Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-06-13
THE GENTLE SAVAGE.
Samples of His Work TO be Seen at
the Patent Office. +4tA
Washington Cor. Chicago Tribune.l

Washington Cor. Chicago Tribune.l
A rural friend came here the other
day. and asked me tolshow him through
the Patent Office. We saw the yellow
buckskn breeches of Washington, his
tent poles, and his camp equipage, and
then his holster-cases, embroidered by
his wife's hand. My aged friend, who
had recently lost his wife, watered at the
eyes when he saw this last; for, no
doubt, he thought of his own old sweet
heart, quilting away on the old-fashioned
quilting frame, the very coverlets which
now made him warm of nights, while she
was lying out in the old graveyard
These widowers' tears made Washington
and his wife rise up before me alive, and
| went over the same old museum with
as keen an interest for the hundredth as
for the first visit. We saw the jewel
hilted swords given to sailors and ENJOYS,
long since deceased, but wrested away
by the jealous republic; and the narrow
chested coat which wrapped the gaunt
body of Jackson on the day of New Or
leans hung within the glass-case in help
less appeal So, through thousands OF
patent models we kept our way, until at
last we reached the Land Office, and the
communicative Commissioner took us
into his. separate museum, MN.
Come here, Curtis I" he said II want
you to put on Big Bulls holiday suit.
An attendant stood upon a chair-a
small, modest, smooth-faceds man--and
the Commissioner passed up to, him out
of box a bundle Of gear, made of buf-
| falo's horns, robe, forelocks and name,
and the man fitted the thing on his head.
Immediately he was metamorphosed to a
devil, with row of horns reaching from
his ears to his heels, and the thick, bushy
hair of the buffalo shook round his chops
and heart. g.
"Meet that figure on the field of tor
ture after the battle is done, said the
Commissioner, 'and you would think
Satan was waiting right by for your soul.
| That was the favorite dress of Big Bull,
Cheyenne. Chief of gigantic size, who
died in battle with the Pawnees, putting
his hands over his ears and rushing into
death, while his wife Drained her two in
fants, and died fighting with him.
The Commissioner I hen showed us a
gala-dress of brute Sioux brave, made
entirely of the cured skin of human
scalps, and. fringed with the long locks
of white females. ef
"See here" he said, this scalp has
an auburn thread running through 1T by
the light it shines like dark gold. This
scalp is flaxen, and is soft,as a boy s.
Those short ones are childrens S scalps.
And here is one with a suggestion OF
gray--an old woman s, maybe.
Ny widower friends eyes were full
again, and resisted quicker" came to
| his mouth.
There was the hair that had been the
pride of its wearer when she came to the
arms of some strong young pioneer
bridegroom, and laid it upon his breast
after the labor of the day. Children had
played with it, twining it around their
! fingers, and beneath il had lain the years
of housekeeping cares, the dreams of
competence and independence, the
yearning Of the woman's prayer that the
Kingdom of God might come and His
peace flow like river. The gray strands
had crept into it like the first gray lights
into the sky at evening, and the peace OF
home and love which passeth under
standing had shone from the failing eyes
beneath those changing gtresses. She re-
pined not, because the wealth and beauty
Of their former times were reproduced
in her blooming girls, and then she felt a
realization that her years had not been
lived and tried in vain, but that, as e
frontiersman' wife, she had become one
of the pilgrim mothers of a Western
race. iI i hag lifn I I
Then, in one moment, out of the
ground arise the painted shapes OF dark
ness; the earth becomes yell. Stricken
at the feet of some savage the bleeding
figure lies; bloody hands are twisted in
these hairs of gray; the knife describes
the circle; the shining glory of the ma
tron' head bangles at the Indian knee
among the fringes of his bloody shirt.
Here it is in the Paten. Office, making
the widower's eyes water as he feels the
story. and then the Commissioner says:
Have you. seen Spotted Tail and
Swift Bear2 They were here this morn
ing, and are a fine looking set of Chiefs.
"Yes," says the widower, still looking
at the old woman's scalp, " heard that
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