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Did Jim » ÔJ <• 1 t 'L G1 à Ji i; v % Immortal r] f/à fil w w I m 4 j» I 2iridçkasy Adwi sm 0/ciJ>Bifu«rnaoiyye>& a=f^ - m ft—._ m« ** LL« — yr In "The Covered Wa^on "? XT o 4 By JOWN CH-CKtNSON SHERMAN COMPEER—AND RIVAL O "OLD JIM" BRIDGER. "Teller ol Tall Yams—" They're classics still, these latte» days— Sir George Gore, straight-faced, r~ad "Munchausen's Tales" By Rocky Mountain campfire's blaze Sale "Old Jlrn," scornful : "Rassel o' big lies! That critter's dogoned bad mistook. An' suyl Some tilings I seen myself __ w'd read More hlfulutln' In a book— Tellcrstun cliff o' rock ye kin see thru; HuU herd o* pickled huffier in Salt Lake; Gran' Canyon, where the moon Is always full. Wake-np Gorge—echo comes back nex' mornln'; Boilin' water runnln' from Ice-col' spring, V An - Alum Crick, what shrunk my pony's feet— They'd make a man sit up and look." A V You may know much or little or nothing about James Bridger. You probably know considerable. If you belong— Out where the world Is In the making. Where fewer hearte with despair are aching— That's where the West begin! Where there's mere of singing and less of sighing, Wi.ere there's more of giving and lesa of buying Anl a man make's friends without half trying— That's where the West begins. For that Is the West of today, ns Arthur Chap man has sung It, and there Bridget's name, though he has been dead these forty years und mure. Is still one to conjure with. — If you are n stuoem of Americana you know that the history of the United States cannot bo told without the story of Bridger and tils fellow explorers, trappers and fur-traders west of the Mississippi -*-* If you are a "movie fan," you may have seen "The Covered Wagon," and know Bridger as pre sented In that motion picture production. The Immediate motive of this article is the fact that Mrs. Virginia Bridger Hahn of Kansas City, Kans., Brldger's only surviving child, has brought «suit for damages of a million dollars against "The Covered Wagon" because of its presentation of her father. According to the petition In the suit. It Is reported, the motion picture production de picts Bridger as a heavy drinker and a person who often became Intoxicated and as living with two squaws. Mrs. Hahn charges that her parentage Is brought Into question; that her name is dis graced, and that she suffers great humiliation be cause her father la shown In several carousals. She asserts that her father was an upright, honor able man, who was never known to drink to excess. The purpose of this article Is not to try out of court the case of Mrs. Hahn against the Famous Flayers-Lasky corporation and the Paramount Pic tures corporation. It* sole purpose Is to show that James Bridger, drunken or sober, Is an American Immortal—and why. "The Covered Wagon" is a picture based upon historical novel of thçt «»me name by the late Emerson Hough, an American novelist and nature writer. It depicts fae progress of a caravan over the famous %>reeln Trail." Aa a whole It Is S » \ powerful and touching picture of the times—in Portland the people In the theater rose In response to some of Its most stirring scenes. presented on the screen by Tully Marshall Is disconcerting and perplexing, to say the least, to both hero-wor shlper and student of history. He drifts In from the desert, shabby, uncouth, rather msudltn and quite grotesque, with a predilection for hard liq uor and squaws. His prod u est achievement seems to be symbolised In his ability to shoot a tin cup of tlqnor from tbe head of a boon companion after • drinking-bout James Bridger and his tiroes roust be seen in perspective. I The history of tbe United States weat of tbe Mississippi begins with the Spanish explorations of the Sixteenth centnry In the South west The French of the Seventeenth century at tempted to build on Iplsnd empire along tbe St. Lawrence, Great Lakes, Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico, They lost the St. Lawrence region to 4 mi British. The RevelaJtoo fixed tbe western I Rwanda r f of (he American Colonies 81 the Mlaato sippl The French, under Napoleon, staged a second attempt at emplre-hulldlng. thU time from New Orleans forced to choose between war and colonisation, sleeted to fight fie ha sold to the United Sts tea UfaOOO.OOO the territory between the weat at t be Mteataolppf Napoleon. a t a* at the \ ÿgsm HU '„I •> *■ y-, L A 'ii c&m r ■ - -> y ■ ( : oj^D-rme rrzrjr&ZR * ■ * '.V c ■ U JSrtdÿer Shown in"T/t& Cbrerredh&fon" Texas, the Southwest and California were Span **h- Canada w «s "No Man's Lund," with Russian, Spaniard. Britain md American all striving for a foothold. The "Undiscovered Country" of the Louisiana Pur chase was American.___— The French trl-color came down and Old Glory went up over St Louis March 10, 1804. With a cheer, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, waiting impatiently on the American side of the Mlssls slppi, «et forth on Its historic exploration to aee what the United States hud got for Its fifteen mil lions. It wintered the mouth of the British. The Pacific Northwest I&hJCWZTioCR J&VM Columbia and arrived at St. Louts lute In 1800, returning us from the dead. The nation rejoiced. And thereupon, the Ameri can people, with the realization that the Louisiana Purchase was In truth a "Delectable Land," thrilled with their first full vision of their destiny and resolutely set their faces toward the setting sun—thenceforth- to b e cont ent-w ith n o thing l ess alive with beaver clear to Its headwaters ta n» Rockies. And thereupon began the Age of the Trapper which was to lust for forty years. The trapper, os blind In his wuy as the Span iard who saw nothing unless gold, saw nothing but fur—and trod on the gold thut In the next stage of development was to call out the prospector, to be followed In turn by the settler and civilization. It was the American free tra out the land and established t of travel. By 1830 the trapper knew the West; any geographical discovery after that was a dis covery only In the sense that It resulted in pub licity. The return of Lewis and Clark In 1806 spurred American fur-traders to activity. Manuel Lisa of St. Louis—adroit ami masterful "Father Manuel—" than a clean sweep from ocean to ocean, Lewis and Clark reported the Missouri to be made a successful trip up the Missouri and In 1808 organized the Missouri Fur Company. John Jacob Astor organized In New York the same year tbe American Fur company. Astor's plans were of world-wide scope—the founding of Astoria on the Columbia ; the shipping of furs to Chinn ; return cargoes of tea and silk to New York. Lisa died In his prime In 1820; the Missouri Fnr Company lasted until 1830, when it was crowded out by ths Rocky Mountain Fur Company and the American Fur Company. James Bridger, born in 1804 in Virginia, sp pears upon the scene In 1822, when the Rocky Mountain Fur Company was organized in St. Louis by Oen. William H. Ashley. A youth of eighteen, he was one of Ashley's profit-sharing associates, with Smith, Jackson, Provost, tbe Subiettea. Fltz Patrick, Campbell and Beckwourth— «H of whom r who first spied practicable routes r. became famous. •Bridger gained his title of respect—"Old Jim"— before he was thirty. In twelve months of 1828-4 he made a circuit of S.000 miles, extending from the Mississippi to California and from Kansas to Montana. He discovered Booth Pass through the Wyoming Rockies In 1823 and Great Salt Lake In 1824. He rediscovered, about 1880, the Yellow stone, first seen by John Colter In 1807 and laughed off the map as "Colter's HelL" It was Ashley who superseded the stationary trading post by the caravan and annual rendes By 1830 Bridger was a directing partner. tzpatrick it of the •h bad ver la vous. In 1832 he and Milton Souhlette and bought out Ashley. In 1884 Astor got American Fur Company because tbe I Invented a way to substitute silk for top-bats. HU successors bought ont Bridger and !,!» Has.- *,i. ■* n, ... Mountain Fur Coin mOB/fr- - In 1848 Brtdger established Fort Brtdger In ths ralley of tbe Black Fork at the Groan river In Utah. Fort Brtdger was not an Indian tradtag poet but was a hones of accutnmodatkia for set tlors pressing weat over the Oregon Trail It was the first of Its kind and marked the passing at the trapper and tha beginning at a new era. Brtdger opened tha Overland Route by »rtdgeris pm to Sait Lake. Be guided Oen. Albert fltadnsy jobnoou's punitive «pedRloa With a buffalo skin and a piece of charcoal, he will m«p out any portion of this Immens, region, and d.lln.al. mountains, streams and the circular valleys called "holes' with wonderful accuracy.— Capt. J. W. Gunnison. U. 8. A. Bridger sold out at Ft. Brtdger In 18r>0 and moved Jo Jackson County, Miaan nrl,—U*- bought • big farm and built a large residence. He had an Indian wife and several children. He kept open house. Vlrglnla Brldger was married there Ia lS84 to Capt. Albert Wachsman. The wedding was a big social event Captain Wachsman died In 1883 and In 1892 she married Frank Hahn. Bridger died In 1881 and his grave In Washington Park cemetery, Kansas City, Is marked by a mon ument erected nnd Inscribed by General Dodge. According to General Dodge, Bridger had three Indian wives—one at a time and all regular—a Flathead, a Ute and a Snake. Mrs. Hahn 1# the daughter of the second wife, the Ute, to whom Bridger was married at Ft. Bridger by the famous Jesuit, Father de Sroet Brldger's career reads like a fantastic romance and the roost fantastic thing about It Is this: "Old Jim'' Bridger Is an American Immortal be cause of his fantastic "Tull Yarns." The West may forget hin» as "the uncrowned king of ail the Rocky Mountain scouts, guides, trailers. In dlan fighters, trappers and plainsmen from the Thirties to the Seventies,'' But his "Tall Yarns'' will always be told In lbs West to each succeeding generation. "Old Jim" led a dual life. He was apparently equally devoted to fact and fiction. When he told fact he was exact. His spoken work had the confidence of white man and Indian alike. His maps were invariably correct. When he swapped yarns with old cronies or could get the ear of a tenderfoot, his adventures were limited only by the powers of his Imagination. And he never played n bigger joke on a greenhorn than be played on himself, for when be told of the won ders of the Yellowatone an admiring public burst into laughter over "another of 'Old Jim's' tail yarns"—and refused to believe a single word, go Jim. making the best of a bad joh, concoct ed the "obsidian cliff" yarn and added It os the crowning wonder of the Yellowstone. It Is prob ' ably the most popular of all h's "Tall Yarns" and is too well known to need telling here. The "herd o' pickled buffler" was snowed in by a seventy-day storm and frozen solid. In the spring Jim rolled the carcasses Into Salt Lake and supplied the Utes with meat for two years. The Ice-cold spring was high up and the water ran down-hill so fast that It was boiling by the time ft reached the foot of tt« mountain. The alum creek shrunk up hl» pony's feet to points, so that the animal stuck when he hit the trail. Can Imagination conceive of a situation more unique than Sir George Gore, with a perfectly straight face, reading "Munchausen's Tales" tc Jim Brtdger beside a Rocky Mountain campfire? Yet the Incident Is strictly true, as Is Jim's corn most and rival boast. Sir George was a noted Irish sportsman who hunted for two year» In the Hock lea. 1854-5. with J for guide, philosopher and friend. Tbe Gore He traveled with « refine# of fifty and outfit to correspond. He dlnel In state late la tbe evening and ft was bU practice after dinner fa rand to Jim from ths groat books of the world. Imagine bis Inward delight In reading from the biggest liar at all print to the champion Unr sf Is named for him. th# ffm In 1857. companion of Gen. Grenville M Dodge in hla Union Pacific surveys •nd in his Indian cam paigns of 1805-0. These He waa the guide nod •re some of the things James Bridger did. They do not real on tradition, but are recorded In standard contemporaneous his torical works, llere is a bit from General Dodges description of Bridger: Bridger was a very companion able man. in person he was over al* feet tall, spare, straight as an arrow, agile, rawboned and of pow srful frame, eyes gray, hair brown and abundant even In hla old age. with expression mild and agreeable He was hospitable and genaroua and waa aiwaya trusted and reaped*A Here nre two other contemporary expressions of opinion about-Bridg er: A born topographer and cartog rapher.—Capt. W. F, Reynold«, U. 8. A., topographical engineer. V i OPERATIONS FOR^H HFEMALE TROUBLES îUiiîüpMf Some Are Necessary, Some Are Not These Women Gave Lydia £. Pinkham's Veg etable Compound a Trial First Fairview, S.Dakota.— U A year ago I was aide in bed for three weeks and the doctor said I would not be a without an operation. I had pains and sick headaches, with in the back of my neck. 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The law affects cities of 10,000 population or larger. Hall's Catarrh Medicine will do what wo claim far k— rid your system of Catarrh or caused by Catarrh. * t Sold bf érmggin» fur mm 40 ymn #. J. CHENEY & CO„ Toledo, OU» DON'T, RYTI ?H°. ti - CmYm HtarT^k rJSrfSfisjr^prJS S4 inch... Dom a rlo«taa in set _ r prop* fcs s sia# ] tAROJL. FÄ lnt*ru»ttng i •Mil anon iMeeaf. i A. O. LEONARD. bM. »MAn Sana a itswUM fat M IMt nifMMtML lu ■ niwiiiv nnIWttion Booklet FBSB has tMTw.at»«*., BILLINGS, NO. 18-1924. W. N. U Moa The moa was a wingless bird found In New Zealand, somewhat like aa ostrich in appearance. It varied from the site of a turkey to birds 12 feet in height. Th«y were edible and thetr extermination more than 500 years ago Is probably due to thtit fact. Even at this stage of the game Um>« nre men who deny that George Wash ington ever owned a hatchet.