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Файл:The Redskins; or, Indian and Injin
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THE REDSKINS; OR, INDIAN AND INJIN
liquor that is put upon the table, perhaps we might get rid of
the practice too. Vulgar in England! It is even deemed vulgar
here, by the right sort, as I am ready to maintain, and indeed
know of my own observation. That one or two friends who
are participating in the benefits of some particularly benevolent bottle, should say a word in commendation of its merits, is
natural enough, and well enough; no one can reasonably find
any fault with such a sign of grateful feeling; but I know of
nothing more revolting than to see twenty grave faces arrayed
around a table, employed as so many tasters at a Rhenish wine
sale, while the cheeks of their host look like those of Boreas,
owing to the process of sucking syphons.
When my dear grandmother rose, imitated by the four
bright-faced girls, who did as she set the example, and said, as
was customary with the old school, “Well, gentlemen, I leave
you to your wine; but you will recollect that you will be most
welcome guests in the drawing-room,” my uncle caught her
hand, and insisted she should not quit us. There was something exceedingly touching, to my eyes, in the sort of intercourse, and in the affection, which existed between my uncle
Ro and his mother. A bachelor himself, while she was a widow,
they were particularly fond of each other; and many is the
time that I have seen him go up to her, when we were alone,
and pat her cheeks, and then kiss them, as one might do to a
much-beloved sister. My grandmother always received these
little liberties with perfect good humor, and with evident affection. In her turn, I have frequently known her to approach
“Roger,” as she always called him, and kiss his bald head in a
way that denoted she vividly remembered the time when he
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
was an infant in her arms. On this occasion she yielded to his
request, and resumed her seat, the girls imitating her, nothing
loath, as they had done in rising. The conversation then, naturally enough, reverted to the state of the country.
“It has much surprised me, that the men in authority
among us have confined all their remarks and statements to
the facts of the Rensselaer and Livingston estates,” observed
my grandmother, “when there are difficulties existing in so
many others.”
“The explanation is very simple, my good mother,” answered Uncle Ro. “The Rensselaer estates have the quartersales, and chickens, and days’ works; and there is much of
the ad captandum argument about such things, that does
very well to work up for political effect; whereas, on the other
estates, these great auxiliaries must be laid aside. It is just as
certain, as it is that the sun has risen this day, that an extensive and concerted plan exists to transfer the freehold rights
of the landlords, on nearly every property in the State, to the
tenants; and that, too, on conditions unjustly favorable to the
last; but you will find nothing of the sort in the messages of
governors, or speeches of legislators, who seem to think all is
said, when they have dwelt on the expediency of appeasing
the complaints of the tenants, as a high political duty, without
stopping to inquire whether those complaints are founded in
right or not. The injury that will be done to the republic, by
showing men how much can be effected by clamor, is of itself
incalculable. It would take a generation to do away the evil
consequences of the example, were the anti-rent combination
to be utterly defeated to-morrow.”
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THE REDSKINS; OR, INDIAN AND INJIN
“I find that the general argument against the landlords is
a want of title, in those cases in which nothing better can be
found,” observed Mr. Warren. “The lecturer, to-day, seemed to
condemn any title that was derived from the king, as defeated
by the conquest over that monarch, by the war of the revolution.”
“A most charming consummation that would have been
for the heroic deeds of the Littlepages! There were my father,
grandfather, and great-grandfather, all in arms, in that war;
the two first as general officers, and the last as a major; and the
result of all their hardships and dangers is to be to rob themselves of their own property! I am aware that this silly pretence
has been urged, even in a court of justice; but folly, and wrong,
and madness, are not yet quite ripe enough among us, to carry
such a doctrine down. As ‘coming events cast their shadows
before,’ it is possible we are to take this very movement, however, as the dawn of the approaching day of American reason,
and not as a twilight left by the departed rays of a sun of a
period of mental darkness.”
“You surely do not apprehend, Uncle Ro, that these people
can really get Hugh’s lands away from him!” exclaimed Patt,
reddening with anxiety and anger.
“No one can say, my dear; for, certainly, no one is safe when
opinions and acts, like those which have been circulated and attempted among us of late years, can be acted on without awakening very general indignation. Look to the moneyed classes at
this very moment, agonized and excited on the subject of a war
about Oregon – a thing very little likely to occur, though certainly possible; while they manifest the utmost indifference to
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
this anti-rentism, though the positive existence of everything
connected with just social organization is directly involved in
its fate. One is a bare possibility, but it convulses the class I
have named; while the other is connected with the existence
of civilized society itself; yet it has ceased to attract attention,
and is nearly forgotten! Every man in the community, whose
means raise him at all above the common level, has a direct interest in facing this danger, and in endeavoring to put it down;
but scarcely any one appears to be conscious of the importance
of the crisis. We have only one or two more steps to make, in
order to become like Turkey; a country in which the wealthy
are obliged to conceal their means, in order to protect it from
the grasp of the government; but no one seems to care at all
about it!”
“Some recent travellers among us have said that we have
nearly reached that pass already, as our rich affect great simplicity and plainness in public, while they fill their houses in
private with all the usual evidences of wealth and luxury. I
think De Tocqueville, among others, makes that remark.”
“Ay, that is merely one of the ordinarily sagacious remarks
of the Europeans, who, by not understanding the American
history, confound causes and make mistakes. The plainness of
things in public is no more than an ancient habit of the country, while the elegance and luxury in private are a very simple
and natural consequence of the tastes of women who live in
a state of society in which they are limited to the very minimum of refined habits and intellectual pleasures. The writer
who made this mistake is a very clever man, and has exceeding
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THE REDSKINS; OR, INDIAN AND INJIN
merit, considering his means of ascertaining truth; but he has
made very many similar blunders.”
“Nevertheless, Mr. Littlepage,” resumed the rector, who
was a gentleman, in all the senses of the word, and knew the
world, and the best part of it, too, even while he had preserved
an admirable simplicity of character, “changes have certainly
taken place among us, of the nature alluded to by M. de Tocqueville.”
“That is quite true, sir; but they have also taken place elsewhere. When I was a boy, I can well remember to have seen
coaches-and-six in this country, and almost every man of fortune drove his coach-and-four; whereas, now such a thing is
of the rarest occurrence possible. But the same is true all over
Christendom; for when I first went to Europe, coaches-andsix, with outriders, and all that sort of state, was an every-day
thing; whereas, it is now never, or at least very seldom, seen.
Improved roads, steamboats, and railroads, can produce such
changes, without having recourse to the oppression of the
masses.”
“I am sure,” put in Patt, laughing, “if publicity be what
Mons. De Tocqueville requires, there is publicity enough in
New York! All the new-fashioned houses are so constructed,
with their low balconies and lower windows, that anybody can
see in at their windows. If what I have read and heard of a
Paris house be true, standing between cour et jardin, there is
infinitely more of privacy there than here; and one might just
as well say that the Parisians bury themselves behind porte co-
chères, and among trees, to escape the attacks of the Faubourg
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
St. Antoine, as to say we retreat into our houses to be fine, lest
the mobocracy would not tolerate us.”
“The girl has profited by your letters, I see, Hugh,” said my
uncle, nodding his head in approbation; “and what is more, she
makes a suitable application of her tuition, or rather of yours.
No, no, all that is a mistake; and, as Martha says, no houses
are so much in the street as those of the new style in our own
towns. It would be far more just to say that, instead of retiring within doors to be fine, as Patt calls it, unseen by envious
neighbors, the Manhattanese, in particular, turn their dwellings wrong side out, lest their neighbors should take offence
at not being permitted to see all that is going on within. But
neither is true. The house is the more showy because it is most
under woman’s control; and it would be just as near the truth
to say that the reason why the American men appear abroad
in plain blue, and black, and brown clothes, while their wives
and daughters are at home in silks and satins – ay, even in
modern brocades – is an apprehension of the masses, as to
ascribe the plainness of street life, compared to that within
doors, to the same cause. There is a good deal of difference between a salon in the Faubourg, or the Chaussée d’Antin, and
even on the Boulevard des Italiens. But, John is craning with
his neck, out there on the piazza, as if our red brethren were
at hand.”
So it was, in point of fact, and everybody now rose from
table, without ceremony, and went forth to meet our guests.
We had barely time to reach the lawn, the ladies having run
for their hats in the meantime, before Prairiefire, Flintyheart,
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THE REDSKINS; OR, INDIAN AND INJIN
Manytongues, and all the rest of them, came up, on the sort of
half-trot that distinguishes an Indian’s march.
Notwithstanding the change in our dresses, my uncle and
myself were instantly recognized, and courteously saluted by
the principal chiefs. Then our wigs were gravely offered to us
by two of the younger men; but we declined receiving them,
begging the gentlemen who had them in keeping to do us
the honor to accept them as tokens of our particular regard.
This was done with great good-will, and with a pleasure that
was much too obvious to be concealed. Half an hour later, I
observed that each of the young forest dandies had a wig on
his otherwise naked head, with a peacock’s feather stuck quite
knowingly in the lank hair. The effect was somewhat ludicrous; particularly on the young ladies; but I saw that each of
the warriors himself looked round, as if to ask for the admiration that he felt his appearance ought to awaken!
No sooner were the salutations exchanged than the redmen began to examine the house – the cliff on which it
stood – the meadows beneath, and the surrounding ground.
At first we supposed that they were struck with the extent and
solidity of the buildings, together with a certain air of finish
and neatness that is not everywhere seen in America, even in
the vicinity of its better-class houses; but Manytongues soon
undeceived us. My uncle asked him why all the red-men had
broken off, and scattered themselves around the buildings,
some looking here, others pointing there, and all manifestly
earnest and much engaged with something; though it was not
easy to understand what that something was; intimating his
supposition that they might be struck with the buildings.
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
“Lord bless ye, no, sir,” answered the interpreter; “they
don’t care a straw about the house, or any house. There’s
Flintyheart, in particular; he’s a chief that you can no more
move with riches and large housen, and sichlike matters, than
you can make the Mississippi run up stream. When we went
to Uncle Sam’s house, at Washington, he scarce condescended
to look at it; and the Capital had no more effect on any on
‘em, than if it had been a better sort of wigwam; not so much,
for that matter, as Injins be curious in wigwams. What’s put
‘em up on a trail like, just now, is the knowledge that this is
the spot where a battle was fit, something like ninety seasons
ago, in which the Upright Onondago was consarned, as well
as some of their own people on t’other side – that’s what’s put
‘em in commotion.”
“And why does Flintyheart talk to those around him with
so much energy; and point to the flats, and the cliff, and the
ravine yonder, that lies beyond the wigwam of Susquesus?”
“Ah! is that, then, the wigwam of the Upright Onondago?”
exclaimed the interpreter, betraying some such interest as one
might manifest on unexpectedly being told that he saw Mount
Vernon or Monticello for the first time in his life. “Well, it’s
something to have seen that; though it will be more to see the
man himself; for all the tribes on the upper prairies, are full of
his story and his behavior. No Injin, since the time of Tamenund
himself, has made as much talk, of late years, as Susquesus, the
Upright Onondago, unless it might be Tecumthe, perhaps.
But what occupies Flintyheart, just at this moment, is an account of the battle, in which his father’s grandfather lost his
life, though he did not lose his scalp. That disgrace, he is now
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THE REDSKINS; OR, INDIAN AND INJIN
telling on ‘em, he escaped, and glad enough is his descendant
that it was so. It’s no great matter to an Injin to be killed; but
he’d rather escape losing his scalp, or being struck at all by the
inimy, if it can possibly made to turn out so. Now he’s talking
of some young pale-face that was killed, whom he calls Lover
of Fun – and now he’s got on some nigger, who he says fit like
a devil.”
“All these persons are known to us, by our traditions, also!”
exclaimed my uncle, with more interest than I had known him
to manifest for many a day. “But I’m amazed to find that the
Indians retain so accurate an account of such small matters for
so long a time.”
“It isn’t a small matter to them. Their battles is seldom on
a very great scale, and they make great account of any skrimmage in which noted warriors have fallen.” Here Manytongues
paused for a minute, and listened attentively to the discourse
of the chiefs, after which he resumed his explanations. “They
have met with a great difficulty in the house,” he continued,
“while everything else is right. They understand the cliff of
rocks, the position of the buildings themselves, that ravine
thereaway, and all the rest of the things hereabouts, except
the house.”
“What may be the difficulty with the house? Does it not
stand in the place it ought to occupy?”
“That’s just their difficulty. It does stand where it ought to
stand, but it isn’t the right sort of house, though they say the
shape agrees well enough – one side out to the fields, like; two
sides running back to the cliff, and the cliff itself for the other.
But their traditions say that their warriors indivor’d to burn
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
out your forefathers, and that they built a fire ag’in the side of
the buildin’, which they never would have done had it been
built of stone, as this house is built. That’s what partic’larly
puzzles them.”
“Then their traditions are surprisingly minute and accurate!
The house which then stood on, or near this spot, and which
did resemble the present building in the ground plan, was of
squared logs, and might have been set on fire, and an attempt
was actually made to do so, but was successfully resisted. Your
chiefs have had a true account; but changes have been made
here. The house of logs stood near fifty years, when it was replaced by this dwelling, which was originally erected about
sixty years ago, and has been added to since, on the old design.
No, no – the traditions are surprisingly accurate.”
This gave the Indians great satisfaction, as soon as the fact
was communicated to them; and from that instant all their
doubts and uncertainty were ended. Their own knowledge of
the progress of things in a settlement gave them the means of
comprehending any other changes; though the shape of this
building having so nearly corresponded with that of which
their traditions spoke, they had become embarrassed by the
difference in the material. While they were still continuing
their examinations, and ascertaining localities to their own
satisfaction, my uncle and myself continued the discourse with
Manytongues.
“I am curious to know,” said my uncle, “what may be the
history of Susquesus, that a party of chiefs like these should
travel so far out of their way to pay him the homage of a visit.
Is his great age the cause?”
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