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Show INDIANS IN A BIG HOTEL. Standing Bear and His Companions Startled Star-tled by an Elevator Trip. San Francisco Newsletter. Grim old Chief Standing Bear of the Sioux, Black Eagle, Lost Horse and the restof them had some experience on their arrival at San Francisco that made them more stoical than ever. As they stepped into the Baldwin Tuesday night, feathers awry and vermilion on their faces, they were at once conducted to the elevator, as Clerk Herdenburgh had assigned them to rooms on the fourth floor. The elevator door . slammed and the lift proceeded pro-ceeded to get in its work. Then it was that the eyes of every individual Indian started from "their sockets. The savages gave some big gasps and held their hands over thei belts. Not a groan escaped them, but it was plain that they were as near surprised as Indians In-dians could be. Chadun, thirty miles from Pine Ridge, having been the biggest town they had beeu familiar with, the elevator system was new to them and they let it be known that they were not positive as to the safety of the "house which went up and down in the air," the first they had seen. When the chieftains got ready to go to bed they examined the mattresses and the pillows critically, and finally concluded that it was utterly impossible to sleep upon them. So, after throwing open every window till thtt nicrVit. tirppiPR rtlnved Altrmt lib j a urh i.l yie nignt oreezes piayea aooui use a wnirl-wind, wnirl-wind, they dismantled completely the bedsteads, bed-steads, stacked up the mattresses, pillows and coverlets against the walls, and then, wrapping themselves only in the blankets, retired on the floor to be comfortable. Next morning when they went in to breakfast break-fast the. waiters showed them the bills of fare. Each warrior scanned his carefully and seemed to be lost in thought. "Give us plenty meat, coffee, bread," at last said old Standing Bear. "These make Indian fat. He want nothing else." Plenty of each was brought, and the red men, discarding dis-carding knives and forks, sailed in with their fingers. The programme has been pretty much the same ever since. A book could be written about Standing Bear. Only allusions have thus far been made to him in any of the dailies. Properly speaking he is not a Sioux, but a Northern Cheyenne. With Crazy Horse, Hunting Hog and .Old Chief Gall he has been at the head of nearly all the notable Indian wars for twenty years. He routed the Pawnees and once killed ten white men in a lonesome canyon single-handed. On another occasion he defied and defeated alone thirty cavalrymen. It was Standing Bear who, under Sitting Bull, routed the United States forces when Custer died on the Little Big Horn. - - - . |