Page:Whitman's Ride through Savage Lands.djvu/219

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The Memorials to Whitman
181

constituency about it, and so he gave in a way to induce others to give, and aids no institution where the Bible and moral training are neglected. I scarcely need tell my intelligent readers this person is D. K. Pearsons, M.D., LL.D., of Chicago, now eighty-six years old.

I have given, in brief, a sketch of his work in this connection, first because of his direct association with it, and secondly, because it pointedly marks what we have tried to show from historic facts in all the chapters—that Power higher than man's power can be traced and studied.

We often speak of all such as "accidental happenings." Were they? Did the four Flathead chiefs accidentally, in 1831-32, appear in the streets of St. Louis upon their strange mission and there meet their old friend the great red-head chief? Were Drs. Whitman and Spalding and their wives accidentally in Oregon? Was his heroic ride to save Oregon in 1842 an accident? Was it accidental that he was on the border in 1843 to lead that great immigration to Oregon in safety? The Oregon of to-day was dependent upon the safety of that great company in 1843. Was it all accidental that Congressman Thurston met Dr. Pearsons in 1848-49 at Chicopee, Massachusetts, and by "words fitly spoken," that forty-five years after he had rested in his watery grave