Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 June 1883 — THE SEMINOLE INDIANS AND THRIR HAPPY CONDITION. [ARTICLE]

THE SEMINOLE INDIANS AND THRIR HAPPY CONDITION.

They are small in stature, pore copper color, with more regularly formed features than their sturdier brethren of the North. The drees of a brave is a breech clout and ah ordinary calioo or check shirt Their head-gear is wonderfully picturesque. A brightly colored shawl is carefully folded and pressed out flat and then coiled into a turban a foot or more in diameter. Fancy feathers and other ornaments are placed in the turban, which is worn like a Turk’s. Its bright colors and curious shade suggest a coincidence in taste' with Mexican and Peruvian Indians. The sqnaws are exceptionally pretty and petite. They are lighter in color than the braves, and are very oov and modest in the presence of it white man, probably because they seldom see them. They wear two garments, a short calico skirt and a very contracted jacket.

They wear all sorts of ornaments, alligator teeth, curious bones, wild hogs’ teeth, and cheap jewelry, which the brave purchases in the town before he begins drinking. Like all the Indian women they do nearly all the drudgery, but the braves are generally kind to them. The children are delicate-look-ing little things, but the papposes are really beautiful babies. These Indians go from place to place in a cypress dugout, which is wider than the regular Indian canoe, and which they usually row instead of pole, owing to the fact that the water in this country is deep. They are very expert in using the oar* They do not do away with the pole entirely, however. An Indian in the bow of the boat rows one oar, and another sits in the stern with a pole, with which he rows and steers. The sharply-cut dug-out glides quietly through the water, the speed being quite wonderful. The boats go 300 miles into Lake Okeechobee, and a Florida Indian is as happy in one as he is on shore.— Cor. Philadelphia Press. > Mb. Barton Fairchild, of Union City, Ind., writes: “I have used Dr. Guvsott’s Yellow Dock and Sarsaparilla as a blood purifier and for kidney complaint and dyspepsia. It has given good satisfaction. I never felt so strong ana well before for a long time.”