness. Upon the morning of the day that the little girls were to meet Gnoma at the forest spring, Mignon and Mar- guerite met in the fields, and after gathering flowers went to the forest spring. Soon after their arrival, Fantaze drove up in a golden carriage, attended by her French maid. Fantaze was dressed beautifully, and looked as though she might be a fairy. Suddenly Gnoma, the Queen of the Fairies, appeared from the depths of the spring, and with a smile and greeting to each, said, "Fantaze, where is your aged grandmother ?"
Fantaze hung her head. She had been so busy during the week that she had entirely forgotten to wish her grandmother back again. Gnoma waved her golden wand, and the carriage and servants disappeared, while Fantaze was seen flying through the air toward the moon on a broomstick.
Mignon became a famous musician, and Marguerite was loved and adored by all who knew her, for her loving disposi- tion and good deeds; while it is thought that Fantaze is still taking her flight toward the moon.
Harry Richard's Eng. is
MARR-RICHARDS JAU
WISCONSIN'S
HISTORICAL MAGAZINE
FOR 1893.
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT.
EN FICTION the May number contains "Three premonitions," written by the well-known writer, Col. J. A. Watrous. This romance is of more interest than any story previously published in the Magazines by that able author.
The historical contents of the May number is, "Black hawk-Wars in Which he participated." This number is illustrated by Binner, from or- iginal oil paintings, and is one of the best numbers of the issue. It is so vividly and graphically written, that the scenes depicted in its pages appear to be actually before one.
Engagements have been made with the most distinguished writers, and several special enterprises of a somewhat different nature are under way. These will make the remaining numbers of 1893 most interesting. The illustrations will continue to be as perfect as the best talent and processes can make them.
The Children's Corner in the May number, as well as all succeeding numbers, will contain the choicest and brightest of fiction. This is what the young people will learn to look for.
The June number, like all other numbers, will be finely illustrated and en- graved, and will contain in fiction, a complete story by Col. J. A. Watrous. In history it will contain "Territorial Days and Indian Disturbances," which will be sure to interest all readers. The Sire and Son's Department will be edited by M. C. Phillips, and will be very fine.
Col. C. K. Pier's "Wisconsin in the Civil War," in the July and August numbers, with illustrations of battle scenes, etc., is sure to please our readers. This valuable contribution gives the organization of each Command in all the arms of service who went from the state with their various campaigns and losses until mustered out.
BINNER-CO-MIL-
LAME DEER. BLACK MOON.
RAIN IN THE FACE. CRAZY HORSE (standing on horse, )
From the original painting by Mark R. Harrison, Fond du Lac. Wisconsin.
SITTING BULL,
CHAPTER XXIII.
BLACK HAWK-WARS IN WHICH HE PARTICIPATED.
Black Hawk's Ancestors .- His Birth .- Early Life .- Death of His Father .- Success in Battles .- Habits of Life .- Dancing and Feasts .- Origin of Corn-Superstition.
MA-KA-TRI-ME-SHE-KIA-KIAK, or Black Sparrow Hawk, who is known in history as Black Hawk, was a chief of the confederation of certain Sac and Fox Indian tribes.
Indian tradition shows that the Great Spirit placed the Sac nation origi- nally in the vicinity of Montreal,* Canada, and that, through jealousy and other causes, the various tribes near Montreal united and drove them to Mackinaw.
After a short time, their old enemies pursued and drove them from place to place on Lake Michigan, until they finally located and built a village at or near the present site of Green Bay. At their new village, a council was held with the Foxes in that vicinity, and an alliance was formed, which united the two tribes as one nation. The united nation, however, was not destined to enjoy the peace but for a short duration, as their old enemies with perseverance and characteristic hatred drove them to the Wisconsin river, upon whose fertile banks they built themselves a model village, near the present site of Prairie du Sac.t
At this point, the united Sacs and Foxes staid and enjoyed their new hunt- ing grounds for a considerable space of time, until finally a party of young men who had descended the Rock river to its mouth, returned with such vivid and richly-painted descriptions of the country near the Rock river, and adjacent Mississippi valley, that they all descended to the Rock river and drove the Kas-Kas-Kias from the country, and built themselves a new village in the midst of a veritable Indian paradise, near the junction of the Rock river with the Mississippi.
*Montreal is built upon the site of the old Indian village called Hochelaga, which was discovered by Jacques Cartier, in September, 1535. The first white men the Sacs ever saw were the French, who gave them guns, powder, lead, spears and lances, and taught then their use.
tJonathan Carver, the celebrated English traveler, who traveled through Wisconsin in 1776, described a Sac village located at this point in the following graphic manner:
" It contained about ninety houses, each large enough for several families, built of heavy planks neatly joined, and covered so compactly with bark as to keep out the most penetrating rains. Before the doors were placed comfortable sheds in which the inhabitants sat when the weather would permit and smoked their pipes. The streets were both regular and spacious, appearing more like a civilized town than the abode of savages. The land was rich, and corn, beans and melons were raised in large quantities." Possibly only a por- tion of the Sacs left Prairie du Sac for Rock Island, as Black Hawk's ancestors left that vicinity more than fifty years before Capt. Carver traveled through the Mississippi country.
179
180
HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
At this picturesque spot, near the Father of Waters, amidst nature's solemn grandeur, Black Hawk was born in 1767 .* He was the last descendant of a long line of Sac kings or chiefs, and inherited the great medicine bags of his great-grandfather, Muk-a-ta-quet, which were handed down to his father, Pyesa, by his grandfather, Na-Na-ma-kee, or Thunder.t
Nothing of importance occurred until after Black Hawk had passed his fifteenth birthday. Up to this time, he had not been allowed to paint or wear feathers, but now, in consequence of having wounded an enemy, he was placed in the rank of braves.
Shortly after this event, a leading chief of the Muscow nation recruited a party of Sac and Fox warriors under Pyesa, to go on the warpath against their common enemy, the Osages, who lived beyond the Missouri. Shortly after they got into the enemy's country, an engagement took place, during which Pyesa killed an Osage warrior and scalped him in the presence of young Black Hawk, who, fired with valor, rushed upon an Osage brave and struck him to the ground with his tomahawk, and after running his lance through his body, and before life was hardly extinct, his scalp-lock was hanging in the belt of the young Sac.
After many Osages had been slaughtered, Pyesa and his band returned to their village and held a scalp-dance.
During the next few years, the Osages remained undisturbed in their numerous trespasses upon the hunting grounds of the Sac and Fox nations, and, in consequence of these numerous raids and depredations, Black Hawk raised a band of two hundred picked warriors, and took the trail leading into the Osage country. The Osages, with an equal number of warriors, met them near the Missouri, and a bloody battle ensued, in which more than a hundred Osages were killed and many wounded. Black Hawk's losses were nineteen killed and several wounded. In this engagement Black Hawk killed and scalped five Osage warriors.
Shortly after this engagement, while fighting the Cherokees near the Mer- rimac, Black Hawk's father, Pyesa, received a fatal wound, from whose effects he soon died. Black Hawk now fell heir to the great medicine bags of his fore- fathers. Upon their arrival home, Black Hawk blackened his face and fasted and prayed for a period of five years, out of respect for his dead father.
When Black Hawk's period of mourning was over, he raised 500 Sac and Fox warriors and 100 Iowas, with the determination of extirpating the Osages, who, during the period of his mourning, had committed numerous depredations upon the Sac and Fox and adjacent hunting grounds. After several days of forced marches, they finally struck the Osage trail, and the next night at sun-
*Smith's Wis. Hist., Vol. III., 162.
tLife of Black Hawk.
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BLACK HAWK-WARS IN WHICH HE PARTICIPATED.
down they fell upon forty lodges of Osages, and killed all the inhabitants, except two squaws whom they took home as prisoners.
Before many years elapsed, the Chippewas, Kas-Kas-Kias and the Osages confederated and trespassed upon the Sac and Fox hunting grounds. Black Hawk again raised a large force and commenced a long and arduous campaign, during which several hundred of the enemy were killed, thirteen of whom were slain by Black Hawk.
During these times the Indian village at the mouth of the Rock river was well maintained. The hunting, fishing and trapping was good, and they made their periodical trips to St. Louis, where they sold their furs and pelts to the Spanish, who used them well, paid them good prices, and allowed them to camp and dance in the town at their pleasure.
The law and order that prevailed in this celebrated Indian village, for more than a century, would put to shame many of our nineteenth century Christians.
Before the Indians returned to their village in the spring from their hunting grounds, they would call upon the trader that had supplied them with goods in the fall, and, after paying their debts, and bartering furs and pelts, they would return to their village with some of their finest furs and pelts, well knowing that the anxious trader would follow them to their village and pay them higher prices. *
After the last of the furs and peltries were disposed of, and the trader had started away in his canoe, after leaving a keg or two of rum, "the old folks would take a frolic."
Then came the great Medicine dance, the burying of those who had died during the year.t At this feast of the dead, the relatives would give away all their goods and reduce themselves to poverty, in order to show the Great Spirit that they humbled themselves so that he would take pity upon them.
After the feast was over, they would open the caches and take out the corn and provisions stored there the fall before; then they repaired their lodges and rebuilt their fences around their cornfields, while the women busied themselves cleaning the ground ready for planting. When the planting time arrived, the women planted the corn, while the men exchanged adventures and feasted upon venison, bear's meat, fowl, and corn prepared in various ways .¿
After the corn was planted, the Crane dance and a feast was given. In this dance the women joined the men, dressed in their most gaudy attire. It is at this dance that the young brave selects the dusky maiden he desires for a wife.§ After he selects one he desires to marry, he informs his mother, who
"The traders were numerous, and much competition was displayed by the early fur- traders on the Mississippi.
tThe Indians were buried shortly after they died, but were exhumed next year, in the spring, and reburied in the village burying-ground.
+ Life of Black Hawk, 59.
§ Life of Black Hawk.
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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
calls upon the mother of the girl, and they fix a time for the young man to call at the lodge. At night, when all are supposed to be sleeping, he enters the lodge of his adored, and with a flint and steel strikes a light and soon finds his intended. He then awakes her, and after holding the light to his face, he holds it close to hers. If she blows it out, the ceremony is ended, but if she leaves it burning, he leaves the lodge. The next day the lover places himself in view of the lodge of his intended and plays a love ditty upon a flute. If other maidens come out, he changes the tune, but if the chosen one comes in sight, he again plays his courting tune. That night he again goes through the same ceremony and usually with success, as the dusky maidens, like their white sisters, do not always say yes when they are first asked.
The Crane dance, which usually lasts two or three days, being over, and several days having been spent in feasting, the great national dance is given.
A large, square space in the center of the village is swept clean; on the upper side of the square, mats are spread for the chiefs and old warriors ; then come the drummers and singers, while the braves and women form the sides, leaving a large space in the center. When the drums beat, the singing com- menced. At the same time, a warrior enters the center of the square, keeping time to the music, then, in pantomime, shows the manner in which he started on the warpath, or some expedition, how he stealthily approached the enemy, the awful combat, the death scene, the scalping, the scalp-dance, the final suc- cess or failure. The warrior then retires, and while being applauded, another warrior takes his place. The dance incited the young to deeds of valor, and made the old warriors young again.
The corn, while growing, was never molested by the Indians until fit for use ; then they held another ceremony, which they called the corn feast ; dur- ing this feast they all thanked the Great Spirit for giving them the corn.
The Sacs have a pretty and romantic tradition of the origin of corn.
Two Sacs, after having killed and dressed a deer, sat down by a fire and were roasting a piece of it, when a beautiful woman came down from the clouds, and seated herself a short distance from them. The Indians, thinking she had smelled the roasting venison and was hungry, offered her a delicious piece, which she accepted and ate. She then requested them to return to that spot, one year from that time, and they would find a suitable reward for their hospitality. She then disappeared in the clouds, and the Indians returned to camp, and told their companions of what had occurred, and were heartily laughed at by them. When the time arrived for them to visit the mystic spot, they went with a large party and found, at the right of where she sat, corn growing; at the left, beans ; and, where she had been seated, tobacco .*
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