1032

INDIAN TRAGEDIES AND ROMANCES.

them apparently as much savages as ever. They are again using the hideous Indian jargon, again eating with their fingers, and again shoot at the chickens with bow and arrow. The crust of barbarism gathered during the summer soon wears away, but there have been established three schools   at Hampton, Carlisle, and Forest Grove   where, far away from savage influences, selected pupils are sent to learn trades. Thus by degrees the leaven of a better civilization is diffused through the dull mass of savage life lying beyond the Mississippi.

The rise of the lied barbarian from his old level is     even under the fierce stimulus of contact with an aggressive race     exceedingly slow, sometimes scarcely perceptible, not infrequently reversed. In an age of rapid progress, when immediate results are expected by impatient philanthropy, the metamorphosis of the Indian into the citizen, the savage hunter into the resident civilian, is doubted by some, despaired of by many. The gradual relaxation of the old barbaric habit and the substitution of the garb and manners of society are processes requiring generations for their fulfillment. Meanwhile, the surging tides of advancement beat against the feeble bar-f riers which a sense of justice or expediency has interposed between the Red Man and his doom. While the slower movement of reason is going on silently and surely, the rapid and inexorable work of force is pressing the remnant of our Aborigines to the borders of their destiny.

Nor may the author, in taking leave, not unregretfully, of the subject which has occupied so much of his attention and interest, assume the office of a prophet, and lift the veil from the future of this strange and problematical people. The task proposed in the beginning finds here an end, but the theme still lingers as if but half completed.

Farewell to thee, O rugged Pioneer!

And e'en to thee, dark Specter of the West!

314 9 CP

The one completes his hazardous career, The other sinks on distant plains   to rest.