Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-01-14

international Jokes That Die for Lack
Of Attention--indIan Boy Gives
Dlscouraslns Illustration Of
the Result Of Environment
BY SARAH ID. LOWRIE
THE amusing and abused editorials a

toward if not against the U. s. A. will
doubtless never reach that complacent
ns5 ear % AtSE all ndr,ss there is kind of
l remember years ago there was. some sort
Of belated celebration of the hundredth an
niversary Of the Yorktown surrender; Gen
eral Hancock was then in command OF the
United States army, and In the military
pageant that was held on the battlefeld--or
surrender field, rather-he and his staff re-
enacted the part Of Washington and the
American officers.
a school holiday for the great occasion, was
a great little pal of the generals. and was
honored after the formalities OF the review
were over by being allowed to walk over the
field with him. He gave the generals, hand
seriousness:
Gee, general, bet the British feel bad
"They don't know they were beaten, my
GENERAL HANCOCK certainly did not
~ look like the Father of Our Country, but
he had all of his presence and very fine
dignity. l remember hearing southerners,
especially Louisiana people. say that. when
he followed Butler in New Orleans in the
reconstruction period the relief of having an
officer who was great gentleman as well as
a soldier was n matter for congratulation,
even in those embittered days. After New
Orleans he was in command Of what was
then known as the Department of Missouri
and was stationed at Fort Leavenworth. All
that part of the world wns still an Indian
country in the sixties. The Indian reserva-
therefore under Hancock's supervision. In
the summer there were Indian powwows
and military courts to settle disputes and
claims and inspections. and in winter the
staff settled down at Fort Lcavenworth. The
generals personal aide and secretary was a
brother in law Of Governor Curtin. of this
state. Captain William Potter Wilson.
heard him tell years afterward Of a curious
Indian experience that had come his way
from his semiadoption Of little Indian boy.
THE boy was the sole survivor of an In
i dim massacre that had wiped out all the
family Of a chief called Black Kettle except
this child. In the confusion after the fight
the child had been stolen and the tribes
about Fort Dodge threatened to rise in revolt
If he was not found and returned The gov
ernment, after considerable trouble. discov-
cred him in travelling circus, and he was
sent to General Hancock to be duly delivered
to the tribe that claimed him as chief.
1t was winter time when he reached Lea
yenworth and his people were not due at
their hunting grounds before spring. At the
request Of General Hancock Captain Wilson
therefore took charge of him.
The boy named himself Wilson Graham,
after the two staff officers he liked best He
never seemed like child. He was as dig
nifed and reserved as his father the chief
might have been, and his manner toward the
noncommissioned officers and the soldiers was
naughty in the extreme. Everything he saw
his friends the staff officers do he copied,
though with an Indifferent air that forbade
a smile. He was a martinez with the order
lies about his clothes and shoes, and as for
his pleasures! If his friends rode. he
Graham preferred to dine out.
But back Of all the amenities which he
mastered without Il word said on either side,
he was Indian through and through.
MRS. HANCOCK was giving dinner one
1Vl night and at the last minute a guest
failed. She sent word over to the aide de-
camp to bring Wilson Graham. which he did.
General Hancock was the most gracious and
genial of hosts and there was good deal of
champagne. The captain saw the boy re-
garding their host with steady, observant
eyes, and he did not wonder the child was
impressed, for the general was magnificent
looking, and never 80 wonderfully so as at
his own table. But presently the boy leaned
over, to him and signed that he wished to
his head and Wilson Graham whispered:
THE Big Man will be getting drunk soon
and will fight. Take care ~
MOT long afterward, when the Big Man
~ was holding powwow with the
Apaches and the boy was spectator of the
very grand ceremonial and pomp on both
sides, the officers in full dress and the army
at dress parade, the captain felt slim hand
creep into his and he looked down to see his
charge contemplating the Apache braves with
narrowed eyes.
kill Them was his sole remark
He was very cold toward the wife of one
of the officers, whom he denounced as
painting her face
Graham?" General Hancock asked him.
Must have little 1njun blood" the boy
grunted
yITIIEN summer came word was sent from
w Fort Dodge that the tribe was due at
be on the spot to be handed over to them.
His officer friends were very unhappy about
parting with him and they saw to it that all
his little belongings were in A No. l condi-
clothes. They rode over to Fort Dodge with
him, and as his people were not vet ar
rived they left him with an officers wife.
The boy clung to them until the last mo-
word, which made 1t almost more heart
rending to the two friends who rode away.
The officers wife was very good to him, and
in the brief time remaining to her tried to
teach him what she regarded as the essen, i.
simply, and on attending the burial Of an
officer who had lived badly and died in
gloriously he electrified the "mourners'' by
saying gravey as the coffin was lowered:
Hes gone to hell ~
His tribe came a day or two later and
took him off. The next year when they came
back TO the fort he was with them, az naked
as the day he was born and as sullen and as
dirty as the oldest among his braves.
SO much for environment!
------- -
A Timely Problem
From lha ohio State Journal.
1t is always a problem with us on oc-
casions like this whether 1t does not do less
real harm to give all the lame ducks jobs
with good salaries attached than to force
them to resume the practice of law.