The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1872-10-25


Every traveller who has visited st.
Pail, situated upon the bend of the
Mississippi river, in the State Of salu
brious atmosphere, has seen or heard
Of Old Bess. She lives some three or
four miles out of the city in small ca b.
in, all by herself, where she trudges into
town once or twice week, through all
weathers, TO barter her ware or to make
demands upon her white friends. Old
Bess is her English name-the Indian
appellation, which was White Flower,
having long since been abandoned in
her indifference to the savage life and
her enlarged association with white
people.
"White Flower named for know.not.
tin papoose. Bess gooder name for
white squaw," she said, with practical
no nonsense" manner to the traveller,
to whom she related that the squaws, as
soon as they are able to walk after the
birth of their children, 90 to the door
of their wigwam, and the first object
they see, whether in the sky or on the
earth, or in the waters under the earth,
gives name to the new little papoose.
Hence comes so many euphonious names
which are so often applicable to the
character of the savage. Hence, Little
Bee, Black Hawk, Red Cloud, Spotted
Tail and divers other significant names.
Old Bess is now said TO be 100 years
old, and yet her hair is as black as that
OF youths, and her form is scarcely more
bent than that of fashionable Young
lady vigorous and healthful, she seems
to laugh at the attacks of diseases and
the invasions of time. She has adopted
the dress and habits OF white people.
and calls herself christianized woman
but as she has grown old she has con-
tracted the habit of boarding, and tucks
away in little holes of her cabin and
mysterious corners Of her clothing all
the money she can earn, or that is be.
slowed upon her. AS an instinct of her
greed and cunning in obtaining the de-
sired lucre, she had been urged bv
photographer of st. Paul to sit for him.
This she had stubbornly refused for
years, until he offered her, for her time
and trouble, consideration in stamps.
This offer was accepted, and Old Bess was
seated in the chair ready for the impress
sion, when she called out 10 the photo
grapher that she had changed her mind.
In dismay, the man inquired the cause,
and received for reply that it was worth |
t,co dollars instead of one, and moreover
she wanted her money in hand before
he could make the picture. Nothing
would induce her to change from this |
determination, and as the photographer
coveted the picture which subject so |
unique would furnish, he yielded, paid
the money, and proceeded to transmit
the wiry, brisk little figure, big nose,
black hair and twinkling eyes of the
old squaw.
Old Bess has claim upon the whites,
for in the fearful Indian massacre in |
Minnesota in 1862 she gave signal help
to the unprotected whites. She, watch. |
ing the opportunity, informed those
whom she could of the impending dan.
ger, thus affording them opportunity to es-
cape, and she did not hesitate to leopard. |
re her own lite by sheltring and hiding
under the skins of her own wigwam
some helpless young children, who
would else have been sacrificed. For
hese humane acts she received nota-
re reward from the Government, and is
early remembered by those whom she
escued, by gifts.