Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 July 1878 — A Sun Dance. [ARTICLE]

A Sun Dance.

The young men at Spotted Tail’s camp are just concluding their annual sun dance, and the barbarous festival has been one of more than ordinary success. Forty-eight candidates passed through the terrible ordeal of self-torture and are entitled to full diplomas as warriors of unquestioned bravery. The candidate for honors cuts two longitudinal slits down each breast; one end of a lariat is passed under the strip of r kin and flesh left between the incisions and tightly tied, and the other end is made fast to the top of a high pole. The candidate then throws himself backward with his weight upon the lariat, and the dance goes on until the flesh gives way. Should he fail to break loose in the manner prescribed, or should he faint during the operation he is forever disgraced. The sun dance just closed was held about fifteen miles back from the Missouri river, and was witnessed by about 7,000 Indians and twenty-five whites. Old Spotted Tail was master of ceremonies.— Yankton {Dak.') telegram.

Honor to American Manufacturers. —His Majesty Oscar 11., King of Norway and Sweden, has sent to the Mason & Hamlin Organ Co. the Grand Swedish Gold Medal in recognition of the superiority of their cabinet organs. The medal is surmounted by a crown and bears on one side the inscription “ Litteris et Artibus,” and on the other around the bust of the King, “Oscarll., Svec. Norv. Goth. Vand. Rex.” This honor will be the more valued by the Company from the fact that His Majesty Oscar 11. is known to be a musical connoisseur of highest attainments.

At the recent fishmongers’ banquet in London, Mr. Gladstone declared the French and Italian cooks to be the best in the world, and hoped that the English would learn to imitate them, and stand out against the traditional bloody roast beef.