The Texan Mercury. (Seguin, Tex.), Vol. 1, No. 26, Ed. 1 Saturday, March 18, 1854 Page: 1 of 4
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5, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR.-
SEGUIS, GUADALUPE COUNTY, MAECH 18, 1854.
>Jfi ' l
VOLUME I.—NUMBER"
*%- • -
PIONEER,
to ftycé
is excited
music of a
endow-
to meet a deadly
or, at least, ever
to take, any underhanded
believing essentially .in
is fair in war," particularly in
.takes an opponent it unawares
with an Unseen hand;
"Sgv
ta walk up
¿is enemies, when
he enters the dr-
burnished and
are
the bright steel
«id be dyed in his life's
r 4*
this last kind occurred shortly
of
SPS*!
K. --** .
had, on
fesávaga
i the execution of sev-
On one occasion,
t to have killed the son and brother
ire slain many
with the
insulted a band of
-ehief of high blood
the most
question she labored to solve. There was but
one possible method of so doing, and with it
the probabilities of failure were double those ol
success. This was to seúd her only son, a boy ol
fourteen, to meet his father, and give him warn-
ing. If she could only do this privately, so as
be unseen by the ever watchful foe, she had some
hope of its success. After waiting hours in an
agony of suspense, not knowing but Mr. Duncan
might return at any moment, the coveted
opportunity occurred. Galling her son to her
side, while the Indians were ont holding a con
sultption among themselves, she hastily told him
where to go and what to say to his father,
directing him to proceed in such a manner as to
induce the belief, in the minds of the Indians,
that he was going after the cows
' J -
the boy as to whither he was going, and received
as a reply that their cow had gone off^ which was
the fact) andx he wished to find her, giving the
marks by which she could be distinguished from
other cows. To all of this Mrs, Duncan listened
breathless interest, her ear at an aperture
doof^ind her heart almost stilled ip its
with alarm; but when shp saw how
admirably the boy acted Ids part, and how much
above hisyéaxs was the discretion he manifested,
a load seemed lifted from her bosom, and she
mentally offered up a fervent prayer of thankful-
• k
i <
out the affront he
blood of the. offender.
[i*
♦
to be
-«•
fv *
1 revive 1
he
and
fori
4
If.
#
ing, Mrs. Duncan having given them no definite
on aa to his whereabouts or the time he
be at home.
night there was no deep to the eyes of
the parents. In solitude and darkness—for it
was deemed best not to have a light—they passed
the slow and solemn hours, with barred doors
windows, and every sense that could be made
on the alert, totatch the first sound or
the
he followed the
the apprehen-
*
4k*
kP
r:
X
if
It
a, Week from this time, while he was
> the setUemerts on some business, Mrs.
a,little surprised to receive a call
of Indians, not because this was
bat from the fact that her
strangers to her and, appar-
part of the country. In a lew
and then another and another
r yet with a manifest
until the mm.
or a dozen.
f, not so much because
of Indians, (for die had long
'to seeing them almost daily
husband's shop to get work done,) but
a of distinguished concert
which to her mind, was
there was something more
fUoL
AH at once she remembered the threat made
her husband years before, and being
of the tenacity of an Indian's me
i at once connected the two—the threat
at visit—together. Her feelings,
conviction that this surmise was the
feff the mystery fixed itself in her
my ho better imagined than described,
to got void to her husband without
ject—é- exdtiag^thelr wary suspicions, was the
( The son met*his father some two and a half
or three miles from home, and told him all.
Mr. Duncan was a kind and affectionate husband
and father, and he paused for several minutes and
reflected as to what he should and ought to do.
'That the Indians meant no good was certain from
their manner of action; but would his family be
safe if left at their mercy without a protector?
fie feared not. Should he then go back to the
settlement and obtain aid? No; however well
he might be convinced of the .evil designs of the
it might be a difficult matter to con-
vince others of the fact; and to be called a cow-
ard or to haVfe others think he was actuated by
fear, was more than his back-woods nature could
stand; so he finally resolved to proceed, resolv-
ing to stand by his family at all hazards. '
Accordingly he and his son proceeded cau-
tiously toward home,where they arrived in safety
it sun-down. No Indians were about; but
was hardly a matter of congratulation, as it
was his opinion " they had withdrawn to make a
if-fiia lTtum
It was a long, weary night, and many a time
during its long passage were the hearts of the
made to pause at some distant or
approaching noise, in expectation of impending
danger, and then to leap quickly with, as it
weré, an unfettered motion, as the cause of fear
subsided or whs explained.
But morning at last dawned, and its first
streaks of graj* light sent a thrill of joy through
the bosoms ofthe watchful pair. Darkness is a
promoter of fear, and any real or imaginary
Is augmented S hundred-fold by its mag-
powers.
As had béen expected, the 'Indians returned
in &e morning, and in their leader, Duncan
recognised the young chief he had insulted, and
whose brother he had shin in battle. Had he
previously entertained a doubt as to the object
of their visit, that donbt was now removed;
theywere after revenge.
What could he do? There he was in the
midst of his family; and as it was far from his
wi§h to be slain in the presence of his beloved
if slain he must be. In times of imminent
if the mind is not confused, thought is
rapid and clear, more so than in a condition of
ordinary calmness; so it was with Duncan. Like
lightning, thought rushed through his mind, and
with more of intuition tjian reason, but with the
concurrence of both, he at once concluded that
it was best to put on a calm exterior and adopt
a cordial manner in the reception of his unwel-
come guests. Accordingly he met them with a
smile, and acted toward them as though they were
utter strangers, yet the best of unknown friends
—inquired if any of their guns needed repairing
—took them in and gave them an excellent
breakfast, and treated them in every way in the
kindest manner possible. They remained several
hours; examined his tools, which he was partic-
ularly precise in. explaining and showing the use
they were applied to, seeming to take great
interest in making them fully apprehend the
whole process of gunmaking.
It was something new and they become very
much interested—had him to take their guns
and gun-locks apart and put them together,
which he did with great apparent cheerfulness,
cleaning them and repairing them as he did so.
In this manner the forenoon passed. He then
gave them the best dinner his store of provisions
could produce.
All this time he was acting a part, and every
moment was dreading the fall of the blow he
was attempting to ward off and prevent. He
was no* about at his wit's end, and was revohr-
his mind what he could next do to amuse
when the chief broke in upon his
plans, by abruptly saying:
? " Does white brother know the red men that
have eat salt at his table?"
" Many red brethren come to see me, and to
get their rifles repaired, but I can-not tell who
they are. Red men and white men are friends
now, and I should be sorry to see them become
enemies."
"White brother no know Indian: it is well
white brother is kind now; ?but does* white
brother know that he killed the son of the chie:
of the Wyandots, and that before him is the
brother of the slain warrior?"
? " Is it possible that this is the son of the
great chief? Well, let us now be friends; the
mighty young chie£ of the Wyandots knows that
bullets fly many ways in battle, and one may hit
a-Chief, and another a brave, and maqy hit
nothing but the trees and the earth. We can
ncft tell who we kill when we are on the war
path."
White brother speaks truly; in the thick
battle a hundred bullets fly among our foes, and
only a few enemies fall—white brother no tel
that his bullet kill the son of a chief: ?but does
white brother remember when he called the son
of the great chief of the Wyandots a dog?" '
Dnncan had ptít on a bold face from the com-
mencement of the conversation, and, until this
turn was given to it, had hoped for the best;
but now he could not be mistaken; the old
grudge was to be brought up;, and he felt sure
he could see a dark scowl pass over the features
of the speaker as he alluded to the ignominy he
had suffered at his hands. But it was no time
to quail now, and so, putting on an air for the
occasion, he replied in a pleasant manner, though
his heart trembled the while, and he felt that
life was hanging on the merest thread:
" I have not entirely forgotten that of which
the young chief speaks; but the chief knowathat
we do many things when the blood is hot that
we would not do if calm and cool. The brave
chief of the Wyandots knows that it is mean to
be cowardly, and that no warrior should be
like a squaw, and keep his tongue from saying
brave words because he was afraid. And does
not the young chief of the mighty Wyandots
remember that his white brother had cause to
say many words?" '
" White brother brave; Indian no hate brave
man; white man tell the truth; Indian love the
truth and hate a lie. Indian come to revenge
.ür „ hynthor for calling Turn a
dog and slaying his brother: but white man no
cnew his red brother—no hate him—took him
into his wigwam and gave him salt and meat—
white man kind to red brother in all he do—In-
dian no longer thirsts for his white brother's
blood—he is white* man's friend—gives him his
land, and says how do?"
It is hardly necessary to say with what glad-
ness Duncan grasped the extended hand and recip-
rocated the " how do," which was the Indian's
term of friendship.
After this the young chief was ever his warm
riend, and brought him much work to do, and
their intercourse was mutually agreeable, but
Duncan and his wife never forgot those two ter-
rible days, that horrible night, and especially
the awful uncertainty of the last hours before
the reconciliation.—[Miami Visitor.
I
King Solomon—His Moral Traits.—As to
Solomon's moral traite, the sentimedt of justice
seemed to animate him far more than impulsive
emotion, more even than religious sensibility
This sentiment in connection with his sagacity is
stamped upon his renowned decisions and won-
derful proverbs. It shines out from the memor-
able story Of the two mothers claiming each the
mother's right to a child. " Divide the child
in twain, and give to each the half," was the
sagacious decree that discovered at once the real
pother, who surrendered her claim rather than
consent to the horrible partition which the king
proposed, merely in order to force out the truth,
and shame the pretende? by appealing to the
instincts of nature to guide the decisions of jus-
tice. That he was in conviction a religions man,
we can not but believe, and that he cherished a
profound sense of responsibility to God. His
temptation came not as to his father. He was
not a lyrical, impassioned, heroic, character like
David. His vice like his virtue, was of another
stamp. He was a man of magnificent tastes,
rather than rapt imagination; of intellectual
concentration, rather than passionate fervor.
From his tastes came wasting luxuries, and with
his intellect there was associated a spirit that
sometimes deserted the tree of life for the tree
of knowledge, and made the reason the sophist
of the senses. In executive power his mind was
not without grandeur, as shown in the internal
administration of his kingdom ahd in his foreign
treaties and commerce. View him upon the
whole, and in comparison with modern names,
we may recognize under the Oriental garb and
temperament of the Hebrew sage the wisdom
that shines out in the Essays and Aphorisms of
Lord Bacon; the magnificence that gave such
peerless splendor to Leo the Tenth.
In him, as with Bacon, wisdom was no safe-
guard from error. With him, as with Leo,
magnificence was purchased sometimes at the
expense of religion or humanity. The builder
of the great temple, like the builder of St.
Peter's, entailed suffering and discórd upon his
people by his enormous imposts, and what was
splendor to the eye, looking from the enchant-
ment of distance, was a crushing barden to
those groaning beneath the stately pile.—-
[Osgood.
THE CITIZEN'S VISION.
[FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES.]
The citizen sat by his parlor fire:
Wild was the night; but he piled the coal higher,
And he looked at his wife, and his heart filled with joy,
Arid he felt it overflow as he looked at his boy:
And the citizen's heart beat with joy.
And '"Oh!" thought the citizen,!" how I am blessed!
Loved by my wife, by my child I'm caressed.
Ah, could I but draw back the curtain and see
All that must happen to mine and to me!"
His chair it was easy, his fire it was bright,
And't was all the more checrfuUthat wild was the night;
Aud the citizen slept, and he dreamed a dream,
And the curtain was drawn by the Hand Supreme,
As the citizen dreamed a dream.
He saw his own form lying pallid and cold.
And the church was lit up, and the bell it was tolled,
As into the charnel they lowered the dead,
While the hymn it was chanted, the prayer it was read;
And the citizen knew he was dead.
A dark panorama then seemed to out-roll,
And he saw the deár «tes, whom he loved like-his soul,
Meeftng,- first, with indifference, next, with cold scern,
Till they wished, in their hearts, they had never been born
And he saw his dear ones meet with scorn.
i * '
And then came dependence, and then biting want,
And their lodging tras cheerless, their clothing was scant:
And,'weeping, and praying, and sewing for bread,
The eyes of the mother were swollen and red—
Praying for " daily brepd."
' V '
!" Mamma," said the boy, "are yon going away?"
Yes, my dear child; I go after the pay
For the work which haB kept ma busy so long:"
! And she even was happy; and hummed aa old song!
¡Poverty humming a sóng!
As she hurried plong, at the edge Of the night,
Avoiding the streets where the gas burnt might,
The tempest played pranks with her thin, summer shawl
(Of her elegant wardrobe this was all— ,
A faded, thin, silk, summer shawl.)
With a tear in her eye, but a smile on her fáce,
With sorrow, yet gladness, she entered the place:
For sKe'd written a list of the things she would buy
With the little proceeds of her industry—
Of the coal, food, and clothing^he'd buy.
As she gave her employer her bundle of work,
She saw 'neath his eyebrows the evil one lurk;
But she thought she was safe in the depth of her woe,
No gulf yawned beneath one already so low—
She was safe in the depth of her woe.
t" Do you think I will pay you?" he scornfully said,
As he slowly examined each stitch and each thread,
And then, rudely pulling, he tore down a seam: \
She sank on the floor, as she utterd a scream;
And'the citizen woke from his dream.
m.,... .muí ii 't imh uiwui. imtiOTfolouesare mere,
Man
is
And he sits by his fire, in his easy arm-chair;
Yet he feare, after all, it is but * reprieve,
And, spite of his senses, he can not believe
It is any thing bat a reprieve.
t 0
And now, as the citizen walks in the street,
If a feeble, old, woman he chances to meet,
He relieves the distresses of somebody's wife,
For he think of his dream, and the shortness of life;
And he'says," She was somebody's wife."
New York, Feb. 1,1854
Yankees and Foreigners.—In a recent lec-
ture on Street Life in Europe, Wendell Phillips
said:— •
We are all heads, every subject the elements
of our uses, and saving labor. There is nothing
of this abroad. The reason is, we have much
to do and but few to do it—while they have
little to do and many to do it.i Consequently
we invent labor saving machinery, white they
do as their fathers did, without seeking to im-
prove. For instance, in Italy you will see the
farmer breaking up his land with two cows and
the root of a tree for a plough, while he is
dressed in skins with the fyair 'on. In Rome,
Yienna, or Dresden, if you hire a man tp saw
your wood, he does no| bring a saw-horse. He
never had one, nor his father before hnn._ But
he places1 one end of the saw upon the ground
and the other against his breast, and taking
the wood in , his hand rubs it against the saw.
And he will be aU day doing two hours'work.
It is a solemn fact that in Florence, a city
filled with the triumphs of art, there is not a
single auger, and if a carpenter would bore a
hole, he does it with a red hot poker. This
results not from a want of indnsty, but of
sagacity, of thought. The people are by no
means idle. They toil early and late, men,
women and children, with an industry that
shames a labor saving Yankee. The Pope does
not allow the steamboats to come up to his
wharves, but anchors them a mile off, so that
lis ragged boatmen may make a few pennies by
rowing passengers ashore. Thus he makes labor
that the poor may live. In Rome, charcoal is
principally use# for fuel, and you will see a
string of twenty mules bringing little sacks of it
upon their backs, when one mule would draw it
all in a cart. But the charcoal vender never
iad a cart, and so he keeps his twenty mules
and feeds them. There is no want of industry,
)ut there is also no competition. A Yankee
always looks haggard and nervous, as though he
were cashing a dollar. With us, money is every
thing, and when we go abroad we are surprised
,o find that the dollar has ceased to be almighty.
If a Yankee refuses to do ia job for fifty cents,
he will probably do it for a dollar and will cer-
tainly do it for five. But one of the laxaroni of
Naples, who has earned two cents, and eaten
hem, will work no more that day if you offer
ever so large a sum. He has earned enough for
the day and wants no more. So there is no
eagerness for making money, no motive for it,
and every body moves slowly.
All not. Gold that Glitters
the noblest work of God;"
You spoke without thought. Surely you do
not mean him whose diary reads thus:—" Got
up at ten—was shaved by a servant—ate three
meals—drank a bottle of portef—took an hour's
nap after dinner—visited the ladies for. recrea-
tion—took a dose of anti-dyspeptic medicine—
went to bed at eight."
" Man is the noblest work of God."
That's donbtfol of him who owes the tailor,
the washerwoman, the editor, the butcher, the
barber, the bootmaker, and has promised them
fifty times that the money should be forthcom-
ing on the morrow.
" Man is the noblest work of God."
.Please except the backbiter, the mischief-
maker, the bearer of false witness, in fine, all
enumerated in 1 Corinthians, vi chap., 9th and
11th v.
" Man is the noblest work of God."
See that long-nosed, sharp featured being,
who robs the widow, cheats the orphan, shaves
the poor without- a razor, and for a - pretence
takes * the sacrament, sings the loudest, sighs
the oftenest, bows his head the lowest, ««i
makes the longest and most affecting prayers..
" Man is the noblest work of God."
Go to that " gentleman of the jury," who tow
never cleared a poor, nor convicted, a rich
then look in the face that stified-haired,
eyed lawyer, who, upon his honor, believes him
innocent whow he knows to be guilty.
" Man is the noblest work of God."
Who says so?
"Pope."
Well, let's see. Come #ith me to yon house
of brick. Behold him, who is in the, prim* of
manhood, bound with galling, clanking elwiiw
looking through iron grates, watehed with sleep-
less eyes,- and guarded with swords and mmdrefa
Read his history, written oil Ids
thus it runneih: " Born in wealth and
was given strength health and intellect—dyed
his hands in his'Mother's blood—broke his
parents' hearts—will be hung next Friday.9
" Man is the noblest work of God."
Ah?
"Yes."
Open a door, deseen^ a pair of windisgrtepe, |
which, in more senses than * ~
the regions of Tartarus; open another
. * room dug down
the gai'm, miu. gaig upon
the ,altar to cheris l protect, and
his confiding
Bacchanalian
, General Sah. Houston's Leciche
—This distinguished Senator gav
ture last evening at the Spr
tute, on the subject of the
from a short period antecedent
for independence to the epochfef
to the United States. F —*
into the events preceding
against their Mexican oppr
the Texans submitted to
geous infractions of the
articles should, have protected
appealed to the last resource in the J
injured community. He detailed abo, i
the execrably atrocities committed ;by
of Santa Anna on á
capitulated to an
instance in which
prisoners of war were
a company of
there, without farther
presence of their God.
He dwelt on the
colony planted there by
its rise and effect on that
and amused the ndifm
his naive relation of the
army, illustrating his
of numerous' droll
of the Texans, it
in beauty to that
the Emperor ~of
by thie eccentric
dencfer
'"A fine
entbíe pretensions to
cepting ñ
of the
«hould
You shall
general,'
"'And
4 patriota
him, and gambling «Way the
labor, while she ia plying the needle to hush the
cries and hide the nakedness of
emaciated, half-etarved, ghost-like,
children—sée- the tears gbde down her
cheeks—see . her fold her arms and raise
closed!eyes to heaven, and
the return of him, who comc
fully use her—then loolf me in
me, ohjTtell me, if "Maá" is the
God!"—[NeUa: Dollar
i r 11 t
THE TEAR OF
A liquid pearl that
The tear of gratitude.
But ne'er siNdJ narrow leve of self
Invite this tribute forth,
Nor can the sordid slave of pelf
But ye, who soothe the Widow's woe,
And give the orphan fad,
For rou this liquid peari skall low—
The tear of gratitpde.
Ye who but slake the infant's thirst
In Heavenly Mercy's atmi,
Or proffer Penury a crust,
The sweet reward may claim.
" Then while you rove ]
With sweetest flow'rets strewed,
Still may you claim the widow:s —
The orphan's gratitude,''
Impromptu.—It is rpla|ed of Dr.
author of "Night Thoughts"—-that some
previous to his marriage, he was walking in his
garden at W?lwyn, with bis anticipated wife
and another lady, when a servant came to tell
lim a gentleman wished to speak to him.
"Tell him," said the Doctor, "I am too
lappily engaged to wish to change my situation
just now."
The ladies insisted that he should go, as his
visitor was a man of rank—his patron and his
riend. When it became apparent that per-
suasion had no effect, the ladies took him, one
)j each arm, led him to the garden gate, and
¡hrust him through.
Holding himself erect, be laid bis hand i
?" Jones, what in the world put matrimony in
yonr head."?
' Well, the fact is, Jo., I was getting short of
shirts."
lis heart, and, in that expressive
rhich he was so remarkable, uttered the follow-
ing beautiful lines:
• Thus Adam looked when from the garden driven,
And thus disputed orders séht from heaven:
Like him, I go; but yet to go am loath:
Like him, I go; for angels drove us both:
Hard was his fate, but mine still more unkind;
His Eve went with htm, but mine stays behind."
Zimmerman says, that all die who have lived,
but all have not lived who die. Please make a
note. . •
He who foresees calamities, suffers them twice
over.—[Por ten*.
mrnmPr
the attention
raaely, if e*er,
wp
a spirit of similar
an Englishman prepares fir a 1
ore attending its novelty ia ]
by its
one of thoae "
ora" who
printed to i
[Philadelphia DaSf Begiatsr.
I
It is a
the place and attitude
all men acquiesce, lie
It leaves erery maa;
to set his own rate.
<fies not in tin
eept your own measure of
tetber you
name, or whether
to the cóncava
the revolution of the
•
Locatino a
who objeets ta
las no
A stag*
above, rendering it to sayr
to be. kissed under the nose."
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Burke, H. T. The Texan Mercury. (Seguin, Tex.), Vol. 1, No. 26, Ed. 1 Saturday, March 18, 1854, newspaper, March 18, 1854; Seguin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth180501/m1/1/: accessed June 20, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History.