Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-07-19
Why Certain Indians Kept
Their Oldest Wives.
MEANT PIPE FULL"
WHAT ONE WOMAN WOULD DO
FOR LADY NICOTINE.
Tobacco Discussed as a Nerve Soother
and Temper Tran
quilizer.
Written for The Evening Star.

Written for The Evening Star.
few months ago the foremost Ameri-
| lean citizens" the plumed and primitive
gentlemen beyond the Mississippi river.
were notified that hereafter they would be
| limited to one wife apiece; and there were
| CONSERVATION and regret In all the lodges OF
| the great plains and painted tepees of the
mountains.
The order not only restricted future mat
rimonial ventures; it compelled the warriors
| to select one from among the many. and
| then ungaliantly drive the others forth.
doubt not great story lies in that circum-
l stance. for there have been splendid love
tragedies in the forests But, to the sur
prise OF every one who knew the white
| man and his customs. the Indians without
one exception, chose their old wives. the
bent and ugly crones who had served them
| all the years. and sent the young. bright
eyes and merry-hearted squaws away
The matter seemed worthy the frame Of
an epic. and I questioned a venerable chief
| of the reservation in Anadarka. oklahoma,
concerning it.
Did you keep your Oldest wife and send
the others away from you?" I questioned.
Ugh. he responded soulfully.
best?"
Ugh
His expression convinced me of the broth
Well" L said, 81 am glad you kept the
| old one. 1t was a beautiful sentiment L
am sure. You remembered, didn't YOU. how
pretty and sweet she was when YOU first
loved her-long ago."
He made no reply and I feared he did
not quite understand me. Didn't you?"
| insisted gently.
| No he grunted. Me like t'bac. Old
| squaw keep pipe full"
The Best of Men.
Not long ago a good woman wrote me
that her husband was the best of men
! That he was true and upright and gener-
Gus and tolerant: but she wanted me 10 tel
her something that would make him aban-
| don what she described as the 'soui-de-
stroying habit of using tobacco" She adj
mitted that he smoked outdoors when the
weather was fine. and in the kitchen when
storms drove him to that shelter But
even so, she was afraid the smoke would
creep through the cracks and doors and
Turk in her curtains.
have known women like her before;
and want to help her. for she reminds me
or child carrying in it's careless little
fingers pearl of inestimabIe value Any
moment it may slip from her foolish CLASH
and be gone forever. And [ say to her.
and to all like her: Go down on your knees
and thank God for that husband with hut
one fauIt, and drag all your curtains down
with you. Bid him come into the best room
with his pipe; and then, while its blue
wreaths rise to the ceiling and choke you
and blind you. shake out your hair that
its meshes may catch and hold them even
as it held the fragrance of your wedding
garland
That handsome young cavalier who
spread his mantle for his queen to walk
upon had ever the good and comfort of
women at heart: and he never did a kinder
thing for them than when he introduced to
their duarrelSome lords the nerye-soot hing
and temper tranQuilzing weed from the
plantations of Virginia. 1t has made soft
the way for the feet of women even as his
cloak covered the path for Elizabeth.
A Military Necessity.
The governments that send out troops
have learned by experience that tobacco,fs
military necessity. With it men can bear
hunger, cold and the sting Of bullets Even
the venerable queen. who had small store Of
sympathy for such requirements on the
part of her soldiers. came. at last II I'M
derstand that her kingdom stretching de-
pended on the tobacco pouch as well as on
the sword The London Lancet and all
medical authorities point out the virtues of
the brown weed in times of stress and war
fare. and the Indian has proved that the
calumet and the lodge fire smoke best to-
gether.
Poor Charlie Lamb tried to give II, srnok
ing because some one thought he should
do SO. and as he sat in the first hours Of
his enforcement from his briarwood pipe
looking at it with longing eyes, Z" said
mournfully:
For your sake. tobacco
Would do anything but die"
Nobody knows how long he might have
kept up the effort q fancy not foreyer) had
not friend come to him and begged him
to resume the habit IL he intended 10 re-
main poet.
Man" he said FILL up your pipe. You
write like a tobaccoless female:''
Had four walls rooted in with love and
called by that most meaning name of
home" L would build an altar i'm the
choicest room to Lady Nicotine and keep
1t heaped with armfuls of her fragrant
weed fetched by myself. / do not know
what magic turks within the plant but I
am convinced it is more potent than trea-
ties to preserve domestic peace, and some
day some one will rechristeu 1t the "Uappt-
ness flower"