26

WILD WEST

FAIR MAIDENS FROM MANY TRIBES

the hard-working squaw are as much to her as are the caprices of fashion to the society leader; and in illustrating the various types, tribes and customs of both sides of the earth, women of these races play an important and essential part in our grand and inspiring panorama of civilization.

These feminine representatives of their tribes and races display their skill as equestriennes, illustrate the share they have in camp life and are seen in various examples of agility and expertness in necromancy.

No matter what may be one's opinion of the Indian warrior, no matter what his barbaric instincts and warlike disposition may have aroused of resentment and bitterness in the hearts of his white brother, no one can read the beautiful poem of "Hiawatha," in which Longfellow immortalized the Indian woman, without at least partially exempting her from the sweeping denunciations which may be hurled at the head of "the noble redman." There have been love stories and heroines of fact and fiction countless in numbers, but no more impelling romance, no deeper "heart interest" and no more fantastic legend has ever been recorded than the sad, sweet story of Longfellow's Indian maid. The women of the Wild West and Great Far East comprise representatives of many nations; but little "Arrow Head" is the belle of the lot. The buxom and swarthy senorita from Mexico, the carefree and healthy queens of the Western prairies, and the olive-skinned representatives of Oriental beauty, are here assembled in a congress of feminine loveliness; each one idol of some manly heart, each one a beauty in somebody's eyes. In an exhibition so comprehensive and world wide as the Great Far East and Wild West, womankind holds her own important part. The domestic cares of

28