jacket and
trousers with curiosity, for they were picturesque with their furs, belts,
and weapons, and he looked like a warrior or a forest knight clad in
armor.

He wore the same buckskin suit when he appeared in Washington as the
delegate to Congress from Oregon. It was at the time of Polk and Dallas,
and not a person in Washington probably knew him when he made his
appearance at the Congressional Hotel.

The people at the hotel stared at him as the children did now. He went
into the great dining-room with the other Congressmen, but alone and
unknown. The colored waiters laughed at him as he took his seat at the
table.

The other people at the table were served, but no one came near him. At
last he turned and faced a hurrying colored man, and, in a voice that
silenced the room, said:

"Waiter, come here!"

The waiter rolled up his eyes and said, "Sir?"

"Have you any big meat to-day?"

"Yes, sir."

"Any bear?"

"Any bear? bear? No, sir."

"Any buffalo?"

"Any buffalo--buffalo? Where did you come from? No, sir."

"Well, waiter you may bring me what you have."

The waiter went away with white teeth, and a smile and titter passed
around the table. The waiter returned with the usual first course of the
meal, and was about to hurry away, when the old pioneer took out his
pistol and laid it down on the table, saying:

"Waiter, you stand there, I may want you; and if anybody wants to know who
I am, tell him I am Hon. Joseph Meek, the delegate of the people of
Oregon."

When it was known who Mr. Meek was, he was met by Mr. Dallas, the courtly
Vice-President.

"I will attend you to the reception this afternoon, where you will meet
the wives of the Congressmen," said he. "I will call for you at three."

The Vice-President called, and was surprised to find Mr. Meek still in his
buckskins.

"You do not intend to go in that habit to the reception?" said he.

"Yes," said Mr. Meek, "or else not go at all. In the first place, I have
nothing else to wear, and what is good enough for me to wear among the
people of Oregon is good enough for their representative here."

We have given, in these two anecdotes, very nearly Mr. Meek's own words.

A few days after the visit of this most extraordinary man, another visitor
came. She was an earnest-looking woman, on an Indian pony, and there was a
benevolence in her face and manner that drew the whole school into
immediate sympathy with her. The lady was Mrs. Spauldi