8 HEKEDITY. 



ington. " Build us a big cabin for our children, and 

 teach our young people as you do your own," said a 

 large group of not wholly barbaric chiefs to Presi- 

 dent Hayes at the White House. " Give us wagons 

 with four wheels. Send us priests," was their phrase ; 

 " and we, little by little, will learn to use the land, 

 now that our hunting-grounds are gone." In order 

 to impress their sincerity upon the Executive and this 

 nation, they went away, and meditated two days 

 upon the answer they should make to the advice 

 of the president, and finally threw off their savage 

 robes, the costume which indicates, with the In- 

 dian, the victories he has obtained, a kind of heraldry, 

 of which, of course, he is as proud as ever noblemen 

 were of theirs in the Old World, and then these 

 poor children of the wilderness returned to the White 

 House in civilized costume, and before the gaze of 

 the nation made speeches through the mouths of 

 their shrewdest men, clamorous for wagons, school- 

 houses, and churches. [Applause.] 



We find the better class of the savages desiring 

 these institutions ; and the report that comes back in 

 case after case is simply, " Schools shut : no funds." 

 In hurried America, luxurious and plenteous in its 

 products of all sorts, there is not penuriousness, but 

 there is carelessness. It is difficult to attract public 

 attention to these themes. If a little opportunity 

 here, in presence of scholars, is given to put the 

 trumpet to the lips, you must pardon me for employ- 

 ing it. There is not only great need, but very great 

 necessity indeed, of following up our governmental 



