San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1881-12-22
WORK FOR THE MISSIONARY.
People Who Blng Their Hair and Eat Their trs0a
mntkers.
Bal imore sun.

tells aud innumerable apartments and
LODGING houses are overlooking. have
never seen so many people here when
there was no extraordinary attraction
You have read Darwin's Voyage ola
Naturalist" and remember his descrip.
ton of the "Terra del Fuegians." He
saws: 81 certainly have never seen
creatures more abject, and more miser.
able-completely nude, the body run.
ming with the falling rain, the figure
short, the visage bideous, the skin dir.
ty aud greasy; the hair disheveled, the
voice discordant, the gestures violent.
1t is hardly possible to believe them to
be human creatures, inhabitants of the
same world with ourselves"
In the Jardin d'Acclimation here
there is group of these creatures re.
Gently imported, and the description Of
them written by Darwin fifty years ago
is as correct rs ii written yesterday.
In large enclosure taken from some
of the other wild ANIMALS are assembled
four men, four women and two or three
children of these barbarians, and
more curious sight have never seen,
or a more interesting one. A crowd Of
thousands of the demi monde and the
curious of all CLASSES press their noses
continually against the wire screen
which surrounds their inclosure. Sitting
on their launches, or lying at half
length about log fire, are these Great.
ures clad in simple sheepskin, tied by
a string about the neck, and waist
cloth. The latter is put on in defer.
ence to the prejudices of the visiting
Europeans, and not particularly for the
Parisians, who rather fancy the nude.
Their hair, full of vermin, is tangled
mass, which they are continually scratch.
ing. It is entirely innocent of scissors,
excepting at the forehead, where it is
hacked off or banged in the most fash
ionable and idiotic style, to keep it out
of the eyes.
They in features resemble the Circas-
sian rather than the Indian-forehead
broad and low, nose broad at the base,
mouth large. Briefly their food at
home is chiefly fish, eaten alive; here
it is beef or mutton, hacked off with a
huge knife and thrown into the ashes.
When cooked to their taste it is pulled
ont with stick and eaten, dirt and all.
Of their chief luxury-their grand
mothers-the are unfortunately de-
prived. Tt is their custom to eat the
old and feeble and the wounded. When
asked why they do not eat their dogs
instead, they give you to understand
that the dog can catch the otter and an
old woman can't catch anything.
OF the family or family relations,
chiefs or patriarchs, they have no no.
ton, no religion, no faith-not even
feticism, the refuge of the most degrad-
ed Africans. He has no knowledge OF
his age, of any distinctive names, or OF
time; he is a Fuegian, as a horse is
horse, pig is pig, and simply mem
Der of herd no knowledge of prop
erty, and no regard for it beyond mis-
cradle canoe, bow and arrows, and the
sealskin which he throws over his shout
ders. He possesses nothing. He has
no habitation, but at night makes rude
nest like monkey or dog, and sleeps
huddled together with his neighbors.
Fl life is vagabondish nomadic, and
he seeks something to appease his hun
ger continually, like any wild animal
Mr.. Darwin says of their wigwams;
"They resemble in form and size pile
of rubbish, the work of an hour" Their
language, Captain Cook said, SOUNDS
very much like a man "gargling his
throat" Their cruelty is notorious
and they think nothing of dashing out
a child's brains on the rocks if he dis
pleases them. II 1 had never seen
Paris or any of its sights should have
been able to see nothing else here
consider it the greatest curiosity l have
ever seen, and an interesting STUDY
Here at a glance can be seen the gre@
stride our civilization has made. here
in contrast is that of the very earlie''
and very latest times face to face. lne
ah.anea If all Clothing and that OF the