The Omaha Sunday Bee
oW .Omaha: GoUiiiti
7
7
OMAHA, SUNDAY MORNING, MARCH 25, 1917.
Qrdft ffieW of Omaha
At the truth ani untruth tliate fit to kiow
hapter VII Discovery of Pike's
Peak.
By A. R. GROH.
Certain persons, instigated by jeal
jusy of my great history, are attempt
ing to criticise me because, they say,
after six chapters, I have not yet be
gun to talk about Omaha.
They inquire, peevishly, why I wan
der over all the earth and the last forty
centuries in telling about Omaha.
These persons simply betray the
shallowness of their minds. They hurt
themselves instead of the historian.
1 hey are unwilling to spend time in
laying the foundations of a history. ,
Mushrooms grow up in a night and
die in a day. The oak grows slowly
and lives for centuries. Such is my
history.
Other great historians have pursued
the same course. Gibbon in his "His
tory of" Rome," devotes 160 pages to
other conditions in the world before
he mentions Rome. Carlyle, in his
"Revolution of France," and Bancroft,
in the "United States History," do
the same thing.
So the present author is in good
company. I shall continue to tread
steadily the path of thoroughness. My
detractors are unworthy of notice.
Carping critics have ever tried to tear
down great works. Little dogs can
bark at elephants.
(To the artist: Please put a picture
in here showing a large, powerful ele-
fihant marked "Great Historian" and
lave a lot of little dogs barking at it.
Have the dogs marked "Critics" and
"VVould-Be Critics." Be sure to make
the elephant very powerful and not
INHT Of LINE Willi OISBOK AW CAWAU
paying any attention to the dogs
which are barking their heads off.)
We will pay no attention to these
jealous critics miu prui-ccu rimi uui
history.
Tike's Peak, Colorado, was discov-.
ered in 1806 by Zebuion M. Pike, who
named it in honor of himself. It was
a landmark for emigrants, who used
to paint on ' their wagons, "Pike's
Peak or Bust." - -
The country was not specially ben
efite4 by the discovery of this peak.
Thing went on about as they had
before. Pike claimed it was higher
Round-up Days in Western Nebraska.
"Say, have you been reading about
the potash fields in western Nebraska?
I read an account' oi it the other
day and later heard some fellows
telling about how they are taking out
hundreds of dollars' worth of potash
a day from some of those sand-hill
lakes.
k "That takes me back to March and
April of 1878, when I first struck this
northern country. Bennett Irwin and
I came from the south together and
landed on the Niobrara river twelve
miles east of where Gordon now
stands, at what was called the N
ranch, owned by a man named K. S.
Newman of St, Louis, Mo. The fore
man of that ranch was 'Hun' Ir
win, a brother of the Irwin with
whom I came to this country. That
was about the 20th of March. They
had had a terrific snow storm a day
or two before and my partner and 1.
never having seen a snow storm until
we struck that oni, wore light clothes
and were in 'some shape for weather
of that kind. However, we stayed at
the ranch for a while and in the
meantime 'Hun' Irwin sent tp Fort
Sheridan (which was a trading point
at that time) and got us some over
coats, overshot s and other things
necessary for comfort in that country.
Some Cattle Contract, This.
v "Newman had a contract with the
Pine Ridge and Rosebud agencies to
deliver several thousand head of
steers to these agencies to supply the
Indians with meat. He undertook
to winter about 6,000 steers on the
Niobrara river, which. was north and
west of these sand hills. They had
established a camp at the Head of
what they called the Snake river,
which was about twelve miles south
and east of the ranch, in what is
known as the sand hills. South and
" east of the head of the Snake river
was territory of some hundred or
hundred and twenty-five milesjquarc
that really had never been explored,
with the exception of an old govern
ment trail that went through on the
east end of it. Everyone who had
cattle .north and west of there did
everything possible to keep the cat
tle from getting into those hills, not
really knowing what was in them.
They kept 'line-riders' stationed at
the head ot the snake river, who rode
west, to the river and north and east
along the Snake river to keep the eat
le from drifting into the sand hills.
earing they would never see them
igam if they did yet in there. -,
Sand Hills ft Storm Shelter. ' r
"As I remarked, this severe snow
than it really is, but even this exag
geration did not stir up the country.
Pike was killed April 27, 1813, in a
battle at York, Canada. Drevious to
this he had married Clarissa Brown
of Kentucky.
John Jacob Astor. a New York mil
lionaire, determined to start a city
and name it after himself. He had al-
pike, discovers Pikes peak
ready built the Waldorf-Astoria hotel
and named it alter nunseii aim nic
town of Waldorf in Germany, where
he was born and where his father ran
a butcher shop.
So he lent out an expedition in 1810
which founded a town at the mouth of
the Columbia river in Oregon and
named it Astoria. It never amounted
to much and has only 9,599 peculation
now.
This shows that money won't buv
everything. Pike, poor and unmarried,
was able to have a peak named after
him, while Astor, rich beyond the
dreams of avarice and owner of a
hotel catering to the best trade in
New York, and with baths- attached
to every room, couldn't even have an
important city named in his honor.
This chapter will be a fitting ans
wer to my critics. I haven't men
tioned in it the city concerning which
I am writing.
Those jealous persons who try to
dictate to me how my history should
be written will see that I pay no
more attention to their yelping than a
large, powerful elephant would pay
to the barking of a pack of little dogs.
Questions on Chapter VII.
1. W hat do critics or would-be crit
ics of this history resemble?
2. What is the real reason for their
criticism?
3. What peak did Zebuion M. Pike
discover? , .
Watch this page of The Sun
day Bee from week to week
for the best and most fascin
ating local feature stories to
be found anywhere.
becomes
QWffiKceiii
L -
storm had wept that country a few
days before our arrival, and had
drifted the cattle through the lines
and into the sand hills. This news
had been telegraphed to Newman,
and he arrived at the ranch about the
same time as we did. I never saw a
man so blue as he was. He thought
that everything was 'shot to pieces'
'Hun' Irwin, the foreman, proposed
to him that if he would let him se
lect his men and give him what
horses he needed, a wagon and some
grub, he would take the outfit in
there and undertake to explore those
sand hills and try to gather the cattle.
Newman gave him this permission
and Bennett Irwin and I were two of
the men he selected to go on the trip,
with some other ten or twelve men
We started on the 15th day of April.
The horses we had were all horses
that had been wintered on grass and
they were weak. After we had got
about two days out from the ranch
another terrible snow storm came up;
so we were laid up for three days
during this storm. All the grub we
had was what we called 'sow-belly'
bacon about ' five or six inches
through with fat and Wakapamana
flour, that made bread as black as
vour hat. This was bacon and flour
they bad bought at the Pine Ridge
agency, supplies furnished by the
government to the Indians, and I
want to tell you it was tough grub
for a Texas fellow who had been
used to eating fresh beef whenever
he wanted it. After the storm was
over we never .moved the wagon
without first exploring the country
ahead of us, and generally two or
three of us would make a trm east of
about fifteen miles, to see what we
could strike, we would go back to
the wagon in the evening and move
the next day. We kept that up for
about three or four days beforcwe
struck any cattle.
That Big Black Cow.
"But one day 'Hun' Irwin and I
were two of the explorers, and after
we got about fifteen miles east of the
wagon we ran into a wild bunch of
about sixty head of cattle. They
were as wild as any deer you ever
saw. we rounded them ud to see what
they were and we found they were
none of the cattle we were looking
for: but cattle that had evidently been
in there for several years; some of
them unbranded and ranging from "I
to 4-year-olds. Among thein was a
big black cow, fat as any cow you
ever aw in a feed lot, weighing about
1,300 pounds. Having had about all
the bacon I wanted, and being sure
the rest pf the boys felt the same
way and would stick with me, I told
I Comb Honey
By EDWARD BLACK.
An Old Trunk.
Did you ever delve into an old
trunk m attic or in basement!1 What
tragedy and comedy, what reminis
cences and tender memories are as
sociated with the nondescript contents
of that battered old receptacle! As
you open the old trunk your thoughts
revert back to days oi cniianoou, or
youth, or perhaps some later period
of life, as the case may be.
A pair of infant's shoes come tp
view. Your feet, which now are
vexed by corns, ohce wore those tiny
shoes. In them one eventful day
you wandered away from home to sec
the wine, wine worm aionc. iuu
looked into the wonderful windows
of stores, with their wealth of candy
and cakes and toys. In this world
of childish imagination you lost all
sense of direction. On and on vou
traveled until the world of reality
grew dark and your feet were tired.
Suddenly you tnougnt or mouicr aim
vou began to crv. A man asked if
you were lost and you shook your
head negatively, ne iook you oy mt
hand and gave you a nickle. After
a while your mother appeared on the
scene; she picked you up, kissed you
and exclaimed: "Was my little boy
Inst?" And your mother saved the
little shoes, that some day you might
find them in an old trunk and re
member the day when you were lost
in this wide, wide world.
You rummage through the trunk
again and your hand touches a time
worn autograph album, filled with en
dearing sentiments and light-hearted
expressions, inscribed by the boys and
girls of yesterday. '
"Your album is a pleasant spot in
which to write forget me not." That
was written by May. Kememuer the
time vou took her to a circus and told
her the jokes about the giraffe's long
neck and the elephant's trunk? And
she asked you to show her the blind
tiger, and the animal man said they
were just out of blind tigers, but they
had some dandy lions.
"Mr nen is ooor. mv ink is oale,
hut my love for you shall never fail."
And this one: "Roses are red, violets
are blue; sugar isweet, and so are
you." And you recall the lines:
"How dear to this heart are the
scenes of my childhood, when fond
recollection presents them to view.
Voices of the Night.
There is the voice of a mother as
she sings her babe to sleep. Just
as she gets the intant into slumber
land na comes in) from the basement
as if he wanted to let the neighbors
know he was home. Then -there is
the voice of the mother as she chas
tises dad for his pachydermatous foot
fall on the stairs.
Another tumult of the stilly night
is the laminar feline crescendo which
fills the alley at 11:45 p. m. and as
saults the ears of those who would
address themselves to sleep, A win
dow is ooened and a lot of bric-a-
brac is projected at an arch-backed
figure silhouetted against the night
Irwin I intended to rone that cow
and tie her down until we could move
the wagon' next day and butcher her
for beef.
The horse I was riding was a weak
one with which to rope a big, heavy
cow like that; but we got down our
ropes and 1 tied the end of my rope
hard and last to the horn ot my
saddle and went after Mrs. Cow.
After running her for quite a while,
I finally got close enough to make
a throw. The first throw I made I
caught her, and sayl when she went
to the end of that rope, she jerked
me, horse and all about fifty feet; but
Irwin was ready with his rone and
roped her by the hind feet. We hog-
tted her and left her there at the
lake and started back for the wagon,
getting there about 8 or 9 o'clock that
night.
Dressed Beef for a Feast.
"When' the boys heard what we
discovered and how we had caught
and tied down this big cow, they cer
tainly did smack their lips in antici
pation of some fat beef the next day,
Next morning we were up bright and
early and three of us went ahead of
the wagon. We butchered t e cow
and when the wagon came up we had
some of the prettiest beef dressed that
you ever saw. Talk about a feast I
We surely had one.
"from then on we kept exploring
the lulls and gathering the cattle. We
were in there thirty days and when
we got back to the ranch we had over
6.000 head of cattle several thousand
being those which had drifted through
the lines and some 1,500 cattle that
had evidently been in there for years.
Besides, we gathered on that trip
about 300 mavericks (which means
unbranded cattle) from 1 year to
4 years old. On this trip we dis
covered that this sand hill country
was one ot the greatest cattle coun
tries in the world.
Potash Millions Didn't Worry Him.
"When the news got out about our
getting in with those cattle, the ranch
men came from all directions to see
the cattle and hear the story. From
that day to this that country has
developed, as we all know, into one
of the greatest producing sections of
our state. Now, to think that they
have started 1 this potash industry,
which promises to make millions of
dollars for those interested in it I It
is a wonderful transformation. It
was right near one of those lakes
where we tied the cow. But we
weren't worrying about potash; we
wanted some fat beef. That's the
history of the starti. of the develop
ment of that great sand hill country.."
Tie 9 farted as a news-
hoy, then
going up
By A. EDWIN LONG.
Even Caesar did not start life with
an ambition to be a soldier, much less
an emperor.
Few boys nurse the ambition to be
come what fate finally kicks them
into. Why, Caesar carved himself out
for oratory, rather than warfare. It
was because he sailed for Rhodes to
study oratory under Apollonius Molo
that he got switched off into fields of
war. Pirates snatched him from the
high seas and held him for ransom.
Caesar always had temper, so he
swore) "Believe me, guys, when I get
my liberty, I will have you all cruci
fied." They laughed. His ransom was
finally paid, and as soon as he got
ashore he forgot all about his orator
ical ambitions, but instead outfitted
some ships, overtook the pirates and
spiked them hand and foot to the
clumsiest wooden crosses he could
hastily improvise.
Having made good, as a fighting
on a garage across the way. "Get my
air riHe," is heard from your son's
room. The feline incantations final
ly cease and you resume sleep. A
noise is heard on the back porch;
it is the milkman delivering your
daily allowance of lacteal fluid. Then
you arise and sing. "For this is the
end of a perfect night."
Mere Man.
Mere man faces the cannon's maw
unflinchingly. He braves the perils
of land, sea and air, for home, his
country and his God, He goes to a
bargain sale for his wife and other
wise jeopardizes life and limb vicari
ously during the day's work. There
is no deed too bold for this man
who is of woman born. But when it
comes to holding a baby in the most
approved manner, he admits he has
a lot to learn.( Lincoln papers please
copy.)
Neutrality.
Careful Observer What is armed
neutrality?
. Oldest Inhabitant When a girl al
lows two admirers to escort her home.
Come to Think of It
Casting pearls before swine may
not be amiss these days.
Did You
Ever meet a man who always wants
to get even with somebody?
Where' Is
The breeziest corner in Omaha?
The Lid. - x
Speaking of lids in these days of
grace, we notice a lot ot wiminm
folks wearing new spring lids.
EVeT$o3yTias a HoftyJ
A nurse may have a hobby just
as well as any regular human being.
Miss Bessie Randall, superintendent
of the Visiting Nurse Association of
Omaha has a hobby and she is proud
of it - Her hobby is concentration.
She uses her leisure moments study
ing concentration. "I have learned
that my reading was faulty because
I did not concentate and that when
in conversation I did not get the
most out of it because I did not con
centrate as much as If should have
done. Concentration strengthens the
memory," stated Miss Randall. In
memorizing the spelling and meaning
of words she finds that concentra
tion is helping her considerably. To
get the best out of life, she says,
one should concentrate all faculties,
whether at work or play.
Inconsistent with his profession J.
Stewart White, president of the Cady
Lumber company, has for his pet hob
by the making of houses out of can
vas for summer use on his vacation
camping trips. Most any winter even
ing or in his leisure hours friends
calling at the White residence may
find him industriously plying the
needle (with an ease and grace quite
foreign to most men), which by sum
mer time has taken the shape of a
Dortable dwellin&r.
Every summer, when he and his
family tire of the' hot Nebraska
weather and long for a cooler clime,
bill clevk
ever since.
man, he stuck to that field until his
scepter swayed most of the known
world; but all that has little to do
with Ward M. Burgess of Omaha,
U. S. A.
The only relationship between the
Caesar career and that of Ward Bur
gess lies in a lack of similarity.
Caesar didn't want to be a soldier.
Ward Burge3S did want to be a
dry goods merchant.
Caesar was weak to that extent in
allowing himself to be shunted onto
a siding from his youthful purpose.
:. Ward Burgess let nothing push him
on the switch, but clung to the rails
of the main line and kept crowding
on the steam.
For when as a barefoot boy he
hauled in the line, yanking catfish out
of the Missouri river at St. Joseph,
Mo., young Burgess wanted to be a
wholesale dry goods merchant.
Though he was an expert at cutting
the hook out of the mouth of a cat
fish, he had no ambition to be a fish
monger. Though he was as good a first base
man in the kid leagues as ever held
down the bag at first, he had no ambi
tion to be a big leaguer.
Though he was shooting jacksnipe,
chickens, ducks and geese on the river
long before he was a dozen years old,
he had no ambition to be a Daniel
Boone or a Nimrod. ,;
He didn't even want to be a locomo
tive engineer, though the big engines
roared into St. Joe dailywith all the
clanking magnificence and might of
steam and steel.
He didn't want to be a cowboy, or
a scout, or a guerilla, or even a des
perado, despite the fact that Jesse and
Frank James and Cole' Younger were
alarmingly popular in a neighborhood
not a day's ride from, where young
Ward was growing up.
At 11 years he began to carry a
paper route in St. Joseph. This gave
him no ambition to be a news vendor,
or to monopolize the sale of papers
in his city. It was a means to an
end. It was a means of making a few
dimes, and these he would save, for
some day he might need them to en
gage in the dry goods business.
afeYoursI
thev oack their machine full of all
the necessities for camp life and go
either to some northern Minnesota or
Wisconsin lake or to the Rocky moun
tains. This year they are planning
a trio to Wyoming, and the camping
outfit, thanks to Mr. White's nimble
fingers, is almost completed, ine
White family are, as you may imagine,
lovers ot the great out-ot-ooors, and
on these trips they pitch their tents
and sleep out under the stars every
night, being entirely independent of
hotel accommodations and tne cook
ine characteristic of country town
hotels, as well as the hot and dusty
trains filled at this season with crowds
of tourists.
Just another example of the back-to-nature
call, and a most delightful
suggestion for other out-of-door
and fresh-air fiends which may prove
especially interesting to the business
man who is shut in an office for
eleven months out of the twelve.
Louis St. Cyr, veteran box office
man at the Orpheum theater, has a
hobby of collecting relics and curios.
Some are grewsome and others are
less forbidding. He has a piece of
rope used when a man was lynched
at the corner of Seventeenth and Har
ney streets. In his collection is a
set of currency notes issued .by the
city of Omaha in the days when
Jesse Lowe was mayor. Another ar
ticle is a paper centavo issued by
the Carranza government in Mexico.
He also has an opium "layout" con
fiscated by the police. Knives, dag
gers and other instruments of destruc
and
He didn't know when nor where,
nor how he would get into the dry
goods business, but then Abraham
Lincoln didn't know how he would
get into law or politics, but Lincoln
simply said he would get ready and
maybe the time would come. So, too,
young Ward Burgess was getting
ready in preparation for that mys
terious time somewhere, somehow,
when he should be a dry goods mer
chant. From the age ofll to 15 he carried
papers', and didn't even go to high
school. Not having a high school
training, of course he never got a col
lege training, and he just didn't care.
He wanted to be a dry goods mer
chant, and consequently didn't care
a fish gill how to find the cube root
of a billion, or how to determine the
diameter of the Pole star.
Ward Burgess had a brother.
That brother proved to be the key
to the merchandising 'world for the
lad.
That brother was employed with
the firm of M. E. Smith & Co. of
Omaha, as a salesman. Young Ward
began to hear tales of wondrou3 Oma
ha from his big brother. He began to
hear tales about the big wholesale
dry goods house in Omaha. The lad
longed to see this magnificent place.
While other boys longed to steal
through the halls of historic palaces
and castles, scanning the medieval
etchings on the walls, while others
dreamed of stalking through the caves
of romantic robbers, viewing the price
less plunder, young Ward Burgess
nursed the ambition to walk through
tion from many lands are included
:n tv rrJIrrtinn. The collection is
one of the most interesting of its kind
in Omaha.
Rodman M. Brown, structural en
in thi ritv hnilHinflr denart-
e "il . j .
ment, finds surcease from the prob
lems ot ouuoing construction uy icau
ing a troop of Boy Scouts. After a
day with such technical matters as
floor loads, wind stress and strains,
he finds genuine pleasure in- mingling
with his boys. He goes on hikes
with the Scouts and knows how to
start a fire without matches, now to
follow a trail, knows the birds and
their notes and can signal with the
Morse code.
It is a far cry from modern con-
K,'1ncr fi-tfiatrtirtinn tn Bov
Scout activities) but Mr. Brown avers
the latter is a fine sedative.
John C. Wharton has two hobbies.
One is being a great gymnasium ath
lete and the other is drinking weak
tea and "cambric tea."
' Alkali Ike and William Jennings
Brvan have been popularly supposed
to stand, one at either end of the bev
erage range of man Alkali Ike lik
ing his pisen strong,' long anu
freq'ent and W. J. B. finding pleasure
and solace in quaffing the sparkling,
nure and unfermented juice.
Colonel Wharton takes precedence
even of the Peerless Leader in the
mildness of his potions.
He starts each golden day with a
cup of tea, a cup of weak tea, pro
L &$t7
m m " ;r:TlKTii7ririS '
msM s-snSn IWM
the halls of a wholesale dry goods
house, and see the stocks of goods
stacked high.
The opportunity came. The brother
got him a job at the M,. E. Smith
plant in Omaha. He came here as a
bill clerk.
And he received the magnificent
sum of $10 a month for his services.
Ah, but he had arrived; he had
alighted in an establishment such as
he had dreamed of through the seem
ingly endless age of his youth; and
lie was happy. . He was 18 years old
when he took this job. Promotion,
after promotion followed until the lad
found himself a stockholder in the
firm.
Soon he became vice president, and
then in conjunction with Louis C
Nash oraganized the retail department
store of Burgess-Nash, of which con
cern he became president.
He has realized his boyhood ambi
tion of getting into the dry goods
game, being now heavily engaged
both in the retail and in the whole
Sale dry goods merchandising, in his
respective connection with the two
establishments mentioned. He is a
director of the Omaha National bank
and also of the Electric lighting
company. He has been a live Com
mercial club member for years,
served on important committees, has
been identified with many public
movements of importance in Omaha
and was last year king of Ak-Sar-Ben,
and still his dry goods business
is his life.
Meit In Serie "Horn Omh Cot 'Bills
Schmoller."
duced by steeping about three leaves
of choice Oolong in boiling water.
Fearing that even this migVt limit
his athletic prowess, Mr. Wharton
pours out one-third of the cup and
fills 'er up with rich, nutritious, de
licious cream.
Noon arrives and the colonel may
be seen at the Omaha club or the
"Y" cafeteria gormandizing on a
bowl of soup and a glass of butter
milk. Only this and nothing more
(Quoth the waitress, "Have some
more?" Quoth the colonel, "No, no
more.")
At the eveniLj meal the colonel's
drink consists of "cambric tea,"
which can be made, without any in
structions from Mrs. Rohrer, by sim
ply adding cream and sugar to hot
water.
"Del you attribute your high posi
tion in hand-ball athletic circles to
your temperance in beverages?" he
was asked by admiring friends.
"Very largely," said the colonel,
"very largely. I used to have a
great liking for coffee. I loved, it.
But I decided my athletic constitu
tion, my tremendous endurance, my
muscles strong as iron bands would
be better on a more modest diet."
"Well, that's the price you athletes
have to pay for your marvelous pow
ers. Stecher, Willard, Moran, Whar
ton, all have to let stimulants alone."
"Oh, my gracious, yes, we have to
do it," declared Colonel Wharton.
(Yes, colonel, the writer of this
article still smokes. A box of any
brand will do.)
