Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-12-12

with a primitive wildness. Civilization
makes man want to dress well and
take fastidious care of his person and
leads him to a taste for a we'll trimmed
head. as 1t does a clean shaven cheek.
1t Is matter Of fashion entirely, else
women also would discard their pretty
tresses. The lieutenant simply took snap
Judgment On his Apache braves, with the
delightful conclusion that short haired
men become civilized rather than that
civilized men become short haired. He
ordered general barbering, and when
1t came off a ton or SO of raven locks
came off with it.
Many an owner of the locks was shorn
while he wriggled on the ground under
as many of the Indian police as could
sit upon him-shorn as sheep are shorn,
struggling and gurgling the whole while
In futile protest. One dissenting buck
was chased all over the territory before
he was finally caught. thrown down, sat
upon by the entire posse and dehaired
with large, choppy pair of shears.
Lieutenant Stottler was given charge
of these Indians in December, 1894 Va.
rious methods for keeping them in order
had been tried in vain. They were the
terrors Of the neighborhood and appar-
emily incorrigible. They wouldn't work.
they wouldn't be educated, they wouldn't
obey the law, they wouldn't do anything
that they thought by any chance tho
government would like them to do. The
one conspicuous thing which they did do,
and which. above all, the government
wished they wouldn't do, was to drink
copiously and paiIstakingly of liquor
specially designed and brewed by them
selves to create the unholiest, beastliest.
vilest jag that ever cheered an inebriated
soul. The lieutenant found the whole
tribe drunk when he arrived on the
scene. He fguratively kicked some 20
or 80 Of them sober and made policemen
of them. Then he told them to kick the
others into the same novel condition.
They were living In tepees then, wearing
only breechclouts and blankets and sub
sisting on food sent them by the govern.
ment. For years the government had
been feeding them and permitting them
to lie around in drunken idleness year in
and year out. They stole for pastime
and murdered for pleasure. Even among
themselves they sought recreation in
fighting, and dozen brawls daily were
INDUCED in way of regular exercise, in
lieu of plowing or saving wood.
The 20 bucks which Lieutenant Stot.
tier projected into sobricty with the toe
Of his boot had been educated at the ex.
pense Of the government and were pre-.
sumed to know better than to run about
like mowgls of the jungle, without re.
striction and without responsibility. He
began on them and soon had them in
American clothes, thoroughly cleaned,
barbered to a finish and installed into
regular duties. He jolted into theit
stolid pates straight from the shoulder
proposition that il they did not work
they should not sat. When an Indian
attempted to test this law by laying of
for a day and waiting for food to come
to him, the food failed to come. The ey'
perimenter got hungry and went to the
food-and the way of his going lay
through weary toll, made doubly nrduou,
rs punishment for his previous idleness.
Along with idleness and drunkenness
the Mescaleros had cultivated the kin
dred fault Of imposing on their women
kind, and. besides having to perform the
wretched labor which even the barest
tind Of living made necessary, the squaws
Of the tribe had to submit to being
traded back and forth among the braves
for horses and cattle, a hungry father
frequently preferring to trade away his
comely daughter to working for the food
which the exchange netted him.
Lieutenant Stottler. in his three years
transformation act. changed all that
along with the rest. He determined at
the outset that the children of the tribe
should go to school and be educated into
men and women with minds of their
own and with the right to choose their
own husbands and wives well developed
In their minds. He caused the school at
Mescalero to be raised to plane of use
fulness and filed it with the Indian
young. Today these Indian young are