The Dickinson press., 1883-11-10

A NEW humorist has risen in the
land, one of those deep funny fellows
who tell, with a long face, a solemn,
soul narrowing story, which the I'M
%suspecting swallow as gospel truth,
while the joker is nearly dying with
suppressed laughter. His name is
West Laughlin, and he writes to the
Dubuque Democrat from La Grace, a
new town near Fort Yates, on the
Missouri river, as follows: .'The In.
dians have just returned from their
hunt, which has been the least profit.
able of any ever before conducted j..
They generally all start out at Il fixed
period, some 5000 in number, and re-
main away for at least one month";"
Yes. they started out this fall, 5000
OF them, and have been IN Internal
nuisance on the prairie, as we have
already several times, stated in the
PRESS; stealing hides and ponies and
burning the stock ranges. Then he
goes on to say: "But this time all
hands have been sorely disappointed.
Their hunt, instead of being crowned
with such brilliant success as here
tofore, has been an absolute failure,
and they complain bitterly of their
lot. They state that the pale face
has driven the buffalo from their
reservation, thus depriving them of
their most substantial means of sub
sistence." And here is where the conf
cal cuss has the greatest trouble to keep
his face straight, for of course he
knows that they have permits to
leave the reservation and have i'm
proved the opportunity to the full
limit, and have burned the prairie to
drive the buffalo onto the reservation
and keep them there. "They look
upon the approaching bitter cold win
ter with a sinking heart and a feeling
Of utter despair. Well may we all
pity the SORROWS of poor Lo, for if
ever there were an abused, deceived
and unhappy people, they are those"
The sorrows of poor 10 is one of his
finest touches, for we'll he knows that
they are all under shelter and the
government is feeding every one of
them. Poor 10, too lazy to work, no
chance to beg and not much chance
to steal-but that little we'll improved
"They are not only poorly provided
with the merest necessities of life
and clothing, but also insufliciently
supplied with ammunition" This
about the ammunition is COOL.
All the soldiers and white men in the
country should have their ammuni-
ton belts emptied, rather than have
poor L.o" lacking in that necessary
article of happiness. especially as he
says further down: '.Their annuities
from the government are too small,
and may yet be the means of pro-
voking an outbreak" What could
the poor helpless pets do in case of
an outbreak without ammunition.
The government should see to this
at an early day, so that the outbreak
(Which might heal their almost bro
ken hearts)may not fail to be success
full for want of plenty of cartridges,
powder and lead. sit IS no mcom.
mon sight to see them in the summer
trading off their clothing for pro.
visions for the winter" Here is
where he lies down and rolls. He
knows that the Indians live almost
entirely in the present, and trade off
their clothes because they do not
need them just at the time, but the
idea that they do so to lay up pro-
visions for the winter is too huge.
1t might do to tell the sewing circle
of some eastern village, and cause the
good sisters to shudder over the I'm.
happy fate of the "coffee COOLERS .
while the objects of their sympathy
are lolling about in their tep. es,
smoking their pipes and playing
poker. There are some more good
things in the article from which the
above extracts are taken, but we
have not space to present them to our
readers.