If i had a boy who didn't lie well enuff to sute me, i wud set him tu tendin a retale dri good store.

Man was created a little lower than the angells, and has bin gittin a little lower ever sinse.

When a feller gits a goin down hil, it dus seem as tho evry thing had been greased for the okashun.

It is dredful easy tew be a phool-a man kan be one and not know it.

Ignorance is ced to be bliss. This ma be so, I never tried it.

The man who kan wear a shirt a hole weak and keap it klean, ain't fit for enny thing else.

When a man's dog deserts him on akount ov his poverty, he kant git enny lower down in this world, not bi land.

Luv is like the measels, we kant alwas tell when we ketched it, and ain't apt tew hav it severe but onst, and then it ain't kounted mutch unless it strikes inly.

SHEA, JOHN GILMARY, an American philologist and historical writer, born in New York City, July 22, 1824; died at Elizabeth, N. J., February 22, 1892. He was educated for the law, and was admitted to the bar, but preferred to devote himself to literature. From 1859 to 1865 he edited the Historical Magazine, and was for many years editor-in-chief for the Frank Leslie publishing house. He gave much time to the study of the history and languages of the North American Indians, and published a series of Grammars and Dictionaries of the Indian languages in fifteen volumes (1860-74). He was a member of many historical societies in the United States, and of the Royal Academy of History of Madrid, Spain. Besides contributing largely to periodicals and to publications of historical societies, he translated Charlevoix's History and General Description of New France (1866-72); Le Clercq's Establishment of the Faith; Perralosa's Expedition to Quivira, and other works; edited the Cramoisy series of Relations and Documents in French Bearing on the Early History of the French-American Colonies (20 vols., 1857-68); Washington's Private Diary (1861); Colden's History of Five Indian Nations, edition of 1727 (1866); Alsop's Maryland (1869). Among his works are The Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley (1853); History of French and

Spanish Missions among the Indian Tribes of the United States (1854); The Fallen Brave (1861); Early Voyages Up and Down the Mississippi and NovumBelgium: an Account of New Netherlands in 1643-44 (1862); The Story of a Great Nation (1886); History of the Catholic Church in the United States (188688), and a Life of Archbishop Hughes in the American Religious Leaders series (1889). Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints was published posthumously (1894).

THE EXPEDITION OF FATHER MARQUETTE.

The French Government in Canada at last resolved to send out an expedition of discovery. In November, 1672, Frontenac wrote to Colbert, the great prime minister of France: "I have deemed it expedient for the service to send the Sieur Jolliet to the country of the Maskoutens, to discover the South Sea (Pacific Ocean), and the great river called Mississippi, which is believed to empty into the gulf of California.' One single man

with a bark canoe was all the Provincial Government could afford; but Jolliet had evidently planned his course. Like the Sulpitians he proceeded to a Jesuit mission, to that of Father James Marquette, who had so long been planning a visit to the country of the Illinois, and who, speaking no fewer than six Indian languages, was admirably fitted for such an exploration. That missionary received permission or direction from his superiors to join Jolliet on his proposed expedition, and there are indications that the venerable Bishop Laval, to accredit him to the Spanish authorities whom he might encounter, made him his Vicar-General for the lands into which they were to penetrate.

Jolliet reached Michilimackinac on the 8th of December, 1672, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and the pious missionary with whom he was to make the exploration, thenceforward made the Immaculate Conception the title of his discovery and mission. They spent the winter studying their projected route by way of

Green Bay, acquiring from intelligent Indians all possible knowledge of the rivers they should meet, and the tribes they would encounter. All this information they embodied on a sketch-map, both possessing no little topographical skill. On the 17th of May, 1673, Father Marquette and Jolliet, with five men in two canoes, set out, taking no provision but some Indian corn and some dried meat. Following the western shore of Lake Michigan, they entered Green Bay, and ascended Fox River undeterred by the stories of the Indians, who warned them of the peril of their undertaking. Guided by two Miamis whom they obtained at the Maskoutens' town, they made the portage to the Wisconsin, and then reciting a new devotion to the Blessed Virgin, they paddled down, amid awful solitudes, shores untenanted by any human dwellers. Just one month from their setting out their canoes glided into the Mississippi, and the hearts of all swelled with exultant joy. The dream of Father Marquette's life was accomplished; he was on the great river of the West, to which he gave the name of the Immaculate Conception. On and on their canoes kept while they admired the game and birds, the fish in the river, the changing character of the shores. More than a week passed before they met with the least indication of the presence of man. On the 25th they saw footprints on the western shore, and an Indian trail leading inland. The missionary and his fellow-explorer, leaving the canoes, followed it in silence. Three villages at last came in sight. Their hail brought out a motley group, and two old men advanced with calumets. When near enough to be heard, Father Marquette asked who they were. The answer was: "We are Illinois." The missionary was at the towns of the nation he had for years yearned to visit. The friendly natives escorted them to a cabin, where another aged Indian welcomed them "How beautiful is the sun, O Frenchman, when thou comest to visit us! All our town awaits thee and thou shalt enter all our cabins in peace." These Illinois urged the missionary to stay and instruct them, warning him against the danger of descending the river, but they gave him a calumet and an Indian boy. He promised these Illinois of the Peoria and Moingona bands to re

turn the next year and abide with them. Having announced the first Gospel tidings to the tribe, the missionary and his associate were escorted to their canoes by the warriors. Past the Piesa, the painted rock which Indian superstition invested with terror and awe; past the turbid Missouri, pouring its vast tide into Mississippi; past the unrecognized mouth of the Ohio coming down from the land of the Senecas, the explorers glided along, impelled by the current and their paddles. At last the character of the country changed, canebrakes replaced the forest and prairie, and swarms of mosquitoes hovered over land and water. After leaving the Illinois, they had encountered only one single Indian band, apparently stragglers from the East, who recognized the dress of the Catholic priest. To them he spoke of God and eternity. But as the canoes neared the Arkansas River, the Metchigameas on the western bank came out in battle array, a band of the Quappa confederation of Dakotas. Hemming in the French above and below, they filled the air with yells. This missionary held out his calumet of peace, and addressed them in every Indian language he knew. At last an old man answered him in Illinois. Then Father Marquette told of their desire to reach the sea and of his mission to teach the red men the ways of God. All hostile demonstrations ceased. The French were regaled and referred to the Arkansas, the next tribe below. This more friendly nation, then on the eastern shore, was soon reached. The explorers had solved the great question and made it certain that the Mississippi emptied into the Gulf of Mexico. The Jesuit Father had published the Gospel as well as he could to the nations he had met, and opened the way to future missions. -History of the Catholic Church in the United States.