Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1904-07-14

that the male Igorrotes be clad IN trou-
sers. The order might just as well
have been to return them to the Phil
ippines, as far as exhibition purposes
are concerned; for the only signif1-
canoe of their presence here is the
bringing of the Philippines to America
for the convenience of those americans
who cannot visit the Philippines, and
the preservation of the life conditions
of the natives as nearly as possible as
the traveller would find them beyond
the Pacific. There is not the first sug-
gestion of indecency about the exhibit
ton, and the general standard OF be-
havior of the imported people would
compare favorably with those Of the
communities from which most of the
sightseers come, paralleling class with
class. Indeed, if the question were
merely that of offending the eyes Of
their sovereigns in this country, 1t
would have been more sane TO prohibit
their Sitting their ears and stuffng
the gashes with corks, so as to provide
places for the big ornaments with
which they are wont to decorate those
organs for festal occasions.
1t has been the policy of Governor
Hunt, who brought over our benevo-
lently assimilated brown brethren and
to interfere as little as practicable with
their domestic and social affairs, let
ting them govern themselves as far
as may be, provided only that they do
not transgress the laws of the juris-
diction in which they are sojourning.
Last Sunday morning one of the men
became angry with a dog which was
chasing his chickens. A woman ran
out of her hut to intercede for the dog,
and with quick motion he threw his
hand back and struck her on the
side of the face, bruising the skin in
one little spot and drawing blood. A
council of judgment was called at
once, inquired into the merits of the
case, and condemned the man to day
in Jail without food. So into the con-
finement shack he went, with another
lgorrote to watch him. Later in the
day, while l was in the village, it be-
came necessary to take the prisoner
out for a few minutes on special
errand. The dampness of his dungeon
had made him chilly, and he was glad
to throw blanket over his shoulders;
but behind him marched his naked
guard, armed with long spear of the
most merciless pattern; and, though
the relations of the two men are amia-
BILE enough under normal conditions,
Il the culprit had attempted to run
away his keeper could have stuck that
ugly iron blade through him as prompt
ly as a Tammany heller would pocket
a ten-dollar bill
One of the hardest problems Cover
nor Hunt has to deal with in his ef-
fort to make these people more thrifty,
is their passion for gambling. They
are entirely amenable to reason and
responsive to kind treatment in most
matters, hut their intellectual re-
sources are few and they find intense
satisfaction in winning or losing all the
money in sight, literally on the turn of
monte, it was easy enough to take their
cards away; but when the last pack
had vanished into the governors cup
board they resorted to the shell game.
This consists of spinning coin on the
ground, covering them while still re-
volving with half cocoanut shell, and
then betting whether the fallen coin
would be found face up, bottom up, or
both. The noise of the shells striking
the ground, as they were slammed
down in moments of excited forgetful-
ness, led always straight to the places
where the gamblers were grouped in
play. So the willy natives took the lit
tie baskets with which they sometimes
adorn their heads, and used these in
stead of the shells, thus avoiding the
telltale clatter. When their baskets in
turn were confiscated, they still
abounded in tricks. The latest detect
eG is laying a row of cents along the
ground, and watching to see upon
which fly will first alight; the player
C@ning that cent takes the whole lot,
Some of the Igorrotes are experts in
the gold field. They are as quick as
white biologists to discover gold bear
ing ores. and in their village here they
show their primitive methods of hand
ling their finds. A lump of ore is first
broken into chunks the size of small
eggs by beating between heavy stones.
Then these chunks are pulverized by
patient rubbing on a fiat slab of a
granitoid rock, which is found in their
country. When ground as fine as DOS
sible. the mass is PANIED in a water
dish cleverly hewn out of a section of
tree trunk. The smelling is done in
forge, for which the draft is conveyed
through a bamboo stalk run under
ground from a pump made of a hol-
lowed log, and paddle working to-
gether like an old-fashioned churn
This branch of the exhibit is in the
hands of a former American gold
miner named Petit, who has lived with
the lgorrotes since the American occu-
patton. He says that their women are
the most expert ore-sorters he has