Birds and Nature, Vol. 10 No. 1 [June 1901]Various
History
Birds and Nature, Vol. 10 No. 1 [June 1901]
Various
Birds -- Periodicals; Natural history -- Periodicals
The value of the Buffalo to the Indian’s welfare can be shown in no
better way than by quoting the words of Captain Butler. “‘What shall we
do?’ said a young Sioux warrior to an American officer on the Upper
Missouri. ‘What shall we do? The Buffalo is our only friend. When he
goes, all is over with the red man. I speak thus to you because, like
me, you are a brave.’ It was little wonder that he called the Buffalo
his only friend. Its skin gave him a house, its robe a blanket and a
bed, its undressed hide a boat, its short, curved horn a powder-flask,
its meat his daily food, its sinew a string for his bow, its leather a
lariat for his horse, a saddle, bridle, rein and bit. Its tail formed an
ornament for his tent, its inner skin a book on which to sketch the
brave deeds of his life, the medicine robe of his history. House, boat,
food, bed and covering, every want from infancy to age and after life
had passed; wrapped in his Buffalo robe the red man waited for the
dawn.”
MR. CHAT, THE PUNCHINELLO.
A TRUE STORY.
If Mr. Chat were an ordinary performer he would doubtless select a spot
in the center of the village square; he would put up his little stage
and his drop-curtain and would send small boys all through the village
with his flaming posters:
ATTENTION, EVERY ONE!
This Afternoon—in the Village Square
At Two O’clock,
Mr. Yellow-Breasted Chat will give one of his
REMARKABLE PERFORMANCES
Mr. Chat is acknowledged by all to be the best imitator, the most gifted
singer, the finest elocutionist, the cleverest ventriloquist, the
greatest athlete in all bird-dom.
MR. CHAT
Orator, Singer, Gymnast and Punchinello!
Don’t fail to see him!
and by two o’clock the village square would be alive with people, and
after the show the dimes would rattle into the hat and no one would go
away disappointed, as Mr. Chat’s poster would be nearer the truth than
most posters of its kind.
All this if Mr. Chat were an ordinary performer, but he is not. His
performance is so far ahead of anything that was ever advertised on a
poster, that there are not dimes enough in all the world to buy it. You
may set a day for him and invite all your friends, or you may take your
friends and go seek him in his own haunts; you may try to coax, hire,
threaten; you may do everything in your power; but Mr. Chat is a happy
creature of inspiration, and makes dates with nobody.
When he will, he will—
You may depend on’t;
And when he won’t, he won’t—
And there’s an end on’t!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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