The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-07-27


among red Indians Is another evidence.
II has been demonstrated until 1t II
an accepted anthropolOgical and eth
biological fact that the older race Is
the more deeply seated and permanent
ly fixed become the traits OF character
In its people. This carries with II the
correlative proposition that the more
fixed and permanent the characters
tics of a race the higher evidence do
they become of the antiquity of that
race. Applying this rule to the Ameri-
can Indians. we find that. with all the
diversity that can be claimed, their
characteristics are very persistent,
probably more SO than those of the
white, the yellow or the black race,
and that this extends not simply to the
physical traits. but also to the mental
moral and sociological. Why Is the
wild Indian harder to tame than any
other human animal? 1t can only be
accounted for on one Of two theories.
One theory is that 1t is due to his great
er natural and original individuality.
independence, and self-reliance, his
higher desire for liberty. and his de-
termination to CONQUER all obstacles in
the way OF maintaining that liberty.
and the other IL that II Is the result
Of persistence through many genera
tions In the condition OF savagery
which has produced this intellectual.
moral and sociologic state. Possibly it
may be combination Of the two. and
the latter has produced the former But
in any event the fact remains that the
American indian has greater fixity of
type and OF characteristics than has
any other race. and this indicates, ii
1t does not prove. the long continued
and persistent exercise Of the condi-
tions which produced these characters
ties and his high antiquity.
The discovery of America found the
native In that stage Of culture which IL
now known in Europe as the nsolithic
or polished stone age. His cutting i'm
plements were of stone rather than OF
metal, and by whatever method he
made them the finishing was by grind
ing or polishing. The similarities Of his
culture with that OF other countries
show that, II he migrated from any OF
these countries he did go at a period
when they were i'm the neolithic stage of
culture. While this stage, and the one
subsequent to II. was in the eastern
hemisphere beyond the domain Of his
tory. and lay entirely i'm prehistoric
times, yet We may know that II came
to an end at an early period compared
with our present history. 1t belonged
to the first and second, possibly the
third, cities Of Troy on the Plain OF
Hissarlik; 1t came to an end before the
ha Oin nf IN,
Homer wrote it had passed not only
into but beyond tradition. 1t lies not
only behind the beginnings Of Rome,
but behind her predecessors in Italy,
the EtruscanS. The introduction of
bronze into France and England. prob
ably 1000 years B. c.. sounded the
death knell Of the neolithic period, and
was the beginning of its end in those
countries. In Asia the historical evil
dence shows even an earlier cessation
of the neolithic period. The history of
the Chinese civilization carries us back
much further, and shows the people of
that country to have passed much ear
lier beyond the neolithic or polished
stone age. Now these occupiers of
American soil were emigrants from
and whichever 1t was, they must have
emigrated during the neolithic age and
not after its close. The neolithic period
came to an end in western Europe
later than In any other part of Europe
or Asia. Western Europe was the lat
est country in which the neolithic period
came to close and was superseded by
the age of bronze. So that 1t would ap-
pear as If the commencement of the age
of bronze in Europe affords q suppositi-
tious mark In the history of our coun-
try as the latest date at which this mi
grafton to America could have taken
place. How much earlier II might have
been Is a matter Of speculation.
These arguments, based upon facts
which appear indisputable, go to show
that the migration by which the Ameri-
can race came to occupy the western
hemisphere could not have been less
than 1900 years prior to the Christian
era. but that. II they came from other
points than western Europe. they might
have been several thousand years be-
fore that time"