Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-07-02
PERSUAD|NG SAVAGES
No Easy Matter to Get them
to Show at st. Louis.
MONTHS TO CONSIDER
POW-WOWS OF CHIEFS AND
TRIBE BEFORE A SETTLEMENT.
Finally Reached Decision That cit
Would Do Us Good"
and Started.
MONTHS TO CONSIDER

Written for The Evening Star by Guy l. NlsKhlshAi
The aboriginal human being is so hXed
a feature of present day exposltlons that
thousands of people who gather around
his equally strange abode to cape at him
take his presence as matter Oh course.
But If the visitors only knew 1t, the most
interesting thing of all about the hairy
Ainu, or the giant Patagonian or the
dwartIlke South African bushman, is the
manner in which he was induced to place
himself on exhibition for the edificatlon
and wonderment Of to him, strange peo-
pie beyond the seas.
Ask one of the coterie of men whose
days and years are spent in getting to-
gether living chronological exhibits how
he works it, and he will reply after this
fashion:
why, tell them that it will be good
for them, and let them take what mean
ing they want to out of that
And do you have to pay them any
thing?" you may ask. And the answer
will be: They come mostly because it
will do them good, and for mighty little
money, considering.
All this sounds simple and easy, but in
reality 1t takes a strange people a long
while to make up their childlke minds
in truly childlike fashion whether the
trip proposed by the white man will
do them good" and more important
still, to interpret what 1T will do you
good means. Interpreted to their salts
faction the white mans only difficulty is
to keep the entire tribe from coming
away with him. Interpreted to their dis
satisfaction, even if the heavens were to
fall they would not move one foot in the
direction the white man pointed out. So
1t is that the three months of experiences
E c. Cushman of Washington, d. c., had
among the Cocopa Indians is representa-
tive.
The Cocopa is about as low a type of
Indian as there is. His habitat is in old
Mexico. along the Gulf of California, and
besides his dirtiness he is chiefly marked
by his head of long, thick, matted hair
He had never been on exhibition or out
side his native land until Mr.. Cushman
induced him to see the big world. He
had been labored with three times before
but in each case the paleface left after a
few weeks, firmly convinced that a mules
obstinacy Is as weak as running water
when compared with the particular brand
displayed by the average Cocopa
AS foretaste of the adventures ahead
of him, when Mr.. Cushman arrived In Ari-
IONA. on his way to the Cocopa country. he
found that he would have to make a boat
trip of several hundred miles down the
Colorado river. He secured an Indian guide,
loaded the boat with the staple foods that
he intended to use with good effect on the
Indians, and set off.
An Exciting Ride
Everything went well until he came to q
part of the river marked by two channels
The Indian knew nothing about either chan
ne. SO Mr.. Cushman chose one and headed
down stream, only to be caught half an
hour later In a rapids extending for sew
eral miles.
During the ensuing twenty minutes the
two men experienced about as much ad-
venture as is crowded into the whole life
of the average man. The rapids are among
the swiftest in the Colorado. The Indian
became frenzied in his fright, threw himself
in the bottom of the boat and tried by his
shouts to drown the roar of the swirling
river Mr.. Cushman, with his one oar
could not keep any Roadway, and round
and round like top the boat whirled for
miles down stream. Cushman sitting lin
the bow and every moment expecting the
little craft to be capsized or dashed against
one Of the great rocks sticking up here and
there above the boiling waters surface.
But at last, after many narrow escapes.
the boat was shot with the velocity Of q