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Show By ELMO SCOTT WATSON 31, io::i. The 1 dying light of the wiu-l wiu-l try day Is slanting ' across the sun dial und i bringing to a cluse an-y-f ''', ' other year. Irlffw Except fr a f-w I'i. 1 wnlt0 settlements cling-l&VvA cling-l&VvA Ins precariously to the K' wh edge of the wilderness, IN ' I 1 if North America is still JlLiLilL "tlie reJ "l!m's continent." conti-nent." True, the Spanish have been established es-tablished down In the Great Southwest South-west for nearly n hundred years and Ht Augustine in Florida Is nearly three-quarters of a century old. True, too, the French have been Balling up and down the St. Lawrence Law-rence for nearly n century, but the establishment of New France as a permanent colony Is very recent. As for the other European nations na-tions who have sougljt to plant outposts out-posts In the New world they are newcomers Indeed. For only two (decades have the Dutch been on the Hudson with their New Nether-land, Nether-land, which Is to become New York, nd for n much less time than that have they extended their rule over .what Is now New Jersey. Down on the James river a little colony of Europeans has survived starvation and Indian massacre for n quarter of a century and up on the "stern and rock-bound coast" of Massachusetts another colony of people, who speak the same tongue, has endured even greater hardships for more than a decade. And these are the people who are to dominate the North American , continent at last, for they speak the tongue of Old England. For New England Is to survive when New France, New Netherland, find New Spain are but memories. . From the two little settlements, Plymouth and Boston, which, united, will become eventually the state of Massachusetts, have already stemmed the settlements which are to grow Into the states of Maine and New Hampshire and two more will soon have their origins there. Lord Calvert has already erected his cross at St. Mary's on the Chesapeake Ches-apeake bay to found the colony In which there Is' true religious freedom free-dom and from which is to grow tlie "Free State of Maryland." But a half century Is still to pass before .William Tenn realizes his dream of ff xkA M 4 ROGER WILLIAMS a "City of Brotherly Love" and lays the foundation for the state of Pennsylvania, and a full century Is to elapse before Gen. James Oglethorpe Ogle-thorpe is to found that haven of refuge which will become Georgia. Thus the picture as the old year 1634 dies. When the rising sun of the new year 1G35 casts its beam across the sun dial, it foreshadows great events that are to come. Down In Virginia the governing council writes into Its record this laconic entry : "On the 2Sth. of April, 1035, Sr. John Harvey thrust out of his government, and Capt. John West acts as Governor till the King's pleasure Is known." Thus Is chronicled a free people's first rebellion, re-bellion, albeit an orderly one, and as one historian says: "It points to two facts: first, a spirit of Independence Inde-pendence and self-respect In the young community ; and, second, a faculty of self-control which prevented pre-vented what was legally a rebellion from degenerating into tumult and anarchy." And, to follow through 140 years later another Virginian Is to declare passionately: "Give me liberty or give me death !" and still another Is to pen these Immortal words: "Resolved. That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and Independent States." Up In New England "A cloud, small as a hand like Elijah's cloud, Is spreading over the sky of Massachusetts Massa-chusetts Bay. So small it was In the bare overarching vault that most people take no notice of It. Hut Anne Hutchinson watches It grow and spread, feeding on the parched plains of the sky. . . . The ministers and magistrates are blind to this spreading portent. Secure In their places, they do not sense the tremulous hope that has seized the people." That tremulous hope Is hope for true freedom of worship, because the ecclesiastical hierarchy, these ministers and magistrates, "who left England because they would not conform to certain prescribed Anglican An-glican practices In turn will allow not the slightest deviation from the worship which they themselves ordained." or-dained." But there Is one who dares to deviate de-viate In more ways than one a young Welshman named Itoger Williams Wil-liams of Salem. He declares that the state has no authority over the consciences of men, that there should he freedom of worship and entire separation of church and state. Roger Williams is America's first "dangerous radical." Massachusetts Bay In 1035 Is no place for such men. So the General Court orders him to leave the colony but finally allows him to remain until spring JOHN ADAMS If he will not "go about to draw others to his opinions." He does not go about, but he does welcome others oth-ers to his house where he preaches his "radical" doctrines. So the Court sends a constable to arrest ' Williams. Wil-liams. He flees through the snows of winter to the hospitable wigwam of Massasoit on Narragansett Bay. There he is to remain until spring, then go forth to found the colony of Providence. But there is still that other "dangerous radical." She has formed America's first woman's club. She insists on criticizing the preaching of the colony's ministers. Out with her ! So Anne Hutchinson is also banished. She, too, goes to the south and makes a settlement. Thus grows the colony of Rhode Island, dedicated to the principal of freedom of worship. So 1635 is to see the planting of the seeds of liberty lib-erty of political liberty In Virginia Vir-ginia and religious liberty in Rhode Island which are to bear fruit a century and a half later In the Constitution Con-stitution of tlie United States of America. But Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson are not the only dissatisfied dissat-isfied ones In Massachusetts Bay colony. Another is Thomas Hooker, pastor of the church at Newton. Looking to the south he sees "the frultfulness and conmiodiousness of Connecticut" and because of "the want of accommodation for their cattle and the danger of having It possessed by others, Dutch or English," Eng-lish," he tells the General Court of "the strong bent of their spirits to remove thither." But the Court refuses re-fuses permission for him to take his people and go. In the meantime back In England Eng-land a group of prominent Puritans, Including Lord Saye and Sele, Lord Brooke, Sir Richard Saltonstall, John Hampden and John Pym. alarmed at the Increasing tyranny of Charles I, have planned to establish es-tablish a refuge in America. Securing Secur-ing a grant of land south of Massachusetts, Massa-chusetts, they have appointed John Wlnthron, Jr., as governor of their colony. In 1035 he is to build a I I ill ' fort and call the place Saybrook In honor of Lords Saye and Brooke. The next year Hooker will take his family and most of his congregation congrega-tion with him and migrate south. Soon there will be other towns up and down the Connecticut river valley val-ley and from these beginnings In 1G35 will grow the colony and eventually event-ually the state of Connecticut. December 31, 1734. The sands la the hourglass are slipping swiftly away. The old year Is dying. Soon tlie new year of 1735 will be born. And as It is born, there Is also born a son in the home of a French goldsmith in Boston. Apollos Rivors was his name when lie landed on the shores of America. But when he was marri.'d to Deborah Ilieh-born, Ilieh-born, he Anglicized his name to Paul Revere. And on January 1, 1735, when this little son is born to them, they give him the name of Paul Revere also. Young Paul will grow up to follow fol-low his father's trade, to become an expert goldsmith, an artist, a dentist, in fact, a very versatile young man. But history will not remember re-member him for his skill in any of those trades. Instead, it will remember remem-ber him as tli 3 courier on a "midnight "mid-night ride" in 1775. "The British are coming!" he shouts, as he rouses "every Middlesex village and farm," and his voice will come thundering thun-dering down through the years to remind us how he rallied the patriots pa-triots to the defense of those liberties liber-ties which were first demanded in Virginia and in Rhode Island in 1635, a hundred years before he was born. While little Paul Revere is just learning to crawl about on the floor of his father's house in Boston, a son is born to a farmer living near Braintree, Mass. 'The date is October 19, 1735, and this little boy Is also given his father's name-John name-John Adams. He is to go to Harvard college, to become a lawyer, and in 17G5 to write for the Boston Gazette Ga-zette a series of essays denying the right of the English Parliament to Impose taxation upon her American colonies without their consent. In 1775 he is to attend the Continental Con-tinental Congress in Philadelphia and there to propose as commander of the army, raised to defend American Amer-ican liberties, a Virginian named George Washington. And when another an-other Virginian, named Richard Henry Lee, offers the resolution that "These United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent inde-pendent States" and moves its adoption, adop-tion, this same John Adams will second the motion and will be np- ' v - V, y K f ' I -.V" I ' f !? . - - i??l OSCEOLA pointed a -member of the committee to draw up a Declaration of Independence. Inde-pendence. He will help write that Immortal document, he will sign it and when at last the fight for liberty is won, he will be one of the peace commissioners com-missioners who sign the treaty of peace that ends the Revolution and he will become the first minister of the new nation to the court of St. James, it will not fall to his lot to be one of those who draw up the Constitution for the new republic but under its terms he will become the first vice president of the United Unit-ed States, which he helped establish, estab-lish, and its second President. And on July 4, 1S2G, exactly 50 years to the day from the time he had signed tlie Declaration of Independence, Indepen-dence, John Adams will die, his great work ended. But before the sands In his hourglass hour-glass have run out he will have done other things, besides being a Signer and a "Father of the Republic" Re-public" to guarantee his immortality. immortal-ity. He will have given to the nation na-tion a son, John Quincy Adams, who is destined to be the sixth President of the United States and to be the only ex-President who ever served his country in congress after aft-er leaving the White House. December 31, -1S.".4. Tick-tock ! Tick-tock ! Tick-tock 1 Tlie last minutes min-utes of the year 1S34 are slipping Into eternity as the hands of the clock move toward a straight upright up-right position on the dial. One-two-three- four-five-six-seven-eight-nlne-ten-eleven the clock strikes twelve ! The year 1S35 Is ushered In. In the White House at Washington Washing-ton sits President Andrew Jackson, "Old Hickory," placed there by the votes of the Western frontiersmen and the "common people" of all sections sec-tions of the country. For the days of the "Virginia dynasty" and the "New England oligarchy" are done. Democracy in America Is at last triumphant. January 30. In the Capitol they are holding the funeral of Congressman Congress-man Warren R. Davis of South Carolina. Car-olina. President Jackson leaves the White House to attend. As he passes tli rough the rotunda, a man leaps out with two pistols In his hands. Pointing both at the President he pulls the triggers. But neither is discharged. Before he can try again, he Is seized and hustled away. Later the man, Richard Lawrence, is to be tried, found insane and shut up In an asylum. -For a little MARK TWAIN while his name is on every American's Amer-ican's lips but soon he Is forgotten this man who would be the first to assassinate an American President. That dark fame is to be reserved for John Wilkes Booth who is to succeed where Lawrence failed and send Abraham Lincoln to a martyr's mar-tyr's grave. But if Death passes by the Chief Executive in this first month of 1835, before the new year is scarcely scarce-ly half over it will knock at the door of the chief justice of the United Unit-ed States. It Is a position which he has held for 34 years, the longest long-est in the history of that high tribunal. trib-unal. On July 6 in Philadelphia will die John Marshall who had been Influential In-fluential in bringing about the ratification rati-fication of the United States Constitution Con-stitution and whose interpretation of that document during his long service on the supreme bench has Imprinted indelibly his name upon the law of our land. While such great events as these are taking place back in the East, a little town in Missouri is the scene of another event, seemingly unimportant unim-portant at the time but destined to result in many hours of delight for thousands of later Americans. On November 30 Florida, Mo., becomes the birthplace of a boy who will bear the name of Sam Clemens when he grows up to be a Confederate Confed-erate soldier, a Mississippi river pilot, a miner and a newspaper man in Nevada. But it will be under un-der the name o." Mark Twain that he will be known far and wide, and American literature will be enriched by his "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry "Huckle-berry Finn" and "Roughing It" and "Life on the Mississippi," and "Innocents "In-nocents Abroad." In the Missouri town of Florida a boy is born, but in the state of Florida, as this year 1S35 dies, some brave men will die in the outbreak of one of- the -costliest Indian wars in American history. On December 28 the fierce chieftain of the Sem-Inoles. Sem-Inoles. Osceola, creeps stealthily up to Fort King and shoots down General Gen-eral Thompson, the Indian agent, and five other white men. And on that same day his fierce tribesmen ambush the command of Maj. Francis L. Dade near the Withla-coochee Withla-coochee river. A monument which stands on the grounds of the United Unit-ed States Military academy at West Point tells the story "To commemorate commem-orate the battle of the 2Sth of December De-cember between a detachment of the One Hundred and Eighth United Unit-ed States troops and the Seminole Indians of Florida, in which all the detachment save three fell without an attempt to retreat." Thus begins a war another war caused because the white man will break solemn treaties which Is to last seven years and which is to cost the United States the lives of nearly near-ly 1,500 soldiers and nearly as many settlers and volunteers, not to mention men-tion a money cost of $20,000,000 1 December 31, 1034. Nine o'clock in San Francisco and Portland and Seattle. But Into thousands of homes on the Pacific coast come the blowing of whistles, the ringing of bells, the tooting of horns and the singing and shouting of human voices. For It is midnight in Boston Bos-ton and New York and Philadelphia Philadel-phia and the magic of radio is carrying car-rying instantaneously the sound of their celebration clear across the continent to those who will not similarly sim-ilarly celebrate for three hours yeL The Old Year Is dead ! The New Year Is born ! What historic events will come to pass In this year 1935? . Western Newspaper Union. |