Connecticut western news., 1873-10-24
The Execution of the MOdOcs,
How They Received Their DOom--Com-
 parisOns and Reminiscencen. R

How They Received Their Doom--Com
 parisons and "Reminiscences.
 That group of savages, listenin,
 through double interpretation to tn
 comforting words of clergyman, say
 the New York Herald, whom they cal
 only speak of as a "spirit-man, is
 novel scene for the world to ponde
 over. They heard the sentences trans
 lated into Modoc iargon and then ren ] dered into pure Modoc, but thei,
 speeches afterward betrayed how little
 the thoughts of the preacher had sunl
 into their savage souls. They spoke il
 turn; and the strange offer of Captair
 Jack, that Scar-faced Charley should
 suffer ln his stead, was made. In neither
 his nor Schonchin's speeches did the
 calm, impressive, unshaken stoicism ap
 pear which we have insensibly connect
 ed with the Indian when facing his
 doom. From Captain Jack looking
 wistfully round with his searching
 glittering eyes, and saying, "It is
 terrible to think have to die. because
 whenever I look at my heart I see de.
 sire to live" we recall the famous figure
 of the Virginia Indian, ''Logan, "when.
 as a prisoner after a. bloody war in
 which he was ever towering spirit, he
 said, Hogan would not turn upon his heel to save his life." From Schonchin,
 speaking as smoothly and ingeniously as Shakspeare's Mark Antony, saying:
 " Boston Charley has told the truth when he called me woman. I was like woman, and opposed to war;" we can go back to Osceola, the famous Chief of the Seminoles, enduring his imprisonment with the dignity of a Brutus, expressing no regret save that he had allowed himself to be betrayed into the hands of the pale face enemies who were seeking, with bloody hand. the destruction of his race.
 The long intermixture with the whites had grafted the idea upon the mind of Captain Jack and Schonchin that while there's life there's hope-that the life which had been struggled for with tooth and nail was worth struggling for with the tongue. Different is this, in deed, from Black Hawk, when made a saying pithily and with the grim spirit of an ancient Greek, "Haye done my best pale faces too many. that's all. Although the old men and chiefs betrayed this yearning for life. in the two younger men, Boston Char ley and Black Jim, the defiant spirit of the savage unused to the feod, of gentier emotions was seen, and particu larly in the former. "Schonchin. said Boston Charley, reproachfully, 1T am not afraid to die. I fought in the front rank. I am wholly man, not half woman." So the "talk" went on with some of the old Indian eloouence. their organism, tempered with Christian expression, is heard =" The Great Spirit who looks from above will see Schonchin in chains, but He knows that his heart is good, and says, You die you become one of My people. ," Soon another scene takes place with more of the human element in it, when the squaWs, 'papooses and relatives of the doomed were let in to vent their grief ln passionate storm of farewells. Even with fettered savages and their barbarian kindred this grief is some- hing sacred, from which we must turn away.
 Night comes down over the camp with the death songs of the Modoc women wailing throug the air. Then, 'ave the sentry's tread, all is still. Morning breaks, and the reveille rings ut. All are afoot at dawn. The solemn pomp of death is prepared. The morning advances, and the troops march ut and take position. Five hundred Indians squat upon the ground before the broad gallows, to see and be by the death struggles of four of their banned race. A loud vail from the stockade where the Modoc quaws and braves are caged is heard, nd then comes the escorted wagon | with the doomed. Hope has gone out # their breasts, and the stoicism of he savage asserts itself in this supreme aoment. The fated four are seated on the gallows frame, with the un shining on their backs, never to hine upon their faces in life again. he long, dreary form of reading the entence and praying is proceeded with, nd the Modoc vail, rising again from he wives and children, is it's agonizing accompaniment. We wonder if it en- cred the minds of the Klamaths look lg coldly on, that so their race was assing away with the sun upon their aeks, their shadowed destiny on the round before their faces, white officers eading their doom, white chaplains to happy hereafter and the ails and sobs of women and children lterwoven and mingled with it all. The lud of an axe is heard, and the four retches struggle through strangula- on into eternity. Four corpses sway lg in the wind now tell that, in slow lshion, the murders of Canby and homas have been avenged.