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About The Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 19??-1984 | View Entire Issue (May 6, 1937)
THE HERMISTON HERALD, HERMISTON, OREGON Thursday May 6, 1937 UNCOMMON AMERICANS By Elmo Sooft Watson THE SUNNY SIDE OF LIFE Clean Comics That Will Amuse Both Old and Young • Western Newspaper Union Man With Branded Hand TN EVERGREEN cemetery in 1 Muskegon, Mich., stands a monu ment which bears the inscription “Capt. Walker's Branded Hand” and below it a bas-relief of an open hand with the letters “S. S.” on the heel of the thumb. This monu ment recalls one of the stirring in cidents of pre-Civil war days and marks the grave of a man who played a part in bringing on that conflict. Capt. Jonathan Walker was a Massachusetts sea captain and in 1844 was engaged in coastwise trade. Hating negro slavery. Walk er tried to help seven blacks, who had fled from a Florida plantation, escape to the Bahamas. He was arrested, brought to Pensacola, tried as a thief in federal court and found guilty. He was sentenced to be branded on the right hand with the letters “S. S.” (slave steal er), to stand in the pillory one hour, be imprisoned fifteen days and pay a fine of $150. After the first part of the sentence had been carried out, he was led again into the courthouse. Or dered to put his hand on the post of the railing in front of the judge’s bench. Walker protested when the marshal bound it fast to the post. He declared that he could hold it firm during the ordeal, but his pro test was ignored and the branding took place. After his release from prison, Walker went back to his home in Massachusetts to find himself a hero and a martyr. John Greenleaf Whit tier wrote a poem in which he be sought Walker to hold his branded right hand aloft for all the world to see. Abolitionist leaders recog nized in the incident a potent ar gument for their cause Accompa nied by a fugitive slave he traveled through the North and lectured on the evils of slavery. “The Man with the Branded Hand” became a famous figure and he did much to arouse the North and put it in a receptive frame of mind for Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” as a faithful picture of the horrors of slavery. In the '50's Walker and his family moved to Wisconsin and a few years later bought a small fruit farm in Michigan. There he lived during the remainder of his days and there he died in 1878, an almost forgotten figure who had played no little part in bringing on the greatest civil war in history. THE FEATHERHEADS Streeter was a Civil wai vet eran who became a boatman on the Great Lakes. In 1884 he built a 100- ton ship in which he started for Honduras to take part in a revolu tion then in progress. But his ship went aground on a sandbar and the skipper found himself marooned several hundred yards out in Lake Michigan from the Chicago shore line. So he decided he might as well stay right there. Out of the timbers of his ship he and his wife, Maria, built a little shack on their sandy island and settled down. But the rich owners of property in that part of Chicago were extend ing their riparian rights out into the lake. As the little peninsulas of filled-in land reached out toward the captain’s island, which had been en larged by drifting sand, they decided that his shack was an eyesore and should be removed. They called on the law to evict these squatters and five husky constables started out to do it Cap’n Streeter put on his fight ing costume—a high silk hat and 'a frock coat—he and Maria took their muskets in hand and the con stables retreated hastily. Streeter found an old map of the city on which the boundary of Lake Michigan was plainly marked. He contended that the “made land” was outside that boundary, there fore it was under federal jurisdic tion and he claimed it by right of discovery. But the courts refused to recognize his claim to this "Dees trict of Lake Michigan." He and Maria were evicted time and again but they always came back. So the struggle went on year after year, in court and out of court. “Cap’n” Streeter died in 1921. But his second wife, “Ma” Streeter, true to her promise to him, carried it on for several years more. Finally she had to give up the fight and Chica go’s “Thirty Years’ war" with the “squatter king” came to end when she died last year. SAY--------- THAT WIND GETNG COLD - — S HERE AND FREEZE / DON’T KNOW WHY YOU KEPT ME STANDING ON “HAT CORNER SO re LONG/ WHY DIDN’T/ / You SUGGEST A g / CAB BEFORE?" &s Qu* MOLASSES AND BUSSES BOTH RUN MORE SLOWLY IN COLD WEATHER. 3 dé S’MATTER POP— No Trouble to Start Trouble With This Fella h! By C. M. PAYNE (Q DDEs HuTHu (Copyright, 1936 by. The Bell Syndicate, Ine.) MESCAL IKE Not if We Know Milo By S. L. HUNTLEY ‘ OOC WAS JEST A-TELLIN ME ABOUT OPERATIN’ ' ON . MILO BLODGETT I HE CUTTEM HAS FER n HIS /sucv RONVsERves INTO A STONE (HIM Rieur WALL WHENIEOU MEAN TRIED TO KISS YOU TURNED HOPES BEST. / PRIVATE WALK I FINNEY OF THE FORCE ILO,FINNEY HAVE A DOUGHNUT Cap’n Streeter, Squatter King FIFTY years ago it was only a sandbar on the shore of Lake Michigan opposite Chicago's famous “Gold Coast.” Today towering sky- scrapers, huge office buildings, a famous hotel and a great university stand on land valued at half a bil lion dollars. But Chicagoans still call it “Streeterville,” thereby honor ing the memory of Cap’n George Wellington Streeter, who battled val- iantly against "them dern capital ists” and held out for 30 years be fore they finally dethroned this fa mous “squatter king” from his “Deestrict of Lake Michigan.” Cold Shoulder Unia WELL—I‘M N GONG TO S THAT BUS SHOULD 1 HAVE BEEN HE RE I A HALF HOUR AGO I WONDER WHY IT HASN’T SHOWN UP - S—KIN SPARE T2 By Ted OLoushlin OH Baker’s Dozen ‘ PHcoLOSIFER FINNEY IES, INDEED- THE7 GOT A HEW GIRL DOWN AT THE PASTREE _ SHOPPE < 1 I WELL—WHUT’s THAT To DO WIT’ VEZ GIIN‘ ME WAN OTHESE2 SHE USTER L BE A TELERPHONE OPERATOR— , MIS ?-UH— DID SHE TELL NEz THAT ? m( SO WHLT 2 MO-BUT SHE GAVE MB THE WRONG a NUMBER— I BAKERS- 1HAT CLAIM THEY DONT ASKED FOR DOZEN AND ‘ HAE ENNY POUGH- HAVE A LOTTA , CRUST ~ 0 - BRONC PEELER. Pete Makes a Discovery ‘ I HAVE A HUNCH THAT “THE PEN I SAW DRIVING AWAY OUR. CATTLE ARE HEADED OY .itO DOLES — THE MAN IME OEEN AI2AILING rod her) TEAS . • By FRED HARMAN —AND WHEN I FINO HIM — ILL— «—BUT FIRST I MUST HELP BRoNc ANO HE Bos SToP THIS CATTLE STEALING Or- THERE IS THE . RUSTLERS CAMP ! ---- MAYBE M I CAN GET CLOSE • __ CONSARN) I/ WHAT WoKE * ME vP-? — 1'0 SWEAR I HERD SOMETHIN)’ 7 I CArT GLEED, WoRYIN BouT HAT GU7— HE’S BI) GONE FOUR HOURS— Now WHAR YA RECKON HE WENT BLITHERS BED IS EMPTY!! That’s Art! Son—Daddy dear, what is an ac tor? Daddy—An actor? My son, an ac tor is a man who can walk to the side of a stage, peer into the wings filled with theatrical props, dirt and dust, other actors, stage-hands, old clothes and other clap-trap, and say: “What a lovely view there is from this window.” — Sheboygan Press. Chitchat Officer (to colored driver who has been whipping his horse)—Don’t whip him, man—talk to him. Driver (to horse by way of open ing conversation)—Ah comes from N'Awleans. Wheah does you-all come from?—Southern Lumberman. By GLUYAS WILLIAMS w I foi DADI? WAS 5nN6 TERE AND wiL BE RIGHT BACK MOVES to ONER CHAIR. AVHY EM EICLAIMS » ABOUT10 SEYLE IE CHILD I5 HDRN6 ACAIN, WHEN FAMILY W5 EYES IN TA COR- CRIES NOT IN W CHAIR, K I5N G1RON6 ENOUGH Horrible Thought She (gushingly)—Will you love me when I'm old? He—Love you? I shall idolize you; I shall worship the ground under your little feet I shall—er—you're not going to look like your mother, are you?—Stray Stories Magazire. SPR2W/15 ON ToR, I Hi TAORnC Posmon FOR READI MOYER 1115 Hin to at UP IN A CWNR, h‘s 100 VRAUGIY a Hook sees UPSTAIRS AND Ex- VRE55E5 HIS FEELINGS BY PIAVIN VERY NOISILY ON HAR- MONICA
