great value. Through these workers the past is being resurrected and the work of the historian supplemented with great advantage to all who will, in the future, learn the story of our early days.

The field of Colonial times has also been entered by a third party with an energy and brightness that is astonishing the world. There is a class of writers who combine the historic perceptive qualities with a strong imagination and are producing a class of fiction that is being read with avidity by hundreds of thousands of the thinking people of the land. Indeed, from this class of writers will be gleaned all the knowledge of Colonial times that the great mass of the people will ever possess. It is fortunate for the readers that these writers are conscientious, and are producing stories that are worth the reading because of the truth that is in the midst of their fanciful portrayals of characters.

In this story of the career of Colonel Henry Antes, the attempt is made to present the life of one who was so identified with various movements in the development of the frontier of Pennsylvania, as to constitute him a representative character. He was brought into intimate relations with the men who stand out as the controling thinkers and workers of the Colonial regime. In his earlier days, Benjamin Franklin and John Dickinson were the dominant factors, and the political strife was on the problem. of the limitation of the powers of the proprietary government. In his later days, Andrew Jackson was the cynosure of all eyes, and the era of internal improvements was being ushered in. Between these two periods occurred the war of the Revolution, the war of 1812, and the careers of Washington, Jefferson; Adams, Madison, Monroe, Hamilton, and their compeers. But the activities of Col. Henry Antes were not so much with these men as with the men they were leading. As a local leader of the people, he represents the forces at work in the substratum of government. A study of his life shows us how our ancestors lived, and wrought, and became prosperous, while fair and fertile fields succeeded forests, and palatial edifices of brick and stone and marble arose from the spot where the log cabin of the brave pioneer had stood.

When Col. Henry Antes was in his prime, the territory under the civilization of the English race was very small compared with what it is to-day. The treaty that secured the independence of the colonies ceded a territory that stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi, and from the Great Lakes on the north

to the 31st parallel and the southern border of Georgia. This section was parcelled among the thirteen States, of which only seven had well defined boundaries. Even in these the greater part was a wilderness. The coast line from Maine to Georgia was broken by many spaces of undeveloped lands and straggling villages, where there were a few fishers' cots built of rough hewn logs and thatched with sea weed. Between Portland and the St. Lawrence there were no settlements. Beyond Schenectady, in New York State, the white man dared not go, because the land was occupied by the organized tribes of Indians, and there they had their homes, and dwelt in built houses, and tilled their fields and raised fruit in extensive orchards, and hunted the wild animals in the primitive forests about them. In Pennsylvania the entire northern, western and central parts were a wilderness bearing great trees, while the streams were the highways where the Indian moved free from fear of the white man. In Virginia there were only a few straggling villages about the headwaters of their great rivers, and beyond that, in the States of Kentucky and Tennessee, there were only a few hunters and trappers and traders who were slowly fighting their way as the advance guard of the aggressive Scotch-Irish settlers who were closely following them. The valley of the Mississippi was coveted by the various countries of Europe and it was not at all certain whether France, or Spain, or England, would finally possess it. No white man had yet seen the headwaters of the mighty river, and the territory beyond it was the region of speculation and mythology.

At that time Philadelphia was the principal city in North America, and in its streets were seen the representatives of all nationalities and the varieties of dress of every class found on this side of the Atlantic. Here the Indians and the white men held great councils and professed peaceful sentiments while displaying all the dignity and grandeur that each of them was capable of presenting.

Although the seat of Quaker simplicity, Philadelphia had the reputation of being the richest, most fashionable and most extravagant city on the continent. Men of prominence were recognized as soon as they appeared on the streets, and because of the influx of foreigners, the social lines were distinctly drawn by those who assumed to be the choice people of the commonwealth. The people lived over their stores and built balconies in front of their

houses, where they sat and watched the passing people and saluted their friends. Chestnut street, the principal street, was a daily parade ground for those who delighted in showing the latest importations from the shops of Europe. A gentleman appeared on the street wearing a three-cornered hat heavily laced; hair done. up in a cue, and the color of it made uncertain by the profusion of powder sprinkled upon it. His light colored coat had a long back and was surmounted with a small cape. The silver buttons on the coat were engraved with the initials of the owner's name. His small clothes hardly reached his knees, his stockings were striped, his shoes pointed, on which he wore large buckles, and he carried a cane which he flourished as he walked. A lady appeared dressed in gorgeous brocades displayed over cumbrous hoops which stood out at least two feet from her form. Her hat was in the shape of a tower, and was surmounted with tall feathers. When a gentleman passed a lady they both courtesied profoundly, taking half the pavement to make the evolutions.

Henry Cabot Lodge says: "In a community with so large an interest in trade and shopkeeping, there was, of course, from the outset, the usual tendency to concentrate for the better prosecution of business. Philadelphia throve from the beginning, was in the year 1750 second only to Boston in size and importance, and by the time of the Revolution had become the first city in America in population. The inhabitants of the city proper numbered more than 25,000, and those of the suburbs carried the total above 30,000. The city was laid out on the imbecile checkerboard fashion, now almost universal in the United States, and the High street running through the center of the town was the great promenade for the citizens. From the very outset good building was the rule; the houses were chiefly of brick, some of stone, and but few of wood. The public buildings were comely and useful structures, and considered in their day imposing and handsome. The churches were small and unpretentious, but neat. The open squares, long rows of poplars, and large gardens and orchards about the houses of the better sort gave some relief to the rigid lines of the streets. In the matter of police regulations, more had been done in Philadelphia at that time than in most cities in any part of the world, and this was chiefly due to the genius and quiet energy of Franklin. At his arrival the town was filthy and unpaved, unlighted, and guarded only by half a

dozen constables drawn from the citizens. When the Continental Congress assembled the crossings everywhere were paved, as well as the principal streets; there was a regular watch to patrol the town, cleaning was performed by contract, instead of inefficiently by convicts, and the streets were dimly lighted. By Franklin's exertions the city had come to be the pride of the province, and there was abundant legislation for its benefit. The well built houses, sometimes rising over shops and store-houses, sometimes surrounded by gardens, were generally in the English style of the Eighteenth century. They all had broad porches and projecting roofs and windows. Many were adorned with balconies, and the old dials set in the walls served in large measure as timekeepers to a race ignorant of steam engines. The most characteristic feature of the town was the sidewalks, marked off from the roadway by posts at short intervals, and by pumps, surmounted by lamps, and thirty yards apart. Within these posts foot passengers found protection from vehicles, and convivial gentlemen groping their way home through the faintly lighted streets butted against them and were thus kept in the foot-path and out of the gutter. Houses and sidewalks were scrupulously clean, and even the large and commodious market, at the end of the High street, filled every morning with a busy crowd, was neat, quiet and orderly. All the foreign commerce of the province centered in Philadelphia, and the quays along the river were the scene of bustle and activity inseparable from thriving trade. Great fairs brought in the country people, and these, with the seamen and strangers, gave life and variety to the streets and squares.

"Most of the citizens lived in rooms over their shops, which were tended by their wives and daughters, and their daily life was as sober, monotonous and respectable as their Quaker garb. They still preserved the customs and traditions of their founder, which were rapidly giving way before the accumulation of wealth, the increase of luxury and the presence of ever increasing sects, whose leading tenets were not simplicity of dress or manners. But the traders and shopkeepers differed only in degree from the upper classes, whose mode of life has been preserved for us in many ways. The old style of living was one of extreme simplicity, but luxury began to come in rapidly after the middle of the Eighteenth century, when tea and coffee came into general use, the bare floors began to be carpeted, and the bare walls pa

pered. There was in every way plenty of substantial comfort. The houses were large, broad, with dormer windows and balconies, and usually in the midst of pretty gardens. The rooms were low and spacious, with heavy wainscots and large open fire places, while the furniture and silver were plain and massive, but handsome, and often rich."

We will introduce the reader to Col. Henry Antes at a time when the entire country was in a state of intense excitement. His name, like that of his father, was properly John Henry, but the John was dropped, and he was always spoken of simply as Henry Antes.

Henry Antes, well fixed in his new home on the west branch of the Susquehanna, had come to Philadelphia to receive his appointment from the Lieutenant Governor as a Justice of the Commonwealth. It was at a time when the masses of people were surging through the city in a state of wonder at the portents of the times. Coming from the frontier, Antes was dressed in a suit of home-tanned deer skin, trimmed with bear's teeth, and wearing a fur cap, on which was the bristling tail of a fox. He wore a belt made of rattlesnake skin and carried the rifle that was the inevitable complement to the attire of a backwoodsman. He was a large man, both in stature and in breadth of shoulders, and attracted attention wherever he passed from the dignity and majesty of his appearance.

It did not take much time for him to walk through the city. In a few moments he walked from the soldiers' barracks in the Northern Liberties down to the Hospital, and from the Hospital to the river at the foot of Chestnut street, and thence up to the State House and to the famous "Inn," just across the street from the State House, which was the rendezvous of the most distinguished strangers in the city.

What a company he saw there. Benjamin Franklin had just returned from England after a fruitless endeavor to prevent war between the Mother Country and the Colonies. Just before Franklin arrived the battles of Lexington and Concord had been fought. Immediately on his arrival, Franklin had been appointed by the Assembly that was then in session a deputy to the General Congress that was meeting in Philadelphia. Parton says: "Delegates to the Congress began to reach Philadelphia soon after Franklin's arrival. May the ninth the four members from South