The Greater Republic Part 60

Geronimo, one of the worst of all the Apaches, was once more a prisoner with his band. But he had been a prisoner before, only to escape and renew his outrages. So long as he was anywhere in the Southwest, the ranchmen felt unsafe. Accordingly, he and his leading chiefs were sent to Fort Pickens, Florida, the others being forwarded to Fort Marion, St.

Augustine. Their health after a time was affected, and they were removed to Mount Vernon, Alabama. The prisoners, including the women and children, number about 400. A school was opened, whither the boys and girls were sent to receive instruction, and some of the brightest pupils in the well-known Indian School at Carlisle were the boys and girls whose fathers were merciless raiders in Arizona only a few years ago, and who are now quiet, peaceful, contented, and "good Indians." The Apaches have been thoroughly conquered, and the ranchmen and their families have not the shadow of a fear that the terror that once shadowed their thresholds can ever return.

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1888.

Although President Cleveland offended many of his party by his devotion to the policy of civil service reform, he was renominated in 1888, while the nominee of the Republicans was Benjamin Harrison. Other tickets were placed in the field, and the November election resulted as follows: Grover Cleveland and Allen G. Thurman, Democrats, 168 electoral votes; Benjamin Harrison and Levi P. Morton, Republicans, 233; Clinton B. Fisk and John A. Brooks, Prohibition, received 249,907 popular votes; Alson J. Streeter and C.E. Cunningham, United Labor, 148,105; James L. Curtis and James R. Greer, American, 1,591.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BENJAMIN HARRISON. (1833-.) One term, 1889-1894.]

THE TWENTY-THIRD PRESIDENT.

Benjamin Harrison was born at North Bend, Ohio, August 20, 1833. His father was a farmer, and _his_ father was General William Henry Harrison, governor of the Northwest Territory, and afterward President of the United States, and the first to die in office. His father was Benjamin Harrison, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Thus the twenty-third President possesses ill.u.s.trious lineage.

Benjamin Harrison entered Miami University when a boy, and was graduated before the age of twenty. He studied law, and upon his admission to the bar settled in Indianapolis, which has since been his home. He volunteered early in the war, and won the praise of Sheridan and other leaders for his gallantry and bravery. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1881, and his ability placed him among the foremost leaders in that distinguished body. As a debater and off-hand speaker, he probably has no superior, while his ability as a lawyer long ago placed him in the very front rank of his profession.

THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER.

The Conemaugh Valley, in the eastern part of Pennsylvania, is about twenty miles in length. The city of Johnstown lies thirty-nine miles west-southwest of Altoona and seventy-eight miles east-by-south of Pittsburg. It is the seat of the Cambria Iron Works, which give employment to fully 6,000 men, and is one of the leading industrial establishments of the country. Conemaugh Lake is at the head of the winding valley, eighteen miles away, and was the largest reservoir of water in the world. It was a mile and a half wide at its broadest part, and two miles and a half long. Most of the lake was a hundred feet deep.

The dam was a fifth of a mile wide, ninety feet thick at its base, and one hundred and ten feet high. The ma.s.s of water thus held in restraint was inconceivable.

The people living in the valley below had often reflected upon the appalling consequences if this dam should give way. Few persons comprehend the mighty strength of water, whose pressure depends mainly upon its depth. A tiny stream, no thicker than a pipe-stem, can penetrate deeply enough into a mountain to split it apart, and, should the reservoir ever burst its bounds, it would spread death and desolation over miles of country below.

There had been several alarms, but the engineers sent to make an examination of the dam always reported it safe, and the people, like those who live at the base of a volcano, came to believe that all the danger existed in their imagination.

On the 31st of May, 1889, the dam suddenly gave way, sliding from its base, like an oiled piece of machinery, and the vast ma.s.s of water shot forward at the speed of more than two miles a minute. Seven minutes after the bursting of the dam, the head of the resistless flood was eighteen miles down the valley. A man on horseback had started, at a dead-run, some minutes before the catastrophe, shouting a warning to the inhabitants, some of whom, by instantly taking to flight up the mountain side, were able to save themselves, but the majority waited too long.

A FURIOUS TORRENT.

Imagination cannot picture the awful power of this prodigious torrent.

Trees were uptorn or flattened to the earth, houses, locomotives, and ma.s.sive machinery were tumbled over and over and bobbed about like so many corks, and the flood struck Johnstown with the fury of a cyclone, sweeping everything before it, as if it were so much chaff. Tearing through the city and carrying with it thousands of tons of wreckage of every description, it plunged down the valley till it reached the railroad bridge below Johnstown. There, for the first time, it encountered an obstruction which it could not overcome. The structure stood as immovable as a solid mountain, and the furious torrent piled up the debris for a mile in width and many feet in depth. In this ma.s.s were engines, houses, trees, furniture, household utensils, iron in all forms, while, winding in and out, were hundreds of miles of barbed wire, which knit the wreckage together. In many of the dwellings people were imprisoned, and before a step could be taken to relieve them fire broke out and scores were burned to death.

[Ill.u.s.tration: INDIAN MOTHER AND INFANT.]

How many people lost their lives in the Johnstown flood will never be known. The remains of bodies were found for months and even years afterward. The official list, when made up, was 2,280, of which 741 bodies were unidentified; but there is little doubt that the loss was fully twice the number given. Nothing of the kind has ever before occurred in the history of our country, and it is to be hoped that such a disaster will never be repeated.

Again the calamity awoke an instant sympathetic response. Provisions, tents, and money were sent to the sufferers from all parts of the Union, and nothing that could relieve them was neglected. Johnstown was soon rebuilt, and to-day there are no signs of the fearful visitation it received, only a comparatively short time since. On November 14, 1892, at the payment of the annuity provided for the orphans of Johnstown, the sum of $20,325 was distributed.

We came very near to having a war with Chili in the latter part of 1891.

On the 16th of October of that year, some forty men, attached to the American wars.h.i.+p _Baltimore_, lying in the harbor of Valparaiso, obtained leave to go ash.o.r.e. Sailors at such times are as frolicksome as so many boys let out for a vacation, and it cannot be claimed that these Jackies were models of order and quiet behavior. They were in uniform and without weapons.

They had been in the city only a short time, when one of them became involved in a wrangle with a Chilian. His companions went to his a.s.sistance whereupon a native mob quickly gathered and set upon them.

The Chilians detest Americans, and, seeing a chance to vent their feelings, they did so with vindictive fury. They far outnumbered the sailors, and besides nearly every one of them was armed. The boatswain's mate of the _Baltimore_, Riggin by name, was killed and several seriously wounded, one of whom afterward died from his injuries.

Thirty-five of the Americans were arrested and thrown into prison, but as they could not be held upon any criminal charge they were released.

The captain of the _Baltimore_ was the present Rear-Admiral Schley, who rescued the Greely party of Arctic explorers, and gave so good an account of himself, while in command of the _Brooklyn_, during the destruction of Cervera's fleet off Santiago, July 3, 1898. When our government learned of the affair, it directed Captain Schley to make a full investigation. He did so, and his report left no doubt that the Chilians had committed a gross outrage against our flag.

The next act of our government was to demand an apology from Chili and the payment of an indemnity to the sufferers and to the families of those who had been killed by the attack of the mob. Chili is a fiery nation, and her reply was so insolent that preparations were set on foot to bring her to terms by force of arms. At the moment, as may be said, when war impended, she sent an apology and forwarded a satisfactory indemnity, whereupon the flurry subsided.

A GREAT INDIAN WAR THREATENED IN 1890-1891.

A still greater danger threatened the country in the winter of 1890-1891, when we were menaced by the most formidable Indian uprising that has ever occurred in the history of our country.

Indian wars. .h.i.therto had been confined to certain localities, where, by the prompt concentration of troops, they were speedily subdued; but in the instance named the combination was among the leading and most warlike tribes, who roamed over thousands of square miles of the Northwest. A fact not generally suspected is that the red men of this country are as numerous to-day as they ever were. While certain tribes have disappeared, others have increased in number, with the result that the sentimental fancy that at some time in the future the red man will disappear from the continent has no basis in fact. The probability is that they will increase, though not so rapidly as their Caucasian brethren.

The strongest tribe in the Northwest is the Sioux. It was they who perpetrated the ma.s.sacres in Minnesota in 1862. If necessary they could place 5,000 warriors in the field, with every man a brave and skillful fighter in his way. It was they, too, who overwhelmed Custer and his command on the Little Big Horn in June, 1876. When it is added that the squaws are as vicious fighters as their husbands, it will be understood what a war with them means, especially since they have the help of neighboring tribes.

For a long time there have been two cla.s.ses of Indians. The progressives favor civilization, send their children to Carlisle and other schools, engage in farming, and, in short, are fully civilized. They remain on their reservation and give the government no trouble. Opposed to them are the barbarians, or untamable red men, who refuse to accept civilization, hate the whites, and are ready to go to war on a slight pretext, even though they know there can be but one result, which is their own defeat.

The Indians are among the most superst.i.tious people in the world. When, therefore, a number of warriors appeared among them, dressed in white s.h.i.+rts, engaging in furious "ghost dances," and declaring that the Messiah was about to revisit the earth, drive out the white men, and restore the hunting grounds to the faithful Indians, the craze spread and the fanatical promises of the ghost dancers were eagerly accepted by thousands of red men.

SITTING BULL.

The most dangerous Sioux Indian was the medicine man known as Sitting Bull, already referred to in our account of the Custer ma.s.sacre. He always felt bitter against the whites, and had caused them a good deal of trouble. He saw in the ghost dance the opportunity for which he longed, and he began urging his people to unite against their hereditary enemies, as he regarded them.

It soon became apparent that, unless he was restrained, he would cause the worst kind of trouble, and it was determined to arrest him. The most effective officers employed against the men are the Indian police in the service of the United States government. These people did not like Sitting Bull, and hoped they would have trouble in arresting him, since it would give the pretext they wanted for shooting him.

Sitting Bull's camp was forty miles northwest of Fort Yates, North Dakota, whither the Indian police rode on the morning of December 15, 1890, with the United States cavalry lingering some distance in the rear. The taunts of Sitting Bull's boy Crowfoot caused him to offer resistance, and in a twinkling both parties began shooting. Sitting Bull, his son, and six warriors were killed, while four of the Indian police lost their lives, among them the one who had fired the fatal shot at the medicine man.

The remaining members of Sitting Bull's command fled to the "Bad Lands"

of Dakota, but a number were persuaded to return to Pine Ridge Agency.

There were so many, however, who refused to come in that the peril a.s.sumed the gravest character. The only way to bring about a real peace was to compel the disarming of the Indians, for so long as they had weapons in their hands they were tempted to make use of them.

[Ill.u.s.tration: INDIAN AGENCY.]

It was the time for coolness, tact, and discretion, and the American officers displayed it to a commendable degree. They carefully avoided giving the Indians cause for offense, while insisting at the same time upon their being disarmed.

On December 28th, a band of malcontents were located near Wounded Knee Creek, by the Seventh Cavalry, who had been hunting several days for them. They were sullen, but, when ordered to surrender their weapons, made a pretense of doing so. Emerging from their tepees, however, they produced only a few worthless weapons. Being sharply ordered to bring the remainder, they suddenly wheeled and began firing upon the soldiers.

In an instant, a fierce fight was in progress, with the combatants standing almost within arm's reach of one another.

SQUAWS AS VICIOUS AS WILDCATS.

Twenty-eight soldiers were killed and thirty wounded, while fully as many of the Indians were shot down. In the fighting, the squaws were as vicious as wildcats, and fought with as much effectiveness as the warriors. A wounded officer was beaten to death by several of them before he could be rescued. Finally, the Indians fled and joined the malcontents, already a.s.sembled in the Bad Lands.

This affair made the outlook still darker. The Seventh Cavalry had just reached camp on the morning of December 30th, when a courier dashed up to Pine Ridge, with word that the Catholic Mission building was on fire and the Indians were killing the teachers and pupils. The wearied troopers galloped hurriedly thither, but found the burning building was the day school, a mile nearer Pine Ridge. A strong force of Indians were gathered beyond, and the Seventh attacked them. The Sioux were so numerous that the cavalry were in great danger of being surrounded, when a vigorous attack by the Ninth Cavalry (colored) on the rear of the Indians scattered them.

Warriors continued to slip away from the agency and join the hostiles.

Their signal fires were seen burning at night, and recruits came all the way from British America to help them. It was remarked at one time that the only friendly Indians were the police, a few Cheyennes, and the scouts, including a few Sioux chiefs, among whom American Horse was the most conspicuous. He never wavered in his loyalty to the whites, and boldly combated in argument his enemies, at the risk of being killed at any moment by his infuriated countrymen.

THE ALARMING CLOUD DISSOLVED.

There were a number of skirmishes and considerable fighting, but General Miles, who a.s.sumed charge of all the military movements, displayed admirable tact. When the Sioux began slowly coming toward the agency, it was under orders from him that not a gun should be fired nor a demonstration made except to repel an attack or to check a break on the part of the Indians. This course was followed, the troopers keeping at a goodly distance behind the hostiles, who seemed more than once on the point of wheeling about and a.s.sailing them, despite their promises to come into the agency and surrender their arms.