{"product_id":"2940013446335","title":"The Hunters' Feat","description":"CHAPTER ONE.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA HUNTING PARTY.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn the western bank of the Mississippi, twelve miles below the\u003cbr\u003e_embouchure_ of the Missouri, stands the large town of Saint Louis,\u003cbr\u003epoetically known as the \"Mound City.\"  Although there are many other\u003cbr\u003elarge towns throughout the Mississippi Valley, Saint Louis is the true\u003cbr\u003emetropolis of the \"far west\"--of that semi-civilised, ever-changing belt\u003cbr\u003eof territory known as the \"Frontier.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSaint Louis is one of those American cities in the history of which\u003cbr\u003ethere is something of peculiar interest.  It is one of the oldest of\u003cbr\u003eNorth-American settlements, having been a French trading port at an\u003cbr\u003eearly period.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThough not so successful as their rivals the English, there was a degree\u003cbr\u003eof picturesqueness about French colonisation, that, in the present day,\u003cbr\u003estrongly claims the attention of the American poet, novelist, and\u003cbr\u003ehistorian.  Their dealings with the Indian aborigines--the facile manner\u003cbr\u003ein which they glided into the habits of the latter--meeting them more\u003cbr\u003ethan half-way between civilisation and savage life--the handsome\u003cbr\u003enomenclature which they have scattered freely, and which still holds\u003cbr\u003eover the trans-Mississippian territories--the introduction of a new race\u003cbr\u003e(the half blood--peculiarly French)--the heroic and adventurous\u003cbr\u003echaracter of their earliest pioneers, De Salle Marquette, Father\u003cbr\u003eHennepin, etcetera--their romantic explorations and melancholy fate--all\u003cbr\u003ethese circumstances have rendered extremely interesting the early\u003cbr\u003ehistory of the French in America.  Even the Quixotism of some of their\u003cbr\u003eattempts at colonisation cannot fail to interest us, as at Gallipolis on\u003cbr\u003ethe Ohio, a colony composed of expatriated people of the French court;--\u003cbr\u003eperruquiers, coachbuilders, tailors, _modistes_, and the like.  Here, in\u003cbr\u003ethe face of hostile Indians, before an acre of ground was cleared,\u003cbr\u003ebefore the slightest provision was made for their future subsistence,\u003cbr\u003ethe first house erected was a large log structure, to serve as the\u003cbr\u003e_salon du Lal_!","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47079450837232,"sku":"2940013446335","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013446335_p0.jpg?v=1763581350","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013446335","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}