Omaha daily bee., 1899-12-24
OMAHA ILLUSTRATED BEE.

and over-forgiving in favor OF reckless goug.
ing-it has been a deep mystery, yelling a
story to some who spread 1t as a
mantle or charity over all their own ideals
1t mas been a "scarecrow" to the unimagi-
native, a horrible nightmare to the unsenti-
mental-it has been a graveyard trophy tc
the superstittous, and to Others 1t has been
a matter OF study, judgment being suspended
The old Indian carved and grunted Just a
the Yankee whites and whistles.
The Indian had more time, fewer orna-
ments and less opportunity for personal
distinction, SO he whitfield a big stick and
set 1t up before his door. He may have
imagined that to look at the pole when he
had only dried fish to eat tended to repro
duce a sensation as of a time when there
were berries and moose meat. He may have
looked upon animals Of the lower kind with
an unframed eye, and what he carved with
an unframed hand he may have a modest
desire to conceal.
If the Indian descended from a frog or a
whale, it is not much for us to honor his
consciousness Of the fact. If an Indian
has had bird like or bear-like propensities
they did not reach to civilization and we
have no cause to rejoice.
If "totemism' is correctly understood, we
can have totems of our own. We have thc
trees bigger and better than theirs. We
can white and we can fast to discover our
affinity to the lower kind. A California
redwood tree carved in figures of a masto-
don, a rhinocerCs and a dodo would be a
striking totem pole. An immense Washing
ton fir tree developed in a white elephant,
with room left for a few Crees and a whole
wild west menagerie, would mean something
at least of more Importance than any In
dian totem pole.
To the traveller who seeks the wilds Of
Alaska the totem poles standing in great
numbers about the deserted habitations of
the Indians at Tongass islands, Kasam and
other deserted villages give a weird distinc-
ton akin to grandeur to the melancholy
scene.
While the presence of the Indian was
not inspiring, his departure was a matter of
dignity, and his absence is positively start
ling.
Strange Fascination.
The totem pole is a strange fascination
and a haunting memory. While reason does
not warrant 1t, no one who has seen these
uncanny totem poles on their native soil can
escape an aggravating desire to solve their
mystery.
Reason condemns the art of the maker,
fancy denies an ideal, yet the poles them
selves rebuke undue ridicule-the wild
charm of the mystery fascinates to a spell
that is akin to hypnotism.
The Hartman party, OF our best and
wisest people, fell under this spell. They
brought two totem poles back to civiliza-
tion, not deigning to favor us with a sample
of the "salmon-scented" Esquimaux, plenty
as they were-they brought no inflated seal
skins, no kayaks, no icebergs, or glaciers,
no rocks from the seal rookeries, no Rus
slams from Siberia, and no gold from
Nome.
The totems at Wrangel, amid the little
stores and shops and sidewalks piled high
with miners outfits, are also quite as i'm
and are granted an exclusive
presence. The combined totem population
of Wrangel furnishes a most striking con-
trast to the combined actual population
one is silent mystery which is its own
the other is noisy revelry and
greed which is its own undoing.
A totem pole as a public monument COM
pels a record and standing for totem poles
or 1t admits OF embarrassment on the part
of it's patrons.
The Seattle pole is a magnet attracting
the gaze OF each passerby. Little groups
of spectators stand and gaze at the pole for
n seemingly interminable length of tima.
The disenchanted observer can scarcely for
bear passing about them with his hands to
the spell and free them from the
of the pole. One who passes the
pole frequently soon has every figure and
every line of each figure clearly defined in
Freaks on Seattle's Totem.
The carving on Seattle's totem pole con-
sists of figures. one abo. : the other, that
are either efforts to reproduce the forms
of human beings, and of animals, or else
they are hideous, cold -blooded productions