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The Future citizen.
March 25, 1916
Image 4
The Future citizen., March 25, 1916, Image 4
About The Future citizen. (Milledgeville, Ga.) 1914-???? | View Entire Issue (March 25, 1916)
Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4. THE. FUTURE CITIZEN. No
! Settling
1
The East And Exploring The
it= Hi
West f
1
From Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans
II
L«__
American Book Co., New York.
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A LONG JOURNEY
A long time ago, when Thomas
Jefferson was President, most of
the people in this country lived in
the East. Noboddy knew any
thing about the Far West. The
only people that lived there were
Indians. Many of these Indians
had never seen a white man.
The President sent men to travel
into this wild part of the country.
He told them to go up to the upper
end of the Missouri River. Then
they were to go across the Rocky
Mountains. They were to keep on
till they got to the Pacific Ocean.
Then they were to come back again.
They were to find out the best way
to get through the mountains. And
they were to find out what kind of
people the Indians in that country
were. They were also to tell about
thea nimals.
There were two captains of this
company. Their names were
Lewis and Clark. There were forty-
five men in the party.
They were gone two years and
four months. For most of that time
they did not see any white men but
their own party. They did not
hear a word from home for more
than two years.
They got their food mostly by
hunting. They killed a great ma
ny buffaloes and elks and deer.
They also shot wild geese and large
birds. Sometimes they had noth
ing but fish to eat. Sometimes
they had to eat wolves. When they
had no other meat, they were glad
to buy dogs from the Indians and
eat them. Sometimes they ate
horses. They became fond of the
meat of dogs and horses.
When they were very hungry,
they had to live on roots if they
could get them. Some of the Indi
ans made a kind of bread out of
roots. The white men bought this
when they could not get meat. But
there were days when they did not
have anything to eut.
They were very friendly with the
Inidans. One day some of the men
went to make a visit to an Indian
village. The Indians gave them
something to eat.
In the Indian wigwam where they
were there was a head of a dead
buffalo, when dinner was over the
Indians filled a bowl full of meat.
They set this down intront of the
head. Then they said to the head,
“Eat that. ”
The Indians believed, that, if
they treated this buffalo head po
litely, the live buffalos would come
to their hunting ground. Then
they would have plenty of meat.
They think the spirit of the buffalo
is a kind of a god. They are
very careful to please this god.
CAPTAIN CLARK’S BURNING
GLASS
The Indians among whom Cap
tain Clark and Captain Lewis
traveled had many strange ways of
doing things. They had nothing
like our matches tor making fire.
One tribe of Indians had this way
of lighting a fire. An Indian would
lay down a dry stick. He would
rub this stick with the end of ano
ther stick. After a while this rub
bing would make something like
sawdust on the stick that was lying
down. The Indian would keep on
rubbing till the wood grew hot.
Then the fine wood dust would
smoke. Then it would burn. The
Indian would put a little kindling
Wood on it. Soon he would have a
large fire.
In that time the white people
had not yet found out how to make
matches. They lighted a fire by
striking a piece of flint against a
piece of steel. This would make a
spark of fire. By letting this spark
fall on something that would, burn
easily, they started a fire.
White men had another way of
lighting a fire when the sun was
shining. They used what was called
a burning glass. This was a round
piece of glass. It was thick in the
middle, and thin at the edge. When
you held up a burning glass in the
sun, it drew the sun’s heat so as to
make a little hot spot. If y»u put
paper under this spot of hot sun
shine, it would burn Men could
light the tobacco in their pipes with
one of these glasses.
Captain Clark had something
funny happen to him on account of
his burning glass. He had walked
ahead of the rest of Lis men. He
sat down on a rock. There were
some Indians on the other side of
the river. They did not see the
captain. Captain Clark saw a large
bird culled a crane flying over his
head. He raised his gun and shot
it.
The Indians on the other side of
the river had never seen a white
man in their lives. Tney had never
heard a gun. They used bows and
arrows.
They heard the sound of Clark’s
gun. They looked up and saw the
large bird falling from the sky. It
fell close to where Captain Clark
sat. Just as it fell they caught
sight of Captain Clark sitting on
the rocks. They thought they had
seen him fall out of the sky. They
thought that the sound of his gun
was a sound like thunder that was
made when he cam# down.
The Indians all ran away as fast
as they could. Thev went into their
wigwams and closed them.
Captain Clark wished to be
friendly with them. So he got a
canoe and paddled to the other side
of the river. He came to the Indi
an houses. He found the flaps
which they use for doors shut. He
opened one of them and went in.
The Indians were sitting down,
and they were all crying and
trembling.
Among the Indiaus the sign of
peace is to smoke together. Cap
tain Clark held out his pipe to
them. That w*s to say, “I am
your friend.” He shook hands
HAVE YOU A LITTLE FUTURE CITIZEN IN YOUR HOMET-WELL. YOU SHOULD,
