Indian chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1882-1902, 1892-12-08
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experience. 1t has been claimed
that if the principal be drawn and
gwen to the children already born
it would do as much good as the
interest drawn forever; it would be
answering a fool according to his
folly sure enough to answer this;
the remark serves to show how
hard the boodlers are pressed for
real arguments and how weak a
defence they will make to their in
dignant countrymen when they
are called to account as they may
be for the utter waste of the
most precious heritage which has
ever fallen into the lap of an un-
deserving people. If Connecticut
sold wooden nutmegs to the inno-
cent natives of Arkansas it COM
mitted crime; an ineXcusable
crime but natural one; one which
has been committed since the fall
of Adam; but if you rob your child
rem you commit an unnatural
crime; your sin is greater and your
shame is deeper than that of Con-
necticut; let all the villainy | say
belong to Connecticut; let us as
becomes the Lords people live
more honestly and wisely; that
Doodle for which your fingers are
itching is a trap; Judas betrayed
his master not for hate of his mas
ter nor for love of treason but for
handful of Doodle.
| am told that the Cherokees
have a school system; it is true.
So has the devil a conscience, such
as it is. What man or woman who
is aDle to send a child to any
other school will send a child to
one of yours? In the very same
issue OF the CHIEFTAIN which con-
tanned former article of mine on
this subject there was an appeal
from the principal of the public
school in the largest, the most pro-
gressive and enlighted community
in the Cherokee nation, for few
panes of glass ~ put into the
windows of his school room and
some fuel to make life endurable
for the small fraction of the child
rem of school age of that community
who go to his school. 4 friend of
mine took trouble enough to write a
long answer to my letter and print
it in the CHIEFTAIN, but if anyone
answered the appeal OF that under
paid principal IN that poverty
blasted school no mention of the
tact was made in the CHIEFTAIN.
| have heard of no public meeting
OF our citizens TO give expression
to passionate desire to save our
schools, our children's priceless
heritage, from squalor, dirt, disor-
der, want and ruin; children in
school learn twice as much by con-
tact and absorption as by inculca-
iion; twice as much from the as.
pect of affairs as from the words
of textbook and teachers; the
very aspect of your public schools,
inside and out, teach disrespect
for cleanliness, order and decorum;
they teach disobedience, irrever-
once and finally hopelessness;
these are the distinguis hing
marks of the scrub, f." aud if you
want to make this fair territory a
country of scrubs you cannot adopt
any means so sure of accomplish
ing that end as those i'm vogue;
and yet am answered that the
provision made for the education
of your citizenship is ample; Kan
sas, taxed for the interest on a
public debt Of sl100 per capita,
spent more money per caput for
new school houses last year than
you spent for everything, 1t is
true that you have a system; feed
il; take of the rags which serve
only to expose the shame OF its
nakedness, clothe it, this school
system of yours is like the naked
aud covering Cinderella, a prin-
cess of royal right and potency;
take these revenues which you
could never earn and can only
waste otherwise, and endow her
with them; bring forth the robe
Of royalty and put it upon her; put
the crown upon her head and to the
bounty and blessing Of her reign
may there be no end.
JoHY MCCARTHY.
NoTE.-The authority for the
figures in the above article is the
World almanac, N. y, 1892.