"Che Conservative.
ft
A GEM FROM THE GRAVE A LEGEND
OF SARPY.
[ Tlio following skotchlet was written
by the editor of THE CONSERVATIVE
about thirty years ngo and first published
by his friend Dr. George L. Miller in the
Omaha Daily Herald. It is reproduced
by request and because "away off in
some of the islands of the Pacific" the
West has already boon found though
not yet "settled in full and finally per
fected. " ]
The beautiful bluffs that rise so
majestically from the Missouri at Bellevue -
vuo , Nebraska , were shimmering in the
morning sunlight , and the deep verdure
which covered them that summer day ,
made them look , while the dew lay still
upon them , like a' string of gigantic
emeralds just fallen from the clouds.
The air was still , and supreme solitude
locked the landscape in a hazy , drowsy ,
rest.
rest.Col.
Col. Peter A. Sarpy that morning mot
me up back of the old mission house by
the grave of the great Omaha chief , Big
Elk. Ho was buoyant , and his eye
glistened with the exuberance of health
and good spirits. He was dressed neat
ly , and upon his breast I noticed , for the
first time , a solitaire diamond , which
gleamed and flashed with striking
brilliancy.
"Colonel , " said I , "you have been
adding to your jewels , " and , looking
steadily at the gem , "is that something
new ? "
"Oh , no , my friend , " said he. "That
is old , very old , and I will tell you all
about it if you will listen , and what is to
come of it , too , in the hereafter , if you
will. "
Signifying my assent with great
alacrity , Col. Sarpy proceeded as fol
lows :
"Many , many years ago when St.
Louis was a village , my good Catholic
mother died may God rest her soul in
peace in that town. Wo children
followed her remains to the cemetery
and laid them quietly in the grave , and
wept until our eyes could weep no more.
And then , shortly after , I came up here
into Nebraska among the Indians to
trade , and brother John B. remained in
St. Louis.
"But a few years ago 1 went down to
that city to purchase goods , and one
afternoon , after I had been there several
days , my brother said :
" 'Peter , I want to see you privately in
the counting room to talk about the
dead. ' And so I went in and John B.
said :
1 "Peter , this city 'is growing very
rapidly. It is stretching out to the
south and the west and the north. It
needs more room , and the old graveyard
whore our mother is buried must bo
given up. We must move her remains
to another resting spot , and we will do
it together while you are here. We
will do it tomorrow. ' And so the very
next day we went out to mother's
grave , and carefully we brought the
coffin to the light and lifted it up tender
ly onto a bier. It was sadly decayed.
It looked like punk wood. The top was
moved a little to one side , and I could
not restrain a desire to look in. As I
did look , the sunlight streamed in , and
I saw something gleaming there. At
once I remembered the diamond which
my mother had worn always and which
had been buried on her breast , and I
reached in and took it out , and this is it
which you now see.
"It is mine now , and when these
bright days come I feel young again ,
and , remembering my mother , I put it
on and wear it , for it makes me a better
man.
"It is a charm , sir , an amulet , and
the memories which it brings to mo are
brighter and richer and more precious
than all the gems in the world , for they
are the sacred recollections of a Christian
mother , a holy woman , whose teachings
were purer than any diamonds that ever
glowed.
' 'And now , while men think I am only
an old Indian trader who seesnotliing in
the future , who believes in no destiny
for this beautiful Nebraska of ours , I
know , sir , that not many years will
come and go , before I , too , will be called
to another life in another world. And
then these fertile lands , these vast
plains , will have been settled up , and
somewhere in this Missouri valley ,
perhaps in sight of where we now stand ,
a great city shall have been builded and
there will over and ever go up hence a
hum of contented industry. Then I
may have been in my grave many years ,
and with me will have rested in that
darkness this gem. And having no
children , no kinsmen , as the land fills
up with many people 'and the cities
grow , very likely , sir , some day they
will come to you , as they did to brother
John , about our mother , and say :
" 'Here , sir , your old friend , Peter A.
Sarpy , sir , is in the way. The city
needs room , sir , and you must take his
old bones away. '
"And if so , do it ; doit decently and
kindly , as I know you will , but remem
ber this diamond. Peep into my old
coffin it is a pure gem , sir , first water ,
and will surely flash whenever your eye
can see. Then you reach in I'll be
still and snatch this diamond out and
put it on and wear it.
"The years will roll on and the people
will still flood in , and this shall be one
of the grandest gardens of the world ,
and you will have grown old too , and ,
possibly , become a citizen of some great
city away out , on what we now call the
plains , and then death will rap at your
door and you , too , will come into that
other life in that other world. Tell
your boys'to bury this stone with you.
But not many years more will have
followed the trail of those which are
already gone into the shadowy hunting
lauds , before the boys will bo called
upon by the authorities to move your
bones too. You will have gotten in the
way , too , and they'll toll the boys to
move the old man move him and make
room , sir , for the great city on the plains.
"Tell the boys , when that time comes ,
to rcaoh into your coffin again and take ' *
/
this glistening jewel out from the grave.
"Tell the oldest to put it on and wear
it , and bo buried with it , too , leaving
instructions for its re-resurrection
again.
"And so , sir , we'll keep this diamond
glittering in the vanguard among the
generations to come. It shall bo buried
and raised and worn and buried again ,
and finally it shall bo buried for the last
time , away off in some of the islands of
the Pacific , where the west shall have
been found and settled in full , and
finally perfected.
"I tell you , sir , this cry for 'room ,
room , more room ! ' for the living , for
the many peoples , for the great cities ,
will never , never cease.
"And let this diamond go on from
grave to grave , from generation to generation -
oration , gleaming and flashing forever
like a star , in the shield of one who
shall always be a pioneer in progress and
civilization. "
He stopped his speech , and in silence
we walked to the old trading post. But
there was the eloquence of prophecy and
the irresistible power of prescience in
that summer morning talk of Colonel
Sarpy , which makes it ring in my ears
and thrill in my veins even unto this
day.
day.He
He looked into the future as into a
mirror , and saw the face of today and
tomorrow as clearly and plainly as a
child sees trees and flowers shadowed
in a pure brook.
There are dull
THE DULLEST men who vote and
MAN. duller men who
assume to toll
others how to vote end who and what
to endorse by their ballots. But the
dullest man in Nebraska can , by a little
effort at intensity in mental processes ,
discover that the industrial advancement
and welfare of this state is never in the
keeping , nor getting nourishment , of
Bryanarchy , except when the ghost
dancers of that tribe are on the trail of
offices.
The recent investments in Nebraska
City packing houses and the capital
which will soon renovate and restore
them to useful activity were not furn
ished by either populists or the sons of
populists. It has been admitted by even
the followers of the peerless fakir that
orations are less nutritious than pork
chops and bacon. Even the self-lauda
tory grandiloquence of Smyth , Bryan &
Co. denouncing Nebraska City's manu
facturing interests lost autumn is not
as good subsistence for a family as
promptly-paid wages in the Starch Fac
tory or Stock Yards and Packing Houses.