New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-04-20
SPRING. BOTTOu P1NTS.p

Our letter from Fort Ellis yesterday, and
the extract from private letter, written by
an officer at Fort SILL which we published on
Thursday, tell an old and wearisOme story,
but one we must listen TO over and
over again. The Indians are growing
dangerous because they are growing hungry.
They cannot find game in the hunting grounds
TO which the Government restricts them
"full rations for Indians have been unknown
"for year past" recent council of the
Crows complained that they got less and less
with every succeeding agent;' an army Off
Ger detailed to watch distribution of sup
plies at one of the agencies discovered a heap
of Indian goods hidden beneath pile
of empty boxes and barrels the saw
ages, rendered desperate bs starvation, de-
clare that it is better to die in battle than to
perish like old women; and the border is
trembling, as it usually does ut this time OF
wear, in expectation of a general war; Why
the Indians are hungry and dissatisfied it is
not difficult to imagine. Our Fort Ellis
correspondent describes the annuities recently
purchased for the Crows, at a cost to
the Government of about $4,000. There
were striped socks for the stalwart braves,
and princcsSe stockings for the squaws, plug
hats, butcher knives, OvercOats with velvet
collars, business suits in the most popular
checks and diagonals, a full line of fancy
three-buttOn waistcOats, open in the bosom so
as to show the whole set of shirt
studs, and, for Sunday wear, an unrivalled
assortment of that most stylish article Of APP
parell which the East-side young man COM
monty designates as "spring- bottom pants"
Arraved in all these high-tOncd clothes the
noble son of the forest must be an impressive
illustration of the benefits of paternal gov
ernment-Only the butcher-knife, if we regard
it as an ornament, is hardly i'll keeping with
the rest of the costume, and if we
consider its use, the objection arises that the
Indian has no meat perhaps it is for both
reasons equally that the butcher-knves, as
our correspondent tells us, are unpopular in
the!Indan country, and are snapped for
ammunitiOn-namely, gunpOwder and corn
whiskey-as fast as possible.
Indeed, reading the catalogue of articles
comprised in this $4,000 worth of annuites
for the Crows is like taking an inven-
tory of thriving Chatham-st. "empo-
"rium"; and We cannot resist the suspicion
that the goods are chosen rather with
reference to the tastes OF tHc honest settler
than the wants of the hungry savage. 1t can
hardly be supposed that red-painted devil
who has had nothing to eat all Winter, and
is forbidden to trespass on the territory where
the buffalo have taken refuge, will draw much
comfort from plug hat and pair of striped
stockings. He cannot stay his craving stomach by
covering it with velvet-trimmed OvercOat and
Indifferent as may be his taste in dress, he
knows at least that lOw-cut three-button
fancy waistcOat requires a watch and chain and
white shirt, neither of which articles of per-
sonal decoration has the United States thought
of giving him. Now and then stray Indian
presents himself to the view of the
traveller clad in some lonely fragment
of the apparel of civilization-a light and airy
hOOp-skirt, or an mpresuming paper collar or
perhaps simple little affair like dress coat.
with nothing else; but we dare affirm that no.
body ever saw whole band of Crows wearing
"spIing- bottom pants" and that neither those
triumphs of the tailor's art, nor the diagonals,
nor the velvet-trimmed ulsters, will ever
adorn a redskin. Society must be very gay
on the frontier since the arrival Of the