Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians in England, France, and Belgium; Vol. 2 (of 2): being Notes of Eight Years' Travels and Residence in Europe with his North American Indian CollectionCatlin, George
History
Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians in England, France, and Belgium; Vol. 2 (of 2): being Notes of Eight Years' Travels and Residence in Europe with his North American Indian Collection
Catlin, George
England -- Description and travel; France -- Description and travel; Indians of North America
he believed that these were the principal causes of the great number
of the poor little deserted and parentless babes they had seen in the
hospital where they had been.
The hour for the exhibition arriving, the conversation about Paris
morals and religion was broken suddenly off, and perhaps at a good
time. There were great crowds now daily attending their amusements,
and generally applauding enthusiastically, and making the Indians
occasional presents. On this occasion the Doctor had made a tremendous
boast in the part he was taking in the eagle-dance, for the spirit of
which the audience, and particularly the ladies, gave him a great deal
of applause, so much so that at the end of the dance his vanity called
him out in an off-hand speech about the beauty of the city, &c., and,
it being less energetic than the boasts he had just been strutting
out, failed to draw forth the applause he was so confidently depending
on. He tried sentence after sentence, and, stopping to listen, all
were silent. This perplexed and disappointed the Doctor very much, and
still he went on, and at length stopped and sat down, admired, but not
applauded. His friend Jim was laughing at him as he took his seat, and
telling him that if he had barked like a little dog the ladies would
have been sure to applaud. To this the Doctor said, "You had better try
yourself:" upon which the daring Jim, who professed never to refuse
any challenge, sprang upon his feet, and, advancing to the edge of
the platform, stood braced out with his brows knitting, and his eyes
"in a frenzy rolling," for full two minutes before he began. He then
thrust his lance forward in his right hand as far as he could dart it
over the heads of the audience, and, coming back to his balance again,
he commenced. Of his speech no report was made, but it was short and
confined to three or four brief sentences, at the end of which he
looked around with the most doleful expression to catch the applause,
but there was none. The old Doctor was watching him close, and telling
him he had better sit down.
In this dilemma he was still standing after all his good ideas had been
spent, and each instant, as he continued to stand, making his case
worse, he turned upon his heel, and as he was turning around he added,
in an irritated manner, this amusing sentence: "You had better go and
see the industrious fleas, and then you will applaud!" This made a
great laugh amongst the Indians, but of course it was not translated to
the audience. He then took his seat, looking exceedingly sober, and,
with his pipe, was soon almost lost sight of in the columns of smoke
that were rising around him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account