The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-10-02

grew up wild and free, and would have
laughed to see the man who could over
take and matriculpte me.
Look at Alexander the Greati did
not know that he studied elocution
without Aristotle. did not know that
an educated man could tako the tariff,
for instance, and use it as an excuse for
leading an immoral life.
But was left to run wild, as it were,
making faces ut people in the spring
time of life. and now in the autumn of
my days my name is Dennis. Here
on the Cherokee Strip am all the time
brought in contact with inferior people
who have never been east. Since l have
been east myself I can see how rough
and coarse we are here in the west.
We are earnest and open hearted, but
we lack refinement.
We had little merrymaking here
when got home from Washington, D. G.
Fungus Tamarac, Brulo Sioux who
Is spending the summer with us, drank
bottle of iodine that got in Pitts
burg for my rheumatic.
Those who opened him with suitable
exercises said that on the inside he
looked like Mardy Graw, whatever
that is.
want you to become refined and get
good manners. The government will
pay for the bulk of your education. but
want you also to learn etiquette and
roulette while east. Our table manners,
too, here OH the Cherokee Strip are very
tart and tacky, find. Even Black Hawk,
the great orator, while dining with Lord
Baltimore, l am told, put sugar and
cream on his olives and blew the pits
across the room at o mark.
1t is such things as these that have
kept the Indian back and induced people
to hesitate about inviting him to tho
annual dinner of the bong tong.
Sitting Bull was just beginning to OBJ
tain social recognition at Washington
when III reaching across the table one
day at the White House to help himself
to the presidents kummel he dragged
the corner of his Pullman blanket
through the butter by mistake, and then,
with merry laugh, wiped it on his hair.
This afterward imbittered his whole
life, and he hardly went out any moro
after that, regarding life Mt the capital
as hollow and artificial
1t has been the unfortunate history of
our eminent red men that whenever
their talents have thrown them into
good society they have almost univer.
sally corked themselves. Look at Red
Shirt, i'll Paris, and Poor Dog, in London.
1t is but repetition of our sad history
as people.
"
Red Shirt during the engagement of
the Wild West show in France was
invited to dine with President Carnor
and Ferdinand dc Lesseps- pronounced
dc Les Seps-at the restaurant of Bra
bant the French Delmonico, and when
the pale green pistache ice cream came
on, and the finger bowl, Red Shirt, the
great warrior, who looks almost exactly
like Napoleon, the first emperor, in
order to show Carnot and his gang that
he had travelled and observed great
deal. evidently took the ice cream brick
for cake of CASTLE soap and bathed
with it freely i'll the finger bowl, coming
out after awhile to run along the bank
and restore his circulation
My dear son, the Indian nation has
suffered on account of these things, for
they get into the papers and hurt us.
You must learn not only the habits of
the Modes, the Persians and the Free
Will Baptists. but how to hold your
knife at table. That is what YOU are
there for. That is what l am beefing
the old cow for. That is what l am
going to wear your old baseball suit
next to me this winter for That is why
your mother weeps at night and wears
your pajamas by day.
Poor Dog hurt our people MS much in
England as Black Hawk did us good by
his speeches. He was invited to dine in
the royal grounds, they tell me, and
while the party was strolling through
the grounds, the queen having been
frightened by n mouse, Poor Dog, think
ing to show his gallantry, gave chase to
the mouse, and when he caught it under
the chair of the Princess Alexandria ate it
in order to show her majesty that there
was no deception about it.
These matters of history connected
with the rise and fall of the red man
give me pain in the neck. You may
redeem your people, my son, and aston
ish these pilgrims who came here to our
"