River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1914-04-23

talk as well as we can until they for
get"
do you mean to say these aborlgi-
mes have been fooling me? | don't De-
lieve it, said |. There is n hat
can't talk English. and I'll make q Del
on it." indicated a passing brave
with an eagle feather headdress
reaching far down his naked legs. he
was a magnificent animal-young'
1.-THE and as tall and straight as a sap
ling-and was decked from head TO
feet in his gorgeous panoply. I've
tried him twice. and he simply doesn't
understand"
My friend called to the warrior:
"Hey. Tom. Come here a minute
The Indian came. and the doctor con-
tinued:
When do you hold the horse races,
Thomas?"
Tomorrow. 4 o'clock. unless 1t
rains" said the fellow.
Are you going to ride?"
mo. My race horse is sick"
As the ocher daubed figure vanished
into the dusk the old man turned to
me. saying:
yale"
"What?"
yale; B. A. He's a graduate"
"Impossible!" / declared. why. l
could hardly understand him. He
talks like a foreigner or as if he was
just learning the language"
Exactly. That hating unfamiliari-
~ with English marks the death and
decay of his learning. In three years
more he'll be an Indian again through
and through. Oh. the reservation is
full of fellows like that" The doctor
continued, with a sigh: Its a melan-
choly acknowledgment to make. but
u work seems to count for nearly
nothing. It's their blood.
1--WE heard a graduating class read
theses from a platform, sing cantatas
in chorus and deliver orations. Then
| have seen those same young fellows
three months later ~squatting in te-
PEGS, grunting in their native tongues
and eating with their fingers.
Some years ago | felt was well on
my way to success, for | found a
youth who offered every promise of
great manhood. | studied him until |
knew his every trait and his every
strength. He did not seem to have
any weakness. / raised him under my
own supervision into a tall, straight
fellow as handsome as figured bronze
and with a mind far in advance of his
people and his years. He had the best
blood of the nation In him, being the
son of a war chief, and they called
him Thomas Running Elk. He was
educated at the agency school under
me, and he went through his college
curse like a stag at the head of a
great herd, a silent, dignltied, shad-
owy figure. unapproachable and mys-
terious to his fellow students. In all
things he excelled, but he was best
perhaps in athletics, the credit for
which | also took, feeling a godlike
satisfaction in my work.
"News came to me of his victories
on track and field and gridiron, for
his professors kept me posted, being
likewise interested In my experiment,
but as for him he never wrote. 1t was
not his nature. o did he communi-
cate with his people.
1T was in my %protege's senior year
that the great thing entered his life.
the thing l had craftily built upon
from the start and had well nigh de-
SPARED of. The girl entered, but In
stead Of Running Elk being drawn to
the woman, as l had planned. the wO-
man went to him.
you've heard Of old Henry Har-
man? Yes, the railroad king. It was
his daughter Alicia.
"In order to understand the story
you'll have to know something about
old Henry and believe in heredity, as
l do. He is a self made man. He
came into the middle west as q poor
boy and by force of his indomitable
pluck, ability and doggedness became
a captain of industry. He is the same
now as when he was a section boss, and
his daughter Alicia is another Henry
a pampered child of Fifth avenue,
born to money and a slave to her w
whims. and Alicia grew up more effec-
lively spoiled than her mother, combin-
ing the traits of both parents.
well. when l got a panicky letter
from one of Running Elk's professors,
coupling her name vaguely with that
of my Indian. wavered in my deter
mination to see this experiment out.
But the mind Of the analyst is unsen-
timental, and one who sets out to I'M
tangle the skein of the gods must pay
the price, so | waited.
las if fate had really AIKEN a part
In the affair, ] found a long distance
.all from old Henry Hartman when l
returned to my hotel. He had wired
me here at the agency and, finding |
was in Washington, had called me
from New York. He didn't tell me
much w the phone. except that he
must see me at once. and as my work