The Tomahawk. [volume] (White Earth, Becker County, Minn.) 1903-192?, 1917-01-04
Major James Whitehead,
CONTINUED from 1st Page.)

| lead the reader to believe that
Major Whitehead outside Of his
shop talk sounded like reading
aloud the classics, then he must
get this out of his mind for he
could be broadly coloquial and use
terms adopted to the character Of
his listeners. For instance, ne
never would feed Shakespeare to
Tom Harden or Len Cummings.
And to mention these two worth
les is almost to say that generally
speaking, Uncle Jim when with
them would not monopolize cover
sation but would speak only IN
such tentative manner "a to draw
out expressions from the two ex-
traordinary men, Individually
gifted with broad humor and per-
sonal eccentricity; each man had
his own style, and Uncle jim loved
to hear them talk. He too had a
style of lis own, and for want of
a better term | will call it the
humorous philasephic. Let me
illustrate this:
One day T Glanced to be a fell
low passenger with Major White
head in a Burband & Company
coach running from St. Cloud to
Crow Wing. There we're two
young ladies aboard bound for
their homes at Little Falls, a town
along the line of route. Sank
Rapids, also a town enroute, was
the first at which mail was to be
left and taken on. In those days
there were no separate pouches for
each station, the mail pouch like
the coach was an "omnibus', each
postmaster emptied the entire con.
tents in his little office, took out
his own packages and put in those
originating at his station, returned
all other packages, and locking the
omnibus pouch gave it back 60 the
mail and express messenger and
the coach. Upon this tri y there
was long wait for the postmaster
at Sank Rapids to return the
pouch and the young ladies with
true femininity became impatient,
and finally one voiced ;mpatience
in the statement: "Oh dear, why
do they keep US waiting so long?"
Uncle Jim became the oracle, and
twinkle was in his eye, a smile
lurkcd underneath his whlskers;
said he, Undoubtedly they know
our greatest need and wish to give
us plenty of time in which 20 med
itate over our sins and to gain in
moral strength so as to live better
in the future"
We all laughed and the young
ladies were completely restored to
good humor. Here Uncle Jim
combined the wisdom of the stroies
with the humor of Commus. And
it was his life, for though he was
wise and patient, he also was a
descip.e Of the god Commus.
Men often establish themselves
strongly in certain circles because
they can tell story we'll. Major
Whitehead was Il rare racconteur.
One story of his relation ! can
never forget. | have told it to
the public in my stories of "Old
Crow Wing.'
Its hero was Uncle Paul Beaul-
leu, another virtuoso by the way
in the art of story telling. The in
cident described SO well by Major
Whitehead, is in short as follows:
1t appears that Uncle Paul had
been looked at from head to foot
by diminutive "white'', and who
expressed himself to the Major in
admiration of Uncle Paul's mag
nificient physique. The two
''uncles'' were part of a delegation
of Chippewas visiting Washington
on business connected with their
tribe, Uncle Jim as friend of the
Indians, and Uncle Paul as inter-
prefer and member Of the tribe.
Sub roca lot If no said that ITpcle