VI
HERE’S a New York Politician’s opinion about the Indians he knew. “Say, Spielberg, were you in the Assembly at Albany in 1901?”
“No, this is only my second term. Let me explain how they do things up there. I went there, full of enthusiasm for the public service. Being a new member, I scarcely expected to get on one of the big committees, but I thought I was entitled to something. The Speaker put me on the Indian Affairs Committee. The only Indians I knew anything about were the braves of the Tammany tribe, but I was willing to learn. I read the works of J. Fenimore Cooper so as to get posted on Indian Affairs. When I got a pretty good grip on the subject I waited for a meeting of my committee, but couldn’t find any. Near the close of the session I went to an old member of the Legislature and asked him if there were any Indians in the state and if so what was I supposed to do for them.
“‘Indians in New York?’ he came back. ‘Plenty of them. You come from Manhattan and must have noticed a number of them in front of cigar stores with uplifted tomahawks. These Indians are exposed to all kinds of weather and it is your duty to observe the weather effect and be ready to report on the same when the committee meets.’
“I asked him when the committee did meet and he said, ‘I have been here for the past six years and it has not met yet, but it is likely to meet any day.’”
Sometimes tobacco signs are painted on boards, and of such a curious example is to be seen at the door of a small establishment bearing the sonorous name of the “Mephisto Cigar Store.”
It is a typical representation of the typical stage demon, dressed in tights and furnished with the regulation bat like wings.
Sothern As “Dundreary”—The Others You may Name as you Please