Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-01-10
..dllcaster fntelliqe,lrer.
MONDAY EvENINo. JAN. 10, 1881.
The Indian Hair Restorer.

MONDAY EVENING. JAN. 10, 1881.
The Indian Hair Restorer.
New York Times.
The Indians, in spite of what Western
people may say of them, have redeemlng
traits, or, at all events, there is one Indian
who has q trait of that nature. 1t Is the
general opinion in the border states that
no Indian is good for anything until he Is
dead. thoagh what he is good for then We
arc never told, In this matter there is no
doubt that people who have been person
ally scalped, or whose creditors have es-
caped q general massacre by Indians on
the war-path, have permitted their preju-
dices to warp their judgment. All the
reckless assertions that the Indians are in
capable of unsel6sh, just, and noble con
duct is refuted by the admirable red man
who is now advertising himself as the
Indian Hair Restorer."
Probably the most Objectionable clarac-
teristic of the Indian, in the estimation OF
young or middle-aged people, is his pas
sion for extraneOus hair. You may con-
vert An Indian, civilize 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
= treaty with the government, gaze with
longing eyes on the hair Of the women Of
the capital. Blankets, rifles, and even
whisky lose their interest for the red man
who has seen Washington woman with
her best hair ON. 1t is said that several
important Indian treaties have been negO-
tiated solely through the astuteness of an
Indian agent, who brited obstinate chiefs
with artificial female scalps made to order
by a Washington hair dealer, and repre-
sented to be the scalps of Queens whom
the Great Father at Washington had de-
feated in battle. So bent is even the most
peaceful Indian on the acquisition of hair,
that the government has for many years
refused, except for very strong reasons, to
appoint any but bald-heaIcd men to posi-
tiOns as Indian agents. As matter of
fact, NO bald headed agent has ever been
killed by his Indian wards, and those un-
happy agents who have fallen beneath the
hostile tOmahawk have rushed upon their
fate by foolishly Haunting their hair in
faces Of the cOvetous savages.
When an Indian has taken scalp, he
preserves it with the utmost care, and be-
queaths it in his will to his Oldest son as a
precious hair-loOm. He is never known to
put his scalps to any practical use, but re-
CARDS them solely as decorative objects
which form a necessary part of 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 collection
Of scalps in the tribe is universally re-
garded as savage who cOnters honor on
his reservation, and is spoken Of after his
death, by the local aboriginal press, as one
whose effurts to educate the art instincts
of his neighbors had made him a public
benefactor.
Since the time when the earliest settlers
of this country began to fight with the
Indians, there has been a flow of scalps
toward the Indian wiswams. This flow
has been sometimes temporarily inter-
rupted by one of those exceptional treaties
which the white men have occasionally
forgotten to break within a month after
its signature but on tie other hand,
a prosperous campaign against the set
tiers of the states of the border
has filled hundreds of wigwams with a
wealth Of scalps. There must now be pre-
served, among private Indians, and in the
Sioux, Crow and Apache art galleries,
nearly five hundred thousand scalps, most
of them in excellent preservation. OF
course, in the great majority of cases, the
original owners Of these scalps are not in a
condition to identify them, but there must
be many men in the West whose hair is
now in the possession of the Indians, and
who would gladly prove property, pay
charges and resume their scalps.
Who the "Indian Hair ftestOrer" is has
not as yet been definitely ascertained, since
he mOdestly conceals his name, but there
is no doubt that he is noble minded mar.
He has evidently come to the cOnclusiO
that the Indians have no good title to the
hair which they have seized by force Of
arms, ard he holds that it is their duty TO
restore it to its rightful owners, or to their
legal representatives. He cannot wholly
undo what has been done in the way of
exasperating with knives and tomahawks
the original pOssessOrs of the scalps which
he desires to restore, but his evident wish
to act justly and make the only repara-
tion now possible for stolen hair shows
that he is a conscientious, high-minded
Irdian.
It 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 families
for years, and there will he great difficulty
in deciding whether any given hair be-
longs to any particular applicant for its
restoration. Unprincipled 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 tho benevolent Indian may offer for
restoration will be claimed and carried off,
while the red and sandy hair will find no
claimants.
These, however, are mere matters of de-
tail. The fact that one Indian has be-
come, from purely conscientious motives,
q Hair Restorer, is the important part of
the affair, for it is proof that an Indian
may be as pure, as unselfish and impracti-
cable as Mr.. Gladstone himself.