The Bozeman weekly chronicle. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1883-1889, 1883-10-10
Sitting Bull Sick.

Sitting Bull Sick.
A dispatch says that Sitting Bull, once
the proud leader Of a band of copper
cOlOred eut-thrOuts, is at his reservation
down sick with cold, pneumonia, in
fammatofy Rheumatism, and jim.jams.
This is the result of civilization. When
he was wild Indian, roaming the plains
in search Of scalps, dressed in a blanket
and earrings, sleeping rnder the shelter
of a tree in the snow, he was ne Yer sick,
never had a cold, and never knew a
doctor. Now he is civilized, is furnished
with warm garments, plenty to eat, and
house heated by steam, and new
disease catches him every week. This
should be warning to wild Indians not
to accept the hospitalities Of civilization.
1t may seem to the wild man. who goes
without his dinner unless he can kill
some game, that the proffer of house,
food, clothing and servants, is not to be
despised, but a season fighting the
diseases of civilization causes the red
man to sigh for the open prairie, the
forest, the wigwam and the bloody scalp
of the pale face. 1t is enough to cause
tears to flow from eyes unused to weep
ing, to think of Sitting Bull, the greatest
murderer of the age, perhaps with the
exception of the James brothers, reclin-
ing on his couch with the infammatOry
rheumatism. Details of soldiers from
the regular army may bathe his aching
joints with horse liniment. and savory
dishes of condition powders may be fired
down him, and everything may be done
to make the man comfortable, but as the
pain takes him by the shoulder and goes
down his spine and works into his legs
and feet, and curls him up like coil of
barbed fence wire, pious man though he
be, since he has been converted, he will
swear blue streak and sigh for his wet
moccasins and the snowcapped noun
tains in the vicinity of his old stamping
ground, where he killed Custer. The
government wet nurses may soak Sitting
Bulls cloven feet in hot mustard water,
give him ginger tea, and pour cough
syrup down among the gutteral sounds
that escape him, and try to break up his
cold, and they may read to him from the
good Sualday-school books, and try to be-
lieve that he is good Indian, but the
poor stricken man will always feel that
the government has put up a job on him,
to kill him by degrees. The aboriginal
cough that racks his manly frame may
seem to his attendants like the knell that
tolls for soul about to depart from the
clay, and they may try to soothc him
with hymns, but he will feel like kicking
them all out doors, mounting trusty
mule, and going out and killing settler
or two, believing that such exercise
would do more to cure him than all the
medicine Of the doctors. A sick Indian
must be q mournful spectacle, not only
to outsiders, but to the aforesaid Indian.
He must realize what mistake civiliza-
ton is. If he has lived to arrive at mans
estate without being sick day, while
exposed to all the hardships Of his race,
and has never heard the name Of a
disease, aud then goes to a reservation
| and lives in government barracks, and
| picks up an almanac and reads 4 list of
1.-THE diseases that his white breathren are
! subject to, a list As long rs Il congress
mans speech. and realize that he is ;ss
liable to hayc all of those diseases if he
| lives longsenougl,, it must set the Indian
to thinking, and if he does not conclude
| that the government keeps these diseases
on tap, to kill off Indians that are cap
| tured, then he is truly good Indian
that ought to die. Sitting Bull has seen
the folly of being civilized Indian.
The railroads from Chicago to Louis
vile and Indianapolis have got pto a
war and have been carrying passengers
between the points for dollar. and one
road announces that it will soon sell
tickets from Chicago to Louisville for a
nickle, and give a chrome. 1t is such
miserable, insane practices Oh the part of
the railroads that knock the bottom out
of the value of an editorial pass. 1t is
humiliating to some Of our ablest and
most intelligent citizens, who wield the
pen, which is mightier than the sword,
to get on train and pull out Il pass, and
have a lot of obscure people in adjoining,
seats, who have paid their fare, look
around at him and wonder why he did
not pawn his diamonds and buy five
cent ticket like gentleman. If the rail-
roads have any respect for the editorial
profession they will at once raise the
rates to figure 30 large that they will be
out of the reach Of those misguided per
sons who will spend nickle recklesslv
for fifteen dollar ticket, and then put
on style. over an editor.
Miss Clifford, a Boston lady, has pro-
+ vided a home for aged and improvident
cats, in that city, and when it gets to
running, the spectacle of a party of belat-
ed cats making night of it on the back
fences Of Boston will be unknown. But
it will be some time before the cats tan
be induced to accept the courtesies of the
home, and very likely the matron of the
z. establishment, the sister of cat charity
as it were, will be compelled to 60 about
nights with landing net, and catch the
cats in the act of staying up nights, and
take them to the home To see an c,i'
uc,ted and accomplished lady going
around catching cats. and explaining t.
them in dead language the benefit o.
the home, wilfbe sight that will Tx
worth going miles to see. If she would
lnre a few homeless orphans to catch cat.
for her, and pay them enough to get {
warm meal, her charity would not make
her the laughing stock Of the world
Providing a palace for tramp eats, whel
little children are suffering for food ant
clothing, looks like the foolish kind o
insanity.
|