Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 2: A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in History
History
Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 2: A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in History
Biography
had passed to that land where the weary cease from sighing, and
prisoners are at rest. Here, with Mercy bending over the scene, let
the curtain fall. Paul Jones died at Paris, at the age of forty-five,
of a dropsical affection, July 18, 1792.
The person of Paul Jones is well known by the numerous prints devoted
to his brilliant exploits. You will see him, a little active man of
medium height, not robust but vigorous, a keen black eye, lighting a
dark, weather-beaten visage, compact and determined, with a certain
melancholy grace.
He was one of nature's self-made men; that is, nature gave the genius,
and he supplied the industry, for he knew how to labor, and must have
often exerted himself to secure the attainments which he possessed. He
was a good seaman, as well as a most gallant officer; sagacious in the
application of means; vain, indeed, and expensive, but natural and
generous; something of a poet in verse, much more in the quickness and
vivacity of his imagination, which led him to plan nobly; an
accomplished writer; and as he was found worthy of the warm and
unchanging friendship of Franklin, that sage who sought for excellence
while he looked with a kindly eye upon human infirmity, we, too, may
peruse the virtues of the man and smile upon his frailties.
TECUMSEH[5]
By JAMES A. GREEN
(1776-1813)
[Footnote 5: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
[Illustration: Indians. [TN]]
It would be a difficult matter for a well-read American to recall the
names of more than four or five notable Indians, leaving, of course,
contemporaneous red men out of the question. The list might comprise
Pocahontas, best known, probably, for something she did not do;
Powhatan, that vague and shadowy Virginian chief; King Philip, who had
a war named after him and so succeeded in having his name embalmed in
history; Pontiac, whose great conspiracy Parkman has made immortal,
and Tecumseh. But, of them all, Tecumseh is easily foremost. He was a
man who, had he been born to great position among civilized nations,
would have stamped his name and fame upon the world. He was not a mere
savage of the ordinary type, bloodthirsty, brutal beyond description,
going upon one aimless raid after another to glut his passion for
rapine and murder. These savage traits were not his, though all the
good qualities of the Indian he possessed in double measure. He was
fearless, he was untiring, and when once started toward an end he knew
no rest until he had accomplished his design. He had a primitive
dignity of thought and expression that marked him as a great orator.
At the famous council at Vincennes, when Tecumseh had finished his
speech and was about to sit down with his braves, the interpreter,
pointing to General W. H. Harrison, said, "Your father wishes you to
take a chair." But the ordinary courtesy of calling the white Governor
the father of the red men was repugnant to Tecumseh, and with lofty
mien and unpremeditated eloquence he declined the proffered seat.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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