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At such times there was usually to be seen the rather slight figure of an old Indian whose years showed in his face only, riding here and there on a buckskin pony which he sat with consummate grace. was dressed in the blue of a United States scout, but, in lieu of the felt hat, wore a peculiar yellow skull-cap with two horns, from which fluttered red tassels. This was Geronimo, the noted Apache leader, who in his day has probably made the government more trouble than any other living Indian, and has more of the white man's scalps to his credit. Perhaps that is why he was so popular with the crowd, which always cheered him whenever he came near the grand stand, to his evident great pleasure: perhaps the crowd had mingled with the Indians enough by this time to get a little nearer to the red man's point of view, and saw that in killing the white man he was merely ridding his country of invaders.

The battle was preceded by a grand review; the Indians all gathering opposite the grand stand and marching down to salute and be introduced to the audience. First came the women and children,— those from each tribe in a group; then the men on foot; then the horsemen. The latter would come tearing up, with a flourish of spears and carbines and a great fluttering of tails, as if they were going to exterminate the visitors, and would draw up with a jerk close to the rope fence. The chiefs waited until the men lined up, and then they too came a-tearing; and it is not every day that one can see as fine an exhibition of horsemanship. Up on top of Captain Mercer's little house a man with a megaphone called out the name of each tribe and the names of the more important Indians, whereupon they would bow and make way for the next group.

After all had passed before the grand stand, with Captain Mercer, Rattlesnake Pete, and Geronimo riding in front,- the soldier, the plainsman, and the Indian scout leading them now, instead of driving them, as they have been doing for long years, the whole motley throng came marching down to the grand stand in about the same order as they had passed in review: between five and six hundred of them and scarce any two dressed alike. The counterpart of every Indian known in song or story or picture seemed to be there, from Hiawatha to Sundown Leflare. Slowly and majestically they came, until

close to the rope; then Captain Mercer bowed, drew a revolver, and fired in the air, whereupon began a rattling of carbines that suggested the disruption of Hades.

After firing a few cartridges apiece the Indians separated into friends and foes, the Sioux and allies going to the left, the Blackfeet and allies to the right; the women and children getting out of the way as best they could. Then came a glimpse of Indian warfare that none who saw will easily forget.

The

The scheme of the battle was this: A Sioux chief, supposed to have been hunting in the Blackfeets' territory, was captured and was to be burned at the stake. Sioux, discovering the situation, steal up just as the fire is started, release their comrade, and rout the foe temporarily; but, reënforced, the Blackfeet return and drive away the Sioux with great slaughter.

There was an exhibition of binding a captive to the stake and making ready to roast him, the braves dancing meanwhile and brandishing their weapons. Then the Sioux came creeping up by ones and twos, gliding along the ground, and taking advantage of the slightest cover. The war-bonnets; the carbines raised to the shoulder; the stealthy tread; the rush; the whoops; and the din of firing,- all seemed in deadly earnest. Now and then an Indian would keel over as if shot; not to fall easily, as a white man might in like play, but heavily, as if the life had gone out of him; and perhaps some enemy would stoop over him and pretend to "lift his hair." Each man fought for himself; and as two foes came near each other they motioned with their carbines after the manner of boxers,― sparring with the air, as it were,- till one or both would fire, and perhaps one drop. Backward and forward across the grounds the howling, shooting mob rushed and was driven,sometimes so near the seats that children cried and women stopped their ears, while grains of powder or dirt struck the faces of the spectators.

When the fight was over, the squaws came with clubs and apparently did for those whom the bullets had not quite finished. And then they all walked away to their lodges,- friends and foes laughing together; and the crowd swarmed over the ropes to pick up cartridge-shells as relics.

The battles were all on the same plan; but sometimes the Sioux came off victors, or the fight resulted in a draw. Preparation was once made for a change of programme, in which the killing of Sitting Bull was to be represented, and a log cabin was built, which was to figure in the affair in some way. But before the battle came off some Indian saw the ghost of Sitting Bull in the cabin, and thereafter no red man would approach it.

There was a pretty tableau just before the battle, at which General Miles was present; and for those who saw it the scene was impressive. Geronimo, having learned that the General - who, by the way, is the cause of his being a nominal prisoner instead of a free highwaymanwas there, rode up to the grand stand and

The General moved to take the proffered hand; but it was suddenly withdrawn, and the red chief clasped the white chief in his arms and hugged him as a father might a long-lost son. The General returned the embrace, and the Indian's head dropped over on his shoulder, and for a few moments the two warriors stood in silence.

Unclasping their arms, the Indian seized the white chief's hands and shook them vigorously, and the crowd-by this time grasping the situation-sent up a rousing cheer.

Afterwards the General took from his coat the peace jubilee badge and pinned it on Geronimo's blue blouse, to which the latter said "Good," and then took a seat near him and was for this once a spectator.

a better place to study his manner of applying them to himself, to his pony, and to his habitation. The strip of skin that is disclosed by the parting of his hair he stains yellow, blue, or green, or a more vivid red than Nature stained it. Sometimes he paints his face half one color and half another, dividing it lengthwise or crosswise as suits his fancy, or paints it with moons and stripes and zigzags. In war no doubt his facial painting is meant to terrify his enemies,- and well it may, for it makes him look sevenfold more terrible; but in peace the design is less hideous and seems to be merely decorative. The rest of his person-if he eschews raiment - he paints as many different ways as there are different Indians. We saw one who was pale green all over; others were white, blue, and yellow; some were half one color and half another; others were done in stripes and blotches. footwear is resplendent with stained porcupine-quills and beads of more colors than

His

Joseph's coat. He ties little scraps of flannel to the tips of the eagle-feathers that make his war-bonnet, and embroiders everything else he wears with beads and quills in wonderful patterns and designs. That is to say, his women-folk do the embroidery for him; and his club and spear and knife-case are hung with feathers and tails of colored horsehair, beaded buckskin, and jingling bits of bent tin.

One of the naked Indians, upon being asked if he was not cold, asked his questioner if her face was not cold, and, on being informed that it was not, replied that he was "all face."

After the congress had been running for some time it was a common sight to see braves with Turkish portières wrapped about their loins, or with gay table-cloths over their shoulders; and they were a great source of revenue to the sellers of war badges and cheap jewelry, whose wares they wore in abundance.

"Mr. Lo's" ponies get their share of war paint, and he would sometimes fasten feathers and other things to their tails. The Assiniboines' ponies were a gay-looking lot of nags, with noses of divers colors, rings around their eyes, striped legs, and daubed haunches and flanks. The result was more pleasing than the process of mixing the pigments with saliva in the palm of the hand, with which they were applied.

The "Indian Store" was in a little barnlike building, one side of which lifted up, and, when supported by poles, became an awning. Here the Indians brought whatever they had to sell, which was marked with their name, tribe, and price, so that the purchaser could tell what manner of Indian had made the article. Here were to be found war-clubs of divers fashion, bows and arrows, moccasins, Navajo blankets, Pueblo pottery, tomahawks, primitive saddles, gun-cases, knife-cases, needle and awl cases, belts, leggings, and everything the Indian wears or uses that he can make himself. This store was nearly always filled with pale-faced relic hunters and Indians looking on, and appeared to do a thriving business.

The Indian has generally been accounted a solemn chap,-not given to mirth or fooling: but this is not true; they laugh as much as other people and play various games. A group of young men might be seen sitting and kneeling on a blanket, playing with a bunch of stained sticks like

wooden crochet-needles. One of them would take the sticks in his hand and toss them in a certain manner and note their fall; then there was a great laughing and a passing from one to another of little bits of green twigs that appeared to be the stakes. Here was an old warrior, all paint and feathers, laughing at the young men who paid Little-Moonlight five cents for so many shots but could not hit her target. There were two queer-looking chaps in white shirts, which they wore after the manner of John Chinaman (that is, not tucked in), playing with a hoop and some long poles that looked like fishing-rods. They would roll the hoop and then try to throw the poles so that they would pass through the hoop.

The Indian has dignity; no senator of ancient Rome ever wore his toga with more dignity and grace than chief Goesto-War wore his blue, bead-trimmed blanket as he walked about the grounds; he is almost comically dignified and solemn in his dances, to one who does not understand; but that he can unbend and play with his children and his cronies as well as his paler brother, and is not devoid of a sense of humor, there was ample evidence.

To celebrate the gathering of so many braves they had to have a dog-feast, which is a ceremony and not merely the gratification of an appetite. There were plenty of dogs about the camp; but whether these were too dearly beloved, or not the right breed, or if a strange dog is a necessity, I do not know; at all events a dog from without the grounds was desired, and some of the red men visited the neighborhood in search of one. But the neighbors' dogs all ran away or were gathered into the houses, and the hunters returned empty-handed. So Captain Mercer sent a wagon to the dog-pound, and a nice fat animal that met all the requirements of the articles pertaining to dog-feasts was obtained. It was duly slaughtered and boiled in a big kettle, and the braves who had stained their hands with the blood of their fellow men,-or could make the master of ceremonies believe they had,-partook thereof. It seems that none but the brave deserve the dog; the privilege of eating dog being akin to the white man's privilege of wearing the button of the Loyal Legion, save that there is no inherited right: the right to eat dog does not descend to the oldest son; he must

win it by his own deeds of valor. We saw the feast from afar off, but were not tempted to a closer acquaintance therewith, not being sufficiently acclimated to the camp.

Later in the season there was another feast that would have been more pleasing to the white man, but from which he was barred, unless for special reasons; this was a grand barbecue, a farewell blow-out for the red man alone, the gates of the grounds being closed at his request. This banquet was given by Captain Mercer as a mark of his appreciation of their good conduct and the dances and battles and other entertainment they had afforded the white man.

A steer, two sheep, and two hogs were roasted all night and part of a day, out-ofdoors, over a slow fire of hickory wood; ten bushels of potatoes were browned in the dripping-pans; and one thousand loaves of bread and five barrels of apples were provided. There were five hundred hungry Indians. After a time there were

only the Indians, some bones, and applecores; but they were very comfortablefeeling Indians; and Little-No-Heart, the great Indian orator, made an after-dinner speech in which he said they had all had a great time and Captain Mercer was a great man; whereupon they gave three cheers for the Captain, the Exposition, and the banquet.

When the carving began, Geronimo was allowed first choice and selected some beef tongue; American-Horse came next for some beef brisket; Little-No-Heart wanted beef rump; the Wichitas wanted mutton; the Rosebud Sioux, pork; then Black-Eagle, chief carver, said the meat was all fine, and any of it good enough for any Indian, and the remainder was cut up and handed out at the convenience of the

carver.

There was something of a rebuke to the white man's curiosity in the Indians' request to be permitted to eat this one meal in privacy. The white people mostly seemed to think that decency of manner need not be used with Indians. They lifted up the flaps of the red man's tents, and peered in upon him, and stood in rows to watch him eating his food, commenting audibly upon his culinary arrangements. They also handled his raiment and questioned him concerning his ornaments in a manner that would have been quickly resented had the red man treated them so.

We saw three or four young men intruding on some sort of a pow-wow in one of the larger lodges, to the evident dislike of the brave who stood by the door. Rattlesnake Pete who was a deputy United States marshal, unceremoniously dragged them forth.

The Congress was even a greater event to the red men than to the white: few of them had ever seen large crowds of white men, and the throngs at the Congress and at the Exposition were a revelation to most of them, they having heretofore known the white man only as hunter, soldier, cowboy, and ranchman. Geronimo said that since coming to Omaha he had learned that the white men were more numerous than the blades of grass on the prairies; that he had seen more on this trip than there were Indians in existence. He used to think that those down his way were all there were, and that it would be no great job to wipe the white men off the face of the earth. There were many like him, and could the congress have been held a quarter of a century earlier there would have been fewer Indian wars.

Thus the gathering of the members of so many tribes who had cherished

Τ

"In their hearts the feuds of ages,

The ancestral thirst for vengeance"

was good for "the warriors of the nations," and they all foregathered and buried the hatchet, save that the Chippewas would not meet the friendly advances of their ancient enemies, the Sioux.

When the snow and cold weather came in October, the southern Indians became restless; there were no more battles or dances, and they longed for their own warm country, toward which they soon turned their faces. Then the tepees of the other tribes came down; the poles and coverings were rolled up; there was a descent upon the Omaha trunk-dealers that soon made a corner in the trunk-market; and with new blankets and underwear from the Indian Bureau the "tribes of men" went back to their reservations. We longed to follow them there, -to sit before · the lodge fires, while the winter blasts howled outside; to listen to their Iliads, and to their wonderful tales of their doings and seeings at the white man's magic city. We longed for a new Longfellow to go with them and bring back the Song of Geronimo.

HE people say "Yes;" the owner of franchises say "No." And the result is a stubborn fight for the supremacy wherever the issue is raised.

Taxation is a subject upon which the people of this country have always been peculiarly sensitive, and every proposition to bring any new line of property under the workings of the tax laws, or to increase in any degree the amounts to be levied upon or collected from real estate or personal property, has been met with the most bitter opposition on the part of those more or less directly interested. Nor is this a matter for surprise. Constituted as all men are, we shall always see the spirit of antagonism aroused whenever private interests are touched.

In the early history of our national life everything was free. Land was as free as the sea and the sky above the heads of our forefathers. The question of taxation had little bearing upon the economic life of our ancestors. The needs of the colonies were so small that they could be met without resorting to any but the

simplest forms of taxation. As the form of government, local and national, became more complex, and larger sums were required to meet increased expenditures, one class of property after another was placed upon the tax rolls until now it is a popular notion that every form of wealth should bear its due proportion of the taxes. Fierce fights have attended all these enlargements of the taxable list. It is fair to suppose that this will always be true. Human nature does not change very much from one generation to another. It is not likely that the time will ever come when men will meet their tax obligations without grumbling.

And so the attempt to tax franchises has been met with determined opposition on the part of their owners. In most States the progress made in the direction of bringing this kind of property upon the tax-list has been decidedly slow.

There can be but little doubt that in many instances the people greatly overestimate the value of corporate wealth. This arises largely from the notion that