FROM
HERO TO
ZERO
By JAMES H. BORLAND
(© by Short Story Pub. Co.)
ULIAN GORDON, an athlete from
the ground up, had come to
Brockport as instructor in ath-
J leties. As he stepped off the
train he suddenly felt the pressure of
an hand on his shoulder, and
a timid voice greeted him with:
you
inseen
“Excuse don’t
fight?"
Turning
don's look of puzz
me,
sir,
upon his stioner, Gor-
surprise quickiy
gave way to a smile Before him
stood a well
little man, whose
ness Itself,
“I me:
the sti
int offen
manly
ever fight?”
“Why. I
such a thi
naturedly.
“Good for you.’
creatly elated
joy—Jeremiah Le
though you'd do a fello
Will vou fight?
“Why are
We never
have
questi
you
me? \
cannot
“Not
nothing
Fight
anything
the first
at all; b
ing makes ¢
develops tl
nerves and
hility to
ufe my eye
self. ‘there's
I'M
“Isn't it
gent
“ye
bet my life
unhecor
to
1 becoming
fight 7
leman
dear sir
world |
tians, and
“yo you generally
“Well. T don't
then
alw
I de
that
ing Gordon to a
had
fight 7
“1 would rather not
“Why 7
‘Because 1 don’t feel
ut a rousing good fig!
you around all right. I am sure of it.
For sake don't
me you have
had
sent,
registered his nar
goodness’
now that
hopes I haven't
week.”
Hae !
disappoint
raised
floht
ght
my
for a
“Can't you stand It another week?"
“Good Godfrey, no! With me,
Hve means to fight. would
go without food than 2 mt a figh
“Why don't you tackle
else?
“That's just If. I ean’t find anyone
I have exhausted all
ent, you have to
strangers.’
somebody
our native tal
80 see | take
on
A traveling man was just entering
hotel. and Lovejoy, hastily execns
ing himself, rushed up to
proposal to fight
“There!
tinued in a
turned to “No use
them. They all refuse. You
only one who's got any grit.
tell you what I'll! deo. 1
for money, but I'l give
the
him with a
you see how it 18." he con
doleful
re
Gordon. asking
tone ns he
are
Now. I'll
never fieht
Fou
an hour. What do you say?”
“I don’t believe I care to, today.”
“How about tomorrow 7”
“I'll think about it. How do you
fight? 1 mean under what rules?”
“Any old way--jab, jolt, punch or
clinch. Any style that comes handy
but gives each {ellow a square deal.
You understand. Now, what do you
say? Is it a go?
“1 said I would think about it."
“Well, as that seems the best | can
do, 1 guess we'll have to let it go
at that. But for goodness’ sake don't
weaken tomorrow.”
- te . - - - »
Near midnight Gordon was awnk-
ened by loud knocking on his door,
“Who Is there?” he demanded, with
a yawn,
“It's me-—~Jeremiah Lovejoy.”
“What in thunder do you want?”
“Excuse me, sir, IT want to fight, It's
no use—1 ean't sleep until I've had a
few good rounds, so I thought maybe
gou'd just as soon accommodate me
tonight as ln the morning.”
“If you don't clear out I'll knock
vou Into the middle of next week,"
shouted Gordon,
“Excuse me, sir, 1 don't want to be
disagreeable, but ve taken a liking
to you and I ask It as a favor.”
“All right, I'l fight you tomorrow,
Now and make your will"
“Good! That's a bargain!
you made of the right
came grateful notes from
as he his way
“I'll bright
go
I knew
stuft,”
the in
down.
and
were
In
truder,
stalrs,
early.”
But
made
be around
he wasn't, For right here fate
the following day. In
had
Lovejoy
evening, wondering what
the clerk In
thought you
“Oh!” answered
“We
Lovejoy is at
“Why, did someone do him up?”
“No. It
break
ns to sent
prise, knew, Mr.
the ho i
was an accid Long he-
maorning hie
to your
you ut
ast this
{fore
l room. Not
that hour,
out, where
the
important
as he was
fara
wishing to disturb
we told him you had gone
rushed madly for door
that he had an
with Just
he
aiming
engagement vou
l the marble steps,
he
him
head on
him Wis
to
reached uncon.
sent
When we
scious, so we the hos
its! *
pia,
“Have you heard how he was get
consciousness at
The fall
bless]
he regained
doing
roved a
nm and is well
have p
for
do you mes
“Why, it's the
100 Two
spuise him."
“What
eurions colnel-
Mr
through
most
months ago Lovejoy,
quietly our
eX
passing
door with a friend, fell in
became un
regained
hold of
ry man
1 took
society
of boxing exhibi-
1 for the suppres
TS 1 5 ’
cautioned by the
house
ms
nerves
ward and f '
1H: SOUNG
Aohting
on fighting,
*t the Datient's
Love
necessary mar
ut I guess you
r way of think-
ced in
“You
Gordon
patient
exclaimed the other
: another won over. Fight.
ontinued the
but here the
physician thought in-
and excused himself
“Doctor, how do you account for the
change In your patient?”
asked upon reaching the cor
“Why, only a day or two ago
excitedly, "is
best to
terpose Gordon
Gordon
ridor
to fight.”
“Exactly,” nodded the physician
“That bump he got on his head a few
months shocked his
of combativeness into violent action
It instantly changed him from ap
| apostle of peace to a man of war, as
it were, His fall a few days age
acted Just as strangely with a reverse
force. He Is perfectly
and pacific, the original
BRO nerve center
now normal
Lovejoy.”
“By the way,” added the physician
{| as Gordon took his leave, “I wish you
k as vice president of his soclety
my regard it ag a compliment,
| but as he seems to have taken a fancy
| to you, you will probably find it quite
You 1
| as difficult to dodge his peace projects
in the future as his fighting proposals
in the past”
War Ambulances
| olution of 1789 brought the ambulance
service along with other military in.
novations., An orgahized system
the transportation of wounded was
first introduced by Baron Larrey, the
French military surgeon in the Army
of ‘the Rhine In 1792. It was not until
the latter part of the Civil war that
the ambulance obtained proper ree
ognition and development In the in:
troduction of a uniform system by an
act of congress In March, 18064.
Bees Ended Fracas
The customers of a village Inn at
Prohnsdorf, Prussia, became bolster
ous and a free-for-all fight developed
The landlord did not have a bouncer
and did not faney the job for himself
He rushed out aad brought back a
beehive, After putting on a mask, he
released the bees. The insects did thelr
work swiftly and thoroughly. and with
in n minute every one of the combat
ants had fled.
i
oliet,
EE
PA.
Chicago
Famous E¢plorers
CKINSON SHERMAN
*
a
reveled
“In |
2 " ¢
Marquet
the (hie
At tl the same
short
bror
Robert
Tonti.'
The tra
another
of
Henri
176
lent motorist
hurri
mosphere of the ‘wicag istorical
g program is carrie " For
Mrs. Josep!
the Natlor
on the value to gomd moeriean acquaintance
interestin exan
ple
anta, head of
al Society of rex, speaks
with such Im
Prof. Andrew Mel
Chicago reviews the
explorers,
Joliet and Marquett y tr
ago river, 1673 !
portant incidents of our early history
the University of
careers of these four famous
nth on the Chi
first saw the river
sub lect
erations It has
the Mississippi by wi
1670. It was in 1081 that
Portage on his way to the Gulf to take possession
name of France.
«
has been n ‘ontroversy for gen
reached
he crossed the Chicago
in the
As
first
{tn
white 1
whether Joliet and Marquette were the
en to see the that's
History record ang
white there had been
And
Calumet
mon highway for all
the Mis
day or Mackinac
Portage. If he wished
river, he used
» Chieago river
Chicago river
does
but
for a
another question not
previous visit by
en in that
¢ Chicago Portage
Portager-wns
traveled If
wished to zo to Green
Wisconsin Fox
cast via the
men,
on long
with
white m time
t fr ovpet Boge it
I ozether he
liver
the
who coming up
sissippl
lie used the
:
to travel
the Calumet rather thm
and wherefore of the
Marquette on the Chicago
ef is i Ww
nd
Here in In
presence of Jollet
river:
in
was appointed governor
of New France, fle was interested In
the cxploration of the region of the Great Lakes
and szelected Joliet to search for the Great River
believed to flow sonthward into the Gulf of Call.
fornia. Joliet was born In Canada, the son of a
wagon maker, He had been a promising scholar
in the Jesuits’ school at Quebec, but had become
a wilderness rover and Indian trader. He was a
young man, but had already made a reputation,
Joliet reached Mackinac In December of 1672,
and was delayed there hy fce till May. There
he met Marquette, a Jesuit priest of good family,
eight vears his senior. Ie Joined Joliet for the
southern trip. He had no official connection with
the expedition, They traveled In two canoes
with five voyageurs, They went up the Fox from
Green Bay and down the Wisconsin and descended
the Misslseippl to the mouth of the Arkansas.
Here, convinced that the Mississippl flowed into
the Gulf of Mexico, they turned back and reached
Lake Michigan by way of the Illinois, Desplaines
and Chicago rivers, Marquete went to his mis.
gion on Green Day. Jollet disappeared for a
year and did not report to Frontenac till August
of 1674,
Marquette's subsequent history fs briefly this:
fie had promised the Ilinois Indians near Peoria
that he would return and found a mission. In the
fall of 1674 he started for the lilinois village. Bad
1672 Lonls de Baade, Count de Frontenac,
and lientenant general
greatly
yo
voods bereft of every
Marquette’s unfinished |
*The
things the pri
periences op
We
the
Jesuit Relations.” re ar some of the
inter ex.
river:
started wind and reached
river of 1 wag frozen the
of half a f« Ther WAS more there
as well animals
13 y ’ +
he p a i to
ENOW
wre tracks of
ye
land be
except on the
Having encamped
the river. we
The rdering
prairies
the lake Ia of no
Deer hunting is
near the portage, two leagues
resolved to winter there, as it
impossible to go farther, since we were too
hindered and my aliment did not permit me
give myself much fatigue
Several Illinois passed yesterday
to carry furs to Nawaskingwe 1
have ev seen SAVAges Nd
tobacco than they
They came and threw 1
to get some pleces of it They traded us three fine
robes 6f ox skins for a cublt of tobacco: these
were very useful fo us during the winter
We have had opportunity observe the tides
coming In from the Jake, which rise and fall sev-
eral times a day, and, although there seems to be
no shelter In the lake we have seen the ice going
against the wind The deer are so lean that we
had to abandon several which we had killed We
killed several partridges
The blessed Virgin Immaculate has taken care
of us during our wintering that we have not
lacked provisions and have still remaining a large
sack of corn with some meat and fat
Frontenac wrote this Jetter to the French gov.
ernment upon the return of Joliet:
Sieur Jollet found some very fine coun-
tries, and a navigation so easy through the boau-
tiful rivers, that a person can go from Lake On-
tario and Fort Frontenac in a bark to the Gulf of
Mexico, there being only one carrying place, half
a league In length, where Lake Ontario communi-
cates with Lake Erle A settlement could be made
at this post, and another bark be built on Lake
Erie, He has been within ten days’ journey
of the Gulf of Mexico, and belleves that water
communication could be found leading to the Yer-
million and California Seas, by means of the river
that flows from the west, with the Grand River
that he discovered, which rises from north te
south, and Is as large as the St. Lawrence oppo-
site Quebec.
1 send you, by my secretary, the map he has
made of it, and the observations he has been able
to recollect, as he lost. all his minutes and jour
nals in the wreck he suffered within sight of
Montreal, where, after having completed a voyage
of twelve hundred leagues, he was near being
drowned, and lost all his papers, and a little
indian whom he brought from those countries.
It is interesting to note in these days of agita-
tion over a Great Lakes-Gulf waterway, that in
this letter Frontenac says in effect that the Chl.
cago Portage iy navigable and that Niagara Falls
is the only obstacle to continuous water-travel
All the early explorers had the same idea about
the Chleago Portage. If they had actually to
carry canoes across they incidentally remarked
that a few shovels would change all that, As a
matter of fact, conflicting statements as to the
Chicago Portage were due to seasonal conditions,
In times of high water canoes and even loaded
hatteaux went through easily. Of course these
early travelers knew nothing of the miles of un.
derlying rock close to the surface along the Des.
plaines river,
Joliet's canoe was upset actually within sight
of home, “after avolding perils from savages and
value
very good
up
was
much
to
on their way
do not think 1
ire eager for Fresch
eaver
skine at our feet
to
» ‘
wr a salle
Pm LZ et o/AL LC
x Ioritor: of Joliet
lar (76 74)
”~
’
Divines.” At
“Routes o
the
marked,
It was
hand
Here is a»
Cavelier, Sieur de
apparently later
of
Salle (1643-87), as
resume the ca of Rabert
La
histor
reer
generally
accepted by the ians after many years of
controversy as te certain peints:
He was born In Rouen, France, and arrived in
New France in 1008. He is credited with the dis.
of the Ohio amd probably followed
as the falls at Louisville. In 1678 he
parations te descend the Mississippl to
He bu Fort Creveconer on the Minols
river (Peoria) abd erganized an In y league
to fight the Iroquois Confederacy of New York.
the overlords of all the tribes from the Atlantic
to the Mississippi In 1082 he arrived st the
Gulf. by way of the Chicage Portage and the
Niinois, and took possession of the region, which
he named Louisiana, in the name of Louis XIV
He returned to Canada and then went te France
Here under autherity of Louis he organized an
expedition to the Gulf. with the purpose of found
ing a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi. He
galled from France in 1684, missed the Mississinpl
and bullt a fort on what Is now the Lavaca river
in Texas, He was assassinated by one of his
men Mareh 10, 1687, near the Trinity river in
Texas,
“Ihe Murther of Monsr. de La Salle™ is
produced from a copper plate by Van der Guclit
in the London (1608) edition of Hennepin's “New
Discovery.” The portrait of La Salle may or may
not have some basis of authenticity; it follows a
design in Gravier, which Is said to be based on
an engraving in the Bibliotheque de Rouen and
fs the only portrait worth consideration.
Henri di Tontl (1650-1704) was an Itallan soldier
of fortune. He entered La Salle's service in 1678
It was he who bulit Fort St. Louis on Starved
Rock in 1681. He searched long for La Salle after
his disappearance in Texas. After living with
the Illinois Indians as a trader he joined Iber.
ville at New Orleans In 1702,
Of these four men Joliet was the efficient voy-
ageur, with the advantage of an education: Pere
Marquette was the devoted priest, whose passion
was to convert the Indians: Tonti was the sol-
dier, the loyal and devoted lieutenant of La Salle:
La Salle was the man of vision who saw a French
empire in the Mississippi valley,
To the student of history the development of the
Missigsippl valley since the day of these four ex.
plorers is a marvel of marvels, Untold millions
have already been expended upon the waterways
over which they actually traveled by canoe and
the expenditure Is just beginning. The next five
years will probably see the completion of the
connection by waterways of Chicago, New Orleans
Pittsburgh and Kansas City at a cost of $100,000.
000. As for the Chicago Portage—the Chicago
river now flows backward inte the Minnie: the
“few shovels” have already cost over £100.000,000,
Chicago, then uninhabited, has now a population
of over 3.000000 and is tentatively planning a
second world's fair in 1837 In celebration of the
centennial of its beginning as a clty.
COvEry river,
it as far
began pre §
1
the gulf.
re-