Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1912-02-07
IIlLAW GIRL .rZAkIL/TG 6EHDS

will have the proper color and con-
sistency all the way through.
after the mixture has 'ripened' the
girls gather again to make it into
beads 1t is black, viscous sub
stance, thick enough to remain in any
shape into which it may be rolled. The
moisture In it has been supplied by
the juice Of the rose petals, which
runs out in surprising quantity during
the process of grinding, and by the
tincture Of iron.
1.-The girls take small quantities OF
this yiscous substance from the pans
and roll them into pellets such as you
see in this string. They are very deft
at the work and very painstaking, not
stopping until the pellet is>perfectly
round.
These pellets are then pierced
with hatpins, and are strung on the
pins to dry. When a big beadmaking
party is given at our school there Is
hatpin famine in Riverside, for the
girls buy up all they can find at the
stores.
"Then the Indian maidens stretch
strings across their bedrooms and
from these strings they suspend the
hatpins to allow the beads to dry. The
process of drying consumes several
days, and during this time the girls
very jealousy avoid raising dust in
their uueerly decorated rooms.
when the beads are dry they are
taken off the hatpins and the little
rough spots caused by piercing them
are carefully polished off. You have
then neatly-pierced. black, perma-
nently rose-scented bead ready for
the jeweler."
Mrs. Garfield has been in the gov
ernment service for II years as
teacher of Indians, first in the reser
vation schools and finally in pictur-
esuue Riverside, and she has an abun-
dance of first-hand information OF In
dian life and character that is highly
interesting.
Learn White Mans Petty Crafts.
One of her regrets is that the In
dian artisan, engaged in the making
of blankets, baskets and other beauti-
full curios, is learning the vices OF the
white man, so that now inferior ar
ticles are being made and sold so ex-
tensively that only an expert is free
from the danger of being swindled.
Their education at the Sherman in
stitute consists of the common school
education, including the eighth grade,
and in addition they are given indus
trial training. Upon graduating from
the school the Indians are at liberty to
do as they please. Some of them go
to the higher institutions of learning,
such as the Carlisle school, and some,
whose parents can afford 1t, enter
other large American colleges.
Others go back to their reserva'
tions, where they become teachers in
the reservation schools or enter into
the active life of the tribe, where their
superior education soon makes them
leaders. Still others, attracted Dy
their summer work, hire themselves
out as skilled servants to the Cali
fornians.
A few 20 to the cities and become
| part of the great active world OF
America, putting themselves upon an
equal footing and in competition with
white men in their chosen trades or
professions. Many Of these Indians
have more than made good in the bat
tie of the big city.
Romances begun at the school fire.
quently culminate in marriage after
graduation, many stalwart Hiawatha
having proudly claimed bashful Min
nehaha. Occasionally an Indian girl
marries a white man, or an Indian
man a white girl, but, according to
Mrs. Garfield, such cases are rare In
California. Mrs. Garfield believes the
government is doing a great work at
Riverside and at similar institutions.