"Great renovator of the human race! Great cleanser of the human face! Thy potent art removes each stain From dirtiest mortal on this sphere mundane. 'Tis sad to think thy mystic spell Can't penetrate within the shell, And to a soiled, perverted heart Cleanliness and purity impart. Thy subtle essence, heretofore confined In bars of Windsor toilet cakes refined; In Colgate's honey for the barber's brush, And shapeless masses much resembling slush, Has now, according to our evening sheet, Been found in ledges, known as "_feet_." To use the language of the _Post_, in fine, The great _Appeal_ has found a mine; And having now much soap to spare, Soaps governors--sheriffs--ladies fair. How sad it is, with all this soap, To know there's not the slightest hope If all the Chinamen in town Should wash it up and wash it down, And scrub 'till it gave up the ghost, Of making clean the _Evening Post_." The effect of my shot was equal to a thirteen-inch shell in the camp of the enemy. The whole community laughed, and the _Post_ left me studiously alone until the new editor came and relieved me. I had lots of fun out of the experiment, besides getting the magnificent compensation of twenty dollars a week for my services. I also had the gratification of knowing that the exciting question of "Who edits the _Appeal_?" remained unanswered until I answered it myself. THE INK-PA-DU-TA WAR. All old settlers will remember what in the history of Minnesota is known as "The Ink-pa-du-ta War." It occurred in 1857, and, briefly described, was something like the following: Near the northwest corner of the State of Iowa, in the county of Dickinson, and near the southwest corner of the State of Minnesota, in the county of Jackson, there are two large and very beautiful lakes, called Spirit lake and Lake Okoboji. The country about these lakes is surpassingly beautiful and fruitful, and naturally attracted settlers in a very early day. In 1855 and 1857 a few families settled on a small river which heads in Minnesota and flows southward into Iowa, called in English Rock river, and in Sioux In-yan-yan-ke. In 1856 Hon. William Freeborn of Red Wing, Minn., started a settlement at Spirit lake, and near the same time another location was made about ten or fifteen miles north of Spirit lake, and called Springfield. There was a small band of Indians, numbering ten or fifteen lodges, under the chieftainship of Ink-pa-du-ta, or the "Scarlet Point," which had for long years frequented the region of the Vermillion river, and although Sioux, they had become separated from the bands that made treaties with the United States in 1851, and were regarded as outlaws and vagabonds. This band had planted in the neighborhood of Spirit lake prior to 1857, and ranged the country from there to the Missouri.