64

58
ably, being feasted and feted by the inhabitants, whose esteem they gained to such an extent that their departure was marked by a general holiday, assisting hands, and such public demonstrations of regret that many a rude cow-boy when once again carreering o'er the pampas of Texas will rest his weary steed while memory reverts back to the pleasant days and whole-souled friendships cemented at the foot of the Vosges mountains in disputed Alsace- Lorraine.
In Alsace-Lorraine! whose anomalous position menaces the peace, not only of the two countries intersted, but of the civilized world ; whose situation make it intensely---even sadly--interesting, as the theatre of that future human tragedy for which the ear of mankind strains day and night, listening for detonations from the muzzies of the acme of invented mechanism of destruction. The lurid-garbed Angel of Devastation hovers, careering through the atmosphere of the seemingly doomed valley, gaily laughing, shrieking exultantly at the white-robed Angel of Peace, as the latter gloomily wanders---prayerful, tearful--hopelessly hunting, ceaselessly seeking the return of modern man's boasted newly-created gods : Equity, Justice, Reason !
What a field for the vaunted champions of humanity, the leaders of civilization ! What a neighborhood wherein to sow the seeds of " peace on earth and good will to all men!" What a crucible for the universal panacea--Arbitration ! What a test of the efficacy of prayer in damming up the conficting torents of Ambition, Cupidity, Passion, and Revenge, which threaten to color crimson the swift currents of the Rhine, until its renown as the home of wealth and luxury be eclipsed by eternal notoriety as the Valley of Death !
Leaving the temporary colony under the charge of his director partner, MR.
SALSBURY (whose energy found occupation in attending to the details of the future)
Cody, the indians, and your humble servant departed to America, arriving safely ; and after refuting satisfactorily, by the indians themselves, the base slanders that emanated in the imagination of notriety-seeking busybodies, procceded to the seat of the Indian difficulties in the distant State of Dakota. The splendid action of the traveled Indians, and the records of the Wild West's repersentatives on the spot, in the mutual interests of an excusably excited (and, to a certain extent, unitentionally wronged, yet headstrong and misguided) warlike pepole, and of the governmental authority, as well as of the peaceful solution of a serious situation, has been a matter of journalistic comment so recently as to need no reference Government.
After a short, bloody and mixed campaign, peace was restored, the Government authority was secured, and a selected band of Indians---composed equally of the "active friendly, " and the "band of hostages" held by the military under Gen. Nelson A. Miles, at Fort Sheridan, amd headed by the redoubtable " SHORT BULL," "KICKING BEAR," " LONE BULI.," "SCATTRE," AND "REVENGE."---were given special permission to come with "BUFFALO BULL." for a short European tour, and left Philadelphia in the chartered Red Star Steamer Switzerland. The significance of this fact should still forever the forked tongue of the human serpents, who, without rhyme, truth, or reason, have tried to stain a fair record---which has been jusly earned, and by its very prominence, perhaps, difficult to maintain.
Coming direct from the snow-capped hills and blood stained valleys of the Mawaise Terre of last winter's central point of interest, it cannot be denied that added chapter to Indian history, and the Wild West's peculair province of truthfally exhibiting the same, is rendered more valuable to the studnet of primitive man, and to the ethologists' acquanitance with the strange pepole whose grand and once happy empire ( plethoric in all its inhabitant needed) has been (rightfully or wrongfully) brought thoroghly and efficently under the control of our civilization, or (possibly more ccandidly confessed) under the Anglo-Saxon's commercial necessisties. It occurs to the writer that our boasted civilization has a wonderful adaptability to the good soils, the productive portion and the rich mineral land of the earth, while making snail-like pace and intermittent efforts among the frigid haunts of the Esquimaux, the tangled swamps of Africa, and the bleak and dreary rocks of Patagonia.
A sentimental view is thus inspired, when long personal assocation has brought the better qualities of Indain to one's notice, assisting somewhat to dispel the prejudices engendered by years of savage, brutal wars (conducted with a ferocious vindictiveness foreign to out method). The savageness of Indian warfare, born in the victim, and probably intensified by the instinctive knowledge of a despairing weakness, renders desperate the fiery spirit of expiring resistance, which latter(in another cause) might be held up for courage and tenacity as bright as that recorded in the pages dedicated to the heroes of Thermopylae.