River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1899-10-12
INDIAN MY STERY MEN
Some of Their Feats of Magic Are
Really Wonderful.
How n Chippewa Witch Drove Sem
ator Lewis Cnss from Com
ference--A Redskin Edition
of the Rope Trick.
Esneclal Washington Letter

Especial w ISlleE.l
THIS is a story about Indians; the
aboriginal princes and poten-
tates of our country; the men,
women and children who roamed at will
over the prairies, down the dells, in the
mountain Businesses, along the salt-sea
coasts, and over the beautiful waters
of our great inland seas; the people
who owned all the soil, and who knew
no master save the Great Spirit, whom
Longfellow has eloquently described as
the Indians "Manitou the Mighty"
The Smithsonian institution, the Ma
tional museum and the museums of the
executive departments contain many
relics of the fast disappearing race
which lived in happiness between the
Atlantic and the Pacific until our civ
ilization came to them with sword and
flame.
Government Ethnologist Hoffman,
interested the writer to-day with stories
about the medicine men" of the Indi-
ans, and their jugglers and mystery
men, and you viii probably be enter
tanned with some of his statements
about them. He says that these ''mys-
terry men" perform feats of magic
which would put to shame the famous
Yogis of India, who make plants grow
from sterile ground, and change bud
ding rods into serpents, in the pres
ence of puzzled representatives of the
superior races.
Ethnologist Hoffman, referred to an
alleged fact that Senator Lewis Cass,
of Michigan, once went to Mackinaw to
confer with the Indians, concerning a
transfer of some of their estates to the
government, when he was entertained
at big medicine feast; and after the
feast a Chippewa woman, who car
ried an old dried up snake skin, in the
form of bag, threw it upon the ground,
when it seemed to become alive, and
chased the great statesman from the
conference. He says that Senator Cass
told this story to many of his friends,
and that he always afterwards avoided
accepting official appointments upon
commissions to visit the Indians, be-
cause he could not rid his mind of that
occurrence.
"The bravest act / have ever known"
he said, was performed by one of these
Indian iugglers. 4 fayorite trick of his
was one that had often been performed
by white magicians. 1t consisted in
permitting himself to be shot at, the
hocus-pocus being an arrangement by
which the bullet fell out of the barrel
into cavity in the stock of the weapon
before the latter was discharged.
Meanwhile he had another bullet con-
cealed in his mouth, which at the in
slant of firing he pushed outward with
his tongue, so as to make it appear that
he had caught the projectile between
his teeth. Now it happened that this
man had a rival who was engaged in
the conjuring business in neighboring
village. On one occasion, when the
trick was to be performed, the juggler
announcing, as usual, that he was ready
to be shot at by anyone present, the
rival stepped forward and said that he
would do the shooting. But he de-
manded permission to use his own gun.
Naturally the juggler objected, but
his protest was overruled. IT was de-
cided that the rival magician might use
his own weapon. This meant almost
sure death to the performer, yet he did
not blanch. To refuse the test would