c confidence that
followed this exposure, that for a time the Republic itself seemed
in danger of overthrow. The eyes of the world were fixed upon De
Lesseps and his son Charles as the chief authors of the mischief,
and when the crisis was passed, and the smoke of the upheaval had
passed away, the Panama Canal was seen to be a ruined enterprise,
and buried deep underneath it was the once-honored name of Ferdinand
De Lesseps.

[Signature: Clarence Cook.]

GENERAL JOHN C. FREMONT[17]

[Footnote 17: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]

By JANE MARSH PARKER

(1813-1890)

In these days of rapid transit between New York and San Francisco,
of luxurious travel across desert and mountain, the story of John
Charles Fremont, the Pathfinder of the great West, is of peculiar
interest, a striking illustration that the history of the world is
in the biography of its leaders, in the pathfinders of the
unexplored.

The stormy tide of the French Revolution sent the father of John
Charles Fremont to the New World about the time, presumably, when
Napoleon Bonaparte was in the height of power. This M. Fremont came
of a good family living near Lyons, France. A British man-of-war
made prize of the ship in which he sailed for San Domingo, and he
was carried prisoner to one of the British West India islands, his
captivity lasting several years. Upon gaining his liberty he stopped
at Norfolk, Va., to refill an empty purse as a teacher of French,
and there met Anne Beverly Whiting, a leading belle of an old
Virginia family, who became his wife. One of the illustrious
connections of the Whitings was that with the family of George
Washington. M. Fremont's marked fondness for travel and adventure
was shared by his wife. They took long journeys through the wild
southern country, stopping at Indian villages, often sleeping by
camp-fires. On one of these expeditions, when making a halt at
Savannah, Ga., John Charles, their first child, was born, January
21, 1813. M. Fremont died a few years after.

The boyhood of John Charles was spent in Charleston. It is well to
remember, in a study of his life, his French blood and early
southern environment. His first choice of a profession was the law.
At the age of fourteen he became a student in the office of John W.
Mitchell, who placed him under a private tutor, Dr. Roberton, who
understood the lad thoroughly and developed his character in the
right direction. Dr. Roberton seems to