The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-09-16

the little wooden houses Oh tne hdnSAs
towns are of far greater value than
they appear to be.
Their inhabitants, AS IA general thing,
are rude ent ugh in exterior appearance,
for ont here the couventiOualtties OF a
more civilized region are but lightly
priced. Collars are scarce Red han-
mel and blue check shirts are preferred
to white. Half the men discard coats
in summer as effeminate luXuries, and
nearly all reject neckties as unworthy
OF men whose mission it is to build up
the great empire of the West, The all
spreading reign of paper collars has
not yet reached these distant plainsi
but every male being wears revolver
or two and bowie knife, not carrying
these articles surreptiliously in secret
pockets, but displaying them almost as
ostentatiously as soldier does his
sword. Swearing is cultivated to lux
uriance, and the list of oaths contains
several rare specimens never yet class
ihed.
And yet there is proof enough that
the usual rehnements OF life Will soon
be found on the plains. In the little
town OF Ellsworth there are two piano
fortes-one i'll IA room over store, and
the other standing on the ground in an
ordinary ny teLt, amid the baggage of
u family newly arrived, and awaiting
in this temporary home the building OF
II nouSts Inc LlNhA Ca kJASSo NoAh k'aA4AN1
have offices here also in II tent, which
contains such an un-tently article as
hre-proof and burglar proof safe. a
hotel has been opened after strangers
had been obliged to sleep in the railway
station or ou the ground; yet the popu-
latiOn had scarcely numbered ten men
before a rum-shop was in full operation,
and Mexican greasers, Yankee traders
and western roughs We're in lively
practice at the bar Nobody has yet
dreamed of building school or church.
".
All the inhabitants of these Kansas
towns are pioneers from the East. For
thousands of miles behind them are
the populous districts of civilizations
for thousands of miles before them
stretch out the vast deserts which they
are to reclaim, The brute creation,
with keeuer instinct than they are
credited for, recognize the advance of
civilization and retreat before it. The
buffalo and the antelope year or two
ago knew Middle Kansas as their
homes, but they have now deserted it
for more western pasture grounds. The
buffalo, il is said, is afraid OF railroad
track, and will not cross it. The prairie
dogs are less numerous than theywere,
and the prairie wolves fewer and more
limid.
But the pioneers meet in human
IOTIIlS SOilltlulnE lar leIIlblb luhu
wild beasts, were they as dangerous as
the prairie animals are harmless. The
red man, as poets love to call him, does
not show the same accommodating
spirit as the buffalo, and the conse-
quence is that the Indian question is
the most exciting topic in the West.
There exists there none of that mild,
forgiving spirit which characterizes
the discussion of this matter in the
East; and there is but one solution of
the problem otfered-that is EXtermin-
alton.
The traveller along the Connecticut
valley, now so peaceful and smiling,
eau scarcely imagine that such quiet
village as Deerfeld was once the scene
of fearful massacres, the bare recital of
which makes one sbudder; yet he
knows from history that this Is the fact.
Now these fearful scenes, which seem
so far off, are OF repeated occurrence
to-day on our western frontier. The
Indian massacres the white man with
most fearful tortures, aud yet finds that
The mass of civilized people in the east
ern states, by their sympathy, seem to
approve Of his actions.
Now, when II man who never harmed
an Indian is scalped; when his children
are put TO torture, and his wife or
does not think that the fact that his In
dian enemy has been sWindled by
government agent justities this style OF
retaliation
"What do you think" asked Major
Wisp OF Il Kansas citizen, what do you
think of the Peace Commission now
negotiating with the savageap''
~ think" was the reply, that if the
savages were To scalp two or three of
the commissioners, they would for the
first time begin to comprehend the true
state of the case"
The Indians, it is expected, willHgree
at the coming convention to almost
anything, andisign any required treatyi
and as they are pretty well supplied Tor
the approaching winter, they Will for
some months suspend their attacks on
the whites. Next spring, however,
they will resume operations, Will run
Oft stock, and kill with the usual tor
lures any white folks they may en-
counter.
They do not fear our soldiers sta
toned ut the western forts, for they
know perfectly well that these soldiers
are mounted on large, unwieldy horses,
which are wholly untitled for coping,
either in speed or training, with their
own sprightly little prairie ponies; and
they know that they themselves can
lean over their ponies, shoot from un-
der their necks, and perform all sorts
of equestrian tricks of which our SOL
diers, of course, know nothing. Again
the army officers are constantly in
structed to avoid treating the Indians
with undue severity. "Do not irritate
the animals" seems to be the motto in
use in the Indian Bureau.
This, any way, is the view taken of
the subject on the western frontier; and
1t Is confidently believed, from Mime
sofa to Arkansas, that few more sea-
sons OF massacre and rapine Will con-
vince even the Washington authorities
that the Indians must feel the heavy
hand of the government, and that IA
vigorous war must force a peace,
through the determination, not of the
entire red race, but of their leading
warriors. II is believed that the older
Indians, with the conservatism of age,
are really in favor of peace, but II is
the younger chiefs who profess no fear
of the United States government; and
1t Is these younger men who must be
exterminated as vermin and serpents
are exterminated. At the same time it
is admitted that the Indian agent sys-
tenn has been grossly abused, and that
the Indians have hud plenty of cause
for legal complaints; and, as far as the
frontier men are concerned, Indians
and agents may be exterminated to-
Rether.
Do not for moment suppose that tke
murderous savages are armed as their
ancestors were. They retain, it is true,
the bows, arrows and tOmahawks Of
their forefathers; but to these imple-
ments they add bowie knives, reyolYers
and Springfield rifles; and know, too,
how to use them all.
NOW Is YOUR TIMEI