Show why wooden indians are rapidly disappearing ITrAS ASHINGTON HINGTON not otten often Is it now that one meets a wooden indian on W W the streets of dashington asli ington one more frequently meets the real indian who ila lias has come from Oela oklahoma borna or montini L or some come other far to lodek lodai a complaint at washington against something Bom ething or somebody it was not IT I 1 ATE I 1 I 1 vcr acri long ago that a wooden indian im M td or a pair of wooden indians was a important to a tobacco store as reci rec ind nd green I 1 gais in a drug store WID dov doi or abole a pole striped red and white or red and blue in front of a barbers barber s rimes hano hae not gone well ell with the wooden indian and about two sears ago the writer made a ceniu of 0 them in and after cin chinng ng all tho the principal streets from the file aher front to the boundary and from foundry branch to ih ch alstern brinch he did not find enough to fur nish fuel tor for a respect ibie council fire they had become nearly extinct the had not gone to happy hunting ground but had been oth otherwise erNise dis posed of hie owner of the big indian which stood tor for uncounted years ears at the northwest corner of 0 ninth and D streets northwest told the ariter that the tobacco trust slew the wooden indian at first it was believed by b men who ho sold tobacco that a wooden indian was a partner in the business that he be was a mascot and that without him no customers would enter about the time that the various tobacco companies belan to merge the set the fashion ol of huge lithographs and these were inere of 0 actresses and actors and not of 0 some borne of the new stores opened without setting up a wooden indian then the police regulations began to interfere with wooden indians who loitered on the side sidewalk talk the seemed to get on the neres of the police in the first place the obstructed the pavement paiement they the held out bunches ol of wooden cigars as though they would halt passersby they alo carried knees and tomahawks and although they did not carry concealed weapons they made a menacing display of deadly xe weapons apons there Is no record that the wooden indian ever hurt abbod an bod but the police commanded him to move on or get off the earth or something like that when the wooden indians that still hung about the city began to split and crack and to lose their paint their owners took them in in some cases it is said thu that the were thrown in the c ellar cellar and at length split up for kindling to feed the fire around which men gathered on winter inter evenings to discuss baseball prospects for next season |