The evening times., 1898-12-03
EARLY DAYS OF CHEYENNE.
Lively Times When Indians Drew
Their Allowance.
(From the New York sun,


When Cheyenne was much smaller
place than il is now, when, in fact it was
so small that one had always to speak of
the place as Cheyenne City or stand the
chance of shooting city life was char
acterized by familiarity with the Indian
which the town would now blush TO own.
Much of the time the warriors of the
Cheyenne tribe were street loafers who
had to be pashed out OF the way If any
one was in d hurry but there We're times
when the Cheyenne warrior drew his al
Iowance of cash from the Great White
Father and then ne was an object of con-
sideration until he had spent II. There
was a society in l liiadelphia which look
ed out for the Washington end of the
transaction on the score of philanthropy
and Indian rights and made sure that the
Indian got the cash. The citizens of
Cheyenne and every other town which had
an Indian agent looked after the other
end OF the transaction and saw that the
Indian restored the Government funds to
speedy circulation by spending quickly
if not well.
On one such day there was a particu-
larly large sum coming TO each Indian
Possibly some of his very shadowy rights
to something which he did not use and
never could use had been purchased by
the Government. At any rate, there was
a distribution which turned each warrior
loose upon the business community of
Cheyenne City with something in the
neighborhood of 200.
In the early stages of plains community
there are not many specimens of the
pleasure rig. The rolling stock is for the
, most part composed of quartermasters'
wagons and the almost equally cumbrous
ambulances used by the officers at the
post. But ii is never long before a COM
mendable spirit of enterprise introduces
a hearse. At the time of the great pay
ment to the CheyenneS the new hearse
was the only ornamental wheeled con-
veyance in Cheyenne City This hearse
caught the eye of a warrior with more
money under his blanket than he had ever
had before. From catching his eye it was
no long step to exciting his desires to
own that vehicle and to celebrate in style.
That's Indian nature. or at least the kind
of Indian that people know on the plains.
1t took very nearly all the money he had
but he bought the hearse and team of
six mules complete There wouldn't have
been any surplus for the Indian but for a
miscalculation on the part of the under
taker in setting his price. He made allow
ance for the Indians spending money
| little more freely than was actually the
case However, the surplus was not lost
| to the general circulation of the currency.
| The warrior and his squaw got on the
box seat of the vehicle and drove off in
style.
As other Indians of standing in the
| tribe were encountered the hearse was
| stopped and they were invited 10 set
aboard When they had filled every
available inch on the roof OF the convey
ance other Indian passengers were
! crowded into the box and sat behind the
glass panels looking solemnly out upon
| the world. When the hearse could not BE-
| made to hold another Indian the outfit
| set off at a gallop on a tour of the bust
ness houses which particularly appealed d
to their custom.
! AS their money gave out, or as they
succumbed to their too-great purchasing
power the first batch of Indians dro p "a
off the hearse and fell by the waysde
/ but there were others keen to take their
! places, and the vehicle passed. from one
| Indian owner to another fo" very su all
! consideration Never before had a
hearse been concerned in such an
! orgie. But. through it all, some sort of
| luck looked out for it; it had fallen to
| disreputable uses, but it came through
| the wild debauch without serious dam
| age. After the spree was oevr the last OF
! its succession of Indian owners took the
! hearse back to the undertaken. 1t was
| an elephant on the Indians hands; there
was no use for such a wagon in the
! cheyenne village and he was willing to
| sell for thousand dollars, for hundred
| dollars, ten. fiyes. two bits, and bottle
! of whisky on which last terms the trans
| action was completed. 1t is not of record
that any of the first citizens of Cheyenne
| objected to being carried in this convey
| ance because of its lapse from sob iety.
for single day of Indian extravaganza