Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 November 1883 — A Giant of the Plains. [ARTICLE]

A Giant of the Plains.

We rode up to the camp-fire of old Strike-Axe, near the head of the shed and closest to the waters of the creek, our advent apparently exciting very little surprise or comment among the group that we passed. The Chief rose to receive us, exhibiting his full stature and formidable proportions. As we dismounted to take his hand we were made awar§ of our comparatively pigmy size, and our hands were like those of infants in his brawny palm. Strike-Axe is one of the largest of the giant race, nearly, if not quite, seven feet in height and- massive in proportion. He was in gala costume, his broad chest decorated with rows ©f white pipe-stem beads, that gave the effect of the trimming of a hussarjacket, his face painted in streaks of red and yellow ochre, and his cock’scomb of hair decorated with turkeyfeathers. He wore his red blanket with the grace of a toga, and his manner had the grave dignity of a Roman Senator. His face is of the prevailing Osage Indian type, whose regularity and universality indicate the strength of blood and unmixed purity of the race. Its cast is that which is regarded as that of the typical North American Indian—the high cheek-bones and aquiline nose and the high and retreating forehead being displayed in almost exaggerated outline, and the color of the skin showing the bright, coppery bronze, also accepted as the hue of the race, although really less prevalent than a darker tinge. The eyes were grave and penetrating, although and the mouth firm* without being cruel. Old Strike-Axe’s children, who are now men and women with families of their own, were not at his camp-fire, and his only wile, a squaw of as massive proportions as himself, sat silently and stolidly by the fire, apparently regarding the visitors with a disdainful contempt. As the red glow of the dying blaze illuminated her heavy features, her huge bust and brawny arms, she looked like a representative of the giant race before the flood, and as though she could Have taken Achilles by the hair and bent his neck. Or -with a finger stayed Ixlon’s wheel.