FAMILIAR SCENES ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 
As our magnificent Union has increased in popula- 
tion, the aborigines within the “ older States ” have be- 
come constantly more and more degraded. ‘“ The Gov- 
ernment,’ as the most merciful policy, has taxed its 
energies to remove these red men from the vicinity of 
civilization, to homes still wild and primitive, west of 
the Mississippi. There, a vast extent of country is still 
unoccupied, in which he can pursue, comparatively unre- 
strained, his inclinations, and pluck a few more days of 
happiness before his sun entirely sets. 
Occasionally may be seen in the southwest, a large. 
body of these people, under the charge of a “ govern- 
ment officer,” going to the new homes provided for them 
by their “ white father.” These “removals ” are always 
melancholy exhibitions. The Indians, dispirited and 
heart-broken, entirely hopeless of the future, with dog- 
