The Coolidge examiner., 1933-03-03
"BLACK HAWK" GaIena, Ill.

America that before one knows It. an institution
or a familiar detail of the surface of life be-
comes antique"
AS matter OF fact 1t would seem that both
Mr.. Ford and the antique dealer in Penn Yam,
n. Y, got real bargains when they paid only
800 for their wooden Indians. For NJ. L. Blum
enthal writing In the Saturday Evening Post
only short time ago. reported finding "a much
battered wooden Indian OF the sort without
which no cigar store was considered au falt or
even de rigueur twenty-five years ago" in junk
shop and the dealer asked $3.50 for 1t, declaring
that the price was mot out OF the way at ALL
It's male Indan-squaws are cheaper-and it's
good example of early American carving"
But his statement that squaws are cheaper
is not borne out by the following item which
appeared soon afterwards in the Paris (Mo.)
Mercury: at is not generally known, but cigar
Indians, formerly the outdoor sign of cigar
stores, have become valuable antiques, and good
specimens bring as high as $500. A firm of deal
ers has been negotiating with the Paris Cigar
company for the very plump and handsome
squaw that has graced Main street, Paris, now
for more than forty years. but Frank Jones
owner and manager, is man OF sentiment, and
has, it is said, turned down an offer OF $500 for
her. You See he said. she's been here so long
and never Knocked about either the converse
ton or the weather, never much taken
trip, changed the cut OF her clothes, that it
would be cruel 10 uprOot her and sell her either
down the river or up. i have known her since
small boy and am downright attached to her
Some things mean more than money. My squaw
is not for sale. She knows too much about Paris
past and present. to risk out of sight, and in
addition ] know of no other man who can boast
of that rarest of all earthly blessings, wooden
squaw who cannot talk. You have no Idea how
satisfactory she is at times"
Consider also the case Of Chief" who stands
in front of cigar store in Colorado Springs
Colo Frank and Clinton Osborn propretors
Of the store say that they have had frequent
offers ranging all the way from $500 up to $1,000
for this GOO pound metal warrior whom they OBJ
tanned at an auction sale of unclaimed goods
in a storage warehouse in that city some 20
years ago. But they have steadfastly refused all
offers for Chief"
Like the Osb0rns there are other owners Of
cigar store Indians who won't part with their
prizes for any price. There's Bob Parsons, pio
neer tobacco dealer at Ashland, Wis. whose
store still is guarded after 40 years. by fierce
eyed Chief Sitting Bull. Parsons is intensely
proud of his Indian. Thousands Of tourists have
visited his store to view the brave. Indians, too,
come sometimes, but reverently.
Sitting Bull is an exact model OF the great
chief who ruled the Dakota plains when white
men first pushed beyond the Mississippi river"
says Parsons "He was carved for me by hand
from white pine by Herman Kruske, a wood
worker at Ashland half a century ago."
Sitting Bull, a tall, bright yellow figure DOM
mates the drab street that is his tribal domain
The black, braided hair, that holds a single
upright feather, falls over the shoulders of his
fringed buckskin coat. His left hand grips his
tomahawk; his right supports the end of huge
Ea SC tha 0lO 6ad of
cries of cigar store Indians.
Each morning Sitting Bull is rolled to his
position before Parsons shop, which clings to
traditions of the past and sells tobacco only.
Each night he's rolled back into his tepee to
keep a vigil over the darkened shop.
Parsons has refused several offers for Sit
ting Bull and declares he'll never sell him. He
hopes that when he's gone, the old chief will be
cared for by the Chequamegon Bay Old Settlers
association.
Chief Semoh, CALIFORNIA; oldest Indian and
a veteran of the gold rush. stands before the
shop of S. F. Holmes in San Francisco. This
wooden brave shipped around Cape Horn
on a sailing vessel in 1850 from New York, con-
signed to a pioneer tobacconst in Marysville
Calf. Marysville 40 miles from San Francisco,
then thronged with prospectOrs. Chief
Semloh did duty for 60 years in this town.
Ten years ago, new owners irreverently COM
mitted Chief SemlOh to the basement. Resur-
rected by his present owner the old chief under
went surgery a year ago and now is perhaps the
most modern Indian in the United States. At
cost of several hundred dollars. Chief Semloh
was equipped with a speaking voice and the
faculty of smoking cigars. Now he puffs away
and gives advice to smokers as he keeps guard
before Holmes shop
An eighty-two-year vigil before the door of the
Matzberger cigar store, in Reading, Pa, ended
in 1929 for Old Eagle Eye blueeyed wooden
Indian cut from a solid block of wood by a
New York carver. He was purchased by cigar
store proprietors Of the city and placed IN the
Reading museum.
(9 by Western Newspaper Union.)