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