Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-05-27
THE WHITE MANS MAGIC.
Effect on Indians of Moving Pictures
and Herrmann's Tricks.

Major Brewer of the Seventh caval
nv, a veteran of the Wounded Knee
fight and a close student of the western
Indian, was talking recently of Indian
superstitions, one of which. the belief
that the Messiah shirt" would turn
the white mans bullet made the tribes
fight fiercely at Wounded Knee. Those
of the Indians VINO survived that fight
realized that the medicine men had de-
ceived them, and one warrior at least
who was captured after being mortally
wounded expressed the wish that his
knife might find the heart Of the man
who had caused the trouble.
After ALL" said the major, mo medi-
cine man ever lived who could COM
pete with the white mans magic.
remember a striking instance of this
when was stationed among the White
Mountain Apaches in Arizona.
"The White Mountain Indians are to
my mind the finest of their race, intel
ligent and brave to an unusual degree.
One day a travelling Snowman came
to nearby town with biograph out
fit, the first of it's kind seen in those
parts. The officers hired him to give
an exhibition in the post nall and in
vited the Indians to see the show.
1.-The biograph man had with him a
phonograph to make music to go with
the pictures, and as he had blank rec
ord We thought it would be a good
idea to have the interpreter make a
record in Apache explaining how the
biograph worked. The record was made
and when the Indians led by their chief
had gathered in the darkencd hall the
phonograph was placed on the stage
and the fun began.
1T was very quiet in the hall and
when the machine began to speak in
Apache, the chief who sat beside me
caught hold of my arm with a hand
which shook like a leaf; and that chief
was about the bravest man / ever
knew. He stood the strain for a mo-
ment and then calling to his badly
frightened followers he led or rather
followed. for he had a front seat. in a
wild stampede from the nall.
Those Indians didn't stop running
until they got well into the open on the
parade ground and ii took a lot of
coaxing and explaining to get them to
come back for the rest of the show
They enjoyed the moving pictures and
apparently were not at all frightened by
them, but we saw TO it that the phon-
Ograph was silent.
After the show was over the chief
who had seen an ice making machine
few weeks before and was too full of
the modern miracles to speak slowly
enough for me to understand him in
his own tongue, which is very difficult
called the interpreter and said:
when white man make ice out OF
fire and talk out Of tin it's time Indian
went away.
Major Burke of the Wild West show
beg pardon, exhibition, it's always
exhibition" when the major speaks
heard the story of the monograph and
capped it with another.
He said that a few years ago when
the Col. Cody outfit was in Chicago the
Magician Hermann paid the Intlians a
visit. The great master of sleight OF
hand did some simple tricks which drew
the attention of the Indians and then
as they gathered about him he began
to pick gold pieces from the finery OF
chief The chief remained passive
until Hermann pulled live bird from
an Indians pouch then turning to the
others. he said gravely:
white man big thief Steal every
thing. So sit on your trunks"
Every Indian ran for his belongings
and refused To raise the guard until
Hermann had gone.