IN A STORY RECENTLY Published in the Herald N. H. Fagerlund of Rolla told how the receipt of a message from Territorial Governor Church recalling the militia company of which he was a member prevented a serious battle with Indians and the probable repetition of something similar to the annihilation of Custer's force at the battle of the Little Big Horn. Publication of the story brought to light the original telegram from Governor Church which is now in the possession of F. H. Martineau, now a druggist at Cando. FAGERLUND, IN AN Article by Win V. Working, Herald historical writer, recalled that while he was a member of the militia his company was ordered by Major W. H. McKee of Dunseith to unite with a St. John company in attacking an Indian party in the Turtle mountains. Before the company had gone far, Fagerlund said, a man on horseback delivered a message to McKee ordering the men back to Dunseith, Fagerlund believed the move was wise since 20 heavily armed braves were waiting in ambush for them. THE MESSAGE NOW IN Possession of Martineau, handed down by his uncle, Frank Phillips who was then Rolette county auditor with office at St. John, indicates that McKee's order for a drive against the Indians, had not been sanctioned by Louis K. Church, governor who served from 1887 to 1889. His message to McKee, dated February 14, 1889, read as follows: "YOUR DISPATCH OF Fourteenth received. Don't use militia for any other purpose than as a matter of protection. Under no circumstances commit any aggressive act without fully informing me in the first instance. "In an emergency of this kind you should exercise the greatest care and discretion possible that no overt act on your part should produce a clash between you and the Indians. Act with the greatest discretion. "THE SHERIFF HAS NO right to call you out for duty. It rests solely with the providence of the governor to order out the militia and in case of any unlawful act upon your part or of your men they will be subject to the laws the same as any other persons who committed unlawful acts. "I don't approve of your action. You must not under any circumstances move against the Indians or permit any act that would tend to cause a breach of the peace without further orders. I have wired commanding officers at Fort Totten and also the war department." IT WILL BE SOME TIME Before we see the first robin, barring the few that may have remained through the winter and survived the cold weather, but Peter Bjerklie of Gilby reports the first Cecropia moth for 1937. He writes: "LAST SUMMER WE FOUND the cocoon outside and we put it in a jar in a warm room upstairs. On January 16 it came out. At first it was a weak, flabby thing, but it continually gathered strength until it stood in the full beauty of life. It spread its wings at first experimentally and at last sailed around the room. We caught it, chloroformed it and mounted it. I hope your cocoons are doing well and that your moths are as beautiful as mine is. THANKS FOR THE GOOD wishes. My Cecropias are still dormant, probably because they have been kept in a cool basement. Soon I shall bring them up to the warmth of the living quarters and see what happens. I have no doubt they will be beautiful, if they emerge, as the markings of the Cecropia are quite uniform. It is one of the mysteries of nature that the tiny egg from which the caterpillar emerges contains some indistinguishable quality which is carried through the life of the caterpillar and which decrees that from the cocoon there shall come a gorgeous creature, brilliantly colored, and marked according to an unvarying pattern as accurately as if the design were drawn with a mathematical instrument. COMPARED WITH THE floods in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys the story of the biggest flood in the Red river valley makes tame reading, but that is due chiefly to the fact that the area covered in the Red river territory was smaller and the population less dense. The flood itself was serious enough. MY FRIEND M'ALLISTER, the barber, was a boy then, living on a farm in Minnesota near the mouth of the Snake river. The McAllister farm house went floating down the river, and the family took refuge at the home of a neighbor who still had a dry second story. For years that neighbor had been preparing for a flood, for he had heard stories of earlier floods. Near the farm buildings he had built a great mound of earth and stable manure, and on this elevation, surrounded by a wire fence, his farm stock spent the days of the flood. At that time the flood waters reached from the Red river clear back to Stephen. A FRIEND WHO IS IN Entire sympathy with the purpose for which the annual president's ball is held wonders if the purpose sought could not be attained more effective1y by means of direct contributions rather than by the holding of balls. Listening over the radio to the descriptions of the balls he was impressed by the similarity be- tween this movement and the practice of financing churches by the indirect means of suppers, entertainments, etc., in which a large proportion of the gross income is consumed in necessary expenses, leaving but a small net return to be applied to the main purpose of the effort. HE SUGGESTS THAT IN VIEW of President Roosevelt's splendid personal fight against infantile paralysis and the interest which he has shown in the use of preventive and curative methods, his birthday still be honored by a concerted movement for relief measures, that the occasion and purpose be publicized as vigorously as now, and that then direct contributions be invited in place of the method now imployed. In that case every dollar given would go directly to swell the fund, with no deduction for expenses of any kind. Of course that would not stand in the way of a ball then or at any other time which might be desired for its own sake. It would, he feels, bring subscriptions from many who do not find it convenient to attend the ball, or who may not care for dancing. WHEN WE ARE TOLD THAT the Ohio river at Cairo, Ill., has reached a stage of 60 feet, just what does that mean? The question was asked across the table the other day, and there were all sorts of speculative answers. My understanding is that the figures used represent the height of water at a particular point above a "zero" mark which has been established by a government survey. That zero mark is popularly known as "low water," although it may not mark the lowest level which has actually been reached at a given point. Professor E, F. Chandler says that the zero mark on the Red river at Grand Forks was fixed by government engineers about 1881 at the stage of water which, according to the best information then available, was the lowest known. Probably the water had been lower in some earlier years, and it has at times been lower since. That is immaterial. The object is to establish a point from which measurements may be made. The zero of 1881 is still the point from which engineers' calculations are made. Some years ago, probably about 1920, the geological survey fixed its own zero mark here at a level about 5 feet lower than that of the engineers. The monument placed by the engineers, however, is the only one remaining at Grand Forks. "FLOOD STAGE" IS A LEVEL fixed by rather rough estimate at the point where rising water begins to do damage. There is also a theoretical "high water" level, which is also fixed by a sort of rough estimate. It is not the level reached by the highest flood known, but the general average of ordinary high water, usually the point below with only brush and the smaller vegetation is found, and it is at this line, as nearly as it can be ascertained, that private ownership of meandered streams ends. GILBERT ANDERSON, WHO has been employed in the Great Northern car shops in Grand Forks for 15 years, sends greetings to his Grand Forks friends from La Feria, Texas, where he is visiting a sister. He writes of the vast citrus orchards and great fields of vegetables which are to be found in southern Texas. On January 23 the temperature there was 80. Cabbage was selling at $8 per ton, grapefruit at $16 and oranges at $20 per ton. AT MAT AMOR AS, TEXAS, MR. Anderson changed an American $5 bill and received nearly $19 in Mexican money for it. He expects to visit Cuba before his return, which will be about March 1. REFERENCE IN THIS Column to the old practice of "lining out" hymns recalled to a friend the story of the leader whose "lining out" brought unexpected results. On one occasion the leader had forgotten his spectacles, and he addressed the congregation: The light is poor, my eyes are dim; I cannot see to read the hymn. To his astonishment the congregation sang the lines which he had pronounced. He undertook to explain in another couplet, which the congregation sang, also. So it went, couplet after couplet, the congregation following the leader faithfully, as was the custom.