The Indians could have overwhelmed the rest of the force, but feeling they had taught the white man a lesson in fair play, they drew off. But the ones who bore the brunt of the punishment by paying the extreme penalty, were innocent soldiers, who had had nothing to do with the cause of the fight. The instigators were walking the eastern streets crying for an investigation. And how the affair was investigated! After reams of testimony had been taken down, and much money expended, it was found that we had sent a pigmy out barehanded to fight a giant. The result? True to form. Would we have been a little more decent, had we spent more on soldiers beforehand and less on testimony afterward? If we had, it’s quite possible we wouldn’t have needed the testimony. For it’s an accepted fact that had we had ten thousand trained men for the Sioux alone, placed in some conspicuous spot, the Custer fight would never have been. The Indian would have been too wary. He always was. And many another fight would not have taken place, as we’ll see. Going back over the true events of these times, are we made to wonder whether we really do care about human life? We talk a lot about it. Is it another starched sham? _X_ MORE FIDDLING Abraham Lincoln one afternoon sat listening to the members of a committee arguing. The next day he heard them arguing _more_ without arriving anywhere. In a pause, he said, “I am reminded of old Zeke Williams out in my home town. Zeke was the finest rifle shot with his Brown Bess in those parts. One day he took his young son out hunting with him. They approached a tree. Said Zeke, ‘Boy, shake that ’ar tree. They’s a squirrel in it.’ The lad shook the tree, the father blazed away, but nothing happened. Said Zeke, ‘Shake that ’ar tree agin.’ The boy obeyed. The father blazed away and _still_ nothing happened. The father brought his gun down from his shoulder and almost wept as he said, ‘I must be gettin’ old. I can’t hit ’em no more.’ The son was very sorry for his father. So he went and looked the tree all over. Seeing no sign of a squirrel, he came over to his father and gazed intently into the old man’s face. ‘Why pap,’ exclaimed the boy, ‘That ’ar ain’t no squirrel in the tree. That ’ar a _louse_ on your eyebrow’.”