The Coolidge examiner., 1933-03-03

But there is another type of In
dian that is truly a vanishing
American" He is the cigar store Indian, the
sign. symbol and guardian angel OF the cigar
store. There was time when no tobacco shop
complete without the figure of a stalwart
brave or a plump Indian princess standing in
front of It. But today. with but few exceptions
you will have to 90 to a museum or an antique
shop TO find such aboriginal symbol OF trade
In one or the earliest American commodities
And IL by chance you wish TO own one, you'd
better be prepared to pay from $500 up for it.
For the cigar store Indian is now Americana"
and his value is In inverse ratio to his scarcity
1t is one of the paradoxes of history that this
vanishing American was not of American or
igin at all. Tobacco was introduced to the Old
World by Spanish physician in 1858 and in
1856 Sir Francis Drake brought the equipment
for smoking to Sir Walter Raleigh who made
the habit fashionable In England. When England
was Merrie England under James I Q603-1625)
there were wooden Indian trade signs in that
country. When Pocahontas died. in 1917, the
wooden Indian strange sight
But the early Indians seen in Europe were
fanclful figures, made by carvers who had not
seen American Indians AS writer has OBJ
served:
EARLY Indians showed that Europe had set
tied down to the belief that American Indians
wonderful triad of utility when one thinks
of tat neither apparel. currency and
the makin's, to be drawn upon up TO the limit
OF decency. London types resembled negroes
and for 200 years were known as black boys"
While the Indian figure as a trade sign started
in England. It reached grandeur and true char
acter in the United States. American scuptors
knew the Indian his features and Characters
tics. and the resulting figures were astounding
Of
trade sign figures developed in the United
States-chiefs, squaws, Roman figures and white
men. The last named included such figures as
Uncle Sam. Walter Raleigh, policemen, "forty-
miners" and smoking girls.
plump Pocahontas-the squaw type-was
seen in Boston as early 1870 In ITO, when
Christopher Demuth opened little tobacco shop
at Lancaster, Pa, a dainty wooden gentleman
offered a snuff box instead of the traditional
cigars. Baltimore claims to have had cigar
store fixtures before ITO.
But it was not until shortly before the Civil
war that hordes of this race of red men appeared
on the American scene. According to one chron-
icler the wooden Indian was first introduced to
his job guardian angel of cigar stores by
man named Chichester about 1880 The sculptor
OF these earliest specimens Tom Willard
In the first days of the fad some of the more
aristOcratic chiefs were made of metal cast in
molds This type, however. soon abandoned ;
even from the first most of the figures were of
wood These were all made by hand generally
of white pine and considerable skill was re-
quired in their shaping Logs were first blocked
ont with an ak for the body. after which the
attached and the features marked
out with a chisel Finer carving tools gave the
finishing touches. They then painted and
mounted wheels for delivery.
The original sculptors were carvers of ships
figure heads. With the decay of American ship
ping, carvers here, finding their occupation Slip
ping away from them, made the wooden Indian
more than part-time job. They turned to him
as their mainstay. One of these carvers per-
haps the most famous of them all, was Louis
John of Ste. Anne de Beaupre in Quebec.
When John died there few years ago at the
age of eighty-six he was given wide publicity
as 1.-The originator of the cigar-stOre Indian"
although it is doubtful if that Characterization
can justly be applied TO any one man. But his
pre-eminence In this field is indicated by the
following excerpts from his obituary notices in
the newspapers at the time of his death:
Louis Johns family name does not rest ex
clusively on his bizarre production. He was
described as the greatest wood carver in the
world He carved wood for seventy years though
of late his sight had failed and he had laid away
his chisel.
while cigar store Indians are becoming ex
tInct those created by JOHN In his early days