Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Corvallis gazette. (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 20, 1885)
A DISTANT PEOPLE. Strange Characteristics of the Terra del Fuego Indian The Woman's Lore for Tobacco. TheTerre del Fuego Indians, the ugliest mortals that ever breathed, are always on the lookout for passing ves sels, and come out in canoes to beg and to trade skins for tobacco, writes a correspondent to Tie New York Sun. The Fuegians, or "Canoe Indians," as they are commonly called, to distin guish them from the Patagonians, who dislike the water and prefer to navi gate on horseback, have no settled habitation. They are a simple people, with a dirty and bloated appearance and faces that would scare a mule. They have broad features, low fore heads over which the hair hangs in iangled lumps, high cheek-bones, flat noses, enormous chins and jaws, and mouths like a crocodile, with teeth that add to their repulsiveness. Their skin is said to be of a copper color. They are short in stature, round shoul dered, squatty, and bloated, a physical deformity said to be due to the fact that most of tbeir lives are spent in canoes. The women are even more re pulsive in their appearaBce than the men, and the children, which are un commonly numerous, look like young baboons. Their intelligence seems to be confined to a knowledge of boating and fishing, and they exercise great skill in both pursuits. Scientists who have investigated them say that they ire the very lowest order of human kind, many degrees below the Digger Indians. Although these people live m a per petual Winter, where it freezes every aight and always snows when the elouds shed moisture, they go almost stark naked! The skin of the otter md guanaco are used for blankets, which are worn about the shoulders and afford some protection; but under these neither women nor men wear anything whatevei, except shoes and leggings made of the same material, which protect the feet from the rocks. There is some little attempt at adorn ment made by both sexes in the way of necklaces, bracelets, and earrings made of fish bones and sea shells, which are often ingeniously joined to gether. The women will sell the skin blankets that cover their back for to bacco, standing, meantime, as nude as i statue of Venus! Their food consists of mussels, fish, ea animals, and flesh of similar sorts, which they catch with the rudest sort jf implements. Their fishing lines are made of grass and their hooks of fish bones. For weapons they have bows ind spears, the former having strings made of the entrails of animals, and he latter being long, slender poles, with tips of sharpened bone. They ilso use slings with great dexterity, which are made of woven grass, and ire said to bring down animals at long range. During the day they are always on She water, in canoes or dugouts made f the trunks of trees, the whole fam Jy going together, and usually con iisting of a man, two or three wives, ind as many urchins as can be crowd sd into the boat. When night falls :hey go ashore and build a lire upon me rocks to temper the frigid atmos phere. Around this they cuddle in a most affectionate way. The name of ;he islands upon which they live came Irom these fires. The early naviga tors when passing through the straits, were amazed to see these fires spring ip as if by magic all over the islands jvery night at sundown, and so they sailed them Terra del Fuego, or the (and of fire. The English shorten the ippellation, and thus the place is tnown as Fireland. No one has ever been able to ascer tain whether they possess any sort of religious belief or have religious cere monies. Across the straits the Pata- ronians, or horse Indians, are of a Higher order of creation and perform lacred rites to propitiate the evil and rood spirits, in which, like the North American savages, they believe, but ;he Fuegians are too degraded to con ;emplate anything but the necessity f ministering to their passions and ippetites. They eat fish and flesh un ;ooked, and appreciate as dainties the east attractive morsels. Their lan juage is an irregular and meaningless vargon, apparently derived from the Patagonians, with whom they were, tome time in the distant past, con aected. Bishop Sterling, of the Dhurch of England, a devoted and inergetic man, who has charge of missionary work in South America, with headquarters on the Falkland islands, has made some attempt to jenefit these creatures, but with no great success. He has a little ichooner in which he sails around, ind has succeeded in ingratiating limsolf among the Fuegians by giving ;hem presents of beads and twine, slankets and clothing. They use the Srst for ornaments, the second for ishing gear, bat trade off the Hher things for rum and to jacco the first chance they get. As long as his gifts hold out ho will be cindly received, no doubt, and his de ration meet with encouragement, but i he should land among them without ;he usual plunder they would proba bly kill him at breakfast time and pick his ribs for lunch. Toward the Atlantic coast the savages are of a higher order, and the bishop has established a missionary station in a little town in which they live. Hi! assistants have succeeded in persuad ing the inhabitants of this village to wear clothing and run a primary school, from which much good maj come. Secrets of the .Barroom. "Whisky-drinking is increasing im mensely now," said the head bar keeper of an up-tpwu hotel a few nights ago, "although our custom has not increased materially. It seems to me that mixed drinks have had their day as far as popularity is concerned. Of course it will always be necessary to make the concoctions that have made the American bar famous all over the world, but I doubt if there will ever be such a run on them as there was five or six years ago. In those days a party of men would walk in here, lean against the bar, and one would order a brandy cocktail, another a sherry flip, the next a gin and worm wood bracer, the fourth a fizz, and the other frozen absinthe with bitters. It seemed to be a matter of pride with hard drinking crowds and hard drinkers usually travel together, you know to change their drinks often. They took a great interest in the mix ing of the drinks, and usually watched the operation closoly. Most of them could tell the instant the drink touched their lips if there was a single drop ol bitters too much. "In those days a bartender had to work harder than he does now, and his skill brought him great credit. He was in constant practice, and a good deal more skillful than now. I had to make cocktails every morning for at least twenty men. They never thought of breakfasting before coming to see me. It would have been a good deal bet ter for them if they'd staid away. I'm a drinking man myself, but I wouldn't touch liquor before breakfast for big money. Nothing knocks a man so soon as that, and do you know how I've found it out?" "By experience, I suppose." "Not by my own experience, but by looking at the twenty-odd guests in this house for whom I have been mak ing cocktails for years." He was a typical modern barten der, quick, respectful, with close clipped hair and graceful mustache, dexterous white hands, and irre proachably neat attire. All of the men under him had the same charac teristics. He told the writer once that he discharged the best bartender that he had ever had because that young man twirled his mustache while at work. It was his theory that cus tomers did not care to have drinks mixed by a man who did that. "What I started to say, continued the head bartender, coming back to the end of the bar after serving some favorite customers, "was that whisky is gradually becoming the staple drink. Drinkers are quick to learn the difference between good and bad whisky, and they've got over the craze for mixed drinks and settled down to stoady whisky-drinkers. I've noticed it narticularlv this summer, when many of our patrons gave up the perspiration-starting so-called summer drinks and kept on with whisky. No particular brand is now in demand, because there are so many good brands. They have all improved, be cause drinkers will have none but the best, and poor stuff is not profitable." "What about the popularity of beer?" The bartender's face lighted up with sudden interest, and he looked cau tiously around. Then he said in a lower voice, as though revealing a stale secret of great importance : "You know me, and you know that I have an honest liking for my busi ness. Well, what' 11 you say when I tell you that beer drinkers are having it played on them in the lowest style of the art? It's a fact that can bo proved without an effort. The bars now have no such thing as an assort ment or choice of beers. You must take what they offer. And what do they offer? They give you the beer that pays them best. It isn't a matter of excellence at all. The brewers all go to the saloon-keepers and bid for their custom. The brewer that pays the most gets it. What's the result? In half the bars of upper New York beer is forced on men who do not like its flavor or weight. More than that, it's not good beer. You hear me? Well, ventilate the subject in the interests of drinking men. Ventilate it." New York Sun. A Business With Her. A careful housewife, upon entering her kitchen said to the colored cook. "Great goodness, Jane, you must be more carefuL You are not clean enough in your cooking." "Lady," replied the cook as she took up a piece of beef that had fallen on the floor. "1 sees dat yer's gwine ter ack foolish wid me. Ain't yer got nothin' ter do 'cept ter fool roun' out heah?" "It's my business to come out here occasionally." 'All right den, hab it yer own way, but I wanter say one thing: Ef yer wants ter 'joy yesse'f at de table an' eat wid er 'comm' apertite yer'd bet ter stay outen dis kitchen. Yas," she added as she wiped a dish with a dirty rag, "Yer'd better not nose roun' heah, fur cookin' is er bus'ness wid me an' when or pusson is 'gaged in business, foolishness is awful trouble some." Arkansaw Traveler. The Story of a Pioneer. Mr. George Simpson, the old Colo rado pioneer who died at Trinidad a few days since and was buried in a rock tomb on the top of a high mount ain, had seen many phrases of life. In his early days he had been a wan derer from a palatial home in St. Louis, and had mingled with the In dian tribes in the northwest far away from civilization. John McBrown, a ranchman on Bear creek, recently related an inter esting reminiscence to a reporter for The Denver Tribune-Republican con cerning Mr. Simpson: Mr. McBrown was in charge of the Commissary of the army of Capt. Marcey in the spring of 1858, when on its forced march from Taos to Utah to supply Gen. Albert Sidney Johnson's suffering soldiers with provisions. It camped on Cherry creekN and Mr. Simpson, attache of the command, then and there washed gold in his breadpan from the glittering sands of the stream. Said Mr. McBrown: "Away back in the early days, when the Missouri r'.ver was the westermost border of civilization, young Simpson left his home in St. Louis and wandered with I he, Indians out toward the waters of the Columbia rive I'. After a long ab seuce like the prodigal son he took it upon himself to return to his honie. He carried with him skins and furs from the Columbia with which to pay his fare down the Missouri on the steamer when he should arrive at that stream. This happened in the year in which the cholera first swept across the country. As the boat on which Simpson glided down the stream would approach a sand bar, he notic ed a line would be thrown out, made fast to some snag or tree, and then a couple of deck hands would jump upon the bar, shovel a little hole in the sand, pop ah Jinan being in it, cover it with a few inches of debris, and then the boat would move on as though nothing had happened. "Simpson made inquiry, and found these human bodies thus left for the crows and buzzards were the victims of cholera. No sooner had the infor mation flashed upon him, than he be gan to realize that he, too, was des tined to be dropped upon one of the sand-bars of the Great Muddy. He felt twinges of pain in his stomach, his feet and hands were becoming numb, and as he lay upon the deck, the death crew would occasionally slap him, to see if he was ready to be launched. At last he mustered strength, and called thecaptaintohim, and requested that, when he was dead, his body should be carried to his fath er, at St. Louis. " 'And who is your father?' inquired the captain, as he looked upon the dying man in buckskin and mocca sins. " 'My father is old Dr. Simpson, whom all the good people of St. Louis well know.' " '"Dr. Simpson?' said the captain, 'why he is my family physician. Your request shall be complied with.' "A few moments later the dying prodigal saw the deckhand crew bring a huge box filled with lumps of ice, which they placed by his side. The last that he remembered was seeing one of the grim and dusky crew, with his hands placed together so as to form a foot-span, measuring his body so as to ascertain if the corpse would fit the casket. Directly all was over. The prodigal was dead. "For a time the boat went creaking and groaning along over the sand-flats, when, miraculous as it was, young Simpson returned to life and began kicking the ice in all directions, and nearly frightened the wits out of the captain and all hands on board. "This was more than thirty years ago," said Mr. McBrown, "and Simp son not unfrequently related it, while sitting about the camp-fires, as his famous trip across the river Styx." Anecdote ot Lord Houghton. In the September number of Tlie Fortnigthly Review T. H. S. Escott, in an article on the late Lord Houghton, tells the following story: "Milncs was the most kindly, forgiving, toler ant, and indulgent of men. 'Hough con,' writes to me one who knew him well, 'with all his high gifts, had, like most really noble men, a good deal of the woman in his nature, not only of the gentle, the merciful woman, but also of the woman excelling man by her ready initiative, by her swift sa gacity transcendent of the reasoning process, and now and then by her nimble, her clever resort to a charm ing little bit of stage artifice. My laundress had come to me one day in floods of tears because her little boy of 11 years old, but looking, she said, much younger (being small of stat ure), had wandered off with another little boy of about the same age to a common near London, where they found an old mare grazing, lhe ur chins put a handkerchief in the mouth of the mare to serve for a bridle, got both of them on her back, and triumphantly rode her off, bat were committed to New rate for horse stealing! My laundress (not. wanting in means') took meas V C3 ' ures for having her child duly defend A hv counsel, but i though it croel that "the fate of the poor little boy should be resting on the chances of solemn trial, and I mentioned the matter to Milnes. He instantly gave the right counsel. "Tell your laund ress to take care that at the trial both the little boys both, mind shall ap pear m nice, clean pinafores." The effect, as my laundress described it to me, was like magic. The two little boys in their nice "pinafores" appear ed in the dock and smilingly gazed round the court. "What is the mean ing of this?" said the judge, who had read the depositions and now saw the "pinafores." "A case of horse-stealing, my lord." "Stuff and nonsense!" said the judge with indignation. "Horse-stealing, indeed! The boys stole a ride." Then the "pinafores" so sagaciously suggested by Milnes had almost an ovation in court, and all who had to do with the prosecution were made to suffer by the judge's indignant comment." It Always Chills. "Yes!" he shouted, as he took a closer look at the bulletin board, "the Puritan is ahead she wins she's got there." "That's good, chuckled a man at his side. "Good! Why, it's glorious! I want to yell at the top of my voice. Excuse mo while I go into the alley and give three cheers for the blessed old Yankee Doodle Puritan!" "Exactly; but I'd like to see you a" "Can't do it; got to shout or bust! Come on everybody who wants to cheer !" "I've got a little bill," calmly observ ed the other, as he passed it over. The enthusiast received it. It was a balance of $18 on account. The en thusiasm faded from his face in a sec ond, and his wild gestures suddenly ceased. "See to it next week," he growled as he moved away. "Say, ain't you going to shout?" called a boy after him. "Shout be hanged! Let the old Puritan win and be durned ! I don't go a cent on this infernal country no how !" And he savagely elbowed his way through the crowd and headed for home. Detroit Free Press. THE BOUMELfANE RVOlOTION. Not a Good Weight. "My friend," said a neighbor to a man who was giving his boy a severe thrashing, "why do you pound that boy so? Do you think it is right?" "Well sir, I do not care whether it is rig'at or Dot. I propose to make him mind, and increase his weight at the same time." "It may make him mind you, sir, but from the way you are taking his hide off him I should think that it would decrease his weight, wouldn't it?" "No sir." 'And why would it not?" 'Because, by pounding him suffi ciently, there is a possible chance for him to become a simple-ton. Na tional Weekly. AFrobability that the World Will Witness Further Carvine of Turkey. It is among the beliefs of Christian that nothing was made without a pur Dose. Turkey, for instance, was mad to be carved. Although the Turks not being Christians, may not harbo this comfortable belief, the history o European politics during much mop than half a century establishes conclu 3ively its verity. Peter and Fredericl carved and denounced poor Polani without inviting to the feast any o their neighbors, and perhaps it wa the completeness of their success tha caused the former to try his skill a h-jad carver upon Turkey. In that ex perlmenc, however, he was not sufferec to proceed without assistance, ant ever since then, at not very long inter vals, the business of carving Turke; has occupied the attention of all th "great powers" of Europe. Natural ly, there have been quarrels, bloodi and savage quarrels, among the carv ers for the savory cuts and succulen joints, and the head carver has not al ways had his way, but the outcome o every quarrel has been for Turkey on ly a new dismemberment. The mod ern kingdom of Greece, Albania, Ser via, Bosnia, Roumania, Bulgaria, ar among the dissevered fragments o what was, a century ago, the grea; Turkish empire. Egypt, also, is i fragment in another continent that ha been virtually severed in the long pro cess of extinguishing the Mosler power. Advices from the east point ver plainly to the probability that thi world is about to witness a furthe: carving of Turkey. The revolution ii the Balkan region means, and distinct ly proposes, the complete excision a the great province of Eastern Rou melia. But it is not alone the loss o Eastern Roumelia that now threaten; the "unspeakable Turk." It is sai( that he is preparing to recover that re volted province or, rather, to recove: his right under the treaty of Berlin tt extort money from it, which is aboir the extent of his practical dominioi over it, by force of arms. But if h is preparing to carry war to the nortl for the recovery of Eastern Roumelia the Macedonians are preparing t make war in the west for the sever ance of that great province. Thessaly also, is more than willing to secede and Greece is more than willing to re m Jnlio Romano Santos. Jnlio Santos, who recently passed through New Yor on his way to Washington to establish his claim to recognition as an American citizen, aas been interviewed by a reporter ot The New York Mail mid Express. In regard to his tribulations in Ecuador be says: I was born at Charapoto, Ecuador, 1852, of Ecuadorian parents. When a lad of 13 I left my native country for the United States, where I went to school, first at Woodbury, Md., afterward at Sing Sing, N. Y., and finally at Charlotteville, Albemarle sounty, Va., where I entered the Uni versity of Virginia. I pursued a full course of engineering studies at the university, and became assistant pro fessor of applied mathematics. In 1874 I presented myself before the court of Albemarle county and applied for letters of naturalization as a citi zen of the state, which were granted me on July 6 of the same year and a certified copy of which I now possess. After my naturalization I went to Ala bama, remaining at the Mobile Medi cal college for many months as profes sor of chemistry. In 1879 family af fairs drew me back to Ecuador, and I and my brothers entered into business as exporters at Bahia in 1882. All went well until the end of 1884. On the 15th of November of that year Gen. Eloy Alfaro raised the standard of revolt at Porto Viejo. The govern ment, however, acted promptly, and on the 5th of December quietness was restored. On the 9th I was pro ceeding up the River Dosagua to a Hacienda Retiro in a canoe with six men when we suddenly fell into an ambuscade of government troops. To my intense amazement we were at once ordered to stop, taken from our canoe, seized and bound. My pro tests were entirely disregarded. It was in vain I represented to my cap tors that I had been long on the most intimate terms with President Caa mano, that I had nothing whatever to do with the revolution, that I was a friend to good government and a peaceful citizen minding my own busi ness. I was told that I should have an opportunity of exculpating myself be fore a millitary tribunal. With my followers I was thrust into a damp and leaky shed on the river bank, where we passed the night on top of some salt bags and sacks of tagua. The next day we were removed on foot, still bound with ropes and strongly iut fhn Yn!nit of the nrinee of Bui garia by seconding the secession fron j guarded, to Dosagua, whence we pro- Turkey of all the Hellenic provinces At Athens a popular demonstratioi has taken place in favor of Greek in tervention in Macedonia, and the primi minister of King George declared to i deputation that "if events threatenec interference with the expansion o: Hellenic dominion, Greece is ready t intervene" a declaration that ma mean much, or nothing. Austria hai a carving-knife whetted for a couple o: convenient Turkish "dependencies,' and King Milan of Servia excitedly de clares that "Unless we are all going t ceeded on horseback to Rocafuente, from there to Charapoto and Babia. At night we were confined in the jails on the road. At Bahia we were given in charge of Col. Burbano, and were afterward handed over to Gen. Flores. The latter promised to try me by drum head court-martial and to execute me summarily unless I paid him $30,000. This I refused to do. 1 was then car ried, together with my brother and the owner of the Hacienda Retiro, on board of the man-of-war Nueve do Julio, and in her coal-bunkers we were confined for eight days, without light, harrassed by hourly threats in store for us. On the 22d of December I was shifted to the steamer Huacho, and on the 6th of January, 1885, I was taken by way of Manta to Porto Viejo. I had been there but a short time when there came another move to Monte Sweet Assurance. be kept quiet together, I must be oni Her head was closely ensconsed in : of the first to move!" the folds of her future husband's ruf- j The question is: Are they "all go fled shirt. The cats were as musical j ing to be kept quiet together?" T as the winds that were whistling S that question Turkey has already the mftors nf Hin family ! answered: "No! The porta has is- mansion, when her melancholy clar- : sued a circular to the signatory pow- j , , ,i u: ! r,..i : .,: pf Rmo. Cristo. and there they thrust me into scene, wnen sne miea nerseii 10 ms ouiguiiniuii.iiucA.iug u,iu uuuiuv, - other knee, and said: Dear Doctor, ! lia is a violation of the treaty ot .Ber lin, a fact as plain to all the woriu as is the existence of that treaty, and making known that the sultan has re solved to maintain its stipulations in relation to Eastern Roumelia by force of arms. Which means that Turkei is not roinr to keei) auiet under th will you give up your practice when we are married? 'No, darling." Will you continue to love me, just the same?" "Yes, darling." "Always, dear?" "Certainly, my love." And she dozed off to sleep, with her head on her pill-er. National Weekly. Daniel's Occupation. "Pa," said a young disciple, "was Daniel a barber?" "No, my son, Daniel was not a bar ber, he was God's man." "Well Pa, couldn t abarberbe God s man too?" No. God's men do not go around scraping acqumtances, dui wnai made you think that Daniel was a barber?" "I read it in a book." "What did you read, my son?" "It said that Daniel bearded the Lion in his den." National Weekly. Her Last Dress. 'My wife," said an old gentleman in the notei reauing-roum, - oouguu hor last dress twenty years ago." "Been an invalid since then?" in quired a bald-headed man. "No." 'iBeen making it over ever since?" inquired another listener. "No, never made it over." "Must have been made out of good cloth." "Of course it was. Do I look like a man who would buy a cheap dress to bury my wife in?" Courier-Journal . He. Waded Ashore. The captain of one of our river steamers was surprised the other even ing by one of his deck-hands exclaim ing, as a boat towing astern parted her hawser: "She's gone to shoel, sir!" "Ha, sir, I hope sheol come up again all right." This double shot so surprised the d. h. that he fell overboard and waded ashore. HatclieL on i nl I the common iail and treated me like any criminal. During all this time I had been beg ging for a trial, but my prayers were unheaded until the 9th of May, when I was taken before Judge Pareno at Porto Viejo and examined for the first time. On the bth of June 1 was put carvino'-knife of Prince Alexander Rnlo-aria. Very well; the evidenl probability is that the march of a Turkish army into Eastern Roumelia will be a signal that will light the torch of revolution in Macedonia, and set in motion at the opposite extremity ol the Turkish empire an army of Greeks, an army of Servians, and heaven only knows how many more Kuropean armies. It would seem that only a prompi and decisive attitude by the signatory powers can restrain a movement of Turkey that almost certainly would start not merely a revolution but a conflagration from Thermopylae to the Danube; from the Adriatic to the Dardanelles a conflagration that in its outcome would reduce the "mili tary camp of the Turk in Europe" t the limited compass that eventually will precede his predestinated retire ment to the Asiatic side of the Bos phorus. Will the signatory powers take the step that the conditions of f pacific settlement of the disturbance require? The question involves an other one: Can they do it? There are conflicting interests, ambitions, projects, to be harmonized, among which how to obtain harmony may yel present the most difficult question ol all. One thing, however, is extremelj probable. Whether the problem b of peace or of war, it is probable thai Eastern Koumelia is lost to Turkey. Bulgaria has taken it, and the chance! are, whether the question takes the course of diplomacy or of arms, tha Bulgaria will keep it. In the out come of all uncertainties, the one cer tainty is that it is in the destiny o: Turkey to be carved. Chicago Times Ice is worth ten cents a pound at Key West Fla. into a cell under the military hospital at Porto Viejo, where one of my fellow-prisoners was attacked with the yellow fever. No measures "were taken to separate us. On the 11th of July I was surprised by an order from Quito for my liberation, after having remained above seven months in dur ance. Immediately upon my release I went to Bahia. I found that my house had been entered and stripped of all movable property. My bodegas were nearly empty, and my business was, of course, in a state of ruin. Altogether I estimate the damage I have suffered at $100,000. I have begun to take affi davits and declarations, and shall have no difficulty in proving the justice of my claims. Theatrical Jealously. There were two actors at the same theatre. We will call them A and B. They were always quarrelling with each other. Both of them were pres ent at a dinner, and A took special pains to annoy B, by making remarks of an uncomplimentary character. "Now look here," said B. "I've put up with this sort of thing long enough, and it has just got to stop. If you say another word, something will happen to you that has never happened to you before." ..TU l:i. 1 nrliol- fliaf IS?" X U 1114.0 bU HUUIT . uu..v said A. , . B got up and left the room. A few minutes later A was called into the hall by a message that B. wished to see him. B got up and went out expecting to have a fight on his hands. The rest of the company filed out into the hall to see the fun. A was outside. "What do you mean by calling m out here?" asked B in a rage. "You sec mv prediction has comt true. I told you something would hap pen to you that has never happened to vou before. You have been called out for the first time." Texas Sifting.