The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1884-09-01
Good When Dead

My attention has recently been d.
rected to an attempt made by the press
to determine the author of the
apothegm; There are no good Indians
but dead ones" ] ask for small
space in your paper for the purpose of
communicating to the public certain
facts relating to this matter. 1t is well
known to persons convcrsant with the
history Of literature that many of the
anecdotes that now appear and are i'm
agined to be facetious are not the
product of the present generation of
Writings, but may be traced back to the
period known AS the middle ages
They have reappeared at longer or
shorter intervals, slightly altered in
form, but essentially the same. The
description of the Indian in question
did not originate with some poetic
statesman of our Nation and time, but
has come down to us from the MARTYR
period,of the Christian church. Previous
to the invention of printing, pictures
were employed for the purpose of COM
municating ideas, and the witnesses for
Christ, who ''resisted unto blood" were
represented by headlcss bodies, the
severed heads being held in the hand,
placed on table, or laid on the ground
beside the victim. In the language of
that time, martyrs "were perfected.
The high estimation in which they were
held was expressed by hymns sung at
their tombs, and in some instances di-
vine honors were paid to them. Thus
the idea of goodness became associated
with an obtruncated human body, and
represented by it. Until illiteracy be-
came the exception, merchants and
other servers of the public used pict
lures exhibited on sign-boards for the
purpose of soliciting trade. As late as
the seventeenth century pictures of
headless women, with the supersciption,
1.-THE Good Woman were common in
England, France, Italy, Germany and
other countries. This form of adver-
tisement was chiefly, but not ex-
clusively, used by the oil merchants.
and this fact connects it with the para
, bic of the wise and foolish virgins. 1t
was an admonition to the wise women
| to provide oil for their lamps Ridi-
SuAitiE3 NoHlCH was IIuGi iilOto SCNcEb
during the last three centuries than it
is at present, and these signs were in
scribed with some very ungalant
verses. Here are couple of speci-
mems translated from the German 1t
is apparent that they were intended to
explain the picture of the decapitated
woman under which they are written:
| Here you may find good woman,
| Faithfully portrayed from the life,
| Nothing is wanting but her head,
| Because that turns about with the wind.
| If the head had been left her
| She never would have been good in ali her
| life.
| Women are a plague to men,
| And though young spoons" are fond of
| them,
| As soon as their fire is quenched,
| They wish her head was of.
Another phase of the same notion is
found in the history of caricature.
A decapitated picture of man holds
his head in his hand, with ''The Hon
est Lawyer written above him. The
transition from these historic facts to
the apothegm, There are no good In
dians but dead ones" is obviously
easy. No one can now establish a
claim to the authorship of the latter ex-
preston without first proving his igno-
rance of familiar historic facts. Pits.
| burqh Dispatch.