PEDDLING IN THE UNITED STATES 347 



Indeed, Indians will not touch paper money. From some 

 cause, probably through some of them having been brought 

 to justice through attempting to pass paper, they have 

 an amusing awe of any kind of bill or note. They will 

 not accept it in payment for anything they have for sale, 

 and if they find it in the possession of any traveller they 

 are plundering they will drop it like a hot brick. I do 

 not know if superstition has anything to do with this 

 trait, but probably it has ; for I call to mind three cases 

 of robbery and murder committed by them in which paper 

 money was concerned. In two instances they had killed 

 the men and left notes to a large amount on the ground 

 beside the corpses, pegging them down to prevent the 

 wind scattering them; in the other, fortunately for the 

 victim, they proceeded to plunder him before slaying and 

 scalping him. Finding a small bundle of notes, they 

 hastily thrust them into his hand, and rode off* in evident 

 trepidation, not even taking his arms from him. There 

 must have been superstition in the last case, at least, 

 otherwise they would certainly not have abandoned a 

 scalp, an article quite as precious as gold to an Apache. 



Very large fortunes have been made by peddlers in 

 the United States — that is, by the class who run waggons. 

 But even foot-peddlers, men with no more stock than they 

 could carry on their back or across their shoulders, often 

 did fairly well for their class — that is, they made 

 more money than they could have done as labourers 

 or mechanics. 



The expense of a waggon and team of horses is, of 

 course, great; but my plan was to sell the horses or 

 mules when winter set m and travelling was no longer 

 safe or possible. Some peddlers harness a team of oxen 

 to their waggons, but I found mules the best and cheapest 

 of any draught cattle. Occasionally I have met peddlers 

 who travelled with a one-horse van or cart, but these men 

 never took long journeys, and generally dealt in one or 

 two kinds of goods only. Sometimes a peddler would 



