New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-08-25
THE 4" DJGGER,O


along the mountain roads, at stage offices and
| wayside stations, peculiar figure. Its sex is
not always apparent from its attire; it wears
ANYTHING, from q cast-off hoop-skirt to a
! soldiers cap, from horse blanket to a linen
buster. So much of its face as may be seen
through dirt and tattoo shows good humOr and
| ignOrance 80 much of its fgure-and this Is
often too much-shows physical deterioration
and weakness IL it has not been described
by the intelligent tourist it is because 1t has
not been exhibited to him as California
prOduct-because even the liveliest fancy could
not make it an advertising medium to induce
immigration. And yet, the other day, holding
in one hand the rife it had learned to use,
and holding on with the other the trousers 1t
had MOTT kept civilization at bay. In its
fortifcation-a phenomenon of nature as I'M
couth and rude as itself-it defed the military
power of great nation with soldier at its
head. When it did succumb it was through
the treachery of its own leaders. When it
was hunted down, at last, it was by its own
race.
Such was the Modoc-elevated by q certain
merit to that bad eminence, but still the Dig
ger Indian, pure and simple. This was the
problem for which, at the time was offered
but one NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. This was
the degraded being who represented to half
the civilized world all that was dreadful and
brutal in the Indian character. This was he
of whom stern officials had written in gloomy
but significant rhetoric that his trOuserless,
dirty descendants should not live to boast Of
their ancestors deeds-this was the man for
whose blood bucOlic editors had thirsted; for
whose scalp peaceful citizens returning from
the theater, and fired by the strontia-hghted
heroism of Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack, had
lifted up their voice. This was only few
weeks ago, and already the capricious public
interest has fitted away from the sub 81.
The merits of Candy and the catastropb, of
his death have not been sufficient to induce
his admirers to save his widow from want,
and the publication of the death warrant of
his murderors has no longer any magic to en-
chain the general attention. There will be
one more ripple of public curiosity at their
execution in October, and then the Digger will
fall back once more into his primitive and
squalid insignifcance.
Perhaps no one had more right to be aston
ished than the Digger himself at his sudden
importance. The very titles in which he was
wont to playfully indulge show how foolishly
cheap he had hitherto held himself. While
his brethren of the great plains rejoiced in
such awe inspiring appellatives as Big
Thunder" Gle Winks at the Sky" and
"Thundering Bull" he had pursued the even
tenor of his way as well as the elusive but
edible grasshopper, under such titles as "Shack
| "Nasty JIM "Scar-Faced Charley" and
| ~ To- fba Am N
Diad really did, as we are told, occur at the
Lava Beds, it was performed under most dis
couraging circumstances to the future poet
who was to sing it,
| Certainly he had not gained his unhappy rep
atation in history. When Sir Francis Drake
first found him on the cosst he was ready to
| fall at the feet of the white man. When
Portalu, with his Franciscan monks, visited
him later, he respected the ecclesiastical prop
erty which the Catholic discoverer left behind
him at Monterey. He piloted the weary Ju-
nipero Sierra on his blameless pilgrimage
through the desert, and bound up the good
fathers feet with the yerba baend. The friars
| found him peaceful" "obedient," and hope
| ful.n Only once did he show any of those
qualities which have given him his present
baleful significance. He rose one night and
massacred the priests of southern mission
But, alas for his character and reputation as a
gratutous and consistent savage, La Perouse
came forward later 10 show that In these
! Christian reservations he had been the vic
tim of the cruelest sacerdOta oppression. His
body as well as his soul had been held
in bondage. "Many SINS" said La Perouse
(which in Europe are left to Divine Justice,
." are here punished by irons and stocks" His
| wives and sisters were whipped in distant
Enclosure. Gin order that" says the naive
! chronicler. "their cries might not be heard by