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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (March 1, 1876)
4 THE WEST SHORE. March. RAM HUNG NOTKS TrMKS. feY W. i, ADAMS, H. D,( A. M., L I.. . M'rth most people there is a charm that 'haxgs alwut old time scenes, and bygone events. There arc ten bipeds that are always looking back, while there is one, who, like laul, forgets the past and kecB his eye on a goal far in the future. Some like Stenn vogatlc oblivious to the past, strain both optics to descry honors, palaces, bliss, and most any thing a man wants, coming down from the ojtcned heavens on a "Sheet knit at the four corners" all for ihtiMi seen in a tramc, while their weary tarns struggle with a twin sister of night Jtuaje on a very oor straw bed. Others, like Patrick Henry, use one eye in out lining coming events, and the other in rornparing waymarks left behind, with the dim outlines of something ahead which, according to popular opinion, is cither a good thing, a scourge, a ghost a devil, an angel, a windmill; or a hog en joying a baih in a mud hole. -The liter c is another class, who make i ill" trip through life asSltcm, and Japhcth, approached Noah on a certain occasion lirfore be joined the. temperance society with their Kicks to the future, eyes ever fixed on the past, gloating over and glorify ing even the dead branches, that in memory ire still green and loaded with luscious fruit J o laud the past, and deer)' the present is noi peculiar to men of this age. Poels.and rlupwtdisis, of all ages, have deified the Juid aire at the expense of the "degener .He bhi," , "Tlune filly vliuiflili'rel ill the tfhmuiy wl.-, Wo Hinrt'il but out! tii twur tho dreadful Ulu. Hnch Tyiluim wui, timl na-h hi martm! tire. Hod ! how tliu ton ilt'iit'iierntei from tho Hire !" Humer We once heard a Rhode Islander ex loliing the early settlers of his state as a race of giants, who reached their god-like gii-atness by living on "Johnny cake," and -iosed their dying eyes on degenerate sons who had injudiciously forsaken corn, and taken to wheat. Hut Homer tells of even greater giants than our Johnny cake Jonathans of Rhode Maud. A Minilerou (ont bold Hector htmfwl t throw, 1'iitiitutt tuve mitt nm((ti mill (fro. Mow: t two itroiiK men thu emrnmtii wain lit mulil raiw, ."Wti tnun iw lire m time ilii'tirmte tiny : Vet thia, m fliuy an it mum could hoar I liu mowy IW-u, , (omM, anil .hook in mr, 1'hUi tnn'it lwtt.ro tin foldttj guta. hi' oatnr, itf HntMjr itiWtuure, ami liiwiiilim traiui With inm lian und linui'ii hiugr. Iniug, On lofty beam of Kiliil tiuWr hunn : i hum Uiuuii-rmg thrush tho .!auk. with funi-hil itrin-lheihn' rotk.the nolid Wnu ifivn war, yj hiltU r i.Iinterml, from the cmiklmK ,(wr .my the niouiutmg Urn, tho flying bitiRvt ronr. Now niihiug in, thu furinua chief ft,ir, i Hooray niKht! riiiI bnk(w two timing .tn, A Jrwulfut nlrm fivm hii bright tnnour caum, Aat) lam hi. -y--Ml. flhKt living flatni. IIpumym a rihI, ruiiatltMu in hit courw .ml worn- a match tor ua- than tnorttl for,. Tlm fltwki bfhoM, tlty tremble and thy fly, Tb hon i hrtwl with tlralh, ud tumult tvmli tk iky." The Kho.lv Minder's ideas ontheellects J corn meat, with the htimI alxxit ihu time of several volumes on hygiene, which recommended a purely vegetable diet, .wteeia1ly greens (young fern the beM) txalvd without wit or fat, in clear water rain water preferred, as spring water is liable to Ik; impregnated with mineral s.lts ltd me to turn to Homer again to see what mat-ruT of men they raised before this Itreneraic race invented cannon. ' TVn tlttcc Tydid. too) !, from tho rll,W I 'UwJ w,,h tMl rwky fra,io..t wwlda i two urou mm tl. wurmmw wrbt u), ni. Ahmtw a lin in thrw .Utfrwru ,lv. iui t rt.uJ, au.1, (.tharin .twumb to hiww, llKhrrxl tkf pondrrvm rum at (W fo. to the hip the inwrtM thiMt utiitr, I KuU t (U bun ttw pointed auhfc Ughu, I 3 UMuih bo th tonaona broka Um ruJ , Aid .trirr'd th. ,km; uttl crwk d Uw o4id Um" And also whether they dined on veget able just lrforc a hey droit on phvMeal tbKt w atom (o lc wxM. ON OLDKN "Tt" Area are kindled, and ttw amokei tKend ; With baaty (aaata tbajr aacraftce, and pray To avart th danfrara of tho doubtful day. A iteer of Ave yaara' age, large limb'd and fed. To Jove' high altara Agamemnon led. Their prayera performed, the chiefs the rite pursue, The barley ipriukled and the victim ilew. The limbs they aever from the inclosing hide. The thighs, selected to the goda divide. Go theae, in double caula involved with art, The choicest morsels lie from every part From the cleft wood the crackling flumes aspire, While the fat victims feed the sacred fire. The thighs thus sacrifloed and entrails dreis'd: The assistants part, trunsfii, and roast the rest ; Then spread the tablet, the repast prepare. ucn takes bis seat, and each receives his share." What poet is yet to be born who will sing of the heroes who a quarter of a century ago crossed the Rocky mountain1, built log cabins in the Willamette valley, 'Christanized the Indians," wore buck skin, built school houses, and laid the cor ner stone of a yet to be great state on the Columbia River. Poets we may never have, but orators we have already, among some of our old veterans who left Missouri. Illinois, and Indiana, before they had even seen a telegraph wire, a railroad, printing press, or even an abolitionist, orators who are always decrying every thing new, and sighing for good old times. They were satisfied to do all their freighting on prairie schooners drawn by oxen. They neither sighed for railroads or steamlMiats. A good wagon road was the acme of their ambition so far as com mercial facil tics went. We all de sired, howev er, to see cit ies built up, where wag oned pro duce could be bartered for Yankee notions. . To be sure! we had some a d v a in a ges in farm ing, for we had plows, (hough the mold Nurds were hewn nit of WOOtl, ijnd carried .noue;h dirt to reimire an extra yoke of cattle to to ivliat reallv constitutes human happiness. The conclusion reached then and there was, that the position in which any given person can be the happiest, depends en tirely on his education, and the amount and shape of his brain. Perhaps the body has something to dowith it come to think, I rather believe it has; for that night my brain felt satisfied when my landlord, in stead of asking me if I had any blankets with mc, as I had nearly always been asked all over Oregon before, told me lie could accommodate me and my fellow traveler with a bed. The cotton rag burnt low in the saucer that held the lard that night, be fore our ivawmv on knotty theological problems was over, and we retired to bed. Now I alwavs had a horror for sleeping on a hard floor, even with a blanket under me, and as I sat on the fence that after noon and gazed at the declining sun, I thought of the coming darkness and wished I could roll up in my blankets and crawl into that glorious, clean, soft straw pile to spend the night. So w hen my host an nounced the bed, visions of angelic dreams on a well-stuffed tick of clean straw, flitted through my brain. Just then something whispered " Pike." I thought of Crib ble's hard shell discourse in which Christ was said to have been born in Bethlehem, Pike CV.untv, Missouri; and of the Dutch man's correcting him by saving " Pi gar twas dare he .11" r-'tlI1.23lWi - - vash cruci fied." Vis ions of straw piles ascend ing to heaven insmokeand flame, illu minating the prairies (or miles around of cattle dy ing for the want of it in an extra hard winter, and of blankets spread on rawhide, i n the absence of straw that It a d been burnt as the easiest way to get rid of it all flashed upon my mind. Mv lTI.OTKNOrt-(OregonCal. Overland Stage Route.) ted and weakened haul it. One nun in Yamhill, had a fanning n I doubted. Hut 1 said, hush! Uemnot mill, with raw-hide sieves, which, by wait-1 be. If hr is a descendent of men. who the ing out turn we could gel by laying even- Dutchman thought crucified C'hrUt, he lenlh-bushel of wheat we ran through it. certainly would sue, or have the children after we had finished tramping it out on J sive enough straw to nicely fill all the beds the ground, with cattle, or Indian ponies. If he should fail l0 do it his wife would hen the null was slow in coming ""' ' done. Woman, God bless her, al around, or the toll was thought to be to '' 'us eye to the comfort of her (am- high, a scaffold was fixed up on four posts, and to the comfort of strangers who some ten or fifteen feet high, on which the miv I'-M'l'en along. I will ol ose 1,1, iionesi yeoman iH-rciKM lumsell on a windv 'man tin 1 lose laith in God. Oh day, .Hid hauled up a basketful of chaff as fast as his wife tilled it from the threshing floor, to lie poured out on the ground below, whenever it breezed up enough to carry ' sweetly. ;es sue has the bed filled with nice, clean straw. It will be elastic, sweet, glo rious. Mv iKwr, tired bones 's. away the chaff from the vheat. This man was a model, honest, indeiendent Oregon fanner, and is to-day of course a live gran ger. That fellow's image, just as he looked 10 us when we saw him more than a quar ter ol a century ago, mounted on his plat Old Shepiurd slept on a trood straw lvl and cursed it because it was n(H eiJcr; down: but he slept well and dreamed pleasant dreams, for he saw in vision a pal ace Willi shining corridors, tessellated floors ana ample Italia for banqueting and form away up on the l-auks of the l.ucka-1 dry. with a great, strong vault full of gold m.me, tugging away at his Ai.m that -all his own. The old man, for once in brought up the basket, has never got out , Ins lile was happy, perfectly so. for iiseeni was next morning, as I related my night of horrors and showed him the long, red welts on my back and sides. I have had the back ache off and on ever since, just enough to remind me of my first visit to Luckamiute, on an Indian horse that spiked every time he was turned out on grass two days at a time. We had but little horse flesh in those days but such as we got of the Indians. They were small, wiry, wild and devilish. The missionaries who did a "great work" among the red men, seemed to have no influence over the Cayuse steeds on which the pious Indians rode to meeting. The Indian was passionately fond of blankets but it was dangerous to shake one before his pony even though a grey blanket sent out by the Missionary Society. It would be a cowardly Indian or even squaw that would quail at the sight of one. It is said they rather hankered after blankets, for a whole congregation of them who had been " happily converted " at the Dalles, refused to pray at a big "revival" unless the Mis sionary would " cullus pollalch ! a few blank ets. Some whites who were "skeptically inclined," stuck up their noses at such con versions. But this drawing invidious com. parisons between the pale face and red skinned aborigines is not just to the In dian. Juslilia fiat rue coehtm ought to be our motto. The pale face who turns mis sionary to get a chance to break up a mis sion, sell the property and pocket the pro ceeds, or he who joins a church to get a standing in community, or to escape future torment, circumvents his object by means that blind the world, while the unsophisti cated savage, honest, and intent on busi ness, injudiciously "speaks out in meet ing" and lets us all know what he is after, just as God knows the aims and purposes of his white skinned brother. Pious people East, who threw in liberally when the hat was passed around to raise funds to convert Oregon savages, did it from good motives, having a great desire to "save souls" and never doubting for a moment that under the teaching and exam ple of such as Raymond, el id onme gams, the untutored savage would soon "see God in every cloud." We old Orcgonians only know what a great work was done by the untiring and disinterested labors of those "holy men of God"' who operated in the Willamette Valley and laid the foundation for the " Dalles Claim," which it is ex pected will ere long add some much needed funds to the " Lord's treasury." 1 hose blind widows who knit socks and left them unfinished, with llic knitting need les still in them, with the ostensible pur pose of having Indian girls learn to knit, by finishing the work, will be comforted, if still alive, by the reflection that if these articles never reached the Indians, but were put in the store and sold, they did reach some iioor Missouri girl, who also " had a soul to save," and who would prob ably never have learned toltnit if some poor w idow East had 'nt thrown those socks into the contribution box? "Skeptics," who are always unreasonable, and incon sistent, overlook the fact that missionary effort directed towards a Missourian is probably as acceptable to the Lord, and beneficial to the Pike, as though the pious artillery had been opened on a full blooded Sin-aik. The old Oregonians can all bear witness to the happy results of early mis sionary labor among our Indians. For samples of their handiwork new immi grants are referred to the noble red men .omen frequently seen on our streets n Portland. Thirty Years Auo.-With this issue of of our mind. His barefoot wife, clad in so real that he thought he lived in a palace ! '''e WeST S"mr- inslMd of our usual common unbleached sheeiing, tiMiig her and was rich. .1. . ..... ... - u, a,. ,n.n m nunic ,,e Mske, h le uj his j,eim inJ - "-,i-imiivu miKiren, rolling with nearly as many dogs in the chaff pile, the "piggin" of water and a gourd from which they slaked their thirst, made 111, a ...iure mat made me sit on the fence for brush; for that wis what ,, r as! who wa, an 0,0: supplement of four pages of miscellaneous matter, we present our readers with a fac simile of the first paper printed in Oregon. " e hope this will be much more satisfactory- to them. By referring to its columns, and contrasting 1846 with the present time, they will be better able to see the prnw-tli nf o.-.. , Orwoniin ,! i 1 uunmJ lnt past th rty regonian than I, said ,t I year, than they could in any other way. 1 f .. . ... . ' l-enecily happy t,l I akej aj found my d-d old carcass on a straw bed." lie sighed for down and got only straw wluie I sighed for straw and srot l,v