Atlantic Coast (U.S.) -- Description and travel -- Fiction
There was nothing of this incongruity between this band of Tuscaroras
and their occupation. Unaccustomed to associate the North American
Indian with music, the traveler at once sees the natural relation of
the Indians with the brass band. These Tuscaroras were stalwart fellows,
broad-faced, big-limbed, serious, and they carried themselves with a
clumsy but impressive dignity. There was no uniformity in their apparel,
yet each one wore some portion of a martial and resplendent dress--an
ornamented kepi, or a scarlet sash, or big golden epaulets, or a
military coat braided with yellow. The leader, who was a giant,
and carried the smallest instrument, outshone all the others in his
incongruous splendor. No sooner had they found seats at one end of the
car than they unlimbered, and began through their various reluctant
instruments to deploy a tune. Although the tune did not get well
into line, the effect was marvelous. The car was instantly filled to
bursting. Miss Lamont, who was reading at the other end of the car, gave
a nervous start, and looked up in alarm. King and Forbes promptly opened
windows, but this gave little relief. The trombone pumped and growled,
the trumpet blared, the big brass instrument with a calyx like the
monstrous tropical water-lily quivered and howled, and the drum, banging
into the discord, smashed every tympanum in the car. The Indians looked
pleased. No sooner had they broken one tune into fragments than they
took up another, and the car roared and rattled and jarred all the
way to the lonely station where the band debarked, and was last seen
convoying a straggling Odd-Fellows' picnic down a country road.
The incident, trivial in itself, gave rise to serious reflections
touching the capacity and use of the red man in modern life. Here is a
peaceful outlet for all his wild instincts. Let the government turn all
the hostiles on the frontier into brass bands, and we shall hear no more
of the Indian question.
The railway along the shore of Lake Ontario is for the most part
monotonous. After leaving the picturesque highlands about Lewiston, the
country is flat, and although the view over the lovely sheet of blue
water is always pleasing, there is something bleak even in summer in
this vast level expanse from which the timber has been cut away. It may
have been mere fancy, but to the tourists the air seemed thin, and the
scene, artistically speaking, was cold and colorless. With every desire
to do justice to the pretty town of Oswego, which lies on a gentle slope
by the lake, it had to them an out-of-doors, unprotected, remote aspect.
Seen from the station, it did not appear what it is, the handsomest city
on Lake Ontario, with the largest starch factory in the world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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