Ocean to Ocean on Horseback: Being the Story of a Tour in the Saddle from the Atlantic to the Pacific; with Especial Reference to the Early History and Development of Cities and Towns Along the Route; and Regions Traversed Beyond the Mississippi; Together with Incidents, Anecdotes and Adventures of the JourneyGlazier, Willard W.
History
Ocean to Ocean on Horseback: Being the Story of a Tour in the Saddle from the Atlantic to the Pacific; with Especial Reference to the Early History and Development of Cities and Towns Along the Route; and Regions Traversed Beyond the Mississippi; Together with Incidents, Anecdotes and Adventures of the Journey
Glazier, Willard W.
United States -- Description and travel
One of my favorite haunts here is the quiet, carpetless "Historical
Rooms," from whose walls the Indian warriors who helped make Buffalo's
history look down in unchanging stolidity. Not least among these is Red
Jacket, who forms such a striking figure in the city's traditions. An
amusing incident which his picture recalls is that of Lafayette on his
return from his Western tour in 1824. Among the preparations that were
being made for his reception was the guarding, by an especial committee,
of their "aboriginal lion," who was a trifle too fond of his "firewater"
and who was to be the leading orator of the day. When the appointed time
arrived, so the story goes, the sachem was led upon the platform in all
his conscious dignity. A long conversation between him and the great
Frenchman followed, through an interpreter, whom Red Jacket employed
upon formal occasions; in the course of which the Indian complimented
the General upon his youthful appearance. "Time has left you a fresh
countenance, and hair to cover your head," said he, "while as for
me--see!" and he took off the scarf that was wound about his own bald
crown. This provoked a laugh among the spectators who knew that
Lafayette wore a wig. When Red Jacket was made aware of the fact, he
added with ready wit that he too might supply himself with a new head
of hair by the aid of a scalping-knife!
Everything upon the walls and in the cases has been donated by private
individuals, as the society has not yet been able to make valuable
purchases, but there is enough already to make this treasure-house of
the past interesting. Relics from pioneer times figure largely; among
the rest, arrow-heads and tomahawks, pipes and belts of wampum, adding
to the odd collection, and suggesting all manner of horrors to those who
delight in Indian history.
"Forest Lawn," the place which Buffalo has selected for her dead, is a
most lovely spot, the loveliest of its kind between Brooklyn's Greenwood
and Chicago. Everything that art could do in the arrangement of shrub
and flower has been added, and stands as a tribute to those who are
"lying low" and as a witness to the faithful thought of the living. It
is only one of the beautiful tokens of devotion which one sees, from the
simple epitaph in a country graveyard in the East to the solitary
resting-place, high in some tree-top of the West, where our Red Brother
"sleeps his last sleep."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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