Show I fifty hily Failures r-l r 0 Who l Came Back I I I JOHN C. C FREMONT I He lie became acquainted with a West Wel t Indian girl whose raven raven hair and soft soft bl black ck eyes interfered sadly with his studies This is tho the charitable wa way wherein Bigelow the historian glosses over one of the tho many erratic Incidents of John C. C Fremont's young manhood There were other incidents less easy I to condone And they all led to fail fail- ure Fremont was one of three children of of a poor widow who had settled in Charleston S. S C. C when her husband died Young Fremont was looked on onto onto onto to build up the family fortunes and to follow in his fathers father's footsteps as a brilliant educator Instead he succeeded at none of the various chances that came to him He was kicked out of Charleston college in disgrace He Ho tried his hand as a private tutor and as a teacher in night school But he was undeniably a failure Then in a faint hope of bettering himself he went on a year two cruise in the United States warship Natchez as a teacher of mathematics When he got back he managed to get a post postas as mathematics professor in the navy But lie he did not hold it long And he lie became a railroad engineer on a line between Charleston and Augusta G Ga None of these things lifted him much above the dead level of failure But soon afterward he went to work worIc for a surveying party sent to map out outa I a railroad route from Charleston to Cincinnati And this Job gave him his taste for exploring exploring-a a taste that was one day to win him his title of Pathfinder Pathfinder Pathfinder Path finder His real career eer was opening before him although probably he did not know knot it Then came employment from the government in surveying theland tho the tholand tholand land between the upper waters of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers And Andin in 1841 while he was still sUll surveying I for the government lie he eloped with th the e sixteen year daughter of United States Senator Benton After I that hi his father in Influence i helped the Path Pathfinder Cinder in his long I I climb to success But by this time Fremont no longer needed help to prevent him from lapsing back into failure I Fremont went on exploring and surveyIng surveying surveying sur sur- the wilderness of the Far West His Ills labors during these years I are part of our country great his his- I tory When the tile Mexican i war began Fremont cooperated with Commodore Stockton in conquering the Mexican province of California for the United States This he be did under the very nose lese of England who was supposed to have covetous eyes on the rich I ince i Fremont during this time showed a I tendency to obey no orders except his own For such disobedience he I was arrested and sent to Washington i in disgrace There lie he was ignominiously ignominIously ignominiously sentenced to dismissal from the army And again failure seemed about to career i I But the fame of his former services services ices along with Senator Bentons Benton's inI influence in in- j I fluence came to the rescue And the government overn nent once more employed him I This time he was sent to carry out a aj j I scheme he had long tried to make the country adopt adopt adopt-a a scheme to lay layout out outa I Ia a route for a transcontinental rail rail- railI I road During this expedition he lie underwent un nfl derwent terrible hardships and dan dangers i gers But it was crowned by glittering glittering glitter ing lug success By this time the heroic Fremont's name was on every tongue He was was was' one of the first two United States senators from California Then in 1856 he lie became the first presidential candidate ever nut in the field by the newly formed Republican party He was beaten by Buchanan hut but polled a tremendous popular vote Next he lie served as a major general in the Civil war where ho he fought with dis dis- dis- dis After the war he lie continued to servo serve his country in one hi high h office of of- fice ice after another He died in 1890 living long enough to see a mighty civilization up in the trackless Western wilderness whose Pathfinder Pathfinder Path Patk finder he had been |