Tacomus “ Yes sir, you do well to purchase one of these figures, for sir, the Indians on the American Continent is fastly disappearing, both in flesh and wood .”...

TO make my title complete, it should read “Hunting Indians in a Taxi-cab with a Camera.” Nature lovers long since found out that the camera was the best weapon to take into the woods, and mighty hunters are now depicted as using the auto to carry them to the wild and to bring back their trophies. It was reserved for one of my friends to follow the trail to the city of New York, as his happy hunting ground and to hire a taxi-cab there for the express purpose of hunting a desirable Tobacco Sign In

MY first wish for an Indian was to add to the effect of my wigwam. I’ve always been rather partial to the Indian race because there is a tradition (which cannot be verified) that my great grandmother, Abigail Eastman Webster, had a slight infusion of Indian blood. She was a noble looking woman, I have been told, with rather a dark skin and large black eyes. Her son, Daniel Webster, possibly owed to her his swarthy complexion and wonderful eyes, like “Lanterns on a dark night,” as the Websters we

LIKE his prototype, the stalwart Red man, who once regarded this beautiful, broad land as his own, the Tobacco Sign Indian is now rapidly disappearing from all city streets by order of officials because the figures encumber places of business. He has a distinct genealogy for it is believed that the wooden statue came first into existence in England as a Tobacco sign because Sir Walter Raleigh, who carried the plant back from his trip to America, told of the Indian’s Pipe of Peace and the joys of

THE Indian which has stood on top of Tammany Hall for nearly forty years deserves special mention. He was not placed in that elevated position as a tobacco sign, although a number of the modern chieftains display cigars and tobacco in their liquor stores. There is no significance connected with the figure in that direction. One of the oldest Tammany Sachems writes me that some one proposed an arched ornament for the then fine building in Fourteenth street in the year 1878, and the figure decided

TO show the genuine interest shown in my collection I will offer one letter from a business man in Worcester, Mass: “Dear Miss Sanborn:—I have come across these figures and think you may use them. They are good examples of their craft and are quite clear. First Punch, he is over eighty years old and is whole from his knee down. I haven’t taken his face because he would have to be got down in order to do so, but if you say you do want it and can wait a week for it I am perfectly willing to take s

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 Tam

AS the “Wooden Indian” has long been a by-word, and a popular symbol of stolidity in mind and body, I have thought it worth while to show that like more pretentious statuary he may furnish inspiration to the Muse of Poetry. Here is an advertisement in verse sent me by a lady of Seneca Falls, New York. Punch with Impressive Nose Another Punch—less fortunate Punchinello and Nondescript Puck...

WHAT a sarcasm of Destiny it is that when we have driven out and killed off all the Indians who were so happy here, we write poetry praising them, novels about the good looking, brave, and almost, too saintly Red Man. And now it is seriously urged that a suitable Memorial be erected in New York Harbor to the Memory of the North American Indian whose ranks are thinning so rapidly, that within a comparatively few years more, the race will be obliterated by the advance of the white man’s civilizati

I am told that a Collector went about in Baltimore twenty years ago and bought up all the best of these signs in that city, for their carving was often admirable, spirited, and artistic. A friend sends me an interesting history of that “Ancient Baltimorean, the Cigar Store Indian,” written in 1908 for a paper of that city. On good authority, it is stated that there are 2,000 tobacco stores in Baltimore. One finds them in all parts of the city, on street corners, in basements, in the middle of bl

IN 1868 or 1870 “Fritz in Ireland” was acted by J. K. Emmet at the Holliday Street Theatre, in Baltimore, and the actor sang his famous lullaby to one of these “Girls of the Period” figures. After these Mr. Caspari offered drum majors, represented with Uncle Sam breeches and clothed to correspond. Then came “Champagne Charley,” with side whiskers, red coat, striped trousers and holding a bottle in one hand, at which he pointed a finger of the other. Then came the soldier. This figure carried a g

TO repaint a figure cost from $10 to $15. They were always painted flashily with high-grade paint and trimmings of genuine gold or silver or whatever metal was called for. Some had earrings, others beads, bracelets or necklaces to repaint fancifully. Then the feathers of the Indian required the highest artistic blending of colors. Mr. Caspari had scores of paint pots used in connection with this branch of his business. Each held a different colored paint. As a rule figures required repainting ev

MISS Wurach, 733 West Pratt street, Baltimore, states that her father started in business 51 years ago and that she and her brother now continue to keep the store, her father being dead. The figure in front is the second one used in 51 years. The age of the present figure is not known. Mr. Bringman’s Indian figure, on West Baltimore street, is very old and very impressive in appearance, being of unusually large size and displaying great muscular development. It has required much repairing about

THE Indians carved by the German sculptor are represented with catamount hide for covering. A quiver of arrows is fastened over the left shoulder. In the right hand is a bow and the left hand holds a bunch of tobacco leaves. Evidence of the skill and training of the now departed German sculptor may be seen in the figure. Every muscle visible on the human form is executed in its exact relation. The little depression about the kneepan, the lines of the shinbone and the condyles of the elbow joint

JOHN E. Owens made a great hit with his popular play “The Live Indian,” in which he took down and hid a stunning figure, that had stood many years before a cigar store, in fact considered to be one of “the oldest inhabitants.” Made up as an exact counterpart of this, he mounted the pedestal and waited until midnight, when he broke into the store, and hastened away, rich in booty; not leaving, however, till he had replaced the insulted Indian in his rightful place. This was an irresistibly comica