The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-12-06

fuses to repair its rough and dangerous
| roadbed the people up in my country
! Will come across country roads in our
| automobiles if you please. In conclu-
| sion I speak words OF praise for Topeka
! Day and know that it will grow in
I strength and Importance as the years
I roll on. Each banquet will eclipse the
| preceding one and through their influ-
! ence as well as the patronage of the
state TO which you are justly entitled
your population in 1911 will not only
reach the $4,000 mark, but your regis
tration viii be far more
Mrs. McCarter's Speech.
zone hair of a woman can draw more
than a hundred pair of oxen
Mrs. w A. McCarter spoke brill
| liantly on THE Kaw Squaw" The
effort was decidedly appreciated by the
/ crowd. 1t follows in part:
| Il am here to answer for the KaW
squaw. 1t is no mean topic, although
[ do not find much beside the mere
mention of her as a collective noun in
| the early annals of the city
Indian names have meaning. They
/ Indicate the character OF their possessor.
| Picturesquely enough they tell US
what to expect 1t did not happen
with them as it has happened other
where that boy who should have
! been called Obadiah was was dubbed
/ Guy. nor that tn John HenryS went
unhung as Clares and Roys- These
7
ruled three villages under laws Of
! heredity down through the genera
tons. The first was American Chief,
4 and knowing the Americans as I do I
I judge that for an Indian ne was pat
/ riOtic, progressive. self-dependent,
/ brave and just. The second was Hard
/ Chief and I am fain to believe that he
/ was not only Injured to hardships but
| that he was haFd-hearted, hard-head-
ed, hard-fisted. that life in his village
I n Will he
! was Fool Chief, and I need not try to
tell this company what that means.
but of the KaW sduaW we read
| nothing. When the first citizens came
to the site of Topeka they tell US that
the Indian braves were warning with
their enemies, or were out hunting on
the grand prairie to the southwest, or
were feasting and idling about the viii
lagos. But all they say of the squaw
was that she was digging wild potatoes
/ on the river bank where Oakland now
! stands. Very monotcnously her life
ran along. Her days were filed with
| labor She was the fuel gatherer,
dressmak er. milliner, cook. tailor car
penter, farmer, gardener. tanner and
along with the pack dogs the beast of
burden. She cultivated the maize
patch and digged the wild potatoes on
the river bank. Her last work for the
day when chief and brave and pap
poose -snored in their blankets was to
mend the moccasins for the next days
Wear 1t is no wonder that the race is
q vanishing one Fhe Kaw squaw
STEPPED in ignorance and degradation.
pound to hard labor from the very
dawn of wOmanhood. could not forever
mother a race. It is not from s11cll
sources that Hthe-limbed. cIear-brained
vigorous generations grow into cfviliza-
ton In the treatment of It's women
the Indian race wrote its own doom
But while we read of no individuality
among these squaws Yet their feeble in
fuence must have been in (. vvav some
thing ike that of the husbands whom
of American Chief. Hard Cbies
and Fool Chief the 7<s,T
squav. Overworked sullen. unbappv
creature that she was. nevertheless I
fancy like the squaws Of today. that She
took on somewhat of the traits Of her
lord and master. In a word that for
American Chief. Hard Chief and Fool
Chief there We're also in milder degree.
American Squaw, Hard Squaw and Fool
Souaw.
IAN this was half century and
more ago. On the dip and rise of this
prairie, in the fertile woody bottom
lands and on the river bank where The
KaW squaw digged the wild potatoes
: a beautiful city has arisen. It's fifty
years and one are monuments each to
what civilized man has done. Enough
has ben said or viii be said here to-
night to show how wondrously well they
wrought who builded this city.
The thought I have is this. That
while there are many races of men there
is only one human race. Civilization
does not make new men and women. II
merely builds upon and improves unon
the uncivilized nature Of men and wO-
men. Today in Topeka we have again
the Fool Chief the Hard Chief and the
American Chief. And it is only as the
( last of the three. the patriotic. progress
sive, self-dependent, wise and Just
American chief predominates over the
other two, that the city grows in grace
> fu1 strength.
'sAnd we have here also in large modi-
fication the Kaw squaw, wife to this
same leader. Tt is to this later squaw
that I would bring tribute. may do il
pertinently if not eloquently for I am
come too lately to Topeka to speak OF
/ myself as a city builder. I gladly give
honor to the women who down through
these fifty years and one have, dgurative-
/ " speaking, digged the wild potatoes or
the river bank while the braves went
out to fight or hunt for the winters
store Of food. The women who knew
! the pioneer life here, while the men built
up the place from prairie to village
from village TO town with muddy streets
and kerosene lights and mule cars, ane
from town to city with electric motors
electric lights and pavements.
It bring tribute OF laurel to the squaN
in the wigzFam, the wife In the home