Omaha daily bee., 1893-09-18
ROMANCE or A SIOUX BlAurY.
She Nursed m Army Omcer from StoNncss
Into u rredicnment.

$780, INV OAN NSGNs ~ - oNdllNitCN
in the midst of Indians, | asked him to
send me a photograph of a real Indian
beauty. | had to wait Il long time,
writes Eleanor Waldle in the Chicago
Record, but finally he SEM me Il photo
graph of the Princess Pretty Voice, say
ing that the Sioux considered her the
very highest type of beauty.
| stared at the photograph and won
dered how they could. She had Il nice
name, as If she had just stepped out of a
fairy tale, but she did not look like u
heroine, yet when | read the captains
letter | learned she had really figured in
a romance. AS | sat gazing at the ugly
Indian princess in the photograph, with
her small, piglike eyes, nose resembling
a potato, coarse horse hair locks and u
large mouth, | fell to thinking about
the strange way different nations have
of regarding beauty.
The Africans admire size and weight
above everything else, and the young
women feed themselves upon kous-kous
in order to become fat and beautiful,
while Europeans prefer slender women.
A Monaghan beauty must have obliquely
set eyes, teeth dyed TO ebony and ban
daged waddling feet, while the Hindoos
go wild about long. deep eyes, and Il
belle must be a graceful dancer.
When | had thought these things all
over | unfOlded the captains letter
again and read what he had to say about
this Indian princess with the long, mys-
FERROUS earrings.
she is still quite youug,n wrote he.
mot yet Is, and like all daughters of
the forest and the plains has never worn
a bang nor French heels, nor stays.
"Sne cannot discuss deep things, like
politics and religion, but she can erect
N u,tnrp,A,F t,n,,,, vvhinh ,,n,li +,I-,
prize at the Worlds fair, and IN bead
work and other such accomplishments
as beft the daughter of Big Thunder
she cannot be beaten.
"She has never seen a piano, but
'iron-jointed, supple-sinewed, she can
ride and she can run, leap the rainbows
of the brooks and hurl her lances in the
sun, and this is as athletic as any your
girl, Indian or otherwise, need be-"
Then the captain went on to recount
q pretty story which is well known in
army circles about the Sioux beauty and
q dashing officer.
This officer was a handsome, gallant
fellow. a greav favorite at the post.
He became very i'll when on q detail
of some sort quite far from his quarters.
He was among the Indians and there
was nobody to care for him except the
Princess Pretty Voice. She nursed
him so we'll that in Il short time he com
pletely recovered.
AS a return for her kindness he de-
cided to make Il gift of a valuable horse
to her father, Big Thunder, knowing
that nothing he could give them would
be SO much appreciated.
But conversation between him and
Big Thunder was limited to How"
when they met each other, so he was at
a loss as to a way to explain to the old
chief his reasons for presenting him
with his horse. He finally decided to
fasten the animal to the stake of Big
Thunder's teepee without any eXplana-
ton at all and go back TO his post by the
ambulance that morning.
Nobody had ever told him of the
Sioux custom Of proposing for marriage
by the offer of ponies, so nat ne did
not know that when the old chief took
his thoroughbred he considered it an
exchange for his daughters hand. The
engagement was announced at once
throughout the village and in many
n~eighboring villages. The result was
that in a very short while a vast troop
of Indian women, in fact, all of Pretty
Voices female relatives, came On and in
vaded the officers quarters to receive
the gifts which they expected him, as a
matter of course, to bestJY upon them.
Here was another Indian custom of
which the officer had never been in
formed. When it was explained to him
just what this vast picnic of squatting
squaws expected from him he was scared
to death, because he really could not
marry Pretty Voice, and yet he could
not see exactly how he was going to get
out of it, as her relatives had taken such
b stand and already regarded him as a
bridegroom.
There they sat in silent groups all
around his quarters, waiting for him to
come out, like Santa Claus, and give
them gifts, and at'that very time he was
engaged TO marry Il Massachusetts girl
away in the east. So finally he called
all the female relatives into his house
Inc bestowed bead necklaces and other
such trinkets upon them, and they left
in "a body to spread abroad his praises
throughout the villages for miles around.
Another thing Immediately happened.
and this was Il visit from Big Thunder.
He had brought his daughter in state,
with much Indian finery displayed. to
call upon h mar who was To become
her husband.
The officer was very polite to them,
and treated them to some Of his best
fire water" and other refreshments: he
really owed his life to the Princess
Pretty Voice anu he was sincerely CRATE
full, but he realized more than before
that he was actually engaged to marry
the Indian girl with the full consent of
her parents, who were of u warlike and
revengefnl race, and he quaked in his
boots.
A frog has another safeguard against
drying up-that is, a kind of interior
sack for storing water. Like the camel,
it thus keeps a supply which carries it
over many II dry place, when it would
otherwise lose all its moisture and die.
The water is as pure and tasteless as
hat of any spring.
In Australia, it is said, one species of
frog prepares for a drouth in a wonder
full way. Sometimes the traveller suffer-
ing from thirst will come to u bush, ana,
digging into the ground a foot or two,
will find a clay ball. He cracks it open
and out jumps a frog Stranger still,
inside the ball is found a good drink of
pure water. And with this the man
quenches his thirst