SKETCHES 
 
Copyiiglit]^". 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
SKETCHES 
 
 BY 
 
 NANNIE H. SAVAGE 
 
 THE PLIMPTON PRESS 
 
 NORWOOD, MASS. 
 
 1920 
 
■SZ6 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1920 
 Y NANNIE H. SAVAGE 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
 Mi ^3 (iJ20 
 
 ©CU570207 
 
TO MY CHILDREN 
 
 MOTHEB 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Within these writings are gleanings from, 
 " The Arkansas Gazette " ; " History of Ar- 
 kansas,*' Hempstead ; '* History of Arkansas," 
 Bourne and Benton; "Library of American 
 Literature," Steadman and Hutchison; "Memo- 
 randum from Library of Congress"; and other 
 sources. 
 
 I gathered along the way — these pearls and 
 have strung them lovingly. May they throw 
 out to those passing within their pure rays 
 their fulness of beauty. 
 
 Nannie H. Savage. 
 
 MoNTicELLO, Arkansas, 
 July 4, 1919. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Arkansas — A Picture 1 
 
 Old Trails and Roads 47 
 
 My Visit to Washington City .... 59 
 
ARKANSAS — A PICTURE 
 
 Colonial Period 
 
 TOURING ages of the past the area of what 
 ^""^ is now Arkansas lay smiling in the golden 
 sunshine of day or dreaming in the silvery 
 softness of moonlight. In this witchery wild- 
 flowers blended fragrance with the southern 
 winds ; graceful fawns gamboled about their 
 dams; the mocking-bird sprinkled his royal 
 notes from very joy; and wealth — lay sleep- 
 ing in the arms of nature. 
 
 That a superior prehistoric race — the 
 Mound Builders — lived here, we have evidence 
 from mounds in the State containing artistic 
 handicraft — pottery, ornaments and imple- 
 ments of war. In Lonoke County are mounds, 
 some of which reach the height of seventy- 
 five feet, whose flat tops and encircling em- 
 bankments — ten feet in height — prove how 
 purposely they were builded. 
 
 In this realm were found Indians who fished, 
 1 
 
2 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 
 
 hunted and attended to the business of their 
 wars. Their skillfully chipped arrowheads of 
 various-colored flints are scattered over the 
 surface of the State. 
 
 Since civilized man must ever go west, Euro- 
 pean explorers at different times and points 
 touched the shores of the New World. One 
 of these, a Spanish nobleman, Hernando De 
 Soto, seeking gold and the famed fountain of 
 youth, trailed up from Florida, then westward, 
 discovered the Mississippi river, which he 
 crossed, probably, at a point above the mouth 
 of White river, near Helena, and landed 
 "right over against the camp" on June 18, 
 1541. 
 
 Of the Mississippi the writer of the party, 
 "A Gentleman of Elvas," records: "The river 
 is almost half a league broad. If a man stood 
 on the other side it could not be discerned 
 whether he was a man or no. The river was 
 of great depth and had a strong current. . . . 
 There was great store of fish in it." 
 
 It is conceded that De Soto with his party 
 reached the Hot Springs, since the above 
 
ARKANSAS A PICTURE 6 
 
 writer mentions "a lake of very hot water, and 
 somewhat brackish." He also notes of salt on 
 the Ouachita banks : "They make it along the 
 river, which when it ebbeth, leaveth it upon the 
 upper part of the sand." 
 
 In 1673 — one hundred and thirty-two years 
 later — a French Jesuit priest. Father Mar- 
 quette, wishing to find into what water the 
 Mississippi emptied, with a Frenchman, Joliet, 
 floated from the upper Mississippi, which they 
 had discovered, to the mouth of the White river, 
 thence up the waters of the Arkansas river to 
 the point where, later, was established Arkansas 
 Post. This gentle Father brought to these In- 
 dians the message of the Cross, and so im- 
 pressed were they, that ever afterwards they 
 welcomed the Frenchmen. 
 
 In 1682, Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, 
 with Henry de Tonti, his faithful lieutenant, 
 Father Membre and twenty Frenchmen and 
 Canadians, explored the Mississippi to its 
 mouth, and on the 9th of April formally claimed 
 this vast extent for France, and named it Louis- 
 iana in honor of his king, Louis XIV. While 
 
« ARKANSAS A PICTURE 
 
 on the return to Illinois, he granted De Tonti a 
 large tract of land along the Arkansas river. 
 La Salle, leaving De Tonti in command, pro- 
 ceeded to France to arrange for the settlement 
 of this new country. 
 
 How sunny seemed the future! 
 
 In July, 1686, as "commandant of Louis- 
 iana," he sailed with colonists for a settlement 
 at the mouth of the Mississippi and for trading 
 stations along its length, but he was destined 
 never to exercise his official power nor again to 
 see this beautiful possession he had given 
 France. 
 
 De Tonti, having heard that La Salle was 
 returning, descended the Mississippi to its 
 mouth to meet his beloved chieftain. After 
 searching the coast for him in vain, De Tonti, 
 on his way back to Illinois, sent ten from his 
 party to build a fort on the land that La Salle 
 had given him. 
 
 Thus, in 1686 — ninety years before the 
 Declaration of Independence was written and 
 eighty-three years before Daniel Boone boldl}'^ 
 trailed into the wilds of Kentucky -7- was estab- 
 
ARKANSAS A PICTURE 5 
 
 lished Arkansas Post : the first white settlement 
 within the present bounds of Arkansas and the 
 first within the vast extent of Louisiana. 
 
 Of this Post, built near the Indian town, Ot- 
 so-cho-ne, De Tonti said: "My French com- 
 panions — De Tonti was Italian — delighted 
 with the beauty of the climate, asked my per- 
 mission to settle there. . . . This little colony 
 has since been so much increased and multiplied 
 that it has become a resting place for the 
 Frenchmen who travel in that direction." 
 
 A tourist's highway may, later, lead to this 
 unique gem where shall be — De Tonti Park, 
 with great gray boulders, from our moun- 
 tains, portraying: The coming of Father Mar- 
 quette ; the deeds of De Tonti ; the organiza- 
 tion of the Territory here by Robert Critten- 
 den; the establishment of The Arkansas Ga- 
 zette; the arrival of Governor Miller, and 
 General T. J. Churchill's heroic defense of this 
 point during the Civil War. 
 
 After La Salle's murder on the bank of 
 Trinity river, Texas, the remnant of his party, 
 consisting of seven, Father Anastasius among 
 
6 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 
 
 them, led by friendly Indians, finally reached 
 the Arkansas river opposite the fort, in July 
 1687, and looking to the other side "saw a 
 great cross and, near it, a house built after 
 the French fashion." Shots were fired by two 
 welcoming Frenchmen — the Indian chief of 
 this village had fired before — who "were 
 pleased to see such persons as might bring 
 them news of that commander from whom they 
 expected the performance of what he had 
 promised them; but the account given them 
 of M. de La Salle's unfortunate death was so 
 affecting that it drew tears from them, and 
 the dismal history of his troubles and disas- 
 ters rendered them almost inconsolable." 
 
 How clearly we see them ! 
 
 France, after the Seven Years War with 
 England, to prevent England's wresting Louis- 
 iana from her, secretly conveyed this posses- 
 sion to her ally, Spain, by the Treaty of Paris 
 in 1763. Later, the following letter from the 
 king, bearing date April 21, 1764, was re- 
 ceived at New Orleans by M. d'Abadie, gov- 
 ernor of Louisiana: 
 
ARKANSAS A PICTURE 7 
 
 "I address this letter to inform you that my 
 intention is that on the receipt of this letter 
 and the copies annexed, whether it reaches 
 you through the officers of his Spanish Majesty, 
 or directly by the French vessels charged with 
 its delivery, you will resign into the hands of 
 the Governor therefor, appointed by the King 
 of Spain, the said country and colony and its 
 dependencies, with the City and Island of New 
 Orleans, in such state as they may be at the 
 date of such cession, wishing that in future they 
 belong to his Catholic Majesty, and adminis- 
 tered by his governors and officers as belong to 
 him, in full right and without exception." 
 
 This order broke d'Abadie's heart! M. 
 Aubry, his successor, performed the duties of 
 transfer, and our present Arkansas became 
 Spanish estate. 
 
 Spain, during thirty-seven years of posses- 
 sion, made heroic attempts to advance this wil- 
 derness. One of her governors. Baron de 
 Carondelet, conferred princely grants of land: 
 June 11, 1793, " to Captain Don Joseph Val- 
 liere in the District of Arkansas, a tract of 
 
8 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 
 
 land situated on the White river, extending 
 from the rivers Norte Grande and Cibolos, to 
 the source of the said White river, ten leagues 
 in depth" ; 1795, to Don Carlos de Villemont 
 "two leagues of land front, by one league in 
 depth lying on the right descending bank of 
 the Mississippi at a place called the Island del 
 Chicot, distant twenty-five leagues below the 
 mouth of the Arkansas river"; June 20, 1797, 
 to Baron de Bastrop "twelve leagues square or 
 more than one million arpens" — one arpen is 
 "about eighty-five hundredths of an acre" — 
 "of land which lay eighty leagues above the 
 mouth of the Ouachita adjoining on the part of 
 the southwest the eastern shore of" that "river 
 and Bayous Ouachita, Bartholmew and Siard." 
 Only the small northern portion of this latter 
 grant extended into Chicot County, Arkansas. 
 De Bastrop ceded four hundred thousand acres 
 from his land to Aaron Burr, and it was here 
 along the Ouachita river that the latter pro- 
 posed establishing a colony as the central point 
 for his future movements. Baron de Carondelet, 
 on June 27, 1797, further granted lands "a 
 
ARKANSAS A PICTURE 9 
 
 million of arpens" to the Winter families and 
 other families "to form a settlement in the post 
 of Arkansas for the cultivation of flax, wheat 
 and hemp." 
 
 No possession of note had been taken of 
 these above wilderness lands amidst hostile In- 
 dians, so their grants, later, became invalid. 
 Other Spanish grants, having been perfected, 
 were approved by the United States, their titles 
 continuing in force at the present time. 
 
 In 1800, through the Treaty of St. Ilde- 
 fonso, Louisiana was secretly transferred again 
 to France. 
 
 During the government of Louisiana by 
 Spain, there had been trouble about the use of 
 the Mississippi. In 1788, John Jay wrote: 
 "Spain thinks it convenient to shut the Missis- 
 sippi against us on one side, and Britain ex- 
 cludes us from the Saint Lawrence on the other ; 
 nor will either of them permit the other waters 
 which are between them and us to become the 
 means of mutual intercourse and traffic." On 
 April 18, 1802, President Jefferson, who had 
 become aware of this late transaction, wrote to 
 
10 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 
 
 the United States Minister at Paris, Robert R. 
 Livingston: "There is on the globe one single 
 spot the possessor of which is our natural and 
 habitual enemy. It is New Orleans, through 
 which the produce of three-eighths of our ter- 
 ritory must pass to market." On Oct. 16, 
 1802, the Spanish intendant, Don Morales, 
 closed the port at New Orleans from the United 
 States, giving no other in its stead. 
 
 How serious the crisis ! 
 
 President Jefferson at once instructed Mr. 
 Livingston to treat with France for New Or- 
 leans, and sent James Monroe, special envoy 
 to assist him ; but — Napoleon had planned a 
 kingdom west of the beautiful Mississippi with 
 New Orleans as the seat of government. The 
 fleet, with troops and colonists, was ready to 
 sail when. Napoleon having received dispatches 
 that England was preparing for war, and fear- 
 ing her prowess in the Gulf, said to his secre- 
 tary, Marbois: "I renounce Louisiana. It is 
 not only New Orleans I wish to cede, but the 
 entire colony without reserve. . . . Open the 
 subject this very day to Mr. Livingston." 
 
ARKANSAS A PICTURE 11 
 
 Thus was achieved the greatest coup d'etat 
 of our national life and the cession of the great- 
 est territory in history. 
 
 Of Louisiana, Napoleon said : "I am well ac- 
 quainted with the value of what I abandon 
 . . . with lively regret." Of the French in 
 Louisiana : "May they cherish for us . . . sen- 
 timents of affection." 
 
 He must have felt these words ! 
 
 Mr. Jefferson now suggested to Congress 
 that "laws be enacted for the occupation and 
 government of the acquired territory," and 
 hastened for the official transfer. 
 
 On December 20, 1803, at New Orleans, and 
 March 10, 1804, at St. Louis, as the Tri-colors 
 of France was lowered the Stars and Stripes 
 was raised to float in sovereignty over this fair 
 extent, Louisiana. 
 
 The regime of the French in Arkansas is 
 impressed by their beautiful names : Ouachita, 
 Fourche la Fave, Poteau, Petit Jean, Des Arc, 
 Maumelle. 
 
12 arkansas a picture 
 
 Ante-Territorial Period 
 
 The United States in March 1804 divided 
 Louisiana into the Territory of Orleans with 
 New Orleans as capital, and the Territory of 
 Louisiana with seat of government at St. Louis. 
 The former division was admitted into the 
 Union in 1812 as the State of Louisiana, when 
 the latter division was organized into the Ter- 
 ritory of Missouri, of which Arkansas formed 
 one or more counties until 1819. 
 
 As early as June 1804 Major James B. 
 Maney was stationed at Arkansas Post, having 
 received it direct from the Spanish officer, Don 
 Carlos de Villemont, as commandant. This 
 stable government attracted into Arkansas 
 Anglo-Saxons from east of the Mississippi 
 river. After the War of 1812, many who had 
 served as soldiers came to claim allotments 
 given them by the government, and lands began 
 to attain value. 
 
 The State and her greatest river were named 
 for Indians that lived on the Mississippi river 
 near the mouth of the Arkansas and in towns 
 
ARKANSAS A PICTURE 13 
 
 along the lower borders of the latter river. 
 They had once lived in the Ohio valley, whence 
 they were driven out by more powerful tribes, 
 who, in 1700, spoke of the Ohio as the river of 
 the Akansa. Father Marquette first notes the 
 name "Akansea," as he heard it. Other 
 Frenchmen, later, wrote it Arkancas, Arkansas, 
 Arkansea, Accanceas and Akansa. 
 
 The Arkansas river formed the dividing- 
 line between the Osage Indians on the north 
 and the Quapaws on the south. 
 
 The United States secured title to their lands 
 in the following manner : Governor Meriwether 
 Lewis, through Pierre Chouteau, made the first 
 treaty with them November 10, 1808. This 
 treaty was with the Osages and was confirmed 
 by one hundred and ten chiefs of the "Big and 
 Little Osages" and agreed to later, August 31, 
 1809, by fifteen "chiefs and warriors ... re- 
 siding on the river Arkansas, being a part of 
 the Great Osage nation." Among these "chiefs 
 and warriors," were "Handsome Hair," "Fine 
 Day" and "Builder of Towns." This treaty 
 transferred a vast tract of land, of which 
 
14 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 
 
 14,830,432 acres were in the bounds of the 
 future State of Arkansas. On September 25, 
 1818, forty-five of the "Great and Little Osage 
 nation" ceded 7,392,000 acres — which had 
 been reserved from the former treaty — lying 
 "in Arkansas and west thereof" through Gov- 
 ernor William Clark, and later, June 2, 1825, 
 Governor Clark arranged further transfer 
 from the Osages of "all lands lying within" the 
 "territory of Arkansas." A negotiation was 
 had, August 24, 1818, between Governor Clark 
 and Auguste Chouteau, and the Quapaw chiefs 
 — among them, "Eagle's Bill," "Dry Man," 
 "Buck Wheat," "The Tame Buffalo" and "Ap- 
 proaching Summer." This granted all land 
 south of the Arkansas river, save 1,500,000 
 acres, whose western border extended to "the 
 Little Rock," which the Quapaws agreed never 
 to sell without consent of the United States. 
 This reservation, the last Indian possession in 
 Arkansas Territory, was ceded on November 
 15, 1824, in a treaty perfected by Robert Crit- 
 tenden with "Dry Man," the last Quapaw chief 
 of full blood, and Saracen, a half Quapaw. 
 
ARKANSAS A PICTURE 15 
 
 This aged chief, Saracen, who attained the 
 age of ninety years, moved away with his tribe ; 
 but loving best "the land of my fathers," re- 
 turned, with Governor Pope's kindest permis- 
 sion, to the reservation, "eighty acres of land 
 to be laid off so as to include his improvements, 
 where he now resides opposite Vaugine's" that 
 had been given him in the treaty of 1824. He 
 was esteemed for his nobility of character, and 
 a window in the Roman Catholic church of 
 Pine Bluff commemorates his life. 
 
 "THE INDIANS ARE COMING!!! 
 
 "We stop the press to announce the arrival, 
 last evening, of Capt. Clark and Lieut. Ryan, 
 of the U. S. Army from mouth of White river. 
 They bring us the interesting news, that up- 
 wards of 500 of Fulsom's party of the Emi- 
 grating Choctaws arrived at the Post of Ar- 
 kansas on Saturday last, on board the steam- 
 boat 'Reindeer,' and they presume there are 
 by this time over 3,000 Choctaws at that place. 
 They may be looked for here in a few days." 
 
 The above "from the files of The Gazette, of 
 November 30, 1831," shows the emigration of 
 
16 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 
 
 the Choctaws from Mississippi, across to their 
 new home, "in the Red river section of the 
 Choctaw country." 
 
 A second nation of emigrating Indians were 
 the Cherokees. A few of them drifted across 
 the Mississippi river from the Mussel Shoals 
 and Chattanooga regions into the St. Francis 
 river country, as early as 1790. Other Chero- 
 kees moved over and settled in what is now 
 Crawford County prior to 1810. By a treaty 
 July 8, 1817, between the United States and 
 the Cherokees, east of the Mississippi and along 
 the Arkansas river, this entire nation was set- 
 tled in the Indian Territory. 
 
 The Cherokees were superior Indians: Dik- 
 keh, the Just, is here pictured by the pen of 
 "Mr. Washburn": 
 
 "His appearance was most venerable. His 
 thin locks were of almost snowy whiteness. He 
 could only walk as supported by men on either 
 side, but his figure was erect and most majestic, 
 his stature fully six feet, and his whole frame 
 of symmetrical proportions. His age at that 
 time was said to be one hundred and twenty 
 
ARKANSAS A PICTURE 17 
 
 years, and his whole aspect went to confirm the 
 report ; and yet his vision and hearing were 
 unimpaired. After giving me a most cordial 
 and paternal, or rather patriarchal greeting, 
 which almost inspired me with awe, he was 
 placed in an armchair and supported with cush- 
 ions, himself resting his head upon the top of 
 his staff. I was forcibly reminded of the patri- 
 arch Jacob when blessing the sons of Joseph." 
 
 An orator of marvelous powers was Chil-kil- 
 leh, who "secured the confirmation of a treaty 
 of peace between the Osages and the Cherokees 
 when Governor Miller and the military power 
 of the United States had failed." The power- 
 ful chief of the Cherokees, Ta-ka-to-kuh of their 
 ancient priesthood, was unyielding in his deci- 
 sion that "there should be perpetual war with the 
 Osages." Chil-kil-leh presented the decision 
 for peace from the twelve Cherokees to the 
 council in such magic eloquence and appealing 
 pathos, that Ta-ka-to-kuh cast his vote, while 
 the sun was sinking into an opalescent bed, as 
 one for peace. 
 
 Se-quo-yah, in 1826, invented an alphabet, 
 
18 
 
 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 
 
 containing eighty-six characters of the Chero- 
 kee language which was "said to be the most 
 perfect alphabet ever constructed in any 
 language." He translated the New Testament 
 into Cherokee. 
 
 As early as 1817, a military post, "two block 
 houses and barracks," was located at an old 
 French trading place. Belle Point, a high bluff 
 overlooking the Arkansas and Poteau rivers. 
 A year later, its name was changed to Fort 
 Smith in honor of General Thomas A. Smith, 
 commanding officer. This fort was rebuilt in 
 1838-42, of stone, and of its buildings the old 
 vine-sheltered commissary is the last. 
 
 Of the famous men who knew this fort, with 
 its stirring events of frontier days and its 
 charming social circle, were : Stephen H. Long, 
 Sam Houston, Albert Pike, Washington Irving 
 and his hero. Captain Bonneville; Generals 
 Zachary Taylor, Joseph E. Johnson, Mc- 
 Clellan, Grant ; Stanley, the great explorer, and 
 Catlin, the celebrated painter. 
 
 Here romance came. While General Tay- 
 lor was commanding, an attachment arose be- 
 
ARKANSAS 
 
 A PICTURE 19 
 
 tween Sarah, his daughter, and a young offi- 
 cer, Lieutenant Jefferson Davis — later presi- 
 dent of the Southern Confederacy — which led 
 to their marriage in Kentucky soon afterwards. 
 General Taylor had not become reconciled to 
 this marriage, but at Buena Vista, after see- 
 ing the fine heroism of Colonel Davis, at the 
 head of his regiment, he, with heart over- 
 flowing with gratitude, embraced him and said : 
 "My daughter was a better judge of men than 
 I am." 
 
 Territorial Period 
 
 On March 2, 1819, Congress created the Ter- 
 ritory of Arkansas, effective July 4. The next 
 day, March 3, General James Miller of New 
 Hampshire, the hero of Lundy's Lane, was ap- 
 pointed governor, and the gifted young Robert 
 Crittenden of Kentucky secretary, by President 
 Monroe. 
 
 Over the territory at this time was scattered 
 a population of fourteen thousand, and there 
 were two postoffices, Davidsonville and Ark- 
 ansas Post, to which mail was brought monthly 
 
20 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 
 
 along an old trail extending through from 
 St. Louis to Monroe, Louisiana. 
 
 The first Legislature convened July 28, 1819, 
 at Arkansas Post. It was composed of Robert 
 Crittenden, secretary, who presided as lieuten- 
 ant-governor. Governor Miller not having ar- 
 rived, and the three judges of the Superior 
 Court of the Territory. This session estab- 
 lished circuit courts and organized the offices 
 of auditor and treasurer. 
 
 The second Legislature passed the bill for 
 the removal of the capital from Arkansas Post 
 to Little Rock, effective June 1, 1821. This 
 gave the capital a central position and a most 
 healthful site, of picturesque beauty, overlook- 
 ing the Arkansas river, for its future growth 
 into a great commercial, railroad and social 
 center. 
 
 Of this location. Judge Daniel T. Witter, 
 from St. Louis, Missouri, who located in Little 
 Rock in May, 1820, wrote: "During the sum- 
 mer" — 1820 — "Governor Miller, on his return 
 from the Osage country, where he had been to 
 hold a council with the Osages, accompanied by 
 
ARKANSAS A PICTURE 21 
 
 Colonel McRae and Major Archer, both of the 
 United States army, spent a day or two with 
 us, and was highly pleased with our town site, 
 and pronounced it the unquestionable seat of 
 government, not onl}^ for the present territory, 
 but for the future State." 
 
 The Arkansas Gazette, the first newspaper 
 published in Arkansas and the only newspaper 
 west of the Mississippi which has retained its 
 name for a century, was established by Wil- 
 liam E. Woodruff, at Arkansas Post, Novem- 
 ber 20, 1819. Mr. Woodruff, born near Bell- 
 port, Suffolk County, New York, December 
 24, 1795, had journeyed down the Cumberland, 
 Ohio and Mississippi rivers and arrived at the 
 post on the last day of October, 1819 — with 
 his printing press. 
 
 This famous paper has published the state, 
 national and world events for one hundred 
 years, and borne into the homes of Arkansas 
 from its earliest issues, the best literature. Its 
 columns have contained writings fresh from 
 the pens of Byron, Scott and Tennyson, our 
 own Longfellow and Whittier, and announce- 
 
22 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 
 
 ments of new romances from Cooper, which 
 immediately ran as serials in its pages. 
 
 May The Arkansas Gazette continue a 
 chronicler of our State's achievements — into 
 future centuries. 
 
 Along the rivers and trails during these early 
 days was a second momentous passing over the 
 western limits : a steady stream of settlers into 
 Mexico. Stephen F. Austin, who, in 1820, in 
 Little Rock, presided as judge over the sum- 
 mer term of the Circuit Court, planted in 1821, 
 along the Brazos, on land that had been granted 
 his father. Colonel Moses Austin of Potosi, Mis- 
 souri, by the viceroy at the City of Mexico and 
 confirmed to him by the succeeding govern- 
 ment, the first Anglo-Saxon colony in that part 
 of Old Mexico that later became the State of 
 Texas. 
 
 Military roads were begun in 1826. The 
 first, from Memphis to Little Rock, which in 
 December 1827 was being traveled "the whole 
 way," was continued through Fort Smith and 
 Fort Towson connecting with New Orleans. 
 This road and posts along the western border 
 
ARKANSAS A PICTURE 23 
 
 gave protection from the fierce Indians. A 
 second United States road led from St. Louis 
 through Little Rock to Washington, in Hemp- 
 stead County. 
 
 Wonderfully lucid is this portrayal of Hot 
 Springs, from The Gazette files of August 7, 
 1827: 
 
 "We are indebted to the politeness of a friend 
 who has recently visited them for the following 
 description of the 'Hot Springs of Washuta': 
 Among the various powers of the master hand 
 of Nature that have claimed the attention of 
 the learned or arrested the eye of the natu- 
 ralist, this singular phenomenon deserves to hold 
 a conspicuous station, whether regarded in a 
 philosophical, mineralogical or medicinal point 
 of view. It seems to have been formed in her 
 most sportive mood, and in its kind is a perfect 
 lusus natura, affording an extended field for 
 ingenious theory and scientific speculation. 
 This great natural curiosity is situated in the 
 new Arkansas Territory, in lat. 34 deg., 30 
 min. and 27 sec. North, according to Maj. 
 Long's observation, and about 60 miles S. W. 
 
24 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 
 
 of town of Little Rock, the Territorial seat of 
 Government. The salutary effect of the me- 
 dicinal properties of the springs were long since 
 known to the Spaniards, when the sovereignty 
 of which Arkansas then formed a constituent 
 part was subject to the Crown of Spain. At 
 a period somewhat later, they were much fre- 
 quented by the various Indian tribes ... in 
 cases of Chronic Rheumatism. The wars which 
 almost always existed between these tribes, were 
 said to have opposed no barrier to such excur- 
 sions, for by a humane compact (worthy of the 
 admiration and imitation of a more civilized 
 race) invalids were permitted to pass and re- 
 pass, to and from the Springs, w^ithout hin- 
 drance or molestation — such description of 
 persons being easily recognized by the manner 
 of wearing the hair, a manner common to all 
 the tribes and conformed to by all candidates 
 for the benefit of the bath. The Springs have 
 been estimated to be 30 or 40 in number, and 
 issue out of the side of a mountain about 300 
 feet in height. They fall gradually into a 
 branch of cold water that runs at the back of 
 
ARKANSAS A PICTURE 25 
 
 the mountain, which by this means becomes so 
 much heated by the addition of spring water, 
 as to present the very remarkable fact of a 
 bold running spring of hot water. The tem- 
 perature of the largest and hottest spring may 
 be probably rated at 150 to 160 degrees Fah- 
 renheit, and that of the smallest and coolest at 
 about 120 or 130 degrees. The waters are 
 chiefly beneficial in cases of Rheumatism, En- 
 largement of the Spleen, and Affections of the 
 Liver. About three miles from Hot Springs, 
 there is a most delightful chalybeate spring, 
 very strongly impregnated and so profuse that 
 it is capable of discharging at least 30 gallons 
 water per minute. ..." 
 
 In 1807, the first cabin was built at Hot 
 Springs; by 1812 a few visitors came; in 1828 
 a family from Boston established a boarding 
 house, and the following year many guests 
 from different states arrived. The first bath- 
 ing houses were built in 1830. Of those of the 
 present time the Fordyce is one of the most 
 palatial bathing houses in the world. By an 
 Act of Congress in 1832, the four sections of 
 
26 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 
 
 land containing the springs were held "from 
 private ownership by purchase, settlement or 
 pre-emption." Later, the Hot Springs moun- 
 tain, where nestle these priceless springs, was 
 created the Hot Springs Reservation. These 
 waters, exhaustless from Nature's hand, are 
 the goal of visitors from over the world today 
 and stand in their proven worth — the Hot 
 Springs of Arkansas. 
 
 The classic old State House at Little Rock 
 bears this history: Through Ambrose H. Se- 
 vier, Congress in 1831 granted ten sections of 
 land to assist in erecting a state house. Gov- 
 ernor Pope soon realized from the sale of this 
 land $31,722.26. Into this fund, later, "was 
 turned" the sale value from an additional grant 
 of one thousand acres, and private subscrip- 
 tions were also added to it. Governor Pope 
 himself selected the beautiful site, and arranged 
 the plans with the architect who had designed 
 the capitol of Kentucky, and the State House 
 was begun in March 1833. The first State 
 Legislature convened within its walls Septem- 
 ber 12, 1836; the stately trees on its grounds 
 
ARKANSAS A PICTURE 27 
 
 were planted 1839-40; the majestic figures, 
 Law, Mercy and Justice, were reared above the 
 dome when the building was being slightly re- 
 modeled in 1885 ; the coat-of-arms from the 
 Arkansas Centennial building, Philadelphia, 
 was placed over the entrance, and the fountain 
 from the Centennial erected on the grounds, in 
 1877. "Lady Baxter," resting so peacefully 
 here amidst creeping vines, is an old Confed- 
 erate gun. 
 
 Statehood 
 
 As early as 1831, Mr. Sevier was making 
 efforts to have the Territory admitted as a 
 State. In 1835, Governor Fulton "in his mes- 
 sage" to the Legislature, suggested that a com- 
 mittee be called to form a constitution. This 
 constitution, framed the following January, 
 was presented before Congress by Mr. Sevier 
 and in June 1836, Arkansas, with a population 
 of 51,809, was admitted a State in the Ameri- 
 can Union. 
 
 When war was declared with Mexico, from 
 Arkansas went "a full regiment of mounted 
 
28 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 
 
 gun men — as noble and gallant a band as ever 
 drew the sword or bore arms in defense of their 
 country." Busy were the scenes along the "old 
 Southwest Trail," as this regiment gathered 
 in rendezvous at Washington. Archibald Yell 
 left Congress to come home and enter the regi- 
 ment, enlisting as a private, but was chosen 
 colonel of the regiment. In the battle of Buena 
 Vista, February 23, 1847, during a charge by 
 Mexican lancers. Colonel Yell and other heroes 
 from Arkansas gave their lives. 
 
 Of succeeding conflicts : 
 
 During the Civil War, soldiers from Arkan- 
 sas defended her own limits and fought on all 
 the battlefields : Manassas to Lee's surrender at 
 Appomattox; Corinth, Chickamauga, Mission- 
 ary Ridge and all battles of Johnson's army 
 to his surrender in North Carolina ; and at the 
 siege of Vicksburg. 
 
 One of the greatest generals of the entire 
 Confederacy was Patrick Ronayne Cleburne, 
 of Helena. Entering the Helena "Yell Rifles" 
 as private he was promoted to be captain of 
 this company, and rapidly advanced to the 
 
ARKANSAS A PICTURE 29 
 
 rank of brigadier-general and major-general. 
 He defended Ringgold Gap an entire day, al- 
 lowing General Bragg's army to pass into 
 safety, for which Spartan bravery he received 
 thanks from the Confederate Congress. Gen- 
 eral Cleburne, "at the head of his men, waving 
 his cap, cheering them on," fell in the hopeless 
 battle of Franklin, Tennessee, November 30, 
 1864. His body was brought back to Helena, 
 by the Ladies Memorial Association of that 
 city, and a monument marks its sacred resting- 
 place. 
 
 President McKinley's call for volunteers at 
 the beginning of the Spanish- American war was 
 received at Little Rock April 25, 1898. In 
 thirty days the quota, two thousand soldiers 
 forming two regiments, was ready for duty. 
 
 Of Arkansas' service in the recent World 
 War, the following extracts from a summary 
 by General Crowder, in The Arkansas Gazette, 
 May 18, 1919, show: 
 
 "In the matter of volunteers during the pe- 
 riod of the first draft, Arkansas led all south- 
 ern states in that she was the only southern 
 
30 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 
 
 state to exceed the national average ratio of 
 enlistment credits to gross quota." 
 
 "Arkansas on June 5, 1917, registered 149,- 
 097 males between the ages of 21 and 30, 
 inclusive, and was the fifth state in the Union 
 to wire its complete returns to Washington." 
 
 "On October 31, 1918, Arkansas was credited 
 with 65,311 men in the Federal service. Of 
 these 11,699 were volunteers in the army, 
 4,025 volunteers in the navy, and 275 volun- 
 teers in Marine Corps." 
 
 How sustaining was Mother's face when her 
 little bo}^ of yesterday hastened with the Stars 
 and Stripes overseas ; how thoughtful was 
 Father's. How precious the card: "Arrived 
 safely," and his dispatched letters — how 
 cheery ! 
 
 Crowned with laurels, he comes home a hero 
 — the greatest hero of time ! 
 
 Camp Pike sprang into existence when our 
 beloved country entered the World War and is 
 now the demobilization point for eleven states. 
 
 Eberts Field, the first aviation field in Ar- 
 kansas, was established at Lonoke in the Au- 
 
ARKANSAS A PICTURE 31 
 
 tumn of 1918. Its champaign aviation field, 
 with the unsurpassed atmospheric conditions 
 of this State, is one of the best in the United 
 States. 
 
 Fort Logan H. Roots was established dur- 
 ing Governor Fishback's administration, on a 
 tract of one thousand acres at historic Big 
 Rock that citizens of Little Rock ceded the 
 government in exchange for the Arsenal 
 grounds in Little Rock, which became a public 
 park for all future time. This famous post 
 during the Spanish- American war, was the cen- 
 ter of brisk military activities and has given 
 vigilant service to points west of the Mississippi 
 and south to the Mexican border line for a 
 quarter of a century. 
 
 Camp Pike and Fort Logan H. Roots, for 
 the entire period of the recent war, and Eberts 
 Field, from its establishment, have won from 
 the United States Public Health Service — 
 highest health reports. 
 
 Railroad development in Arkansas was begun 
 in 1854, by surveys of the: Memphis and Little 
 Rock, Little Rock and Fort Smith, and St. 
 
32 ABKANSAS A PICTUKE 
 
 Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern lines. Of 
 these, the Memphis and Little Rock road, built 
 from Hopefield to Madison in 1858, and from 
 Little Rock to De Vall's Bluff by 1861, was 
 finished in 1868 — the first railroad in the 
 State. 
 
 In 1903, a State good roads association was 
 created, which has greatly forwarded advance- 
 ment. Now, wonderful highways through the 
 enchanting Ozarks and prairie stretches of 
 nodding blossoms, by placid lakes where water 
 lilies float, by shaded mossy banks with spill- 
 ing silver — tinkling — tinkling into dimpling 
 springs, and along our riversides, are being 
 built throughout the State. 
 
 Of these highways, the Arkansas-Louisiana 
 — the largest single highway undertaking in the 
 United States — is now being built from Grady, 
 where it connects with the gravel pike to Pine 
 Bluff, down to McGehee, from which point two 
 branches extend to the Louisiana line, one 
 through Ashley County, the other through Chi- 
 cot. A third branch passes from McGehee to 
 Arkansas City. 
 
ARKANSAS A PICTURE 33 
 
 This road, fourteen feet wide, with brown 
 asphalted surface, costing approximately 
 $3,500,000, extends for one hundred and fifty- 
 three miles through its district of six hundred 
 and seventy-five thousand acres of the finest 
 alluvium in the world. 
 
 The official link of the Bankhead highway 
 is now being constructed from Little Rock to 
 Hot Springs, where it will connect with the 
 Albert Pike highway to Denver, Colorado. 
 
 Altogether, seven thousand miles of highways 
 are being built or have been provided for within 
 this State. 
 
 The pride of Arkansas is her churches and 
 her educational institutions — heralds of a 
 country's worth. 
 
 Catholic priests faithfully attended the 
 Frenchmen and Spaniards at Arkansas Post; 
 with the coming of the Anglo-Saxon, the cir- 
 cuit rider entered; braving on horseback nar- 
 row trails for hundreds of miles, to meet and 
 teach his people. 
 
 One of these saintly men, the Reverend John 
 P. Carnahan, a Cumberland Presbyterian min- 
 
34 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 
 
 ister, preached the first Protestant sermon in 
 Arkansas, at Arkansas Post, in 1811. In Oc- 
 tober 1828, he organized the first Sabbath 
 School in Washington County. Think how pa- 
 tiently he labored during all these intervening 
 years ! 
 
 A valiant missionary was the Reverend Ce- 
 phas Washburn, who left New England October 
 
 1818, coming through the old Cherokee, Chick- 
 asaw and Choctaw nations east of the Missis- 
 sippi river to Pope County, where he estab- 
 lished the Dwight Mission among the Cherokees. 
 
 Mr. Washburn, having been "waited on" by 
 a party of gentlemen, preached, on July 4, 
 
 1819, the first sermon ever pronounced in Little 
 Rock. 
 
 Thus were established churches in the State! 
 
 The thoroughness of Arkansas' school sys- 
 tem is sustained by most efficient educators, 
 and the State University is unsurpassed in 
 the South. Four agricultural colleges located 
 at Monticello, Jonesboro, Russellville and Mag- 
 nolia were opened in 1910 and the young peo- 
 ple of the state are enthusiastically profiting 
 
ARKANSAS A PICTURE 35 
 
 from the priceless scientific training they offer. 
 
 From these colleges radiates an impress 
 that is bringing to Arkansas — with its lus- 
 cious strawberries, rosy-cheeked Elbertas, great 
 black apples, acres of swelling wheat, 
 extending fields of rice, rivers stocked with fish, 
 yards of pure-bred chickens, ranges of pedi- 
 greed hogs, vast stretches of grasses variegated 
 by herds of blooded cattle, and its advance- 
 ment, within the past six years, in the produc- 
 tion of cotton from seventh to fifth place — 
 great prosperity. 
 
 The advancement of Arkansas from her first 
 territorial day has been promoted by men of 
 rare ability and worth. 
 
 The brilliant Robert N. Crittenden, who, as 
 lieutenant-governor at twenty-two years of age, 
 organized the territorial government, was 
 famed as a lawyer and an orator. As a young 
 soldier he had won distinction in the War of 
 1812, and had fought gallantly at Lundy's 
 Lane. 
 
 Of the noted Conway family, who came from 
 Tennessee, Henry W. Conway, who had served 
 
36 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 
 
 under General Jackson at New Orleans, rep- 
 resented the Territory in Congress with signal 
 merit. James S. Conway was the great sur- 
 veyor of those early days and the State's first 
 Governor. A third brother, Elias N. Conway, 
 rendered the State most efficient and valued 
 service as auditor from 1835 to 1849, and 
 later, as governor for eight years, advancing 
 the building of levees and railroads and ad- 
 justing banking affairs. 
 
 Judge Benjamin Johnson, from Kentucky — 
 one of five distinguished brothers — was the 
 greatest jurist of Arkansas from 1821 to 1849. 
 After the territory passed into statehood, he 
 served as United States District Judge for the 
 remainder of his life. 
 
 Two other noted statesmen were Ambrose H. 
 Sevier — of the Tennessee Seviers, who came 
 to the Territory in 1821 and served in Con- 
 gress twenty consecutive years, and Chester A. 
 Ashley from Massachusetts, who arrived in 
 1821, and soon became the most eminent lawyer, 
 with a circuit the entire area of Arkansas. Of 
 them Judge Witter wrote: "From 1844 to 1848 
 
ARKANSAS A PICTURE 37 
 
 our State was represented in the Senate of 
 the United States by Ambrose H. Sevier and 
 Chester Ashley. The former, Mr. Sevier, occu- 
 pying the high position of chairman of the com- 
 mittee on foreign relations, a position politi- 
 cally next to that of the president ; and the lat- 
 ter, Mr. Ashley, the distinguished position of 
 chairman of the judiciary committee of the 
 Senate, and each considered equal to any duty 
 or emergency that might devolve upon them." 
 Albert Pike, from Massachusetts, one of the 
 most illustrious men of his time, came to Ar- 
 kansas in 1833. He taught school near Van 
 Buren; wrote for the Advocate, at Little Rock, 
 and here mastered law; became the United 
 States chief Indian attorney; urged railroad 
 building; distinguished himself as captain in 
 Colonel Yell's regiment in the Mexican war, 
 and as brigadier-general in the Confederate 
 service, commanding a brigade he had formed of 
 Cherokee Indians. But he was greatest in the 
 accomplishments of his kingly mind. His 
 "Every Year," smites the chords of the heart 
 with a master's hand. He composed several 
 
38 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 
 
 books on Roman law and wrested from the 
 pages of the ancients truths for his beloved 
 Masonry, ranking at the time of his death in 
 Washington City in 1891, the highest Mason 
 in the world. 
 
 Augustus H. Garland, of the historic town 
 of Washington in Hempstead County, which 
 has given the State four supreme court judges, 
 two governors and two United States senators, 
 served his State as Governor, as United States 
 Senator, and the United States from 1884 to 
 1888 as attorney-general — thus representing 
 Arkansas in the President's Cabinet. 
 
 Judge U. M. Rose, a native of Kentucky, 
 was, for over half a century, a famous lawyer 
 and eloquent litterateur of Arkansas. He com- 
 piled "Rose's Digest" — an invaluable work 
 to the State; attained distinction in 1901 as 
 president of the American Bar Association; 
 and brilliant world renown in 1907, as an 
 American Commissioner to the Hague Peace 
 Tribunal. 
 
 The natural wealth of the State consists of 
 wonderful rivers and springs ; various fertile 
 
ARKANSAS A PICTURE 39 
 
 soils ; noble forests of many kinds of trees ; beds 
 of copper, zinc, coal, bauxite, and slate ; differ- 
 ent marbles, inexhaustible in quantity; a dia- 
 mond mine yielding beautiful gems for finest 
 polish; and pearls, from beneath the crystal 
 waters of the White river, many of them com- 
 manding the value of $10,000 each. 
 
 This wealth is challenged by the natural 
 beauty of Arkansas. 
 
 Ascending Hot Springs mountain on a clear 
 June morning, along winding trails that span 
 ravines preserved in woody wildness, with 
 their rims sheltering mosses and hanging ferns, 
 and beds harboring rocks that have drifted 
 down the steeps with passing years, we attain 
 the glorious height above. Here, along the 
 level, are rocks of various colorings, veinings 
 and shapes, wonderful views into the waning 
 far-off and the atmosphere pure and bracing. 
 
 Across the State, along the Mississippi river 
 where flows the Arkansas in historic majesty 
 and, the White river with its twinkling field 
 of converging steel and silver in mid-December, 
 is a different scene: Great bared sycamores, 
 
40 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 
 
 with shining limbs towering above the dun 
 shades of the forest; dark gaunt cypress 
 trees, their canopies strung with brown trap- 
 pings ; clusters of polished green holly trees, 
 and red berried shrubs along the water courses 
 — all of which make the prospect as far into 
 the wilds as can be seen, one of entrancing love- 
 liness. The train stops : Getting off, a party of 
 sportsmen equipped for the treat in store. They 
 follow the clean little footpath that awaits 
 them at the train steps, down the steep em- 
 bankment, steadily on to the doors of half- 
 hidden tents over in the edge of the woods. 
 Getting on, are huntsmen going home, some 
 with live trophies — beautiful creatures ! 
 
 Still another: Over the mirroring depths 
 of famous Lake Chicot, in dogwood blossom 
 time, are thousands of water fowls: swimming, 
 skimming, circling — an expanse of swaying 
 whiteness. 
 
 It has been the pleasure of the State, to ex- 
 tend hospitality to many distinguished guests. 
 
 President Roosevelt, while traveling in the 
 South, visited Little Rock by special invita- 
 
ARKANSAS A PICTURE 41 
 
 tion October 25, 1905. At the Scottish Rite 
 Consistory, where a luncheon was served in 
 his honor, the late Judge U. M. Rose, one of 
 the speakers, in a peerless address of welcome 
 said in part : "The occasion that has brought 
 us together is not one of unmeaning compli- 
 ments and of merely ceremonial display. The 
 great and enthusiastic multitudes that fill our 
 streets, our parks and other public places, 
 with their hearty greetings, your present as- 
 semblage, gentlemen, within this hall, the kindly 
 words that have been spoken, will, we trust 
 carry home to our honored guest the profound 
 assurance that this homage is not paid ex- 
 clusively to the President, but that it is no 
 less a heartfelt tribute to the scholar, the 
 writer, the soldier, the patriot and the states- 
 man. ..." Mr. Roosevelt responded felici- 
 tously, and afterwards recalled the genuineness 
 of the welcomes given him on this occasion. 
 
 Mr. Roosevelt made a second visit to Arkan- 
 sas, attending the State Fair at Hot Springs, 
 October 10, 1910. "Down two lines of Spanish 
 war veterans, who stood at review, passed the 
 
42 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 
 
 colonel, bowing as he marched along. Simul- 
 taneously a cannon boomed the first shot of the 
 twenty-one which followed, forming the presi- 
 dential salute." After "Dixie" was sung, "while 
 our veterans in gray stood waving their hats, 
 the colonel couldn't keep from applauding." 
 In passing under the Liberty Bell to the front 
 of the speaker's stand, Mr. Roosevelt was 
 showered with American Beauty roses. 
 
 In Little Rock have been entertained: Col- 
 onel DaA^d Crockett and General Sam Houston 
 passing on their way to Texas ; General Grant, 
 President Harrison, President Taft, Admiral 
 Winfield S. Schley; and, in 1910, the Conven- 
 tion of the United Daughters of the Confed- 
 eracy. 
 
 In Hot Springs in 1918 assembled one of the 
 most interesting conventions that ever met 
 within the State: the War Service Biennial of 
 the national body of women's clubs — so fit- 
 tingly held on United States soil. 
 
 With formal ceremonies, it opened at the 
 Eastman Hotel on the evening of April 30. 
 After the welcoming address and response, a 
 
ARKANSAS A PICTURE 43 
 
 brilliant pageant, symbolizing the United 
 States and her Allies, preceded by the bugler 
 from Camp Pike passed down the great hall to 
 the reception which completed the evening's 
 program. 
 
 The Reports of State Presidents at Oak- 
 lawn Auditorium, which was appropriately 
 decorated with palmetto, festoons of gray 
 moss, and the Stars and Stripes, showed the 
 volume of work being accomplished by and 
 through the clubs from sheer love of country: 
 in doing more than was asked and in giving 
 their beloved ones to the front. 
 
 At the Art and Music Conferences the in- 
 trinsic w^orth of these inspirations to our coun- 
 try was dwelt on. 
 
 In Home Economics Discussion were shown 
 the nutritive value of foods, their combinations, 
 and it was stated that the club women in con- 
 serving food were the greatest power for win- 
 ning the war. 
 
 Child Welfare Work in Arkansas was com- 
 mended, and in the review of clubs, Arkansas 
 held the highest number of new clubs — forty- 
 five. 
 
44 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 
 
 During this convention there were exhibited 
 at Oaklawn Auditorium reproductions from 
 the canvases of old masters — rare studies ; 
 also an arraj^ of Arkansas pottery made at 
 Benton, so exquisite in its winding streakings 
 of nature's gray-blue, green, pink, yellow and 
 brown tones that it rivals pottery fashioned 
 in an^^ age. 
 
 Art and literature were early inspired by 
 the ennobling beauty of this State. 
 
 William Byrd, in the forties, made some rare 
 canvases — treasures to those that possess 
 them. The splendid portraits in the State 
 House, of Honorable Henry W. Conway and 
 Governors James S. Conway and Elias Con- 
 way, are from his brush. Others adorn the 
 walls of homes in the State. 
 
 Edward Payson Washburn, a young native 
 artist, caught the spirit of a merry, fun-loving 
 recital, as he heard it, by Colonel Sandy Faulk- 
 ner, and from it created his famous picture, 
 "The Arkansaw Traveler." 
 
 Our gifted painters of the present time have 
 won honors from art centers of the United 
 States and Europe. 
 
ARKANSAS A PICTURE 45 
 
 Able prose and beautiful poetry are being 
 written by cultured men and women, and the 
 libraries of Arkansas show a wealth of na- 
 tive literature. 
 
 George B. Rose of Little Rock, author of 
 "Renaissance Masters," valued wherever art 
 is loved, and Fay Hempstead of Little Rock, 
 crowned "Poet Laureate of Free Masonry" in 
 Chicago in 1908 — a distinction held by only 
 two other poets, Robert Burns of "Scotia's 
 realm" and Robert Morris of Kentucky — have 
 attained international fame. 
 
 A very happy occasion was the presentation, 
 through a special commission, appointed by 
 Governor Brough — Arkansas' distinguished 
 World War governor — in New York City, 
 April 22, 1919, of a magnificent silver ser- 
 vice from the State to the great battleship 
 Arkansas. Accompanying this service, were a 
 silver loving cup from the Arkansaw Travelers, 
 and a silver trophy cup, the gift of the Daugh- 
 ters of the American Revolution. 
 
 In 1819, on the 27th of March, Mr. Thomas 
 Nuttall of the Academy of Natural Sciences, 
 
46 ARKANSAS A PICTURE 
 
 exploring the Arkansas river, wrote: "No 
 village or town except Arkansas has yet been 
 produced on the banks of the river." During 
 1819 the first camp was pitched among the 
 pines where the city of Pine Bluff now stands, 
 and in the autumn of 1819 a house, "partly 
 built of cypress slabs," was erected "near 
 the Point of Rocks just west of the Qua- 
 paw line." This point now commands the 
 grand Union Station, the gate into the Great 
 Southwest, and, high upon the crest of a noble 
 hill, the State Capitol, with its polished beauty 
 of Batesville marble — the glory of the Com- 
 monwealth. 
 
 Arkansas ! with your illustrious past in its 
 unique setting, your buoyant present with its 
 glorious deeds, you have now attained one 
 hundred years of organized existence, and enter 
 a bright new century. 
 
 We love you, Arkansas — we love you, and 
 on your queenly brow we place a wreath of 
 Little Rock's own famed roses. 
 
 July 4, 1919. 
 
OLD TRAILS AND ROADS 
 
 ^T^HE map of Arkansas shows her abundance 
 of river ways — nature's trails which man 
 always appropriates. These flowing into the 
 Mississippi gave superior advantages toward 
 the colonization of the lands they watered. 
 
 Hempstead County, which on December 15, 
 1918, attained the first centennial of the State, 
 attracted her early pioneers, chiefly up the 
 Red river — meandering in its wealth — on 
 keel and flat boats. 
 
 The picturesque Ouachita river shared hon- 
 ors with Red river in settling this part of the 
 Territory, Camden and Arkadelphia being early 
 built on its banks and interesting towns have 
 sprung up along the rippling Saline river and 
 dreamy Bayou Bartholomew forwarding this 
 attractive section — Southeast Arkansas. 
 
 Numerous pioneers ascended the broad bosom 
 of the Arkansas river — with its boundaries of 
 building wealth — founding Pine Bluff, Little 
 47 
 
48 OLD TRAILS AND ROADS 
 
 Rock, Morrilton, Dardanelle, Ozark, Van Buren 
 and Fort Smith. 
 
 Along the White river — with its scenic 
 banks and deep flowing waters — were settled 
 Clarendon, De Vall's Bluff, Des Arc, Augusta, 
 Newport and Batesville. 
 
 Families early planted homes on the inviting 
 lands of the winding St. Francis. 
 
 Helena, about 1820, was confirmed on the 
 Mississippi near the mouth of the St. Francis 
 river, cabins having been there in 1800. 
 
 In 1819, when the Territory was organized, 
 a road led from Arkansas Post to Little Rock, 
 a second, from Benton to Hot Springs, and an 
 old trail passed down from St. Louis through 
 Arkansas Post to Monroe, Louisiana, thence 
 to New Orleans, over which coursed the first 
 mail line of the Territory. To this old trail 
 attaches true dignity : it was the principal way 
 traveled during all the years of the French and 
 Spanish occupancy of Louisiana and it faith- 
 fully served our government in pioneer days. 
 
 These early ways were Indian trails. Two 
 other Indian trails passed from Luna Landing : 
 
OLD TRAILS AND ROADS 49 
 
 one, up through Pine Bluff to Little Rock, the 
 other westward to Camden and on through 
 Washington to Fort Towson. 
 
 Another, an old Chickasaw trail, led from 
 opposite the bluffs of Memphis northwestward 
 to the White river, along which it coursed 
 thence passed through Fayetteville to Fort 
 Smith. 
 
 Trails ! Trails ! From all directions these 
 guided to the healing fountains of Hot 
 Springs. Along them in regular file tracked 
 the aged Indians — can we not picture them, 
 with thin locks, seamed faces and feet rough- 
 ened by exposure to the winds and snows of 
 winter, as they tottered to these waters that 
 their pains might be assuaged? The Spanish 
 cavaliers, even from Old Mexico, trailed to 
 these warm springs, and the French of Louis- 
 iana knew the ways to them well. 
 
 Interesting are these records of military 
 roads : 
 
 ^'The Gazette, Little Rock, Arkansas Ter., 
 Tuesday, April 18, 1826. 
 
 "Little Rock and Memphis Road — The 
 
50 OLD TRAILS AND ROADS 
 
 Jackson, Tenn., Gazette of the 25th ult. con- 
 tained the following paragraph: 'We under- 
 stand that Lieut. Griffin has commenced opera- 
 tions in regard to making contracts for cutting 
 out the road from Memphis to Little Rock.' " 
 
 "T/i^ Gazette, Little Rock, Arkansas Ter., 
 Tuesday, Dec. 11, 1827. 
 
 "Such, we understand, is the situation for 
 the new route that it can now be traveled by 
 horsemen the whole distance; and there have 
 been several instances within a few weeks past 
 of wagons passing through from Memphis, one 
 of which arrived here a few days ago." 
 
 We note this road was continued. 
 
 ^^The Gazette, Little Rock, Arkansas Ter., 
 Tuesday, July 3, 1827. 
 
 "Lieut. James L. Dawson arrived here a 
 few days ago . . . for the purpose of entering 
 into contract for opening the U. S. Road from 
 this place to Fort Smith." 
 
 ^^The Gazette, Little Rock, Arkansas Ter., 
 Tuesday, Aug. 21, 1827. 
 
 "Lieut. Dawson, we understand, will imme- 
 diately proceed to survey and mark the route 
 
OLD TRAILS AND ROADS 51 
 
 for the U. S. Road from Fort Smith on the 
 Arkansas to Fort Towson on Red river. ..." 
 
 Quoting further, from last above issue: 
 "An officer from Camp Jesup (Louisiana), 
 we are informed, was sometime since engaged in 
 surveying the route for the U. S. Road from 
 Fort Towson via Washington to the northern 
 boundary of Louisiana and thence to Natchi- 
 toches. . . . Length of above roads may be 
 estimated as follows : 
 
 Memphis to Little Rock — 136 mi. 
 Little Rock to Fort Smith — 152 mi. 
 
 Fort Smith to Fort Towson — 190 mi. 
 
 Fort Towson to Natchitoches — 320 mi." 
 
 Total length — 798 miles. 
 
 From 1829 to 1832, a military road that 
 came from St. Louis was being built through 
 the State, over the Southwest Indian trail, pass- 
 ing near Hix's Ferry on the Current river, 
 Arkansas, across the White river near Bates- 
 ville to Little Rock, thence continuing to Wash- 
 ington and to Red river at Fulton. 
 
52 OLD TRAILS AND ROADS 
 
 With military roads and regular mail service, 
 the Territory now attracted settlers in num- 
 bers, principally from Tennessee, Kentucky, 
 Virginia. Even from far away Massachu- 
 setts they came, and from our sister state, 
 Missouri. 
 
 The immigration through Memphis into the 
 Territory over the military road in December 
 1828, was so great that wagons at that ferry 
 were detained for days, before being trans- 
 ferred. 
 
 Stage service was established over the mili- 
 tary road between Memphis and Little Rock 
 in May 1833. Imagine! the prancing horses 
 that relieved the tired ones. 
 
 In 1807, was cut out from Cadron on the 
 Arkansas river — the first road in Arkansas. 
 It extended fifty miles eastward to the Watten- 
 saw bayou. 
 
 Several pioneer families from West Tennes- 
 see, bringing with them their slaves, came down 
 from Memphis on the steamer "Autocrat" to 
 Gaines' Landing on the Mississippi river. From 
 this point, they cut a way through heavy cane- 
 
OLD TRAILS AND ROADS 53 
 
 brakes and woods, moving, in a carryall and 
 wagons, a short distance daily, until they 
 reached a high point in Drew County, our 
 present historic "Rough and Ready" hill — 
 the first site of Monticello. 
 
 These two old wagon trails and similar trails 
 over the State that were cut out by the settlers 
 from river towns — some following trails made 
 by horsemen dragging cowhides through the 
 wilderness — often leading over streams and 
 bayous on primitive ferryboats to the beckon- 
 ing lands of the interior — are always con- 
 templated with pride. 
 
 In this new realm the settler, near a spring^^ 
 reared his castle. Here the mother crooned her 
 baby into dreamland; the cat purred softly on 
 its selected spot ; the dog circled its master's 
 domain in proprietary joy as the wild animals 
 retreated into denser woods ; and the gentle 
 cow found juicy grasses to her liking. 
 
 Of our national routes is the old King's High- 
 way, with its deep wide bed, of early Colonial 
 days, between Mt. Vernon and Alexandria, 
 traveled for so many years by Washington. 
 
54 OLD TRAILS AND ROADS 
 
 Another Colonial road is the Quakertown and 
 Sellersville turnpike in Pennsylvania, to pass 
 over which one still pays a toll. Along this 
 way in Revolutionary days while the British 
 occupied Philadelphia the Liberty Bell was hur- 
 ried and hid in a church of Allentown. 
 
 Soon after the French and Indian war, many 
 along the Atlantic began to think of homes be- 
 yond the Alleghanies. Three mountain trails 
 lured them to their goal : The beautiful Cum- 
 berland Gap trail, leading into the blue grass 
 area of Kentucky ; a second, winding along the 
 French Broad river into the valleys of East 
 Tennessee, and "Braddock's Road" from Phil- 
 adelphia to Pittsburgh. 
 
 The National Road — which Washington 
 had suggested — was built in 1818 from Cum- 
 berland to the Ohio river at Wheeling, West 
 Virginia, and continued later to Vandalia, Il- 
 linois. From this point two branches in 1840 
 reached Jefferson City, Missouri, one through 
 St. Louis, the other through Alton. This great 
 highway, with daily stage coaches for travelers 
 and mail coaches going forward every hour, 
 
OLD TRAILS AND ROADS 55 
 
 ushered wonderful advancement into the broad 
 valley of the Mississippi. 
 
 The Natchez Trace, a celebrated southern 
 stage route, was laid out by General Andrew 
 Jackson over an old Indian trail that led from 
 the site of Nashville, Tennessee, to where Nat- 
 chez, Mississippi, now is. Down this way 
 passed soldiers to New Orleans in 1812. 
 
 The Erie Canal — an achievement completed 
 by the State of New York in 1825 — gave a di- 
 rect way into the West from the Middle and 
 New England states and developed the rich 
 country around the Great Lakes. 
 
 West of the Mississippi the Clarke and Lewis 
 Expedition went up the Missouri and Jefferson 
 rivers and trailed across the mountains to 
 streams which they followed down to the Pa- 
 cific ocean; and two years later, 1806, Lieu- 
 tenant Zebulun Pike, ascending the Missouri 
 and Osage rivers, and passing over trails, at- 
 tained the Rocky Mountains and discovered the 
 noble peak that perpetuates his name. From 
 the latter party was dispatched Lieutenant 
 James B. Wilkinson to explore the Arkansas 
 
56 OLD TRAILS AND EOADS 
 
 river. He, with others, descended in "two ca- 
 noes made of skins" to lone Arkansas Post, 
 noting along the upper waters buffaloes "in 
 droves of tens of thousands," — which shows 
 the Indians' care of game. 
 
 These coursings were the initial steps by the 
 United States towards settling Louisiana, and 
 gradually white-topped wagons threaded three 
 ways into the alluring be^^ond : the Oregon trail, 
 following the Missouri and Platte rivers into 
 Oregon at South Pass, and a trail extending 
 from the site of Kansas City seven hundred 
 miles to Santa Fe, where a third trail, the Cal- 
 ifornia, branched from it. 
 
 Emigrants hurrying overland to California 
 after the discovery of gold, passed up the Mis- 
 souri river, thence along the Oregon trail into 
 a trail that led to California. 
 
 Our trails and our rivers carried the Anglo- 
 Saxon, in one hundred years, from the Atlantic 
 to the Pacific, and here the blue smoke curled 
 upward from his home. 
 
 The first white settlement in the trans- 
 Missouri river country north of the Kaw river, 
 
OLD TRAILS AND ROADS 57 
 
 Fort Atkinson, was built in September, 1819, 
 by United States soldiers who "in a small steam- 
 boat" had trailed up river. 
 
 Distinctive are the old cattle-trails of Texas 
 and Oklahoma over which vast herds of cattle 
 were carefully driven by the picturesque cow- 
 boys to St. Louis and Kansas City to market. 
 Sometimes an entire season was required to 
 make one trip. 
 
 An old road in Arizona which hugs the can- 
 yon walls used to connect by army teams two 
 posts : Fort Reno in Tonto Basin with Fort 
 McDowell on the Verde river — thirty miles 
 away. Amidst the adobe ruins of the latter 
 fort, hidden in chaparral still bubbles its arte- 
 sian well. 
 
 Over the woody ways we find delight and in- 
 struction : "From out the depths of the forest" 
 John Burroughs heard "the finest sound in 
 nature — the song of the hermit-thrush . . . 
 rising pure and serene as if a spirit from some 
 remote height were slowly chanting a divine 
 accompaniment." The geologist with hammer 
 in his hand and dog running by his side, in- 
 
58 OLD TRAILS AND ROADS 
 
 tently tracks deep into the pathless wilds, that 
 Nature will unveil to him her primary laws. 
 
 Our old trails and roads are almost any- 
 where, their banks often hidden by creeping 
 vines and the swinging yellow jasmine with its 
 cloying sweetness. We cherish them as golden 
 links from our earliest days to those of the 
 present time. 
 
 February 11, 1919. 
 
MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 
 
 /^NE morning last summer, I left home to 
 ^^ visit our national capital and surround- 
 ing historic points — a pleasure long antici- 
 pated. 
 
 Passed this day through rich alluvial land 
 bordering the Arkansas river — where the 
 beautiful long-stapled cotton grows. Pine 
 Bluff, the chief city of this section, is one of the 
 first cotton markets in the South. 
 
 When crossing the bridge at Little Rock, a 
 sunset of rare loveliness enchained me. The 
 sun, a great orb of gold, its circle perfectly 
 outlined, was suspended in siftings of silver, 
 while low over the horizon stretched the faint- 
 est sea-shell tints. Below, the river, its Ar- 
 genta bank rimmed with yellow sand dotted here 
 and there with green water-grass, wound sleep- 
 ily in its July bed. To the left and rear, form- 
 ing a background, stood the Heights of Pulaski. 
 59 
 
60 MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 
 
 Early next morning, I journeyed through 
 modern Missouri towns, noting their attractive 
 streets. 
 
 In a short while, Jefferson Barracks came 
 into view, with rolling grounds of soft green, 
 and here our soldier-boys were grouped in the 
 fresh air ready for a new day. 
 
 Arriving in St. Louis an hour late, I has- 
 tened in transferring into the Baltimore and 
 Ohio train. 
 
 Spent a most interesting day in Illinois, In- 
 diana, and Ohio — very similar, with great 
 undulating landscapes of well-cultivated farms. 
 The comfortable-looking farmhouses are often 
 close together, showing the country to be 
 thickly settled. All day were seen stacks of 
 golden hay, wheat and oats; acres of corn of 
 richest dark color ; cowpeas, Irish potatoes, and 
 tomatoes. The loveliest areas of clover in solid 
 sheets of bloom — like gayly flowered carpets. 
 Fine horses and cattle browsed in green pas- 
 tures. Chickens, so many chickens ! A beau- 
 tiful collection ranged over an extensive apple 
 orchard. In Indiana, boys were swimming and 
 
MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 61 
 
 frolicking in a large lake. I thought of "The 
 Old Swimmin'-Hole." Noted the Wabash and 
 White rivers. The latter — along whose fo- 
 liaged bank paddled a single boatman in a little 
 red craft — is the deepest river east of the 
 Mississippi. One pier of a bridge over this 
 river, with its channel of solid rock, rests on 
 bed rock sixty-five feet beneath the surface of 
 the water. 
 
 This afternoon, a quick downpour of rain? 
 In a few minutes, the freshets were dashing and 
 rippling, and the little green plots at stations, 
 gorgeously decked with crimson geraniums, 
 verbenas, and spotted petunias, were refreshed 
 and more vivid in their loveliness. 
 
 Our train reached Cincinnati at sunset. The 
 Ohio, immediately on the right and below, fed 
 by springs in the adjacent high mountains, 
 looked angry — even at this time. It was 
 easy to imagine its mood during the spring 
 season, from the numerous wrecks that were 
 strown along its bank. Across, a height, with 
 carefully cultivated plots on its side, rose sheer 
 from the river's brim, while high upon the left 
 
62 MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 
 
 glimmered thousands of lights in the residential 
 section of this city. 
 
 The next morning, while crashing through 
 tunnels — there being twenty-four along this 
 line — we were ascending the Alleghanies, 
 the scenery of which over this route is famous ! 
 
 The fog, far down, veiled the streams, with 
 their water-smoothed rocks. I watched an 
 hour without seeing its faintest movement. How 
 cold the morning was ! I shivered, and intently 
 watched again. A slight breaking of fog, as 
 it felt more and more the sun's vibrations. 
 
 At breakfast, I looked out over a deep gulch 
 and saw, far ahead round the curve of the 
 mountain, two engines — - seemingly endowed 
 with life — bravely and steadfastly conveying 
 us to our destination. 
 
 Extremely interesting were the views of a West 
 "Virginia town, a coal center, where freighted 
 cars stood awaiting shipment. Here the moun- 
 tains are rich with coal, many of them perfect 
 honeycombs from the great amount of mining 
 being done. A number of residences of this 
 picturesque little city nestle serenely on a 
 
MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 63 
 
 mountain-side, near the crest of which to 
 the left stood a group of tall derricks. 
 
 At station Terra Alton a level of twenty 
 miles begins, and on the summit is Altamont, 
 two thousand seven hundred and twenty feet 
 above the sea. 
 
 On this way, among the great sweeps of 
 mountains with beautiful trees shading its wind- 
 ing driveways and sylvan nooks, was seen Deer 
 Park Hotel — two hundred miles from Wash- 
 ington City. This hotel is owned by the Bal- 
 timore and Ohio Railroad, and bears the dis- 
 tinction of having entertained President Cleve- 
 land during his honeymoon. 
 
 After the descent, seventeen miles of which 
 fall at the rate of one hundred and seventeen 
 feet each mile, we reached Piedmont, with an al- 
 titude of nine hundred and thirty-three feet, 
 likewise the Potomac — our own Potomac — 
 which tumbled and splashed over rocky ledges, 
 about eighteen inches high, then rushed among 
 the many rocks that line its bed, forming an 
 expanse of silvery whirls that sparkled and 
 tossed into the greater depths below. 
 
64 MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 
 
 At Harper's Ferry — wildly beautiful in its 
 situation — the nearer bank of the Potomac 
 shows weathered masonry of an old landing, 
 while the opposite one ascends — a rocky steep 
 with shrubs trailing from its side. 
 
 During this afternoon I was persistently con- 
 scious of the Potomac — "a thing of beauty" 
 — as it wound near with brown cobblestones 
 heaped along its sandy rim to waters' brink; 
 then swept far away — only to come back 
 again. 
 
 As the shadows were lengthening over the 
 Virginia hills faces assumed expectancy and 
 alertness. I was arriving in Washington City. 
 
 My first impressions from Pennsylvania 
 Avenue were of whiteness and of spaciousness. 
 The Capitol stood magnificent in size and noble 
 in architecture in the softness of the evening 
 hour. 
 
 How at home I felt ! The very atmosphere 
 seemed permeated with the spirit of welcome. 
 
 So many soldiers ! Groups of officers in mar- 
 tial attire — those of the navy wearing white 
 linen. French officers in their blue uniforms, 
 
MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 65 
 
 and a Canadian officer in the khaki of Canada. 
 Our glorious young soldiers ! looking straightly 
 forward — so eager for service at the front. 
 
 "Visiting the Capitol first, we entered the Ro- 
 tunda — an imposing circular hall. Oil paint- 
 ings, showing our historic events, are around 
 its walls, and above, on the canopy, is painted 
 the "Apotheosis of Washington," in which he 
 presides in majesty, with Freedom and Victory 
 at his sides, and aerial figures representing the 
 Thirteen States floating near. 
 
 Fortunately, the Senate was in session that 
 noon; so our guide conducted us into the Sen- 
 ate Chamber first, where we listened fifteen min- 
 utes to an interesting discussion of the draft 
 age by Senators Kirby of Arkansas and Rob- 
 inson of Wisconsin. This chamber is command- 
 ing in size, elegant in coloring and finish. Mar- 
 ble busts of Vice-Presidents adorn its galleries. 
 
 The National Statuary Hall is most impres- 
 sive with statues in bronze or marble, contrib- 
 uted by the states, of their past illustrious cit- 
 izens. Among these statues : General Washing- 
 ton in his military uniform ; General Robert E. 
 
66 MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 
 
 Lee in the attire of the Confederacy ; Judge U. 
 M. Rose, once president of the American Bar 
 Association, and envoy to the second Hague 
 Peace Conference ; and one woman — Frances 
 Elizabeth Willard. 
 
 To this room, we yield our tender interest, 
 since it was the old Hall of Representatives, in 
 which were heard the pure eloquence of Daniel 
 Webster, the gladiatorial shafts of John Quincy 
 Adams, the magnetic flashes of Henry Clay, 
 and the words of many others during that "age 
 of oratory." 
 
 I greatly admired oil portraits in one of these 
 corridors of Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, 
 Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun. 
 
 The Library of Congress, which we visited 
 next, is often pronounced "the most beautiful 
 building in the world" — its architecture, 
 Italian Renaissance. Through its classic por- 
 tal and great entrance hall of polished white, 
 we passed up the stairway to the Visitors' Gal- 
 lery. From this point, the Rotunda Reading 
 Room is best seen. Its deep rich color effects, 
 which are indescribably mellow ,and lovely — 
 
MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 67 
 
 a mingling of red, yellow and brown tones with 
 old ivory above in the dome — are enhanced 
 by the light through splendid stained glass 
 windows. Upon the piers around this gallery 
 are eight great statues — female figures — 
 representing Art, History, Religion, Commerce, 
 Poetry, Philosophy, Law, and Science. 
 
 Near the entrance to this library, is its 
 Bronze Fountain — a perfect translation of 
 classic fancy — with sea nymphs, sea horses, 
 turtles, serpents, and frogs. 
 
 From amidst the thousands of exhibits in the 
 National Museum, I listed an exquisite vase 
 of dull silver, "Replica of the Bryant vase pre- 
 sented the poet on his eightieth birthday . . . 
 its decorations symbolizing Bryant's treatment 
 of nature" ; a bronze cannon, "made in France 
 in 1750, brought over by Lafayette in 1777, 
 and used by allied French and Continental 
 Forces in our Revolution"; and, the "original 
 flag" that as it floated over Fort McHenry in- 
 spired Francis Scott Key to write "The Star 
 Spangled Banner." 
 
 The Pan-American Union building repre- 
 
68 MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 
 
 sents good fellowship between twenty-one Amer- 
 ican republics, of which the United States is 
 one. It has been said, the conception of this 
 building originated with James G. Blaine. 
 
 On the exterior, high above, are figures — 
 the eagle of North America, and the condor of 
 South America. 
 
 Immediately within is a "patio" — very 
 Latin- American it looks — with a sculptured 
 fountain in the center, designed by Mrs. Harry 
 Paj^ne Whitney {nee Gertrude Vanderbilt). 
 Many tropical plants are around this "patio," 
 one, a coffee tree, thickly leaved in beautiful 
 fresh green. 
 
 In the Corridor of National Standards, are 
 suspended the flags of these nations and a grand 
 display they make ! Emerson would say : "Not 
 for nothing they hang here." 
 
 We were shown the Hall of the Americas — 
 a very noble auditorium representing American 
 talent — with information that it is considered 
 the largest of its style in the United States. 
 
 Next, the Governing Board Room, where en- 
 voys from these republics assemble once a 
 
MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 69 
 
 month around a superb oval table — their 
 "Round Table" — elegantly carved of ma- 
 hogany from Dominica. 
 
 In the rear of this building is an "Aztec Gar- 
 den," with deep pool fringed with swaying 
 plants; presiding over it at its extreme limit, 
 is a figure cast from the "Sad Indian." 
 
 The monument to the life of Washington is 
 fascinating in its grandeur of height, its great 
 strength, its sheer beauty. From its windows, 
 the Capitol, the White House with its fountains 
 and leafy lawns, and Arlington were wonderful 
 to the view. When looking below, a pool seemed 
 a cloudy emerald setting. I walked down and 
 read the inscriptions. 
 
 En route to Arlington we passed the White 
 House, beautiful and half-secluded by fine 
 hedges — California Privet — which line its 
 iron fence, and noble trees. An ideal home 
 for our presidents. The French Legation came 
 into view, its ensign above and carefully grown 
 green hedges in front ; and soon the wonderful 
 National Zoological Park was before us through 
 which we strolled, surveying our native animals 
 
70 MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 
 
 gathered from the different states. Here, in 
 the pond were ducks and geese — the great 
 gray honker, the California wavy, the cackling 
 goose, mallard, pintail, teal and others, and 
 high up on his perch an American eagle from 
 Oklahoma — proudly stretched his royal wings. 
 Farther on, our guide noted the old Chesapeake 
 and Ohio Canal and that its first ground was 
 broken by President John Quincy Adams, July 
 4, 1828. Its quaint little tow-boats are still 
 in use. 
 
 As we drove along the shaded avenue at Ar- 
 lington, the sacredness of these noble grounds, 
 sweeping away from their plateau, was felt 
 at once. 
 
 We were ushered into the former drawing- 
 room of the Mansion, where we registered. In 
 this room, General Robert E. Lee was married 
 to the great-granddaughter of Martha Wash- 
 ington. 
 
 From this noted portico, copied after that of 
 the Parthenon, the views are especially inter- 
 esting to tourists. Around are groups of old 
 magnolia trees — at top of one, a pure white 
 
MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 71 
 
 bud was bursting into fragrance — and shapely 
 evergreen shrubs. To the front, are numerous 
 ornamental trees, growing in the valley that 
 dips immediately below. Over their symmetri- 
 cal tops are seen the Potomac — a silvery 
 course — along its side the old Canal. Com- 
 pleting this vista are hills that melt into the 
 distance. From the side of this portico, the 
 Washington Monument shows majestic, its lines 
 were clear-cut against the gray heavens and 
 through the drifting pearl of that somber after- 
 noon. 
 
 The women of the South have recently 
 erected here, through the United Daughters of 
 the Confederacy, a monument to their cherished 
 loved ones. 
 
 Beautiful Arlington ! 
 
 When nearing Mt. Vernon by steamer, Wash- 
 ington's home, standing aloft, came into view, 
 with its handsome grounds falling gracefully to 
 the Potomac — the river Washington loved — 
 which guards this shrine caressingly for all 
 time. 
 
 Sacred feelings surged over me! 
 
72 MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 
 
 At the quay, we were met by two pretty little 
 trails, leading up — one to the Tomb and the 
 other to the Mansion. 
 
 The Tomb, of brick, is stately with vines — 
 the Wistaria and English Ivy — forming a 
 beautiful bower over its arched gateway. With- 
 in the front was a large wreath of leaves, its 
 card inscribed: 
 
 "To the Soul of the American Nation. 
 WooDROw Wilson." 
 
 The prospect from the broad porch of this 
 hallowed home is of arresting loveliness — 
 hours could be spent in its contemplation. 
 
 Within the spacious hall, where scenes of 
 other da3^s floated before me, are three of Wash- 
 ington's swords, and the great iron key — 
 seven inches long — of the Bastile, sent as a 
 "trophy of the spoils of despotism" to Wash- 
 ington by Lafayette. 
 
 I also noted: Washington's room, his bed, a 
 great chair that was his mother's, a picture of 
 Sulgrave Manor — the home of the Washing- 
 tons in England, the old bibles of the fam- 
 
MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 73 
 
 ily; the room Lafayette occupied when visiting 
 here, a chair from his birthplace — the Chateau 
 de Chavagniac ; and a most interesting old pow- 
 derhorn used at Concord by "The Minute 
 Men." In the kitchen, the huge fireplace with 
 its hanging crane points loyally to the past. 
 
 In the rear of the Mansion is a vast lawn 
 which was smooth green. On its sides are 
 noble trees, ash, tulip-poplar and the delicately 
 fragrant emerald-green spruce that Washing- 
 ton planted himself. When one of these trees 
 was partially riven by a storm, two and a half 
 tons of cement were used in restoring it. 
 
 In the Flower Garden on the right of this 
 lawn are wonderful hedges of English box that 
 were planted by Washington "before he went 
 to the Revolution." I marveled at their great 
 age, when the gardener — who was carefully 
 washing the fine leaves of lemon bushes with soft 
 cloths that he dipped into foamy water — 
 further astonished me by adding: "In England, 
 they live five and six hundred years"! These 
 calicanthus shrubs were presented Washing- 
 ton by Thomas Jefferson from his own garden 
 
74 MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 
 
 at Monticello. Over the hedges were beds of 
 radiant flowers — the blue larkspur among 
 them — whose indescribable sweetness lingers 
 with me still. 
 
 We returned that afternoon by electric train 
 over a route rich in historical points of in- 
 terest from our earliest days. Among them 
 the site of the Indian village Assaomeck, where 
 Captain John Smith treated with a Powhatan 
 tribe of Indians in 1607; old Broad Creek 
 Church — of the early settlement, Piscataway 
 — which was built in 1694; and the old York- 
 town road, over which Washington passed with 
 Jiis army going to Yorktown in 1781. 
 
 Stopping at Alexandria, the British metropo- 
 lis in Colonial days, we went first to Christ 
 Church, where Washington worshiped and 
 where he served as vestryman. When enter- 
 ing its open portal, I glanced down the broad 
 brick driveway and pictured the coaches and 
 four with outriders that had passed over it. 
 This is a quaint old English church, built in 
 1773. The high pulpit with sounding board, 
 communion table and font standing in the chan- 
 
MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 75 
 
 eel, are preserved as in Washington's time. On 
 the back of Washington's pew is a silver plate 
 with his autograph engraved upon it ; across the 
 aisle is a pew with a similar plate bearing the 
 autograph, "Robt. E. Lee." At each side of the 
 pulpit is a memorial with Masonic emblem : one, 
 inscribed to George Washington, the other, 
 Robert Edward Lee. This church treasures 
 many relics of early days. Among them: its 
 first Bible, printed at Edinburgh, and its first 
 collection plate, sent by the Queen of England. 
 That only seventeen ministers have served here 
 is this church's pride and their photographs 
 were shown us. 
 
 Tradition states that Washington passed 
 out after service one Sabbath morning — we 
 were shown the exact spot on which he stood — 
 discussing conditions of the King's rule, when 
 he declared : "I will stand by my colonies !" This 
 assertion resulted in our powerful American 
 nation which is leading the world into freedom 
 today. 
 
 Next in interest at Alexandria is the old Car- 
 lyle House, dating from 1752. Here, General 
 
76 MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 
 
 Braddock established headquarters before pro- 
 ceeding to Fort Duquesne. 
 
 After four days in Washington, I left at 
 9.30 P. M. for Chattanooga, arriving at dusk 
 the following evening. 
 
 The next forenoon, had an interesting drive 
 over Chickamauga Park. Troops of cavalry 
 cantering by with battle-axes at sides, forcibly 
 depicted the service to which they were soon 
 going. Recruits, in great numbers, were ar- 
 riving, ready for training. On these peaceful 
 extents was fought one of the greatest battles 
 of the Civil War. We were shown, by our 
 guide, where the battle-lines had been drawn 
 up for three days, extending two miles and a 
 half, and trees that had been pierced by can- 
 non balls. 
 
 That afternoon, I circled up Lookout Moun- 
 tain glimpsing several cottages snugly en- 
 sconsed against its precipitant sides. On its 
 level are pretty bungalows, and it is a pleas- 
 ant home the entire year, since the atmosphere 
 is so dry. 
 
 Over a well-beaten path thrgugh primeval 
 
MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 77 
 
 forest, I passed to the Balancing Rock — a 
 wonder! Its equipoise, a marvel of nature's 
 laws, its rasping brown surface, flecked with 
 mossed green, portrays antiquity. Little chil- 
 dren played around it lovingly. Far-off from 
 side to side, were seen the locations of seven 
 States. Far below spread in panorama the 
 beautiful city of Chattanooga ; the subtle Ten- 
 nessee river writhing tortuously; the creeping 
 train cleaving to Mother Earth, its coaches 
 the size of domino blocks — all bathed in the 
 soft golden haze of that passing afternoon. 
 
 I stood watching the cable-car — a mere 
 speck at first — as it slowly ascended ; and at 
 one place, where its bed curves inwardly, it is 
 entirely lost to sight. My descent was in- 
 tensely interesting and novel from its sharp 
 declivity and proximity to the rugged juts of 
 ledges on either side. 
 
 Early next morning, I continued my journey, 
 leaving Chattanooga for Memphis, and later, 
 came from there to Greenville, passing through 
 great black delta plantations of Mississippi, 
 whose prospects were being sprinkled with new 
 
78 MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 
 
 whiteness. I noted thirty-nine fine mules frisk- 
 ing in one pasture, and near them, numerous 
 lively little pigs. 
 
 Here, Nature is lavish with the game she 
 ojffers and famous sport is had by hunting 
 parties at certain seasons of the year. 
 
 The train stopped that noon on a bridge over 
 a creek. Glancing down, I was astonished to 
 see turtles of all sizes — the translucent water 
 literally filled with them. Many were rising 
 slowly, sidelong, by one front foot, suspending 
 themselves at the surface to bask in the warm 
 sunshine. I counted nine, of uniform size, sit- 
 ting only a few inches above water on an old 
 log with backs toward us. Finally it trans- 
 pired to them that their serenity was being en- 
 croached upon. From their slight jostling 
 movements, I surmise, they counseled together, 
 then, without looking around, they plunged 
 into the water, the one on the left going first, 
 the others following in succession. I wonder 
 if the left one were their leader ! 
 
 Next midday, I crossed the Mississippi river 
 — a drowsy monarch — always grand, always 
 
MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON CITY 79 
 
 awe-inspiring for Arkansas, my home. The 
 once great floating-palaces of this river have 
 passed with the trend of the times. Now, barge 
 lines are being utilized to serve this spreading 
 wealth from St. Louis to New Orleans. Across 
 a wide shoal, two white birds with extremely 
 long legs — a species of crane — stalked ma- 
 jestically down into the water, where they stood 
 watching our boat with mild intent, merely 
 turning their heads to keep us in view; and as 
 far as I could see them, they stood thus — si- 
 lent sentinels. 
 
 Washington City is the beautiful symbol of 
 our national life to which we yearn for a closer 
 communion ; so this visit is the first pilgrimage 
 of an American. 
 
 November 5, 1918. 
 
 THE END.