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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (July 25, 1909)
THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN, PORTLAND, JULY So, 1909. ruT, r E c www Y tiv, of U " the fiove T TRVTVJ S CORF. eald the House Detec- ' the St. Recklens. "I see i-ernraent la after them tusar trust magnate agin. I'm glad of "Po-m I." jaid the Hotel Clerk, cheer. runy. gladder than a broken les. Al most as glad, as an attack of acute In flammatory rheumatism affecting the entire left side. I couldn't be any more Kladsome over It than I am. not it I'd just been carried into a bospital for Incurables with great care to keep me from Jostling: apart before I reached the operating room. Glad? Why. Larry Tra that glad that when I dream about It at night, I sob aloud in my sleep. And why not be glad? Why not. I ask you? Tm always glad when this relentless blood-hound of a Govern ment of ours some say blood-orange. but I prefer the stronger term when this relentless blood-bound of a Gov ernment of ours goes out after one of the big trusts. It doesn't do the trust any damage and look what good exer. else It is for the Department of Jus tice, or the Bureau of Mound-Builders' I.elics and Flint Arrowhead Collections, or the Curator of Postage Stamps at the Smithsonian Institute, or whatever nranch of the federal Administration it is that has charge of these determined and searching prosecutions. 'Tis like a puppy dog chasing his own tail, only perhaps less exciting. It works up line healthy circulation for the pup and when the ardors of the chase are relaxed and the excitement dies down, there's the tail still wagging away like a well, like a horse and wagon, let us say. Trust-busting, with us, Larry, Is a gentle, dainty art, like archery, tat ting and making Battenberg edgings by hand. Tea-pouring is a far more arduous calling. "About once In so long not so often perhaps as in the days when B. W. Tumbo, Esq., was on the Job but about on-e In so long. Larry, about once in to long. Alary, or words to that effect, Il's customary for the Attorney-General of the United States and his alert and vigilant assistants all over the country to undertake the dissolution of some one of the grasping, greedy trusts that oppress us. Fine and nutritious! A corps of highly trained special Inves tigators, who got their Jobs by special appointment because they couldn't pass the Civil Service examination for Cus- i tom-House janitors, go forth on special trains, under special appropriations and spend several special years working up the special evidence. When they have amassed several thousand pounds of documentary proof that nobody will ever read, a Federal grand jury returns the Indictments and the Federal Mar shal calls a Grand Lodge of Deputy Marshals together and makes the ar rests. Whereupon, three cheers from the populace and those large grape trellis headlines on the front page of the paper. Hip. hip, hip-disease! At last the common people are coming into their own! "They're coming Into their own. all right. Larry, but there's to be none of this mad precipitate haste about it, and the poor foolish creatures might as well understand that now as some other time. There's a special organization of experts to see to It .that the common people don't corns tearing into their own with a crash that would be liable to knock down the whole train shed. "Let them come into their own," say these kindly specialists, including corporation lawyers, civil law yers, lawyers who are only civil at rare Intervals, criminal lawyers, very criminal lawyers and plain lawyers to do the in side work, 'let them come into their own, but let them do so gently and by degrees. so as to soften the shocV- We'd suggest that the ultimate arrivalshould be post poned until some suitable date, say about SO years from now, by which time, so our esteemed clients assure us. everything could be suitably arranged for withstand ing the strain of the common people com ing into their own, God bless 'em, we hope they choke!' And you may have noticed. Larry, that there is indeed no wild rush about it. which helps to explain my own uncon trollable gladsomeness when I hear that the Government's gone out again to try to catch enough trusts to make a mess. Tou see, I know from past experience along this Interesting line how it's going to turn out. The law of limitation Inter venes every trust official seems to have a private stable of little limitations on his country place, they being Just the same to him as the life net is to a trapeze per former. Or they find a flaw In the indict ment, or a bunch of flaws, all true, Fed eral indictments being apparently com posed of one strong flaw superimposed on another, and that one on another, and so on through. Or a new welterweight champion arises on the horizon or Eva Tanguay brings out a new dance, or something, and the fickle public loses in terest In the proposition. Or the lawyers for the trust come into court and make a r- nut. TiTii'iV' . 7 a ntrf"FAS. TUP' V A& DEEP AS THE' G(?ANti.C ANYOfl.OFiCpuORADO. frank, free, open confession. The law has indeed been violated. The guilty per son is a man high in the ranks of the de fendant company. All the others ere in nocent, as innocent as the u ash eared lamb but he. of & certainty and beyond the peradvanture of a doubt, is. most deeply Incriminated. It's deplorable, but only too true. The offender deserves the severest punishment. The lawyers for the trust admit it. Nothing would gratify them more at this very minute than to bring him to the bar and stick him for the whole round. But unfortunately there's, an obstacle in the way of reach ing the culprit wretch. The reason is this: He's dead. Thoroughly dead. Firmly and irrevocably dead. He's been dead a number of years. He's dead of sevral of the most expensive and deep seated diseases known to civilized man. The famous specialists who dug into his own .person before his decease and into his bank roll afterward agree that he's dead. The lawyer who drew up his will for him knows that he's deaJ because he's been trying to break the same ever since the sad event occurred The under taker who buried him with much eclat and the tombstone-maker who erected a mauso leum over him that looks like a cold stor age plant done in Italian marble, and the sorrowing family who mourn his loss, but not to an undue excess, will all swear if necessary that he's dead. He's as dead as Hector, or H. H. Holmes. He's guilty, but also he's dead. If he were any deader than he is something would have to be done about it. The lawyers for the defense are exceedingly sorry that such should be the case and they express their deep regrets to the court and do now move to quash the indictment. Moved and seconded that the guilty party be-ing dead, the indictment bo quashed. All in favor will please signify by saying aye. The ayes seem to have it and the ayes have it, and the indictment is quashed. Call the next deceased, Mr. Clerk of the court. '"Ha always is dead the guilty party is. It s a failing of his and a fatal one at that. When a successful politician dies he turns into a statesman; but when trust millionaire passes away, be becomes a malefactor. When the Government comes along, and indicts his late asso ciates, he wakes up some pleasant morn ing out at the cemetery and finds he has no more reputation than a rabbit. He's so guilty he has gilt-edges. He has so. OUt edges and gold tips, and with pain he notes that all the plating has rubbed off his patent collapsible, or crush opera halo over night, allowing the brass to show thrown in spots, plainly. Back to the family vault for his. Gone, But Not Forgotten. At Rest, Yet Guilty. Asleep in Peace. With the Goods on Him. Re- quiescat In Pace especially the scat part. John .Doe s body lies a'raouldering in the grave but his trust goes lying on. That's the answer, Larry." "The way you talk, a fellow'd think there ain't never goin' to be no chance to bust up a trust," said the House De tective. "I s'pose you figure that some of these days the trust'U have all the money in the country corded up and stacked away in a cool cellar." "Not by any means," said the Hotel Clerk. "Not a chance. Nature'!! take care of that. Kindly note the gratifying fact that our great captains of industry all have to die. And mostly they leave their possessions to their sons. That's what saves us. It's what I'd call a pro vision of nature, not a wise provision of nature, knowing some of the sons as I do, but just a plain provision like oats or smoked hams. An all-seeing Providence has decreed that a certain kind of pa nearly always has a certain kind of kid, and that's where the Amalgamated Asso ciation of Under and "Watch Dogs, mean ing us, Larry, or if not us, our descen dants, will yet get the chance to break even on this proposition. "The average trust in this fair land of ours has been put on its feet and started going good by one of those wise old squinch-owls who knows the trick of selling the public all there is to a dough nut, except the fried part. He's satis tied merely to keep the ring around the crul ler and let us have the center. His tem p rature never goes above 30, which is 2 below freezing, and his shirt stud is an ice water push-button, two rings for a full pitcher. He can scent the lone se- i questercd dollar bill in its lir further than a colored circuit rider down South can smell a Spring chicken turning ovrr in a hot skillet, and that's the far the rest away that the human noso ever detected anything. He builds up a littlo monopoly in some necessity of life, that no wise burglar could break into from the out side, or would want to break out of, if ho ever got inside. It's a law-proof, double-seamed, stcel-chtllod, bull-high, pig-tight institution, with a careful look out on the front door, a troop of trained performing corporation lawyers in tho back parlor, a confidential of nee boy to make the dummy loans and attend the di rectors' meetings; a couplo of City Coun cils, a State Legislature or so. and a bunch of Congressmen and Senators fas tened up in the doghouse, each with Ms own number and license tag on his col lar; and a secret passageway leading from the basement into the stationery store next door. You can't beat it as a com bination. "But in the fullness of time he lias to die and after he's been suitably planted under his black marble parking-house over in Greenwood, the property sonic how or other nearly always seems to pass into the hands of those regular millionaires' sons, Son-boy has one of those brains that never jelled properly. Any real idea that ever got afloat in his head- would come under the head of foreign suspended matter. And this frail Percival of the pallid eyes and the discriminating taste in nerkwear and orchids is entrusted with father's lifework. And pretty soon a flock of the discerning ospreys have moved in on him and taken his pretty marbles away from him and put a crimp in his patrimony as deep as the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. Of course it doesn't always turn out that way but It turns out that way often enough to establish an average and fill my young bosom with hope, even though I'm living in a day when so many Federal Judges are standing guard, to see that no guilty trust fails to escape. Son-hoy is the pickers' percentage in the game. He's Kitty. Claim him in advance he's the white chip that the chamber maid finds when she sweeps out in the morning." "What's the name of this here sta- toot of a blind-folded lady that them big lawyers is always appealin to whon they're makin' a speech fur a trust'." mused the House Detective. Iet s see. now I was heann' It called here Just the other day over to the Federal buildin' The statoot of of " 'The Statute of Limitations, said the Hotel Clerk. JOSEPH BRANT, THE FRIEND OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN V4 world knows best as Joseph the spiritual welfare of the Indians. VI I i jCiL. I BY RICHARD SPII,LAXE. i IlfcRR Thayendanegea, whom the world knows best as Joseph 'Frant. was bom, there Is no rec ord. The Indians have no herald's col lege or parish register. From what tribe he came is a mystery. There is reason to believe that he was a Shawnee, that he was born in 1742 in Ohio, and that he, his sister and his mother were captured by the Iroquois in one of their raids Into the Ohio Valley. Whatever they were to begin with they were Mohawks from the time they ar rived In the Indian village at what now is ("anajoharie, N. Y., until they died. The mother married a Mohawk chief named Carri-hogo, or News Carrier, whose Christian name was Brant, and the Little boy. who was destined to become the greatest Indian In history, was referred to as Brants Joseph and later, for wan of & better name, called himself Joseph Brant. Queer compound of Pagan and Christian, of savaire and civilized man be dcvlopcd into. Klenzi. a low-born Ro man, rose to be ruler of Rome, leader of bis people, friend of great men such as Petrarch and Pope Clement VX Rienzl planned the liberation of an oppressed people, but sullied his fair name by mur dering his best friend. Brant, the ob Bf-ure Indian, rose to a position of power and prominence such as no other Red Man ever has gained. lie, too, was lead er of his people and friend of great men Mii'h as Charles James Fox and King ;eorge m. He, too. planned the libera tion of an oppressed people and sullied hi fame not only by massacreing unpro tected whites but by slaying his son with a tomahawk. And like Ri nzi he had strong r1 He ions bont. Ronzi proclaimed tiif Republic of Rome "by authority of the mot merciful Lord Je.-sus Christ Joseph Brant translated the Gospel of St. Mark and the Book of Common Prayer into Mohawk and preached the gospel to the braves he led on expeditions of mur der and rapine. Perhaps Joseph Brant never would have ben heard of bad it not been for the i'tictt relations his sister held with Sir William Johnson, that remarkable Irish man who rame to America to look after cram of land made to his uncle. Ad rniral Warren, and who gained the great est Influence over the Indhuis any white man ever has obtained, and who died the greatest landed proprietor in the Western world. Sir William and Molly. Tnti! Molly Brant, who was seven years oMr than her brother, caught the fancy of Sir William, the boy kd the careless, im trammeled life of other Indian lads, but wiion Sir Wi'lunn tok Molly Brant into his hMiluld he also took Joseph Brnt undrr his ear. Th position Sir William hM t5 unique. He practically was the only Knnl:th-spc;iking person in whom tliA Indians placed absolute trust In ihrtHA days bef.-re the Revolution, and pa-ttrularlv In those days the Kronrh, ut dr Montcalm, and the Fnglish. under Amherst, m-re struggling for the prize of a continent. The Indians held the bal ance of power. But for Sir William few Indian trih.jt would have cast their lot with th British. His mastery over the Six Nations was scond only to that which Brant subsequently obtained, lie had e5t-iblishM in 17"S, his uncle's HKrnt. at a point on the Mohawk River, which he called Warrr.shurg, a little ttlement of Dutch. Scotch and Irish rol.mis.ts. Hre he built flour mills, made r-ds and cleared lands. Five years Istrr. operating on bis own account, he Kucl.t land and built a home at Mount Jha.-on. now the city of Amsterdam, X. Y. Iatr. wbn bis fortune was im mrn bft built Johnson Hall, at what rw ts Johnstown. N. Y. It was at that Um The finest mansion in America, When h tied in Warrensburg. In 3"an affairs wre in a sorry state. Most nf The traders were unprincipled scoun tirrls who r'hbed the red men at every turn. Johnson tradvi with the Indians, too. but was scrupulously honest In his J alinps. He was a man of broad educa tion. wt tob-rant and truthful. He studied the Ird'an languages and the Indian-- th-nis Ivcp He loarnrd to speak Iroquois as fluently as he did Knglish. As a magistrate, and later as Indian Commissioner, he was absolutely Just to thorn. lie did much to stop the sale of t:n,tor to the Indians and to compel traders to deal honestly with thern. And. .Wplrp th faet that previous to taking Molly Brant mtr his household be lived with another Indian woman, he organised Protestant missions and mission schools ttirvuchout the Six .Nauons. These mis sions probably were more to counteract the work of the French Jesuits than for the spiritual welfare of the Indians. It required the utmost finesse and pa tience for a representative of the English colonists to hold the good wlll of the In dians in those times. As between France and England It was natural the Indians should favor the French. The Knglish treated the Indians as an inferior people and. as colonists, were spreading out further and further, taking more and more land from the Indians. The French treated the Indians as equals, and there was much intermarriage between them. The French established a few cities, such as Montreal, Quebec and Louisburg, and numerous trading posts, but did not es tablish colonies. On the contrary, they maintained, the most friendly relations with the Indians. The English robbed and debased the Indian and the French befriended and cultivated him. Brant'd Boyhood. Sir William, by unswerving fidelity to the Indian, won not only the members of the Six Nations to the British cause, but his influence was strong in the West and in the South. Regularly he held councils at Mount Johnson or at Johnson Hill, which were attended by chiefs from alt the tribes in the Confederacy, and once he held a council at which chiefs from all the tribes east of the Mississippi were present, except the Creeks, Cherokees and Kickapoos, Molly Brant presided at bis table Just as if she were his wife, and he was as proud of the eight children she bore him as he was of the three his law ful wife gave birth to, and his son. Sir John, was as proud of his half-breed brothers and 6i&ttrs as he was of his white sisters. From the squalor of an Indian village to this, the finest home in America, went Joseph Brant. At the time Molly Brant became Sir William's housekeeper the boy was about 13 years old. One of the first things Sir William did for the Indian lad was to have made for him a warrior's outfit, with a small musket, a small tomahawk and a small hunting knife. When Sir William, at the head of 1000 Iroquois, took part In the battle of Iake George In 1755, Joseph Brant, then 13 years old, was one of his force. From be hind a tree the little Indian boy blazed away with his tiny musket at the French, and there he got his first lesson In war fare. In the battle of Fort Niagara, four years later. Brant, although only 17 years old, served as lieutenant in the Canajo harte company of Mohawks, lie was getting on as a warrior. Sir William's plan for knitting closer the bonds between the whites and the In dians took all sort of forms. To im prove the breed of cattle in the Mohawk Valley he brought over from England the finest of blooded bulls. To improve the breed of horses he brought over thoroughbred stallions. Indians wore charged nothing for the service of the bulls and the stallions to their cows and mares. At Mount Johnson he held races regularly, and the settlers and the abori gines for scores of miles around flocked to see the sport. He was a great patron of boxing, too. snd had contests at inter vals. There were shooting matches, too. for prizes given by Sir William, for the baronet wanted to Improve the marks manship of hfi wards. It is a queer fact that today almost on the same ground that Sir W llliara Johnson held his horseraces, his boxing contests and his shooting matches, 150 years ago. Senator Stephen Sanford and his son. ex-Representative Sanford, have the great Hurricana stud farm and hold private rare meetings, to which they nvite the people for miles around. The Sanfords are like feudal lords today In , he city of Amsterdam, just as the John sons were in the ISth century times. And the Sanfords. with fine loyalty to the historic character of their farm, name their horses for the Indians and for the men of pre-revolutionary times or for the streams named by the Indians. The queen of the harem in the stud farm to day is that great race-mare Molly Brant, and one of the best representatives of the farm in active training is Sir John John son. In the Sanfords' home are the mul titudes of trophies won by the cham pions of other campaigns. Chuctanunda, Caughnawanga, Mohawk, etc. Johnson's Deoxh. But while Sir William Johnson Im proved the Indian's livestock and ap pealed to his love of sport, he did not neglect his mental and social condition. To improve the Indian youth he selected a number of Mohawk boys and sent them to the Mount Lebanon (Conn.) Academy, which was under the direction of Dr. Kleazer Wheelock. afterward president of Dartmouth College, which the academy subsequently became. Joseph Brant was one of the boys sent to the academy by Sir William, and he never selected abet ter pupil. The two years that young Brant spent at the academy were util ized by him to the fullest degree, and when he left there he was a pretty good r.uglish scholar. He married the daugh ter of an Oneida chief and made his home in Cananjoharie, but gave a good deal of his time to Sir William, and practically later on became the baronet's secretary. Sir William had the finest library In America, and had a standing order with the leading bookseller of London to for ward everything new that was worth reading. He read biographical and hilo sophicaj works, history and romance, but was particularly interested m the study of music and religion. He read every thing he could get relating to music, and was a fin Biblical scholar. On July 11, 1774. Sir William Johnson died. His death was dramatic in the ex treme. He had been addressing a gather ing of 600 Indian chiefs who had come to invoke his influence to prevent the in vasion of the Indian country on the Ohio River by the Virginia and Pennsylvania frontiersmen, and was stricken by apo plexy. As he was carried' into Johnson Hall his last words were to Joseph Brant. They were: "Joseph, control your peo ple control your people! I am going away !" Brant In England. Sir William's death created a profound impression upon the Indians throughout the land. The Iroquois Confederacy, em bracing the Mohawk, Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida and Tuscarora cations, had been without a supreme chief for 20 years, but accepting the baronet's dying words as a command, Joseph Brant was chosen chief. From that time forwarl events crowded fast. Tho Boston tea party had stirred Jiie colonists, prepara- i tious were being made all the way. from Massachusetts to the Carolinas to resist the odious taxes imposed by an ob stinate Parliament and a foolish and periodically insane monarch, and Lexing ton was near at hand. Joseph Brant, raised suddenly to the rulership of a peo ple, had to decide which side he would take in the coming . struggle. There is some doubt how Sir William would have acted. He was a very loyal officer of the crown, but judging by his letters, there Is a likelihood he would have cast his lot In with the Continentals. In war, as in a horse race, the Indian wajits to. look the candidates over before picking the winner. Joseph Brant knew America, but he didn't know England, so he went to London early in 1776. His visit created a sensation. Jie was the most cultured Indian the English had seen. He was presented at court, and George III took a great fancy to him. The King made him a Colonel, showered presents on him, and never seemed to tire of hear ing the chief talk. Charles James Fox, one of the most brilliant and dissipated statesmen of the time, became the In dian's closest friend in England. Bos- well, then at the height of his fame, went into raptures over him, and Romney, who, next to Sir Joshua Reynolds, was the greatest painter in England, painted the Indian's portrait. But the honors and the favors that had been showered upon him in England did not turn Brant's head. Great and power ful as he knew England to be, he also knew much of the spirit and endurance of the colonists. He and Sir William had discussed the situation many times in the days Just be fore Sir William's death, and Sir Will iam's Judgment had been that if it ever came to a point where the colonists re volted England never would be able to conquer them. So Brant pondered. He knew it was the crisis in his life. His people were restless and eager for ac tion. The British were pressing and in sistent upon obtaining pledges of his as sistance. Th colonists were suspicious and threatening. But Brant remained undecided. He still . was looking the horses over. lie had not picked the winner. It was not until the break actually came when the Congress at Philadelphia declared the states free and independent, and when so much blood had been shod that there was no chance of the differences between England and the colonies being adjusted that Brant declared himself. Then he announced that he "would cast his lot in with the British purely on account of his fore fathers' engagements with the English King. There were covenants between the Indian nations and the British na tion, he said, that should be sacredly ob served." As he was not any too sure as to who was his father or his grandfather Brant's reference to his forefathers' en gagements with the English King were figurative rather than literal. Once he had decided as to the course he was to follow In the war. Brant be came active. It is to the shame of Eng land that it did everything to stir the worst passions of the Indians, to corrupt Brandt and to promote savagery. The agreement entered into between Brant and the Indian Commissioners was that in return for the aid the Six Nations gave in Fubduing the colonists the British were to give to each Indian a gun. a suit of clothes, a brass kettle, a tomahawk, a scalping knife and a piece of eold. And in addition, there was promise of bounty for every scalp brought in. The British kept its compact as to scalps only wo wen. Brant in tho Revolution. It was not until 1777 that Brant really was turned loose. Then Burgoyne was coming down from Canada and Brant was the master spirit of the motley forces of Indians and Tories operating in the Mo hawk Valley to divert attention and lessen the force opposing the British General's advance. Brant soon proved himself crafty, dauntless and brave to the point of rashness. He combined with his native hardihood and sagacity the advantages of education and the study of warfare. He was a far better commander and tactician than many of the British officers he served with, and he brought his Iroquois braves up to a state of efficiency such as they never before had attained. He was a natural orator, too, and could rouse his people to the best effort of which they were capable. He and his Indians bore the brunt of the battle of Oriskany, and it was no fault of his that St. Leger was defeated. The result at Oriskany was a fearful blow to Brant's pride. After that he stopped at nothing to visit revenge upon the Continentals. He joined forces with Colonel John Butler, the notorious Tory, and with Butler's son Walter, and his name became a terror In the land. His raids upon the unprotected whites along the border were so rapid and secret that he seemed to have the power of ubiquity. The years 1777 and 1778 were dark and bloody ones for Joseph Brant. The Wyo ming (Pa.), Springfield, Cobleskill and Cherry Valley massacres are changed to him. Although Brant was with the But lers on the Wyoming expedition, he does not appear to have been present at the surrender or to have participated in the slaughter of the men, women and chil dren, Thomas Campbell's poem, "Ger trude of Woymlngr," to the contrary not withstanding. But while he did not ac tually take part in the Wyoming horror, there is no doubt he displayed all the in stincts of the savage at Springfield and at Cherry Valley. At Cobleskill, however, he stopped the scalping of women and children and expressed the greatest sor row over the conduct of Butler's white troops. All the while Brant was ravaging the border settlements, scalping and mur dering, or making raids on unprotected towns further in, he carried on a volumin ous correspondence with his sister Molly, and with Sir John Johnson and Guy Johnson. From the tone of these letters you would think the writer was an earnest. Christian gentleman who was battling in a great cause, but whose heart bled when he thought of the ter rible consequences of war. For two years Brant had been the mas ter of the Mohawk country. He had over run that rich and fertile vellay and had spread terror throughout Northern and Western New York. But a day of reckon ing was coming. The Continentals sent a strong force under command of General Sullivan, and at the battle of Newton (Rlmira), where Brant commanded the Indians and Colonel Butler the regular troops and the Tory Rangers, Brant and Butler's combined forces were routed and driven in disorder from the field. The battle was a long and bloody one. Brant was everywhere in the thick of the fight. He was thus described, about this time, by an American prisoner: "He was a likely fellow of fierce aspect, tall and rather spare; well-epoken and ap parently about 40 years of age. He wore moccasins elegantly trimmed with bead;. leggins and a breechclout, a .superfine blue shirt, a queer coat with two silver epau lets, and a small laced round hat. By his side hung an elegant silver-mounted cut lass, and his blanket of blue cloth, pur posely dropped on the chair on which he sat to display his epaulets, was gorgeous ly decorated with a border of red." The battle of Elrmra broke the power of the Six Nations and put an end to Brant's activity for the remainder of the Revolu tionary War. Sullivan, to teacn tsrant lesson, ravaged the Mohawk land and turned that fertile district into a desert. Brant was so hard pressed by the patriot army that he and the remnant of his band had to flee to Canada, where he remained until the close of hostilities. A Leader of His People. The treaty of peace, which was signed in November, 17S2, made no stipulation re garding the Indian allies of the British. Their lands were in possession of the Americans. The thousands of Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecae, Mohawks, Tuscaroras and Oneidas were practically wanderers and outcasts. The English did not want them they had served their purpose. The Americans regarded them with hostility and distrust. No greater evidence of Brant's ability as a leader is afforded than at this time when he had brought disaster on a rich, powerful and contented people. But in disaster he was able to hold them together just as strongly as in the days when he held them by the power of the sword. His first step was to try to get justice from the British and a fulfillment of the lavish promises they had made him when they begged him for his support. After much effort he obtained from the Crown a formal grant of land 100 miles long and 13 miles wide in Canada, on the Grand River, near Lake Brie, for the Six Na tions. In extent this was but a tithe of the territory they once had held undis puted sway over. While he was getting thie he was secretly fomenting war among the Indians west of the Alleghanies and sounding the temper of the tribes that roamed the forests and prairies clear to ttM banks of the Mississippi. When he had wrung from his former allies, the English, the little strip of ground in Canada, and when all along the frontier the Indian nations were ripe for revolt, he went to England to seek full settlement of the claims of his people against the British Crown. He did not go as a suppliant. Fully formed in every detail he carried in his crafty, political brain a vast scheme a plan for winning back the empire that Britain had lost. Ha proposed to King Georges Prime Min ister, and then in private audience to the King himself, the plan of forming a great confederacy of all the Indians east of the Mississippi, to make war on the colonies all along the frontier, while Great Brit ain, availing herself of some plausible ex cuse, should attack the seaboard cities, close the harbors and land troops wher ever opportunity offered. The colonies were prostrate after their long struggle for independence. There were approxi mately 250.000 Indians between the West ern boundary and the great river, and perhaps 40,000 or 50.000 braves could tako the field if Great Britain would supply tho arms, ammunition and general equipment. Had it not been that England had fo much to engage her attention across tho channel, Brant's scheme might have been taken up. But England and all Europe were trembling in dread of tho Corsican, and England's armies were needed more at home. So Brant's great plans came to naught. Undoubtedly he felt that even if it did not fail it would create a gTatv leverage in securing his demands for his people. At any rate, the Crown concedod some of the things ho asked, and hitf year's stay in London was not altogether fruitless. But the Western Indians had no idea of diplomacy and plotting. They cared little that Brant's scheme had failed. They continued to wage desultory war on the frontiersmen who were beginning to settle west of the Alleghanies. and it was not until 17W, when Mad Anthony Wayne wa.? sent against them and administered a crushing defeat at tho battle of Falling Timbers, on the Maumee, that their pow er was broken. Brant had no part !n this uprising. Ho. openly exerted himself to the utmost to bring about and preserve peace between the Indians and their white neighhors In the Ohio country. He realized that with out the support of the British tho cau?e of tho Indians was hopeless. Brant thn turned himself to the arts of ppar Ho translated the Book of Common Prave.r and the Gospel of St. Mark into the Mo hawk tongue, and instilled into his people by precept and example the virtues of temperance and religion. All through his life he had been an ab stainer from liquor the curse of the rd men. But in his own family his tfachins availed the least. One of his own sons became a drunkard, vicious and depraved. One day in a drunken rage this son men aced the lives of his father and his fam ily, and his father slew him with a stroke of his tomahawk. Mourning over his son. mourning over his blasted hoped, mourning over his peo ple, Joseph Brant, the greatest red man the world has ever known, died on th 24th of November, ISO", on alien soil, near Lake Ontario, in Canada. (Copyright. 190ft. by Richard Spillane.) Helene, a Mirage. TV. J. "Lampion, in Lipplncotfa. Far out upon a desert vast. Sand-stained, .wind-swept. Where hoe had died and fear had passed " And clouds had never wept, Athirst I stood and gapped for breath. Heart-sore and weary unto dtath. Across the waste to cruel skies, Sun-dried and lean, I strained my hot and heavy eyes To see the green. When clearly in some strange, new light A glorious rose blushed on my sight. Like water to the crackling tongue. Its fragrance frean Came to the spirit overstrung, And to the flesh. Ah, wonderful the power to Mess, v Of rose-bloom In -the wilderness! I stretched my hands to take it there, So good and bright. The breath of life upon the air. The morning light. "Helenc.' I cried; "Hrlcne, Hlene! I laughed and ran across thu plain - 1 To fold it to my heart, and th?a ' The desert was the same again. V
