OUR INDIAN WARDS 211 



1887, and far more than its cessation contributed 

 to the climb to the altitude of forty years later. 



How different is the Indian citizen of to-day 

 from the utterly cruel warring savage of unbroken 

 spirit fighting for his home and hunting ground 

 against an ever encroaching power increasingly 

 threatening extinction; fighting, too, let us admit, 

 because it was his habit, tradition, sport and joy to 

 fight, and for lust of conquest and pleasure in tor- 

 ture ! Think now of the inert tribesman of to-day, 

 sure always of his food, fire, roof and medical care 

 from the parental hand of his father's conquerors. 

 There was only one conception of him, then. How 

 many and different are the conceptions we have of 

 him now ! To some he is the worthless ne'er-do-well, 

 shiftless from nature, tricky at heart, essentially 

 lazy and cruel. To others he is a child of nature, 

 deceived by those who claim to befriend him, plucked 

 of his substance even by his official protectors, happy 

 with little, responsive to the kindly word. To still 

 others he is the noble broken hero of a lost cause and 

 country, bewailing freedom passed forever, the hope- 

 less victim of human wolves whose persecutions he 

 must endure with bowed head! 



The Indian perhaps justifies all these concep- 

 tions and more. He is a primitive who, a half cen- 

 tury only out of savagery, still unable to survive 

 through fitness the conditions of civilization, accepts 

 what life offers good humoredly with neither en- 

 thusiasm nor protest. Whether or not he is capable 



