Across the wide Missouri

1862 Gold Rush and Revolution

One evening, as the fates arranged, they noticed each other with new interest in the gambling room of Daisy’s establishment.  It wasn’t long before Phoebe asked Daisy to stand with her at a small but beautiful wedding ceremony in the Presbyterian Church. She and George were to honeymoon in Panama, tropical and foreign to her, and determine where they would start their new home together. Daisy had to replace her for a new musician and find a trusted theatrical manager before she went back to the plantation. She hadn’t planned on the entertainment business holding its own during an inevitable wartime anyway. It would fall as it may and it could be resurrected later.

States were in the middle of designating their official allegiances to either North or South. The line was being drawn further to the north than anticipated. Fear and uncertainty were increasing everywhere and Daisy knew she must prepare at her true home. Her commercial and humanitarian responsibilities were more serious in the south. She took care of affairs as they took priority. Daisy left St. Louis and traveled to Georgia, leaving the uncivilized to their own devices. The Missouri tribe, whose name in turn meant “people with wooden canoes,” are boat builders. Henry learned of them from the steamboat decks on the even-wider Mississippi.  Henry spent ten years on the Great Plains of America carrying the Dutchman’s gold.  There he learned the ways of the Indians and the Walker revolver. 

Back to the World

But these are the days of steam propulsion and iron-rich spheres.  There is coal… and alchemy that comes from such things. In the factories and mills… in the shipyards and mines…there are iron-rich spheres of influence.  Solid shot. Americans must have their stupid war.  American workers will kill each other to make their princes rich.  One has no choice but to look for opportunity, ja- while staying the hell away from the goddam war. The old baron sent Henry to America to learn the American System of Manufactures, and naturally Henry found the Hawken rifle… in Glasgow… manufactured in St. Louis, America.  It could have been farm implements- the baron didn’t care. 

The Baron just wanted to get Henry the hell out of Hesse.