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Show THE BIG CHIEF'S LAMENT. From the Baltimore American. (The Commissioner of Indian Affairs recently issued an order compelling all male Indians to wear their hair cut short and prohibiting pro-hibiting them from painting their faces.) Then arose the Indian Chieftian, Man-Who-Straightened-up-His-Bowlegs, And remarked in-tones of sorrow: "We are up against the white man. We are up against him, surely; And we may not bounce back from him, For he has us by the scalplock, Also by the neck, my hearers; Weep, ye striped and spotted Indians, Weep, ye squaws bedaubed with ochre, For the white man has commanded That we start to civilizing; And we may not punt our faces; Nor permit our hair to wander U wn our backs as in the old days; Nor may we put on the blanket, Which is fine with red and yellow; But all through the coming future Through the future that is coming, Through the soon-to-be-here future We must garb us like the white man, And must lead the white existence. Listen to me now, my children. For I've been among the white men Been beside the mighty paleface, Been within his noble tepee, Been where I could get next to him And I'll tell you what is coming, What we've got to set our minds to; We must wear the funny garments That the white man has affected. Aye! The bobtailed coat we'll put on, And the trousers rolled at bottom; And 'the hat with brim so curly; And the socks so fire-alarmish; And the shirts fresh from the boiling. And the only decoration That may be put on our faces Is the style the merry white man Calls the slinging of the nose-paint. And our squaws must wear the straight-front, Like the paleface sisters wear it; And the pull-back and the golf skirt; And the bonnet made in Paris, Which is worth a thousand ponies. But the squaws may not use powder, Nor the rouging for their faces, Lest they wish to be mistaken For the ladies of the ballet, Or the ones of the four hundred. And we'll have to live in houses, Where they have the modern plumbin'g, And the pipes are always freezing, And the cooks are ever bossing. Wow! Besides all this the white man Says we'll have to cut our hair off. Think of that, my ruddy children-Think children-Think of going round baldheaded, And applying hair restorer Like the too confiding white man-Have man-Have the billiard ball resembling Cranial top-piece of the paleface! i; i HPNWBHSiBSsaBSBSBBBSSBl Oh, myt copper tinted offspring, m9H8H This is too much for the old 1aMliB For I see coming to us, v JnmBHHH And I see the day approaching " "msSSBHM When they'll find the bold b&cittlRHHHH And the germ and frisky miCXjaHBR In tne dog soup we are etta4UfJilHHHHHH And will try to disinfect us, ''HH Try to make us sanitary. 'nHSBlHH Let the white man hug his trtffljBlKBHBsHHMHtB Let the white man keep hh lMHHLHHiRffi As for me, I pass the deal mBBSBKBMB And I take me to the warpajHgSSMBHB Thus remarked the liMHMHHHIHHHHH Man-Who-Straightened-mHHHHHHgH |