The Portland daily press., 1881-01-10
New York Times.l
The Indian Hair Restorer.

The Indians, in spite of what Western peo-
pie may say cfthefn, have redeernirc traits orr
at all events, there is INDIAN who has n
trait OF that nature. 1T is the general opinion
in the border States that no Indian is good for
anything until ahe is dead, though what he is
good for then we are never told. In this mat
ter there is no doubt that people who have
been personally scalped, or whose creditors
have escaped general massacre by Indians on
the war path, have permitted their prejudces
to warp their Judgment. All the reckless as
sertions that the Indians are incapable of un-
selfish, just and noble conduct is refuted by
the admirable red man who is now advertising
himself as the Indian Hair Restorer''
Probably the most Objectionable characters
tic of the Indian, in the estimation of young
or middle-aged people, is his passion for extra
neous hair. You may convert an Indian, civ
ilize him, wash him, and teach him the uses
OF poker, but he will still retain his hankering
for your hair. The Indians who from time to
time visit Washington in order to be sentenced
to have their lands confiscated. or, as the
process is more elegantly termed to make a
treaty with the Government gaze with long
ing eyes on the hair Of the women OF the capi-
tai. Blankets, rifles, and even whiskey lose
their interest for the red man who has seen a
Washington woman with her best hair on. 1t
is said that several important Indian treaties
have been negotiated solely through the as
tuteness of an Indian agent, who bribed obsti-
nate chiefs with artificial female scalps made
to order by Washington hair dealer, and rep
resented to be the scalps of Queens whom the
Great Father at Washington had defeated in
battle. So bent is even the most peaceful In
dian on the acquisition Of hair, that the Gov
ernment has for many years refused except
for very strong reasons to appoint any but
bald-headed men to position as Indian agents.
a. matter of fact, no bald-hea agent has
ever been killed by his Indian wards, and those
unhappy agents who have fallen beneath the
hostile tomahawk have rushed upon their fate
by foolishly Haunting their hair in the faces of
the covetous savages.
When an Indian has taken a scalp he pre-
serves it with the utmost care, and bequeaths
it in his will to his Oldest as precious heir
loom. He is never known to put his scaps to
any practical use, but regards them solely as
decorative objects which form necessary part
ef the Wigwam Beautiful. He hangs them on
the wall, as if they were pictures, or puts
them on shelves, like choice crockery. The
Indian who has the largest and finest collec-
tion of scalps in the tribe is universally re-
reservation, and is spoken of after his death,
by the local aboriginal press, as one whose
efforts to educate the art instincts of his neigh
bors had made him public benefactor.
Since the time when the earliest settler
this country began to fight with the Indi
there has been flow of scalps toward d ,,.,,-
dian wigwams. This flow has been soroat;n,as
temporarily interrupted be one of those excen.
tlonal treaties which the white men nave occa-
sionally forgotten to break within a month
after its siOnature. hut on tho
prosperous campaign against the settlers of the
States of the border has filled hundreds Of
wigwams with wealth of scalps There
must now be preserved, among private Indi
galleries, nearly five hundred thousand scalns
most of them in excellent preservation. 81
course, in the great majority of cases. the
original owners of these scalps are not in
condition to Identify them, but there must be
many me1 in the West whose hair is now i'm
the possession of the Indians, and who would
gladly prove property, pay charge S, and re-
sumo their scalps.
Who the 'Indian Hair Restorer" is has not
as yet been definitely ascertained, since he
moGestiy conceals his name, but there is no
doubt that he is a noble-minded man. He has
evidently come to the conclusion that the In
dians have no good title to the hair which thew
have seized by force of arms, and he holds that
1t is their duty to restore it to its rghtful own
ers, or to their legal representatives. He can
not wholly undo what has been done i'm the
way OF exasperating with knives and toma-
hawks the original possessors of the scalps
which he desires to restore, but his evident
wish to act justly and make the only repara-
ton now possible for stolen hair, shows that
heis conscientious, high-minded Indian.
1t is to be feared that the Hair Restorer will
find much practical difficulty in the way of
carrying out his excellent purpose. MANY of
the Indians will refuse to restore the hair
which has been in their family for years. and
there will be great difficulty in dao;d;ac
whether any given hair belongs to any partic.
ular applicant for its restoration. Unprinci-
pied bald men will swear that beautiful scalps
of curly black hair are their rightful property,
and it will probably be the case that all the
good hair which the benevolent Indian may