Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1898-02-03
AN INDIAN SUPERSTITION.
How Capt. Smith WINS Saved from
Death and Mntrimony.

Death and MntrimOny.
Picture of yourself, pale-face reader,
O scene laid in the state of Virginia,
long years before the Old Dominion was
the state of Virginia.
There lay Capt, John Smith, an Eng
lishman, visiting the United States on
business trip, with his head on a sawlog
and his body stretched along the earth
and him perfectly sober.
Near him stood Powhatan, a noble
red man, next of kin to 10, the Poor
Indian, who had up to this time not ap-
peared in history. Powhatan was the
chief of the Pamunkeys, and he had
frequently been heard to say that no
Englishman could Pamunkey with
him. Grasped firmly in his left hand,
for the chief was a south paw, though
not generally so stated by his biograph-
ers, if, indeed, they were aware of it,
was club that Baby Arson might well
have fourished over the home plate at a
later period in the nations history.
Lightly the chieftain twirled his stick,
the meanwhile smiling significantly,
not to say sardonically, at the captain,
who seemed to be holding down a base
for all there was in it.
In a few moments knocl-kneed
scalper, at whom the assembled crowd
howled its derision, appeared and talk
ing his position in the foreground of the
well-known picture, he sung out in
commanding voice; "Play."
Instantly the chief Strengthened up,
shook the bark off or his club, and with
fierce and implacable look toward
Heaven and the future, drew back to
strike.
Those who were looking at the re-
cumbent captain at this time observed
that he closed his English blue eyes as
if something were about to happen that
he was not particularly anxious to wit
ness.
Such was society among the F. F. VS.
of that pristine period.
At this crucial moment a young lady,
upon whose royal cheek q red crayon
would not have made q visible mark,
made q rush for the chieftain and his
club and tackled them heroically.
"Hold, pa! hold, pal" she screamed
until the aisles of the mighty forests
echoed and reechoed her cry.
EYES," added the captain, Justify,
somebody hold pa and give me
chance"
It was Pocahontas, the dhieftain's
only daughter, and Capt. Smith re-
called the pictures he had seen in the
school books, and thought how much
better looking she was now.
"WeI, what in thunder do you want
here?" inquired the chieftain, with
more asperity than usual, as he lowered
his stick.
"Iwant you to let Capt. Smith go, pa"
she replied in dulcet tones.
The chieftain pointed towards the
earth with significant wink.
"Well," he said, "he'd been going by
this time if you had not interfered."
Thanks, pa" gayly responded the
James river belle, "but don't want
him to &c where all the other dead
Englishmen are; let him stay among
the good Americans"
"Nay, nay, Pauline" dissented Po-
whatan, almost fiercely.
"But pa" argued Pocahontas, eff you
kill him his blood will be upon your
head, don't you know"
"And what of that, prithee, girl?'
chucking her under the chin as was his
fatherly wont.
"Much, dear father" she said, becom-
irg deeply serious. "You know that
blood Us red and if you have it on your
head, papa, you will be a red-headed
Indian, and you know what hoodoo a
hed-headed Indian is. II you think you
can stand it, papa" and there was sar-
casm, mingled with irony, in her tones
and manner, "just go ahead and try it,
but I want you 10 understand that l
shall not live under the same roof with
hoodoo like that, even if 1 have to
marry a remnant of an T. f. V. up in
Richmond, and open boarding house
to support him"
By the time the young princess ofthe
Pamunkeys had finished her remarks,
old man Powhatan was seated on
stump near by wiping the perspiration
from his Tennessee marble brow.
Daughter" he said in a hoarse
whisper, you have saved your fathers
life, but prithee do not ask me to let
you marry man named John Smith as
reward. Pocahontas Smith! Gee
whizz; I'd rather be dead" !:
So she married another fellow.-De-
troit Free Press.
To improve her complexiona young
lady in Worcester, England, was in the