Jasper County Democrat, Volume 17, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 August 1914 — MR. Q. HOPE JONES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MR. Q. HOPE JONES

He Gives a Free Lecture, but Takes Up a Collection. A PUBLIC DUTY OVERLOOKED. Why Teach the People of Africa How to Eat Pie and the Chinese How to Eat Ice Cream and Deny a Stovepipe Hat to the Red Man? By M. QUAD. [Copyright, 1914, by Associated Literary Press] “V ADIES and Gentlemen —It is i needless for me to observe M * that this large and Intelligent audience does me proud. It was advertised that this lecture would be free, and you found the doors wide open to you. I feel it a sort of duty, however, to take up a collection. Any money so contributed will be evenly divided- Onedialf will go toward erecting a tombstone over the grave of the father-in-law of Christopher Columbus, as soon as the same can be located, and the other half will be economically expended in paying my personal expenses from town to town. As I pass the hat 1 will call your attention to the fact that if Columbus hadn’t been backed by his father-in-law he could never have set out on his voyage, and that the Said father-in-law has never had a fair showMn history. As 1 eouut up tlie proceeds of the collection, which

amounts to $1.78, 1 wish to return thanks on behalf of Columbus and ail his relations.

“My subject is the American Indian, amt tlie duty of the American white man toward him. I hope to make your duty plain to you, as I turn the light of my stereopticon on the canvas, and you behold the picture of tlie savage at home. Instead of sowing or reaping he is engaged in a war dance. Instead of broadening his mind he is clinging to old time traditions. As he dances lie yells for scalps and hollers for gore. “Who is to blame for this state of affairs? All of us. Ilad we followed the finger of, duty thirty years ago the red man of today would have been wearing plug hats and high collars, and his thirst for gore would have been washed away in mock turtle soil]) and ice cream. We see this savage engaged in a war dance, when lie might just as well be employed in compiling a family almanac or running a cider mill.

“We lay aside the picture of the war dance and substitute another. My heart aches every time I exhibit it. You see the picture of a squaw standing in front of a w igwam. Years ago she was called Blue Bell and the young men of her tribe rayed over her willowy form and fawn like glide. Had the hand of the white race been extended to her then she would have been ornamenting a drawing room. Instead of wearing an army blanket she would have draped and posed for a goddess before some great painter. "No helping hand was extended and the Blue Bell with the willowy form was left to mature into a sawed off squaw r , ( who smokes a pipe. I ask the red headed man on the end seat, third row, how lie would like to be an Indian buck in old clothes, with nothing to do but lick his squaw in the morning, kick his dogs in the afternoon, and cuss his pappooses around after dark? I ask the woman with the frozen expression over there by the post how she would like to be a squaw in a wigwam. \Ve have taught the people of Africa how to eat mince pie and we have taught the folks of''China how to devour ice cream, but we have turned our backs on the Indians under our feet and had no concern in tlieir welfare. I feel, tp speak plainly on this matter, I feel to say to the fat man with the bald head and contented look that he has been derelict in his duty and ought to be ashamed of himself. “My dear friends, I think I can detect looks of sympathy on the faces before n#>. I think I can see mental resolutions to do your duty in future. My feelings in the matter altfost oblige me to announce that another collection will be taken up as a fitting close to the meeting, but prudence bids me not to overdo a good thing. In order to prevent a stampede, in w T hlcb numbers of you might be killed or injured, the collection will be dispensed with, but as you depart for your homes think the matter over seriously and earnestly. Extend your band and it won’t take ten years before the Indian will eat wdth a fork, pull wires at a ward caucus and promote trusts and syndicates for the benefit of mankind.’'

"YELLS FOR SCALPS.”