Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1904-12-30

up-and SO he go into the habit of com
ing to our newspaper Office whenever, he
felt the need of more cash. He didn't
ask for anything, and he always made
you feel that he was doing you great
favor in accepting any stray chickenfeed
you might have about your clothes. lie
just sat around like a bronzed and blank
etcd statue Of Caesar or Alexander or Ma
poleon Bonaparte Not one of the whole
lot OF them ever looked more as if he
owned the whole earth than Johnson did
after he'd sat there three hours waiting
for somebody to give him two bits or a
chew of tobacco ] found out after
while that he could give me scraps Of
news about the Indians over at Pyramid
Lake or I'm the city that were worth max
! ing into local items. and / always paid
him for them. Nobody ever saw a proud
er Indian than Johnson was the first day
| did that. | marked the items with a
| blue pencil and gave him a copy Of the
! paper, and he carried it around with him
| until 1t was worn out. The money gave
| him for the items he kept in his pocket
| for two whole days. But at last there
was a big poker game behind a barn-six
| bucks down from Pyramid Lake with
| five dollars apiece. and 1t was too much
| for Johnson His proudly earned silver
went into the not with the rest
| johnson brought up items every day
after that. and soon began to feel himself
| one OF the profession and man Of con-
| sequence. He always brought two or
| three other bucks with him to see his
| Importance and be impressed by his SUI
| periority. While they stood against the
wall squatted in a corner Johnson
| would take n chair at dignified distance
| from me and begin Now. YOU make UNI
| paper talk And he always ended his ac-
| count with the emphatic command. Now,
you make um paper talk straight But
his items were not always straight He
| had all the instincts OF the modern and
| progressive journalist. and he didn't hesi-
| tate to fake when news was scarce. and
| he wanted money. For after he Joined
| the newspaper profession he gave up beg
| ging by proxy and allowed his prime min
| lister to beg on his own account and keep
| his own earnings
We'll it wasn't long after Johnson's
| entrance into literature until he discarded
! his blanket and appeared in a coat. The
| other Indians began to regard him with
awe-struck admiration. Every afternoon
| he waited IN the Office until the paper
| came out. and then he marched off with
| a copy in which his talk was marked
| He showed this TO every Indian he saw.
and together they admired it with the
paper wrong side up sidewise, and every
| other way. Johnson's special friends
| among the whites were similarly favored
| He would hand the paper with magni-
fcent air. point dirty finger TO a mark
ed paragraph and say, Make UNI paper
talk-me'
The civilzng influence of literary pur-
suits and universal respect soon told upon
Johnsons personal appearance. He be-
gan to wash his face and hands His
| self-respect seemed to grow, like love by
what it fed on. and the more he became
| respectable the more his ambitions spread
| out and flourished The next time he had
big luck in poker game, instead of
| spending his money in a spree, he bought
| a brand-new suit of store clothes His
| new position in society by that time de-
| manded more money to support II prop
erly than his literary efforts brought in
| and as poker games We're not always on
hand. and sometimes turned out the
wrong way. Johnson actually decided to
work. His free, proud soul had been so
effectualy tanned by responsibility and
harnessed by civilization that he accept
ed and did fairly we'll every odd job Of
work that came along by which he could
earn money. He looked quite decent and
respectable. and, by virtue of really try
ing to do it. he managed to get a fairly
good command of English
The civiizing process had been going
on two or three years when Johnson's
mind got an illumination as to the value
of knowledge. He decided that the young
Piutes ought to go to school. johnson
himself never showed any great desire
for knowledge, He has since learned to
read little, and can write his own name
but at that time he was satisfied with
making the paper talk through my
agency. However. he set his heart on
having school for the young Indians
l suppose he realized that they couldn' [
achieve responsibility and influence in
the Held OF Journalism, as he had DONE
but must be provided with some of the
implements of civilization to start with
There was some government money with
which the school could be run after II
was started, but there was no building
in which 1t could be held. The thing
Jagged along for a while. and johnson
tried to set several schemes going with
out success, and finally one fine morning
the proprietor of a lumber yard thought
some of his piles of lumber had been tam
pered with. He saw some tracks. which
he followed, and in the outskirts of the
town, near a bunch of wick-i-ups he
came upon two other undergrad men,
also following tracks. little further
on they found Johnson, even more impor-
tant and dignifed than usual, superin-
tehuing the construction of school,
house. Half dozen Indians were at
work and Johnson was bossing them as
II he had been building schoolhouses all
his life. The men boned him about steal
ing the lumber. and he frankly said, yes,
he had stolen it. That is, he had bossed
the job, and made the other bucks do all
the packing. He explained that he had
to steal it, because he couldn't buy IT.
and they wouldn't give it to him. and he
had to have that schoolhouse His frank
ness amused them, and they told him,
all right, go ahead, and If he needed more
lumber he might have 1t.
He finally got the schoolhouse finished,
corralled the Indian brats, and after the
school was started visited it three times
week, when he didn't go every day If
any OF the youngsters showed signs of
mutiny all the teacher had to do was to
threaten to call in Johnson Sides, and