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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 26, 1901)
Conservative * started John to the plow , saving some hours in work. Probably few people would take any notice of this movement but the party who has property and often valuable property , left in charge of hired help , would pay close attention to such actions , and remember them as references for the future , and what em ployer , in whatever sphere in life he may be , will not readily decide his choice for help between \ho two boys ? This is only one in a thousand cases that may happen to the young man on the farm. To the one the " Tide was taken at the flood , " to the other "omitted. " In all probability neither young man was aware that such actions were at the "Flood Tide , " which changed the whole course of their after lives. In a few mouths Mr. A. retired and Tom was in stalled as supervising manager with a good salary , while John was released for the winter to mourn his bad luck. Similar instances are numerous. The history of the United States affords brilliant examples from the farm boy , while the demand for the competent in agricultural lines is awaiting the worthy " to lead them on to fortune. " One [ more illustration : A few days ago , while riding to town with a mer chant , he asked me to recommend him a good boy to drive his delivery wagon. The boy he had , about 17 years of age , either could not , or would not , or at least did not learn his duty. Lately he came home with the horse after deliver ing goods , the horse minus the collar be longing to the harness. The boy-main tained that the collar was put on. The collar was lost while going his rounds. Such examples may make or mar the whole course of life. "Fortune calls but once at any man's door , " some say ; a suggestive thought. It is undoubtedly true that when the young man has his ideal established with the determination to gain the goal , he will soon find within himself the en ergetic , encouraging perseverance , men tally pushing to gain the point desired , which is rarely accomplished except by hard , industrious and attentive toil. JOHN BETHUNE. Lincoln , Neb. THE FREMONT MYTH. THECONSERVATIVE _ has called atten tion on a number of occasions to the ap parent inaccuracy of certain stories which are in circulation , and in some cases with the endorsement of excellent authorities , regarding the "pathfinder , " John O. Fremont. In our issue of May 80th of this year we discussed at some length a statement of Dr. George Bird Grinnell's , in his "Pawnee Hero-Stories and Folk-Tales , " to the effect that Fre mont had at some time been the recip ient of a certain honorable title , Pani Leshar , from the Pawnees , being the only white man ever so distinguished by them , with the single exception of Major Frank North. This statement , we questionedfor the reason thataf tor a careful , review of Fremont's career in the west , we were unable to find any time when he came in sufficiently close relations with the Pawnees for it to have happened. Since then , we have received some light on the question , which is really a very interesting one , from two first- rate sources ; Dr. Grinnell himself , and Hon. James E. North , of Columbus , Neb. , one of the surviving brothers-of Major North. From the letters of these gentlemen , extracts from both of which we give below , it appears that the information mation of both was derived from the Indians. We are unable to think oth erwise than that axonfusion of identity has arisen somewhere ; but it seems to be beyond doubt that some white man besides Major North was honored by the Pawnees to this unusual degree , and it may not be [ impossible yet to de termine who this was. Mr. North wrote us as follows : "When I received your letter , I was in clined to think that that there was some mistake about the honor bestowed upon General Fremont by the Pawnees , as from my recollection I had never heard my brother say anything about it. I have , however , today seen my younger brother , L. H. , who was out with the major a great deal of the time he was in the government service , and he tells me that the Pawnees said that the title conferred on the major had been given to one white man before , who had been through the country with a command , engaged in building a road , and that some of the Pawnees went with him over the mountains. From their description my brothers were of the opinion that the Indians referred to General Fremont. From this informa tion I am led to believe that Fremont must have passed through one of the Pawnee villages on his way west , and had some of that tribe in his employ. " Dr. Grinnell. writes : "Yours with enclosure from THE CONSERVATIVE , re ferring to John O. Fremont and the Pawnees , is duly received and greatly interests me. It is nearly fifteen years since this question came up at all , and I doubt my ability to give you anything very definite. I can say , however , with great positiveness , that a Pawnee Indian told me definitely that John 0. Fremont was the only other white man that had ever borne the name of Pani Leshar. This means the Pawnee Chief , or the Chief Pawnee , an honorable name which , however , like any other name , was given for purposes of identification and did not carry with it any special prerogative. I talked of this matter with Major Frank North , who told me that he had been told essentially the same thing that I had been told. And from , the Arikara Indians at Fort Bert- hold I had substantially the same thing , p t.they nrado no attempt to give the muaeof fhe ip n who had borne this title 'bfefore Frari'kNorth received it. They sai'd' ie was a' chief who led sold iers ' ' through'tho' country " If you iiaycj convihcSiUyourself that Fremont is uoftfief.mau ( > < vho bore this name , it is probabfe suppose , that it may have been Pike. It/seems to mo the strongest argument against the Fre mont view is that Fremont passed through the country of the Pawnees only a dozen or more years before Frank North became known to those Indians. If the name given to him in 1805 had been borne 21 or 22 years before by Fre mont , there would have been plenty of men still alive in the Pawnee tribe who would have known of the fact , and there would have been no doubt in any one's mind as to who Frank North's predecessor was. On the other hand , if it were Pike who bore the name , his passage through the country , in 50 years , would have been more or less tra ditional and forgotten by a great many of the people. " Mrs. Fremont was also addressed in regard to the matter , in the belief that if the story was rightfully attached to her honored husband's name , she would be able to give both the time and the place of its occurrence ; but no reply was received. THE CONSERVATIVE is privileged to number among its readers an unusually long list of men who are able to speak with authority on such matters as this , some as students and others from per sonal knowledge of the events of early western history. We believe that few other publications have so many , or at least so large a proportion , of the army officers , freighters , traders and settlers of the pioneer period of the plains among their subscribers. Now cannot some of these friends of ours name some United States officer who led a force across the plains in the 80's , and who made friends with the Pawnees and took some of them across the mountains with him ? This seems to be the main difficulty in the way of accepting Dr. Grinnell's sug gestion that it may have been Pike. He took no Pawnees with him , though he did meet a returning war party of them , after he came in sight of the mountains. Or , which would be equally to the pur pose , can some closer student of General Fremont's career point out when and where he was , or may have been , thrown into such friendly relations with the Pawnees as to have won their esteem and admiration ? A. T. RICHARDSON , MR. CLEVELAND ON FISHING. Mr. Cleveland's next contribution to The Saturday Evening Post of Phila delphia , will be an extremely readable paper , in which ho sings the praises of his favorite sport. The Reflections of a Fisherman shows very pleasantly the genial "unofficial" side of the former President.
