Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-02-09
,,aa Correspondence of The Evening Star.

This place has been fun of busy men for two
months past. but none have labored with less
cessation or more enthusiasm than the collector
of eurios, the Aggregation of relics. the pur-
chaser of everything bad and indiffer-
ent-that was offered for sale. or course there
was great deal of interesting material thrown
| on the market when Big Foot and his band Of
horse thieves were hastily removed to those
happy hunting grounds with which the Indian
is always comparing his present condition to
its manifest disadvantage. Fictitious relics
| soon succeeded those mementoes which would
! naturally interest most people and then fol-
lowed fictitious values. Prices asked were al
most invariably out of all proportion with any,
thing like equitable figures. but the collectors
/ kept on buying Everybody supposed that
curio prices had reached their greatest possible
altitude wher. number of the Nebraska Ma
/ tional Guard put in an appearance and ran the
charges up just about 100 per cent more than
they were on the day previous. That was the
/ OgaIlalas' picnic. Everything saleable was
/ dragged out of the tepee and disposed of at
war prices" The average collector was not
/ IN il, and the wise man ceased to look Mt bead
work or The fragments which were alleged to
| have been saved from the strife at Wounded
Knee. Never was there such q plenitude of
war clubs, each guaranteed to have been the
I instrument with which Capt. Waiiace's life was
terminated. Big Foot's clothing would have
! filled any ordinary baggage car. and there were
more decorative garments credited to the medi-
/ cine man than would be necessary for the
/ thorough eGui pmeHt of wild west show.
WAR CLUB STORY EXPLODED.
friend in Chicago sent me the information
/ yesterday that Chicago's greatest cur;o col
lector was exhibiting the only and original war
/ club with which Wallace was felled and killed
Inc understanding is that the club was quite
/ a costly purchase. [ take no especial delight
/ In being an iconoclast. but the truth must
/ come out. Capt Wallace was never struck
| with a club at any time on the day of his
/ death The fatal wounds were both made with
/ bullets and the disiigured countenance was
\ also caused by lead. Two bullets grazed the
/ captains forehead in such manner that the
| bloody grooves crossed each other and the re-
| suit was the appearance of a club wound. On
this appearance a hundred clubs have been
! sold 10 innocent parties. yet Capt Ewing. who
was the first surgeon to SEE Wallace body, and
Maj. HartSJif. VINO examined it the next day,
both testify that the forehead was mutilated
( by two bullets and by nothing else. For
week after the hostiles came into the agency
and played their part in what has been termed
"a surrender" they did only little to supply
the demand for real warlike wares. but as
soon as Gen Miles departed for the east the
market opened considerably and great many
valuable and interesting things were procura-
| bic at reasonable rates because there We're but
few people left who cared to purchase.
THE DEMAND FOR GHOST SHIRTS.
There are some people in these United States
who have queer ideas as to the dntiesand respon-
abilities OF a major general commanding an army
in the field. few of these wrote to Gen. Miles
asking him to procure various curios for them,
they to reimburse him for money and time ex-
pended. Not one of these applicants had ever
known the general even remotely, but their re-
quests were full of that assurance which antici-
Pates nothing like disappointment. Ghost
shirts were the articles most frequently asked
for, but they were extremely scarce. Those
taken off bodies after the fight at Wounded
Knee were soon disposed of by the soldiers, and
il was almost impossible to part a live Indian
and his ghost Costume. 1t was bad medicine"
lie said.
INTERESTING McRTUARY STATISTICS.
Deeply interesting to surgically-disposed
military men would be the mortuary satisfies
of the campaign just closed. but the public
generally would care but little for them. SO L
viii only touch upon one little popularity which
may be popularl!- understood. Gen. Forsythe,
IN his report ON the battle Of Wounded Knee,
gives the number of bucks killed as ninety
knowing nothing at that time of the great
slaughter of squaws which took place stimuli
taneOusiy. Later investigation made it plain
that the total number of Indians killed was
nothing short of 100. and the wounded were
fully hundred more. For more than two
weeks was almost cor tinuoilsly in the company
Of those who did the killing and after the first
day or two / made memoranda of the
results of individual proves on the CORY
held. The figures in the aggregate are start
ling Ii was got difficult. to believe one of the
cOmbatants when he calmly asserted that
his carbine alone Was responsible for the de-
mise of six hostiles. but when 350 men assure
you that their individual scores range from
four TO ten Indians each then you begin TO lose
faith in the axiom which has il that figures viii
not lie Averaging the sanguinary iuforma-
ton. which was III every case voluntarily given.
and that each officer and enlisted man ON the
ground killed five of Big Roots followers in
| spite of the fact that the poor old Minnecongue
chief commanded only sufficient number
male and female to afford but one victim to every
| two soldiers In tins calculation no account Is
taken OF the large number OF hostiles killed by
Capt. Capron5 battery of Hotchkiso guns.
Could il possibly be that nv unofficial Informal
ton was correct then it must be evident to the
merest tyro in mathematics that the seventh
cavalry Utterly arnihiated nearly two thousand
Indiais-the most gigantic piece Of Indian
slauShtering ever done in such 4 short period
as one hour and twenty minutes.
THE ESrERPRrsrSG PHOTOGRAPHERS
About the last of the busy sojourners to leave
Pine Ridge were the photographers. Some of
them laid up treasure on earth while they were
here. but they had to work for it from daylight
until it was almost time for daylight to make
another appearance. The early bird was the
| biped which captured the worm in this CAM
paign, and the most particularly desirable worm
was the opportunity to photograph the battle
| fields while the dead were still living thereon
Such chances are not very numerous in this
country and at this date. They are desirable
| for the money that is in them. when viewed
/ from the photographers standpoint The far
away artist had no opportunity at all, but
/ Messrs. TRACER 4 Kuhn of Chadron. Neb. man.
! aged To get there with profitable promptitude.
IL Was hard work to supply the local demand
I for the pictures they took and for awhile quite
( impossible 20 ill the orders that tumbIed in
| FROM all parts Of the country. When the battle
/ grounds and the earthworks and the buildings
| had been photographed then commenced the
/ lucre-catching job of making pictures of the
/ army by companies. OF course every soldier
I wanted all the scenes of war and at least one
copy % the photograph in which he was a fig
ure. There was money in the business.
4 THE THRIFTY TELEGRAPH OPERATOR
| Proportionateiy there was more money made
by the Telegraph operators than by any of the
other temporary residents at Pine Ridge. When
the troops first came here the only electrical
means OF communication with the outer world
was single wire to Rushviile-a telephone
/ line. To make this communication more GER
/ TAIN. speedy ard secret switches and keys we're
put IN and the line was convertible. Then the
quarternaster engaged two telegraph opera
| tors, who relieved each other every twelve
| hours and relieved the newspaper correspond
| ents al the time. As government operators
| they were not required 10 send anything but
government messages. but they were allowed
20 receive commercial and news matter and
=