The Point Pleasant register. [volume], November 03, 1909, Page PAGE TWO, Image 2

About The Point Pleasant register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, W. Va.) 1909-1939

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HOW BEECH TREES SAVED THE IMS
OF THE SHAWNEES.
- ?- a. : - ...... . J
LEGEND OF RED MEN'S BATTLE NEAR RAVENS-!
WOOD. !
HEAVEN'S BOLTS SPARED WHITE MOTS FRIEND?FOREST MONARCHS UNTOUCH
ED BY STORMS, STILL STAND.
Among the papers in the desk of
the l>te W. T. Heaton, in the inter
nal revenue office, at Parkersburg,
In son, George D. Heaton, found
*he following story of the legend of
Ahe beech trees, which is believed to
"have been Mr. Heaton's last literary
effort. It is a pretty little story,
amply told, as were all of Mr. Hea-<
ton's stories, and is in a style that
leaves no doubt as to the authorship.
The story was but recently written,
and evidently was inspired by the
recent celebration commemorating?
the battle of Point Pleasant.
This is a story telling why the
lightning never strikes the beech ;
tree, told by a lineal descendant of
Cornstalk, the noted Indian sachem,1
the terror of whose name long held i
in check the aggressions of the whites ?
in the valley of the Ohio, and a j
monument to whose memory stands
at Point Pleasant, marking at once 1
the resting place of the last of the ?
Shawnces and the ground where the >
last stand was made by the Red Man :
for the possession of his -hunting
grounds east of the Beautiful River. |
One summer in the years long ago!
the Hurons, a warlike tribe belong
ing to the six nations, resolved to
take possession of the land Ijptween'
the two Kanawhas belonging to the ?
Shawnees, which great tribe had re-1
fused to join the mighty confedera
tion that with prophetic instint had
been formed for mutual protection
? against a mighty foe rhat the medi
cine men had said would soon be up
on them. The Shawnees, brave and
powerful as they were, heard of the
threatened invasion of the still more
numerous and powerful Hurons with
great alarm, and at once began to
east about for some means of defense.
Their runners soon apprised them
that the dreaded. Hurons had indeed
begun their march to the south, an
advance scouting party having al
ready crossed the Ohio at W heeling.
The largest and central village of
the Shawnees was in those years sit
uated in a magnificent stretch of for
est located near where the town of
Ravenswood now stands, and near
the center of which waved a magnifi
cent grove of beeches. 4 One night
while the medicine men and the
prophets were praying for deliverance,
from their inveterate enemies and
beseeching the Great spirit to save
them from destruction, for to fight
as they might they knew it was a
war of extermination for possession
of their homes and hunting grounds
by the Northern foe, there appeared
a bright star over the grove of beechs
and a voice was heard saying:
"Fly to the beeches; fly to the
beeches, and you will be saved."
GIRL ROUTED
"NIGHT RIDERS"
DAUGHTER WAITED UNTIL THEY BROKE
DOOR AND FIRED.
A slender young girl, with steady
nerve and the bravery of a soldier,
opened fire with a double-barreled
>hotgun and put to flight forty mask
ed night riders when they crushed
down the door of her Cither's house
last Friday night, in Mason county,
Kentucky.
The mob ap]>eared at the home of
Geo. Kreitz, evidently with the in
tention of whipping him, and when
entrance was refused, the door was
knocked in with an ax and crowbar.
Kreitz" s young daughter, stood ready
with a loaded shotgun, and turned
loose both barrels.
The masked men fled precipitately,
one man being caught in a wire
fence and losing his hat and part of
his trousers. Kreitz recognized sev
eral riders, and is in conference to
day with the officers at Mavsville.
Several arrests are expected.
Obeying tbe spirit voice, when the
morning came the whole tribe took
up their abode under the sheltering
beeches, and waited, though still
with anxiety, the coming of the Hu
rons, whose numbers were in those
days as the leaves of the forest.
They reached the great woods and
soon began the attack. The Shaw
nces defended their homes and the
graves of their ancestors bravely, but
overpowering number would have an
nihilated the tribe of the south,
when an extraordinary visitatians av
ed them. A great storm came from
the West, the like of which had nev
er been seen before and the story of
which yet lingers in the legends of
the valley. The thunder rolled and
the lightning's incessant flash struck
terror to the hearts of the invaders.
Gigantic monarchs of the forest were 1
shivered to splinters by the bolts j
from the forge of heaven, other trees
were struck dowd and falling amid
the ranks of the Hurons killed great
numbers of them. The survivors fled
in terror and never appeared again on
shores of the Ohio or its tributaries.
Over the Shawnees waved the pro
tecting branches of the great beeches,
all of them untouched by the light
ning's fury and the thunderbolt's
wrath.
The covenant there made with the
Red Men of the south was never
broken and no beech tree was ever
aferwards visited by the lightning s
bolt, and thus it is the l>eech is sac
red to the Indians to this day, and
; under its protecting branches in the
, years after the dark day at Ravens
wood was held the tribal dance and
the carnivals of the chase. The white
man of the valleys has come to know
of the protecting power of the spread
1 ing beech, building his home near
them, while the pioneer of the moun
tains always builds his log cabin un- j
der a beech, even though it be other
wise a most rough and uninviting
sjx>t. It was a covenant with the
red man that extends to the white ;
man, and instinctively the beech is
rtvered by those who do not even
know of its strange eventful history.
This observation is borne out by
the fact that the grove of beeches
that protected the Shawnees so many
vears ago, still stands at Ravens
wood, though the mighty trunks of
the other part of the forest have long
since disappeared before the destruct
ive hand of man. W ould that the
Great Spirit had so blessed and pro
tected the other trees and forests of
these valleys, for the insatiable ava
rice of man is pursuing them with a
vengeance that foretells their disap
pearance forever from the face of the
earth.
Before appearing at the Kreitz
home, the riders had gone to the
farm of a neighbor, Benjamin Long
necker, and shot through the win
dows, several bullets narrowly miss
ing members of the familv.
Longnecxer is wealthy and prom
inent. He and Kreitz had sold their
tobacco crops to independent buyers,
and had refused to enter the pool of
the Bur ey Tobacco society.
HELP YOUR OWN TOWN.
I f you are a kicker and see the
; shadows of failure in everything that
is proposed to help the town, for
heaven's sake go into some secluded
canyon and kick your own shadow
on the clay bank, and give the men
who are working to build up the
town a chance. One long-faced,
hollow-eyed, whining, carping chron
ic kicker can do more to keep awav
j business and capital from a town
than all the drouths, short crops,
chinch bugs, cyclones and blizzards
combined.
Register J1.00 a year.
STAKED AN ISLAND.
A Fateful Jack Pot That Was Lost b
Pisrre Bottineau.
At one of the most interesting
games of poker ever played in Min
neapolis Nicollet island was put in
the jack pot by a man who thought
he understood the game, but found
there were others who understood
it better. In 1846 Pierre Bottineau i
took up a claim on the spot where
H' A year later
j 8 horse and cow,
which he drove away into the wil
derness, never dreaming that the'
T^ould m a few years -be the site of
niTLf7', f?T a 6mail gum he:
purchased a W portion of what j
is now the business part of Min-1
neapdis and put up a log cabin in '
a little mound m the center of Kic
olJct island.
Half a dozen of the old settlers,
Bottineau among them, had a little
poker club. One evening the stakes
kept growing larger and larger un^
til every jack pot contained a small
fortune. Mr. Bottineau had been 1
losing heavily, but at last be was
dealt a hand upon which he hoped
to regam his losses and win some
thing besides. He was given four ;
queens and, drawing one card, se
cured an ace, leaving four kings ns
the only hand by which he could be !
beaten. He thought he saw one of
the players discard a king, and he '
considered his hand invincible and
played it accordingly. Soon all but:
Bottineau and the man opposite:
him dropped their cards and retired
to watch the game. The table was
heaped with inonev and the per
sonal belongings of "the two men.
The flickering light of the candle
, shone dimly on the flushed faces as :
; they watched each other warily out
; of the corners of their eves. All of
Bottineau'? possessions "lav <m the
; table, and it was his bet He looked
' at his hand carefully and then said
, that all he bad left was Nicollet is
K WTh'ch, *'e wou'd ^et against
*.00. The bet was called, and Bot
Itmeau laid down his four queens
, with a smile of triumph. Amid a
dead silence his opponent laid on
the table, face up. four kings and a
fr?-V\ ,was so st'" you could have
; heard them breathe. Then Bot
tineau called for writing materials
; and made out a deed to the island.
From that day he never touched a
j card or countenanced gambling in
! any form. ?
After drifting around the coun
try he went to Red Lake Falls and
took up a claim and remained there
until the time of his death. He
was employed as a guide and scout
and was one of the principal mem
1 bers of the Siblev expedition. He
j knew even- foot of the northwest
| country, having traversed it ever
since he was ten vears old, when he
guided Lord Selkirk's colonists
from old Fort Garry. When he
died the last of the old time Cana
dian voyagers and guides, who were
such an important factor in the up-1
building of the northwest, passed I
away.?Exchange.
The Genesis of th? Cr?vat
Cravats date from the incursion I
of the Croats into French territory
. during the Thirty Years' war. The ;
French termed these invaders "Cra
rates," and a freak of fashion made !
their somewhat clumsv neckwear'
i popular about 1C36. The fancv must'
have spread very rapidlv, for we
find lace cravats with broad ends
hanging in front replacing the wide ?'
collars of the cavaliers durin"- the
earlier stages of the civil war in
F-ngland. Charles II. made white ;
cravats a part of the uniform of his
life and dragoon guards. The oalmv
period of the cravat was earlv in the
eighteenth centnry, when these ar
ticles were made <rt the very finest
lace and were so expensive that oven
the richest of fashionable yoaii"
men could not afford to have mere
than two of them in their ward
robes.?London Standard.
Sausage.
Sausage has even from verv eariv ?
times been a popular table delicacv.
Aristophanes was familiar with i"t.1
and in Roman days the sausases of
Lucania were in high esteem. "Tliev
were made from pork and the nuts
of the stone pine, flavored with I
bay leaves and other things more
familiar. Bologna was celebrated
for its sausages long before the
German sausage had even thought1
of invading the rest of the world. I
and until quite latelv it was com
??nIy called in England a "po
Explaining It.
We were moving a 4,000 pound '
safe from one office to another
. fays a writer in the Saturday Even-1
ing Post. George, the negro jani
tor, with a 4 by 4 pine stick was
pinching the safe along. The boss
man said, "George, why don't you
pick that safe up and carrv it"in-|
Steaof,? monkeying with that
scantling?"
George replied: '-Boss, I hain't
feelm very piclrish dis mawnin',
*nh. Fs feelia' a leetle duplicate." 1
MENACE OF ICEBERGS.
One Danger of 8ca Against Which
Wireless I, of Ltelo Avail.
The fear of icebergs has been
partly removed in recent veara bv
wireless telegraphy, but their pre^
ence on the seas is still menacin"
enough to cause anxietv.
The government every summer
ana lall makes out an iceberg guide.
When some ship reports an iceberc
ln ? ?rtdn latitude and longitude
a little red dot is placed on the ice- I
berg chart
It is drifting in a southerly di
rection, and allowances are inade
lor so many miles of advance even
twenty-four hours. So the red dot1
is moved slowly forward. But ad- 1
verse winds, seas and currents mav i
change the course of the berg, and
this sort of reckoning may prove ?
all wrong.
Later another ship reports the
same or another iceberg in a differ
ent place says Harper's Weekly. I
More red dots appear on the chart, j
and as the season advances the dan
ger points increase. These charts
are issued as warnings to mariners. '
j-hips sailing in certain northern
latitudes must study the location
of the icebergs, and for the sake of
safety the captains provide them
selves with duplicates of the charts. 1
Icebergs are dangerous obstruc-:
tions to navigation on clear, dark
nights as well as in times of fo"
They- carry no lights, and thev can
not be detected in the dark" until
close upon a ship.
Experienced sea captains possess
a certain instinct for detecting the
presence of icebergs. Some cap
-ains claim that they can smell an
iceberg miles away. Something in
the atmosphere warns them of the
danger, and they double the watch
and reduce speed until out of the
danger zone. Then, again, when
near an iceberg the air grows sud
denly cold and chilly, and some
times there is a drop of several de
grees in the temperature.
llanv unaccounted disappear
ances of ships and steamers are at
tributed to collisions with icebergs,
ships and all on board going to the j
bottom without so much as a rem
nant left to tell the tale.
Bidding In a Bride.
While some furniture was bein- '
sold at auction at Orkellyunga, in
Sweden, a curious incidentoccurred. j
A young girl pushed her way
through the crowd until she was 1
quite close to the auctioneer, so
close indeed that she somewhat im
peded him when he desired to make
effective gestures. Being a man of j
humor, he resolved to get rid of her
j m a novel manner, and therefore,
taking her by the arm, he shouted: j
j Here, now, is an excellent bargain
; ?a young girl, aged nineteen, very
pretty and well educated! What j
am I offered? Come: we'll start it ?
at 3,000 crowns!" At once there j
! was brisk bidding, which continued i
until an elderly bachelor farmer of- I
fered 10,000 crowns. The auction- :
eer tried to get a higher bidder ?
than this, but failed, and so he de- i
clared the farmer to be the pur- 1
chaser of the girl. All those pres- !
ent thought that it was a good joke, '
but it was more than that, for a
few days later the farmer and the '
girl were married in the presence of i
the mayor, and before the ceremony ;
the farmer presented the vounj !
woman, an orphan, with 10,000 j
crowns, the exact amount which he !
was willing to pay for her at auc
tion.
Victim of a Soft Heart.
The prison visitor looked at the !
occupant of cell 40 through eves
J that were dim with tears and passed
j a few more fragrant blossoms be
i tween the iron bars.
"Yon poor lirfortunate!" she ex
I claimed. -.So y.i i were brought to j
j tins through sympathy for another,
j Tell me all .'irnut it. Perhaps some- i
! thing can be done to set vou free."
! "^'ell, mum, 'twas this wav " ex- !
claimed the convict. "When me an'
| mate cracked the crib we found
the bank watchman asleep, an' we
tied an' gagged him. It was him '
as arterward identified me."
"les/and the sympathy for an
: other ?" asked the visitor.
It was fer him, mum. JIv mate 1
wanted tor stick a knife in him. If j
I hedn't been a fool an' done it I
wouldn't be here a-talkin' ter vou
now."?Boston Traveler.
His Luggage.
An Aberdonian went to spend a
few days in London with his son,
who had done exceptionally well in
the great metropolis. After their
j first greetings at King's Cross sta
Inon the young fellow remarked:
"Feythcr, you are not lookin* weel.
Is there anything the matter?" The !
old man replied, "Aye, lad, I have I
had quite an accident." "What
was that, feyther?" "Hon," he
siid, "on this journey frae bonsie
Scotland I lost mv luceace." **Dea
dear! That's too lad. 'Oo did it
happenP' "Aweel"' replied the
Aberdonian.. "the cork cam' oot."
RRE ISLAND.
About the Worst Section of the At
lantic Coast For Wrecks.
Xo other section of the Atlantic
coast line, not even the shores of
Cape Cod, Nantucket and Block
island, can offer a record of disas
ter surpassing the roli of shipwreck
and death which is inscribed on
the shifting sand dunes of Fire is
land.
For the last 250 years vessels
have been going ashore on the
beach, and every now and then you
come, upon their bones; rearing up.
frauntly out of the sand. Of ?wrse
the great majority of the wrecks
have gone the way of all things
earthly. But the sight of half a I
dozen huge timbers projecting from
the face of a dune, making an ideal
shelter for a brief rest, suggests
reminiscences of a tragedv of the
past. Occasionally, too, the waves
wash up some odd relic that the
sands have been toving with for
generations, and the old inhab
itants of the coast, standing at their
cabin doors, with shaded eyes, will
point up and down the.dreazy per
spective to the places where ships
and steamers and any number of
other gallant craft came to grief on
the sands.
There are a peculiar charm and
attraction about Fire island beach
that are only to be accounted for by
its desolation and the grim events
connected with its historv. This
does not apply to the settlement
clustered about the lighthouse and
the observation towers, but to the
long stretches, monotonous in their
apparent sameness, that run east
ward toward the sheltered waters of
Shinnecock bay. It is almost unbe
lievable that such a barren, primi
fare landscape can be found within
fcfty miles of New York citv.
At certain seasons of the vear
\ou can walk for hours and never
see a human being. The onlv noises
that break in on the solitude are
the twittering calls of the sand
pipers that flit overhead. At dis
tant intervals faintlv marked trails
lead up the lows and bluffs inshore,
tending toward the huts of lonelv
toymen, tucked away in the shelter
of the dunes, scantily clad in dune
grass and underbrush; otherwise,
save for the wreckage that clogs
the bcach, you would not be aware
that hum an beings existed any
where. The sand covers even-thin",
obliterating footprints as fast as
they are made.
All the flotsam and jetsam of the
sea come to Fire island. Bits of
woodwork, parts of small boats,
hatches, spars, balks of timber, wa
ter casks and chicken coops, bits of
all sizes, from a matchbox to a
derelict's shattered hull, are washed
over the outer bar. If the ghosts
of all the ships whose bones have
been bleached on Fire island sands
could be mustered they would tell
the country's maritime historv in
chronological order.
Bluff nosed Dutchmen out of
Amsterdam, stout English ships
from Hull and Plymouth town,
rangy Frenchmen, "stately Span
iards, like the last victim of the
beach, and many a goodlv Yankee
crew have listened to the thunder
of the breakers and seen the white
sand through the spray, stretching
lor miles beyond their ken, bare of
human soul. But that was in the
days before the establishment of
the life saving service.
Many a storied ship has met her
fate on Fire island beach. Mer
chantman and privateer, frigate
and slaver, coaster^ fishing schoon
er, yacht and liner have pounded
themselves apart on the treacher
ous bar that scarcely shows be
neath the gentle swell on a pleasant
day. A rapacious destrover, Fire
island.?Xew York Post.
Day*ey Mayme's Social Plant.
Daysey Mayme Appleton will en
tertain out of town company for
the next two weeks and lias issued
the following cards and sent them
to her friends: "I will have two
girl guests from out of town for the
next two weeks. What are vou
willing to do for them? I gave a
- (blank filled out by dinner,
dance, party, tea, luncheon, etc.)
when you had companv." "Unless
they come up to the scratch," says
Daysey Mayme as she licked the
stamps, "I shall have to announce
to my guests that I am in mourning
and can't do anything for them be
yond taking them for walks and to
prayer meeting."?Atchison Globe.
Fullcash (waking with a start in
the middle of the night and hearing
sounds in his bedroom) ? Who's
there? Speak! Who's there?
Hoarse whisper from the dark
ness: 'Tor goodness' sake, hush!
There's a _ burglar just gone down
stairs. I'm a policeman, and if
????keeP qu'ct and not strike a
light Fll nab him in two twos."
Fullcash obeys, and the whisper
downstairs and out of the back door
with his booty.?New York Jour
Sikea' Way.
er, whose name
THE STEALTHY TIGER.
When He Move* Quietly Death Dees
Not Seem More Silent.
I have seen a tiger, sitting up a.
hundred yards from me in the sun
light washing his face like a cat,
more a couple of steps into the
j shade and fade away like the Chesh
ire cat in "Alice In Wonderland."
But what is more extraordinary is
that he can "move without some
dry leaf or stalk crackling to be
tray" him. Often in a beat in the'
1 middle of the hot season the inex
perienced sportsman's heart is in
his mouth as he hear*- the crushing
of c dead leaf, the slow, stealthy
tread of what seems some- heavy
animal, but it is only "moa," the
peacock, the first to move ahead of
; the beaters. Then after a period'of
strained watching, when the eye
can apd does detect the move of
the tiniest bird, the quiver of &
leaf, suddenly without a sound the
great beast stands before vou. He
does not always care to move qniet
ly, but when he does death is not
more silent
The question of how a white or
otherwise abnormally marked tiger
can take its prev is simplified by
the fact that, as a general ruJe, the
tiger kills at night or at dawn or
dusk and that it is only the cattle
j killing tiger that takes his lordly
toll of the village cattle by day.
Again that wonderful voice, the
most mournful sound in captivity
"which literally hushes the jungle
and fills the twilight with horror,"'
is a powerful aid to him in his
hunting. Often as 1 have heard it*
the memoir of one occasion is as
vivid as the^jnoment when it held'
me spellbound. I was stalk in
sambhur in the evening in a glade
in the forest when suddenly, from
not fifty yards above me. rang out
a long, low, penetrating moan,
which seemed- to fill the jungle
with a terrifying thrill and for a.
moment made the heart stand still.
The native shikari, who, in spite of
Mowgli's contempt, may know
something of jungle ways, believes
that the deer, hearing the timer's
voice and unable from the rever
berating nature of the sound to lo
cate the position of their enemv,
stand or lie still and so give him
,the chance of stalking his prey.
There is probably some truth in
.this, for unless you are following
the tiger and have seen him it is al
most impossible from the sounds
alone to tell with any certainty
where he is.?Algernon" Durand in
London Times.
Wasting Valuable Time.
An old farmer died in a little vil
lage in the neighborhood of Paris.
: His fortune, the fruit of years of
patient toil, was invested in a nice
compact little farm. A nephew of
tne departed, believing himself to
he heir, called a few days later on
the lawyer and before saving a word
about the succession thought it only
right and proper to shed a few
i tears.
"Poor uncle!'' he murmured. "So.
kind, so affectionate?to think that
1 shall never see him again!"
The notary allowed the young;
man to give full vent to his sorrow
ful emotions, after which he quiet
. ly observed:
I 'I suppose you are aware that:
; your uncle has left you nothin"?"
"What!" exclaimed the nephew,
suddenly changing his tone. "I'm
1 not down in the will? Then why
on earth did you let me stand
weeping there and making a fool of
myself for a good half hour?"
I'aris Journal.
Scotch Craft.
A drunken man was once lod<*edV
in tiie cell of a Scotch country po
lice station, when he made a tre
i mendous noise by kicking the cell
door with his heavy "hobnailed
boots.
The constable who had charge of
i the police station, going to the cell
door, opened it a little and said:
-ve micht P;t off Ver buits
and I'll gie them a bit rub, so that
yell be respectable like when ve
come up afore the bailie the morn"
The prisoner, flattered at the re
quest. at once complied and saw his
mistake only when the constable
; shut the door upon him, savin"
coolly: " ?
^ e can kick awa noo, mv man
[ as lang as ye like."
New York'* First Ferry.
The first ferry by means of
(vlnch the dwellers on the other
?ide of the East river visited their
brethren in Manhattan was a square
ended scow rigged -with mast and
sails. The fare charged for a horse
was 1 shilling, and a wagon cost 5.
This ferry was in operation in 1735
and three-quarters of a cental
passed before it was improved upon.
The improvement consisted of a
horse boat, a twin boat with a wheel
m the center, propelled by a hori
zontal treadmill worked by horses.
This was an eight horsepower boat,
which crossed the river in from
twelve to twenty minutes. Then
came the first steam ferryboat in
Id* v.