, 1888-11-01
LEARNED OPINIONS.
Why Whisky Excites an Indian
More than a White Man.
Early Introduction OF Fire
Water Among the Red Men.
"A Few Of It's Injurious Effects Among
the Indians OF this
Section.

N mans fire-water among the American IN
N dians. the evil effects arising therefrom
u have been a source of annoyance and dam
\ ger to all whites residing in localities now
(. l.frequented by these semi.civilized rem
nants of q warlike race. So marked is the
h propensity of Indians to commit depreda-
tions when under the influence of whisky,
that congress found it necessary, for the
protection of the whites, to pass stringent
laws prohibiting the sale of lntoxicants of
any kind to Indians. and fixing heavy
penalties for the punishment Of persons so
offending.
Notwithstanding the fact that hundreds
of men are serving terms of Imprisonment
for providing the red man with hilarious
beverages, there are constant occurrences
of the crime, and drunken Indians are fire.
quently reported from various parts OF the
country. The fact that an Indian will
give anything he possesses for a drink OF
liquor, leads unprincipled white men to
violate the law for the purpose of gain.
IL the Indian cant get drunk on whisky,
he will get drunk on anything he can get.
He is not very particular so long as he
gets drunk, and will drink anything that
will accomplish this result, from choice
Kentucky Bourbon to Kendall's SPAWN
framed TO cover all sorts of intoxicating
medicinal bitters, extract OF lemon, etc.
Last summer the druggists of Colfax ex-
perienced remarkably brisk demand
among the Indians for Kennedy's horse
liniment, and within few days dozens OF
bottles we're sold. The Indians said they
were suffering from rheumatism" and
would come limping into the drug stores,
making wry faces, denoting intense suffer
ing. There seemed to be "a perfect epi-
demic of rheumatism prevailing among
all the Indians in the Palouse country,
Judging from the amount of
liniment consumed. simultaneously,
q large number of drunken
Indians appeared in Colfax. They made
night hideous with their war-whoops,
stopped citizens who were on their way
home after dark, and frightened women
and children half TO death. II finally oc-
Cured to the druggists that the imbittered
red men had misunderstood the directions
on the bottle, and had innocently(?) APP
piled the horse liniment internally instead
of externally. The druggists thereupon
discontinued the sale of liniment to the
Indians. to the great relief of the citizens.
Il is we'll known fact that indians are
insolent. warlike and dangerous when
drunk, and there have been numerous in
stances of their either having killed some
one or being killed themselves by white
men wko did not propose to take any
chances or stand any foolishness of this
kind.
The recent killing of the Indian by the
police near this city was the direct result
of whisky. William Masterson. now of
Colfax, killed a drunken Indian near
Waitsburg few years ago, and Henry
Rolf, o well known farmer of the Walla
Walla valley, killed another drunken red
skin in the same neighborhood. for which
he was placed under bonds to appear be-
fore the grand jury. Rolf became un-
easy and left the country and has never
been back since. The Indian had fright
ened Roif's fami lly by going into the yard
and making insolent demands and using
threatening language when there were no
men on the place. The Indian and his
companions mounted their horses and
rode off when they saw Rolf coming, but
the latter wac so incen ensed that he took his
shotgun and followed them, shooting one
of them through the head at short range.
making large hole, in which the Indian
caught cold and died in about two min
utes. Last summer party OF drunken
Indians surrounded school house near
Dayton, badly frightening the schooh.arm
and the children, and committed other
outrages in the neighborhood, until some
white men came with guns and threatened
TO kill tie whole outfit.
The above are only a few instances Of
the hilarious effects of whisky on Indians
in this section of the Northwest. The
other day it occurred to THE REVIEW that
the opinions of the local physicians upon
the question of "Why is 1t that whisky ex-
cited an Indian more chan white manp"
would prove of interest to les readers.
With this end in view reporter yester-
day started out to interview the twenty
five or thirty resident physicians of this
city, and after climbing up and down
stairs the greater part OF the day sue
ceded in corraling and exacting an
opinion from each of the medicine
men whose names appear below. OF course
there are number OF the most prominent
physicians in the city wh0se views on the
subject would also have proved OF interest.
but as the reporter was unable to find them,
after having camped on their respective
trails all the afternoon, he was forced to con-
tent himself with the subjoined wah-wah,
which, it will be observed, leads to one
general conclusion, viz, that the Indian is
an untutored cuss by nature, and that his
better nature. it he has any, is lost in the
preponderance of his warlike propensities
whenever he gets drunk.
DR.. J. M. Powell said: Whisky de-
velopes the animal propensities of the
Indian. He is naturally less intelligent
than the white man, and besides has not
the advantages of culture and civilization
that white man has. AS a rule, the
higher the intellectual culture the lower
the grade of animal nature. The better
nature of the Indian is not cultivated in
proportion TO what we call, for illustration,
the animal nature. 1t does not necessarily
follow. however, that whisky makes a
greater fool of an Indian than it does of n
white man. The white man under the
same conditions would probably be af-
fected."
DR.. Rawlings said: The cause,