Show PEOPLE m AND By 8 FRED BAGBY Hf nu Indian Envoys What was the impelling all fence nce that prompted the daring ride hat took Marcus Whitman through rough he e mountains of Utah That i i is the Question estion that naturally arises in n thc the of present day readers of an any tory of that venture ventur venturi What motive could compel a man of Whitman's caliber to court almost certain death In an undertaking that every everyone one except ex cx- himself frankly asserted to be of accomplishment t 1 possible For a full luU answer to this query it we must view the background round to th the Immediate conditions which moved Whitman To get Jd this Ibis background we must co go 0 back in n history to 1831 In Imagination we wc must visit St. St Louis on the Father her of ot Waters Vaters the town that was as the outpost of 01 civilization out ut t on the border of 01 that place I-Fa I west cornI com corn where r here the mighty might I to begin in tho those e days das Picture a frosty October mornIng morn morn- i Ing when chen the foliage of the trees was brilliant In autumnal hues huts f when the few residents of 01 this frontier town reluctantly shook f the sleep from their eyes and andI p I peered Jeered through the shutters of log Jog cabins a strange sight met their raze rare aze It was four lour stately silent allent Indian chiefs accoutered In all their savage arra array of blankets Wan blan and feathers marching Ingle file lile down the deserted i I principal street f Indians Indians' were no uncommon I sight In St. St Louis and their ap- ap J upon the streets was no cause for wonder ordinarily but butI I these imposing specimens of or the Red r race were different Their i kind had not been seen there be be- fore forc There was that about them which marked them as having r iconic ome from some sonic unknown tribe J some far away section of the ther t. t great r At western Their If foreheads were flat fiat as boards and the arrangement of their headdress of 01 feathers accentuate accentual cd the flatness As the shape of i their heads indicated d they were stalwart chieftains of the Flat Flat- head tribe which lived In the theland theland land hand of ot the great but little known Colum Columbia la river in Oregon Meet an Old Friend News of the arrival of these strange Envoys from a far away land spread through the village and to he military post which happened to DC- DC under command of General Rogers Clark the great redhead red red- head iad ad chief who commanded the v and Clark exploration io ion into Ot Oregon Or-egor in i 1804 General lark sent his aides out to escort the Indians to the post and remember remember- ng i the man many kindnesses he had re re- ived at the hands of their fathers Save ave Ve instructions that they were to toe accorded ie e accorded every atten attention Lion When to iS aides reported they could not li earn earl rn what the mission of the In- In ii hans ns' ns was 35 the general knowing In In- han iian stoicism ordered that they be allowed their own owr time to make 1 wn their wants j The Book of Heaven fAs FM is the W way y of the Indian the chiefs hies took their own time lime but fi 11 finally fi- fi nally fu to the general alone confided of their mission The They Js S especially chosen envoys of their rib 3 had traveled over the trail of or any nany moons from Irom the setting sun to toh h he white mans man's outpost to get the white mans man's book of heaven I Some me man who had reached d the regon country over the water route la London the Hawaiian islands and he Hudson Bay trading post on the had told them that the hite man had a book that pointed he be trail to a new and better happy grounds the grounds the book of true The Red Men wanted that kook ook They had walked nearly half hail ay vay across the continent to get it Just what General Clark told his lr nc visitors history does not re re- ord but sub subsequent happenings of there are records would indi indi- ate that the sore loot searchers af r er r the book of the new religion met But But the general sought to make up upa xi n a entertainment of his guests for hat which he could not give give give-a a Bile Bi Bi- le translated into the Indian tongue Accords indicate indic that the chiefs were wined and dined like princes but wp wo of them theta were stricken with chol- chol ara ra and died ded The first to succumb t fas tas a. a Black Eagle and the f records If the old St St. Louis cathedral contain of his death and burial mie Lic second chief followed his companion com com- panion nion to the happy hunting rounds soon after An Un Unusual sual Banquet I w The two surviving chiefs head head- sd cI l by Chief Mm MIn lIn meaning no no horns on his head remained until early spring before tug ing to start on tho the Ion long journey back ack to their people On the the eve of their departure General Clark entertained them at ata a most remarkable re rc re- re and what had proved an in historical banquet It wa was at this banquet that Chief Mm MIn speaking In the Chinook language Invented and Introduced amon among the Indians of ot he the northwest by the Hudson Bay company delivered a speech tho the echoes of which were wert heard beard In very every part of Christianized lin rica It w was s thi this speech that umed the feet of Dr hr Marcus Mucus Whitman toward Oregon |