RAWHIDE SHOES 59 



this Indian will shrink rawhide over the hoofs in lieu of 

 shoes, and this resists extremely well the attrition of the 

 mountain paths. Arrian, of Nicomedia, tells us that the 

 Macedonians, under Alexander, did the same to their cav- 

 alry horses in the Hindoo Koosh, and no doubt the habit 

 was much older than Alexander. On the whole, the 

 Apache, quoad horses, is at the foot of the scale. There 

 can be no comparative excellence to the Indian as a 

 whole; it is comparative badness. In this, too, the 

 Apache reaches the superlative. 



In what I say anent the Indian I may perchance be ac- 

 cused of what many intelligent judges would call a crim- 

 inal unwillingness to understand a really noble nature. 

 But, so far as my experience goes, those men who main- 

 tain that the faults of the Indian are chargeable solely to 

 the whites, and that he can be managed in au}^ other way 

 than by repression, either view the situation from an in- 

 experienced and safe distance, or from a financial (^*. e. 

 Indian contract) stand - point, or from one of " practical 

 politics." There are men, benevolent and noble men, who, 

 after studying the subject, truly believe that the Indian 

 can be civilized ; but they only serve to prove the rule. 

 Those men who have spent their lives among the Indians, 

 and have nothing to make out of them, hold but one opin- 

 ion. Narrow politics and the mone}^ in it are the curse of 

 our country. If the Indian could be given over to the 

 army to care for he would behave himself, for he knows 

 that he receives justice, both in peace and war, from the 

 blue-coats. But so long as Indian agents can grow rich 

 fast, and there are a lot of fat jobs for the men who vote 

 the successful ticket, so long will the Indian be cheated 

 out of his rations, go on the war-path in revenge, and be 

 doomed to fall under the sabre of the unwilling soldier. 

 If there is or ever has been a more lamentable spectacle 



