The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-08-17
A CALIFORNIA CHARACTER.
Charles F. Lummis, the Author, and
His Remarkable Home.

Ills remarkable Home.
Ella w. Potter. in Chicago Tribune.
The place is. indeed, barbaric, like its
owner. and fascinating, also like him.
There is a first room. where the family
sits ordinarily, and where great doors let
in the breeze from the valley on one side,
and the weird sycamore court on the other.
Here is much Indian pottery and bead
work, a fireplace, and comfortable chairs.
Beyond is a long hall-not a corridor, but
a hall in the medieval sense of the word.
1t is Of redwood. delicately charred till the
massive woodwork has the appearance of
black satin. Here is spread the dinner
table, and at this table Sunday evenings
sit many guests. a good many notable folk
have been there at one time or another, and
usually they have had a Spanish dinner,
which Mrs. Lummis has much skill in or
dering. The servants of the house are
Mojave Indians, who wear their native
dress and speak their native tongue. They
bring in the great platters of chilli colored
food. or the pitchers Of dark, foaming mead,
carried high in the air with that shy grace
of the Indian. When they are not serving
they recline on the benches that run all
about the hall. Midway of the meal some
one may feel unsteady inclined, and the
servants bring musical instruments and Mr..
Lummis leads the singing. The meal has
progressed by this time. perhaps, to coffee,
nuts and old Spanish ballads. Everybody
sings whether he knows the language or
not. There is all the time in the world,
there are no ~neighbors, the chilli has
warmed the body and the sauterne the i'm
agination, so for once every one sings and
is not afraid. There are friendly Spanish
ladies who know how TO evolve an accom-
paniment for anything, and a young Amer
lean ranch woman with subtle eyes and a
knowledge of English ballads; and two deS-
ert women, each in her way a genius, and
the dusky, barbarous, beautiful, spacious
hall with its high raftered roof, and all
dusty to-morrows quite comfortably for
gotten.
1t is intensely diverting. thoroughly
friendly and a little sad. But why ii Is sad
takes a cleverer person than the present
writer to saw. Perhaps it is because the
simplicity and grace of the place seems so
futile, after all, in the face of the COM
pleXity and haste of the time.
Well, anyway, transitory or not, the place
and the night are not TO be forgotten; and
by and by the Indians, after much urging,
begin shyly 10 sing a song of home long
ing. 1t is melancholy and mOnOtOnous, but
moving. They beat with mournful tempo
on their native drums and their bodies re-
spond 10 the rhythm. All the guests yield
TO Ii. The slow pounding together OF palms,
the thrOb of the drums, the swaying of
bodies, accent the song.
The little children sit around sleepily
duDl illS lDciI IdlltIs MIDlh lltN dAOIt- it
little daughter of the house has Travelled.
She knows New York and Washington and
has been entertained by some great people
Mr.. Roosevelt among OtherS-but she likes
only the court with the ancient sycamores,
the long, dark hall where the Mojaves pet
and serve her, the sound of the singing
after the innocent, gay feast. She believes
that the desert Is the most beautiful place
in all the world, which is not strange, con-
sidering that her father and mother spent
their honeymoon riding over il: she thinks
that Inhn Muir aud Hanru Ranr1nn T.
after her father, the most remarkable men.
She considers conventional civilization a
great nuisance, and no doubt wonders how
any one lives without the freedom and ca
price and curious industry that is known to
the colony there on the Arroyo.
For there is a little colony of three fam
lilies there, each interesting and distinctive,
but there is not time to tell about them.
In appearance Mr.. Lummis is extraor-
binary. He is of medium height, with an
enormous brown. fine, reddish head of hair,
eyes of a changing hue. complexion the
color of a saddle or an old violin. wide
shoulders and good muscular development.
His voice is a fine instrument for speaking,
and singing with him is a hearty diversion,
not an art.
Conventional garments offend him by
their ugliness and inconvenience On Occa-
sions ordinary and extraordinary he wears
corduroy. He wore such a suit in speaking
before the ladies in the evening at the bien-
NAL meeting of the General Federation or
Women's Clubs. When it became necessary
TO shorten his address a man in the audi
ence was heard to say: Il wouldn't have
minded if time had been called on one Of
those swells in dress suits. but l hate to
see a common w-orkingman like that called
down. 1t isn't often a man of that class
gets an opportunity to be heard by such an
audience"
And Lummis had negligently condescend-
ed TO bore himself with the address,!
At dinner in his own house the author
usually wears a wonderful costume of
bright yellow doeskin. slashed and beau
tifully cut. with a beaded Mexican belt.
When he serves his dinner on old pewter
plates, with silver made by the meas of
Peru, and pOurs water from an ancient
Navajo ola. it must be admitted that the
feast has distinct qualities, even when the
extraordinary conversation of the host is
And, after all, this is the only thing that
is considered. A choice of the absolutely
appropriate and arresting word; "A clear
and peculiar unmOdern view; a code hon
orable yet unconventional as that of a
pre-Mohammed Arabian sheik; a courtesy
not devoid of hauteur, and an original
tanda of values mark him a distinctive
man. He has several enthusiasms. among
which is the establishment of a highway
between the missions, and he is, with sew
eral fellow-enthusiasts, working toward
this end. His life has. indeed, many seri-
Gus interests, but he strikes the casual ac-
quaintances chiefly as the friend of the
larger. more languid and gracious day Of
the departed regime, and the foe of a hur-
ried, machine-made and cheaply spectacu-
lar present.
Yet he Is not absurd. He never falls to
pay full tribute TO science, TO literature, to
art, or any form of contemporary achieve
ment.
The Philistine world resents him some
what-resents his criticisms, his ~independ-
ence, mis- costumes and his customs.
But he seems to be intensely interested in
life, and, therefore, much more enviable
than those of his critics. AS for his non
conformity, 1T has an atmosphere which no
conformist can hope to attain. 1t has free
dom and gayety and creative work in it.
and it does not include the hectoring and
hindering amenities and habits OF conVen-
tiOnal life.
One might not select Ii PERSONAL---VERY.
might prefer ones rut on the main Travelled
road-but. after all. one might recall the
fact that the traCkless floor Of the desert
made an exhilarating roadway.
Cows, Their Likes and DisIikes.
New York Tribune.
Cows have their likes and their dis
likes said the milkmaid to the summer
boarder who was curious 10 see every part
of the farm.