THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN Not many generations ago, where you now sit, encircled by all that exalts and embellishes civilized life, the rank thistle nodded in the wind, and the wild fox dug his hole unscared. Here lived and loved another race of beings. Beneath the same sun that rolls over your heads the Indian hunter pursued the panting deer: gazing on the same moon that smiles for you, the Indian lover wooed his dusky mate. Here the wigwam blaze beamed on the tender and helpless, the council fire glared on the wise and daring. Now they dipped their noble limbs in your sedgy lakes, and now they paddled the light canoe along your rocky shores. Here they warred; the echoing whoop, the bloody grapple, the defying death song, all were here; and when the tiger strife was over, here curled the smoke of peace. Here too, they worshipped; and from many a dark bosom went up a fervent prayer to the Great Spirit. He had not written His laws for them on tables of stone, but He had traced them on the tables of their hearts. The poor child of nature knew not the God of revelation, but the God of the universe he acknowledged in every thing around. He beheld Him in the star that sank in beauty behind his lonely dwelling; in the sacred orb that flamed on him from his midday throne; in the flower that snapped in the morning breeze; in the lofty pine that defied a thousand whirlwinds; in the timid warbler that never left its native grove; in the fearless eagle, whose untired pinion was wet in clouds; in the worm that crawled at his feet; and in his own matchless form, glowing with a spark of that light to whose mysterious source he bent, in humble, though blind adoration. And all this has passed away. Across the ocean came a pilgrim bark, bearing the seeds of life and death. The former were sown for you; the latter sprang up in the path of the simple native. Two hundred years have changed the character of a great continent, and blotted forever from its face a whole peculiar people. Art has usurped the bowers of nature, and the children of education have been too powerful for the tribes of the ignorant. Here and there a stricken few remain; but how unlike their bold, untamed, untamable progenitors! The Indian of falcon glance and lion bearing, the theme of the touching ballad, the hero of the pathetic tale, is gone, and his degraded offspring crawl upon the soil where he walked in majesty, to remind us how miserable is man when the foot of the conqueror is on his neck! As a race, they have withered from the land. Their arrows are broken, their springs are dried up, their cabins are in the dust. Their council fires have long since gone out on the shore, and their war cry is fast dying to the untrodden west. Slowly and sadly they climb to the distant mountains, and read their doom in the setting sun. They are shrinking before the mighty tide that is pressing them away; they must soon hear the roar of the last wave, which will settle over them forever. Charles Sprague. NOTES 1. Collect Indian relics such as arrow-heads, tomahawks, bow and arrows. Also collect some good Indian stories and legends. 2. Have children who have seen Indians describe them. Bring in good pictures of Indians. 3. Have some old pioneer tell the story of early Indian raids; also what is done with the Indians now living. 4. God of revelation. God as revealed in the Bible. 5. Read Helen Hunt Jackson's "Ramona." 6. Be prepared to explain the meanings of the following words and expressions: embellishes, wigwam, tiger strife, pilgrim bark, untrodden west, sacred orb, midday throne, Art has usurped the bowers of nature, falcon glance, council fire, generations. EXERCISES 1. Where was the audience sitting? 2. What is remarkable in the presence of the thistle and the wild fox? 3. Who were the "tender and helpless"? 4. Why did the orator mention these? 5. Who were the "wise and daring"? 6. How many scenes are depicted in paragraph 2? 7. What is a "tiger strife"? 8. Is any scene depicted in the third paragraph? 9. How does it differ in sentiment from the preceding one? 10. For whom did the Great Spirit write His laws on tables of stone? 11. What is the difference between the God of revelation and the God of the universe? 12. What things are contrasted in paragraph 4? 13. What is the relation of any two of these things contrasted? 14. Then how does this explain "God of the universe"? 15. What was the "pilgrim bark"? 16. What is meant by "a peculiar people"? 17. What contrasts are found in the sixth paragraph? 18. Sum up in a single sentence the substance of paragraph 7. ADDITIONAL READINGS GOLDSMITH: The Deserted Village. HOOD: I Remember, I Remember. BYRON: The Isles of Greece. LONGFELLOW: The Deserted House. LOWELL: Skeleton in Armor. WHITTIER: Mogg Megone. SCOTT: The Harp that Once Thro' Tara's Halls. HELEN HUNT JACKSON: Ramona. Reports of Lake Mohonk Conference. PATTEN: The Seminole's Defiance. HUNTER: The Indian's Death Song. ERNEST MCGAFFEY: Geronimo. COOPER: The Leather-Stocking Tales. EVERETT: Wrongs of the Indians. YONGE: The Chieftainess and the Volcano. WILSON: Myths of the Red Children. MRS. HEMANS: The Aged Indian. The Indian's Revenge. BULWER-LYTTON: Indian Love-Song. CUSHING: The Extermination of the Indians. DOROTHY BROOKS: Stories of the Red Children. If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain; If I can ease one life the aching, Or help one fainting robin I shall not live in vain. IT THE NAME OF OLD GLORY T has become such a common custom to call our flag "Old Glory" that we never once stop to think how the flag got that name. Somehow the name pleases us, and we keep it and love it. "Who first called our flag 'Old Glory' name so radiant with light and triumph? The sailor, the soldier, the schoolboy, young and old, a every American knows that our flag is the loveliest flag that floats. But who gave it the name so full of meaning 'Old Glory'? Home, country, school, war, sorrow, tears, death, glory, joy, and peace-all are wrapped in the folds of our flag." In this stirring poem the poet asks the question that we all like to ask, and the flag answers the poet's question by telling how the colors, the stars and stripes joined in the symbol of liberty, came by its name “Old Glory. Those of us who know something of the history of our flag feel that it symbolizes every sacrifice made in order that we might enjoy the blessings of liberty. "Every color means liberty; every star and beam of light mean liberty-liberty through law, and law through liberty." We not only throw up our hats instinctively and shout glad huzzas as "Old Glory" passes by, but we |