The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1919-12-05
THE CHRISTMAS OF
SAMUEL YELLOW WOLFE
nv C.. M. Morrison,

old days before somebody made a
hole in the ground and struck oil, it
was currently stated and never sue
cessfully contradicted, that Samuel
Yellow Wolf was one of the most
worthless specimens of noble Red Man
that could be collected anywhere be-
tween the Everglades of the forgot
ten Seminoles and the next big "pot-
latch" of the Northwest's Indians.
Samuel rocked not. He was just
about all Indian, of the hopeless,
quiet, shuffling, half -moccasin, half
blanket breed that ride trains in the
Southwest till some brass-buttoned
railroader kicks them off miles away
from so much as a siding. He had that
old natural liking Of the noble red
man for the noble fire-water and he
would eat on every occasion. Other
wise that just about lets Samuel yell
low Wolf out.
Tn war and the draft and all the
rest Of it came along and caught Sam
uel Yellow Wolf just about totally I'M
prepared, as it were. He had no tri-
vial grievances against the Kaiser or
Won Tirpirtz and he had never heard
Of the Crown Prince. The biggest
boat he had ever seen was a flat-bot-
toned skitf tied up at the creek bank.
Had you told him that some one of
these days he was going to cross the
Atlantic ocean and that vindictive
boats that ran under the water would
be taking shots at him--well he would
have classified you as forked tongue
liar in that aboriginal mind Of his,
but he would not have told you so. He
simply would not have taken the trou-
bic.
Consider this son of the roaring
and ramping Southwest, with an agen-
cy school education, and about as
much general knowledge as a mud
turtle from one of his native creeks,
being picked out of smoky half
house tepee and set down in the mud
and the well known coolies Of sunny
France" And consider, if you like
the job of considering, all the things
that happened to Sam Yellow Wolf
before they considered him fit to take
a rifle in his brown hand and pack
on his shoulders and fare forth to the
great game of German killing.
The Manitou is certainly good and
all powerful and somehow it came
about. Furthermore, this same sham
bling, good for nothing wastreal of
IN agency schooled Indian came quite
near being one of the best scouts that
the A. Il. +. owned. Maybe the job
suited him so well because he never
had to hurry and the scouts were well
: fed gentry, whose turns Of routine .du-
ty were few and rather far between.
1t was written that Samuel Yellow
Wolf was to escape German gas and
French coolies, English tea and Bava-
rian machine gun bullets and get one
long and unwinking look at the God
dess who is known as the Statue of
Liberty. Sam Yellow Wolf liked her
! looks from that eastern approach.
: Maybe he was thinking of how calm
and restful it was going to be back in
sun and shade of Panther Fork.
In the meanwhile those busy ladies,
known of old as the Fates, were pre-
pairing lareg surprise for Samuel
Yellow Wolf, late of the Panther Fork
country. During Samuel's absence
some enterprising paleface wabbled
into that remote part of the world and
proceeded to set up an outfit. This
outfit proceeded to puncture the up
per crust of the long-suffering globe.
When the puncturing had gone far
enough there was a great amount of
yellOwish brown and highly smelly
fluid pouring out upon the surface.
And Samuel Yellow Wolf who had
twice crossed the seas and gathered
unto himself few notches on his gun,
in perfectly legitimate warfare, had
become one of the really wealthy men
F. and prominent citizens of those parts.
Come along Thanksgiving and Sam
uel Yellow Wolf who was acquiring
certain civilized tastes other than
those having to do with bootleg" and
tobacco, made his first kick against
that amiable but irksome restriction
of the Indian Office that permits ev-
en- the richest of the genuine Indians"
to have no more than an allowance.
: But it was no use. So much money
: he might have for his needs and no
more. Samuel already had motor
car, a new house with six entirely I'M
used bath tubs and had bought enough
ornamental junk to furnish out sec
ond hand store. But he had so much
and he could have no more. Not I'M
less he could think out some perfectly
good and approved way of spending it.
Maybe, Samuel yellow Wolf wasn't
very much concerned about whether
Treasury Savings Certificates" were
; any good or not but into his original
and aboriginal mind some knowledge
of these certificates crept. He had
plug hat and a congressman's coat,
anyway, as well as a red-yellow vest,
so he just had to buy something.
When he learned that the man who
was looking after his money could not
possibly object to his buying certifi-
Gates Sam Yellow VOLTS mind was
made up. He regarded the whole
matter in the light Of having put one
over on his legal guardian. And he
took all they would let him have.
Having acquired large and inter-
esting family Of near and distant rel
atives, he got quite sizeable hunk
of the Government promises to pay.
"Um can't stop me-" said Yellow
Wolf, as he came into the bank on his
first Christmas Eve back home and
: celebrated" up to the legal require
ments. "This Christmas gift. Good
way to spend UNI"
! And VaJ1ouy Wolf WAC a1noiohtv