NAVAHO SILVERWARE
_\
i
Some of It Is Artistic, All of It Is of
Interest.
* __
Bow the Thins;* Are Made and the
People Who Make Them—The
Present Craze for Indian
Trinkets.
[Special New Mexico Letter.]
IN the larger eastern cities much
interest is now being felt in
everything pertaining to the
North American Indian. The mu
seums are enlarging their collections,
and many ladies are beginning to
■l wear various silver ornaments made
by the rude, aboriginal silversmith.
Already in New York alone one
^m?aho silversmith is kept working
as many hours as he is capable, and
■thousands of dollars’ worth of silver
ornaments are being brought in from
the Navaho reservation in New Mex
ico. The fad is now at its height.
Ladies are being photographed in
Indian costume, wearing necklaces,
bracelets, ear pendants and linger
rings of Navaho silverware. Gentle
men proudly show finger rings and
even bracelets which they brought
with them from a recent visit to the
far west.
Few people, however, know any
thing about how these things are
made, or of the people who make
them.
The Navahoes are a large tribe,
semi-nomadic, occupying a reserva
tion in New Mexico and Northern
Arizona. Primitive peoples at an
early date felt the desire for per
sonal adornment, with the Navaho
this found expression in painting the
body with various colored ochers
or clays, in fashioning garments out
of the skins of animals, in wearing
head dresses and other fantastic
ornaments made from feathers, and j
■■mui mi in »iiw*wMMBM«roMBriiTjnwmwBrag«raapCTnaaMiawn
■V
finger ring or two, one or more brae®. !
lets, and sometimes a pair of ear
pendants.
Above all they covet the belt witli
large silver disks. Each of these
disks are made of two or more silver
dollars, melted and run into a flat
mould. This thick sheet is then lmm
mered out to the required size and
shape, which is either oval or circu
lar, and chased with small tools. When
finished each disk lias a value of twice
its original cost in coin silver. Some
times a belt will contain eight or nine
disks and a buckle, which cannot be
bought for less than $36 to $40. This,
too, is actual cost price. If the Navaho
loesn't care to part with it an extra
$5 or $10 or even more is required to
induce him to let it go. In addition
to these objects of personal adorn
ment, many of the more wealth}- have
silver bridles. The bridle itself is
made of leather or woven, horse-hair,
and then the silver strips and bars,
artistically chased and decorated, are
placed and fastened on the head stall.
Silver buttons of pretty and tasty
design are commonly used on gaiters
ind moccasins. These are made from
beaten coins, 25 and 50cent pieces, and
(lie obverse side is often found in its
original state as stamped in the United
States or Mexican mint.
The bracelets are of various designs,
sometimes: simple round circlets, other
times the silver is triangular, but the
most common shape is a flat band, on
the outer side of which chasings and
gravings are made. These bracelets
are made so that they can be slipped
sideways over the wrist. These and
all the other articles mentioned are
worn equally by women as men.
The finger riflgs are often adorned
with a wide setting of turquoise or
garnet. The former is found in various
parts of Xew Mexico, and on their
reservation they dig garnets, spinel
rubies, jacinths, peridots, opals,
smoky topaz and crystal spar in large
quantities. From the petrified forest
they obtain jasper, cornelian, chalee
NAVAHO INDIAN BEDECKED WITH NATIVE JEWELRY.
in necklaces, bracelets, anklets and
wristlets made of small Hint arrow
points, or of the dried seeds of juni
per, pinion and other plants, or of
bones. Later they secured beads of
shell, turquoise and coral by barter.
But nearly all this primitive deco
ration received a rude shock of dis
appointment. when tlie Mexican col
onist came upon the scene, with his
iron, copper and silver adornments
glittering in the sunlight. From
coveting the Nava ho took to posses
sing by fair means or foul. He
would barter his skins or other
native possessions for the precious
metals, using brass and copper for
tlie making of ornaments, and iron
for tipping his arrows. Silver, how
ever, has never lost its charm for
him. The Mexican vaquero trapped
V'
*
SILVER NECKLACE AND BELT.
(In the Collection of George Wharton
James, Pasadena, Cal.)
out in the glittering metal has ever
been his ideal of personal adornment
and he retains it to this day. Silver
is the only coin they cave to accept,
though the better educated now
know the superior value of gold.
There are some clever and skillful
silversmiths among them-—Peshlikais,
as they call themselves. In crucibles
of their own manufacture they melt
the precious metal, using a crude and
primitive blast furnace, with charcoal
as fuel, and the molten silver is then
poured into moulds which they have
shaped out of sandstone or other
rock. They understand the art of
uniting two pieces of metal together,
for many of their ornaments are
hollow and globular, originally made
in two parts and then joined. Scarce
ly a man or woman of any standing
in the tribe does not possess a home- j
manufactured necklace of silver |
beads or articles of some design, a
dony, agate and amethyst. All these
objects are rudely polished and shaped
and used on rings, ear pendants, or
necklaces.
Now as the tribe does not increase
in number, and the silversmiths have
been constantly at work for over 200
years the question is often asked:
What becomes of all the articles thus
made? A little knowledge of the cus
toms of the Navahoes soon makes clear
where these valuable go. Unlike many
Indians of the southwest, (as th»
llavasupais, Wallapais, Mohaves,
Yumas. etc.) the Navahoes do not
cremate. They bury their dead. They
also firmly believe that whatever is
buried with the dead has a spirit which
accompanies the spirit of the dead per
son to the world of spirits. Every
thing animate or inanimate has a
spirit, and by burial this spirit is re
leased, and to a spirit is as real as the
object itself was upon the earth.
Hence they bury food, ornaments of
every kind, clothing, musical instru
ments, baskets and the like with their
dead, with the thought that as they
were all useful to the individual when
alive, they will be equally useful now
that he is dead. Great warriors al
ways had bow and arrows and hun
dreds of arrow-points buried with
them, or a battle ax and hammer. The
Navahoes are now beginning to realize
that these buried properties are more
useful to the living than to the dead.
Consequently whenever they find a
grave that is unknown to them they
proceed to rifle it, and then bring the
contents to the nearest Indian trader.
As a result some fine specimens of
ancient work are finding their way
into the market, and many battle
axes, arrow points:, spear points, etc
are being exhumed.
G. WHARTON JAMES.
Ail Aristoerntic tailily.
Probably the most aristocratic
caddy in the country is the one em
ployed by Justice Harlan, of the Unit
ed States supreme court, who is an en
thusiastic golfer. The caddy is a
bright-faced lad of 12, polite and at
tentive to a degree. When the justice
reached the links the other day the boy
was not to be found, and he took an
other boy. As Justice Harlan ap
proached the fourteenth hole the hand
some victoria of a rich senatorial fam
ily drove up. The boy w ho had been
the justice's caddy the previous day
jumped out. He ran up to Justice Har
lan, cap in hand, and said: “I am
awfully sorry I couldn’t be here at two
o’clock, but, you see, mamma had a
luncheon for Senator Depew, and I
just couldn’t get the carriage to coma
out in any sooner.1'
I
HUNGARY IN CANADA
A Settlement That’s Takes One
Sack to the Fatherland.
I(« 1‘eoiilf, It* Cn*tom*. It* linttiling*
Are All of the OIil World—
History of tlue I’Inee null
It* Inkubltunta.
Esterhaz is a bit of old Hungary,
with its customs of a thousand years
set down in the very midst of the great
northwest territory of Assiniboia,
Canada. It is situated well north of
North Dakota and near the Manitoba
frontier. The nearest railway station
is Whitehead, 25 miles to the south, on
the Canadian, Pacific line. Unlike other
foreign settlements on this continent,
the population of now more than a
thousand has never felt to any extent
the influences which make for the quick
assimilation of foreigners. Only two
or three times a year does the selling
of produce or the buying of supplies
bring its people into contact with the
outside world. It is seldom that stran
gers visit the settlement. It thus hap
pens' that the peculiar customs and
habits of the homeland have been kept
without change. Even the church and
the schools are such as may be seen in
the old country.■»
Just IS years ago four Hungarian
immigrants were exploring the Qu’Ap
pelle valley when they discovered on
the north a fertile plateau, whose soil
was largely of a black mould very like
that with which they were familiar in
the famous Hungarian wheat fields of
Hanat. Forthwith they applied for and
obtained the reservation of 125,000
acres of land to be settled by them
selves and their countrymen. The
THE SCHOOL BUILDING AT KAFOSVAR.
and relatives at home, with the result
that the next year 35 families, 150 per
sons all told, made their way thither.
Each got a farm of 160 acres upon pay
ing to the Canadian,government the
entry fee of $10. Then began the fight
with nature that the new soil might
yield to the newcomer the living to
which they were entitled. Hut the im
migrants were inexperienced and little
knew how to avail themselves of the
natural advantages of their surround
ings. Extraordinary suffering ensued,
and the first winter saw many deaths
in the settlement. Hut they persevered
and gradually their lot became easier
and finally prosperity smiled. Out of
the grant of 125,000 acres, 40,000 have
been, fallen up and 14,000 fenced and un
der cultivation. Most of the houses are
made of logs and plaster and are one
story in height, but all are neat and
cozy.
The settlement has a Homan Catho
lic church and a stone parochial house,
which is the finest in the settlement, a
post office and two schoolhouses. The
dominion pays two-thirds of the teach
ers’ salaries and the colonists the re
mainder.
The church furnishes the center for
what social life 1here is. Heretofore,
the settlers have lived at considerable
distances from each other, but now
they are planning a village in one part
of the colony near the new railroad
branch which is being built. In their
village they intend' to live during the
severe weather, returning to their
farms in the early spring.
Most of the Hungarians who come to
the settlement start with scarcely a
cent, working at first as farmhands.
TYPE OF THE HOMES.
Then as soon as they get money enough
to pay the government entry fee, buy a
team of horses and a plow they start
for themselves. The first year or so
they just about pay expenses and then
as the land gets broken in they begin to
turn a profit. Some who have been
there for only a few years are said
now to be worth severhl thousand dol
lars.
Last year the colonists turned out
160,000 bushels. They also raised *10,000
bushels of oats and barley and large
quantities of potatoes and vegetables.
Grazing and the production of live
stock also are carried on extensively.
These people make excellent citi
zens in their new homes, and show no
desire to return to their mother coun
try. Honesty and industry are their
great characteristic, and it is but to be
supposed that as such they make excel
lent husbands and fathers.
MAURICE CLIFTON.
Bank Held Responsible.
Samuel Ivurlak, a Philadelphia mer
chant, had $300 in his bank and drew
against his deposit four checks aggre
gating less than $100. A bookkeeper’s
blunder caused a clerk to return the
cheeks marked “No Funds.” The mer
chant sued and recovered $1,000 against
the bank
/
wm. faversMam”
In “IMPRUDENCE”
tM PRUDENCE” is a clean,
bright, interesting little
play, with such a nice kind
of girl for heroine and a
very acceptable youn,g
man for hero. The
part of heroine is most pleasingly
portrayed by Miss Fay Davis, a win
some American actress, who has won
laurels for herself in England, but is
just now beginning to be appreciated
in her own country. Mr. Faversham
is a star whose refined, natural meth
od is very convincing. And the com
pany as a whole is above the average.
The setting is English, generally a
popular one among theater-goers in
America The action takes place at
Uarlesdoh Manor. It is a society
play, and till the folk are folk of
high degree, save an incidental maid,
a necessary “man,” and a discreet
valet. We are first made acquainted
with Harlesdon Manor at that rest
ful hour of the day, the hour for the
afternoon tea. As it is partaken of
on the terrace.
From tlie guests wre learn that
their host and hostess—for there is
a house party in progress at the
manor—have been quarreling again,
and that something quite serious
seems up.
After awhile in comes Lady Dun
can, a physically handsome woman,
who is considered by all the men “a
good fellow',” and she at once begins
to exert her fascinations right and
left. Until there appears on the
scene the host, Jim Greaves, in whose
somewhat shady past, before his
marriage, Lady Duncan had played
quite a part. Jim is astounded be
yond measure to find her among his
wife’s guests, and tells her it won’t
do at all, that his wife is “really a
good sort,” and he can’t allow her to
be imposed on. Lady Duncan listens
smilingly to his protest, and smiling
ly assures him she intends to remain.
In contrast to the scene between
these not-o'er innocent two, is the
one we are next treated to in the
smoking-room, wherein .lack Frero
(Mr. Faversliam) and “lJillie” Mnrr
(Miss Fay Davis) confess their lovo
for each other. Miss Marr is girlish
and witty and loving, so unsuspect
ing' of dark secrets and evil deeds,
one gathers her very innocence might
lead her to acts of imprudence, but
never to anything wicked.
Mrs. Greaves, who has had cause
to quarrel before with her spouse
and occasionally cut off liis allow
FAY DAVIS IN "IMPRUDENCE.”
anec, hurls lierself onto the stage
and makes known to us the reason
for this new misunderstanding with
her husband. She has found bunches
of love letters, and also, much worse,
letters describing the furnishing of
a London flat that it would appear
had once been occupied jointly by a
lady and the wretched Jim. 8he con
tides in Lady Duncan—of all persons
—and that lady sets to w/irk to con
coct a plan whereby she may remove
suspicion from herself.
She decides whisper about
stories linking together the names
of Jim and “Billie.” Now, Jim and
Billie are cousins, and long ago,
when Billie was a sentimental bit of
a girl, she had written to Jim some
rather sugary epistles, signed by the
foolish name of “Wang” and foolish
ly addressed to “'Foodies.” These are
the very letters Mrs. Jim has just
found. But, of course, the flat epi
sode, Billie has had nothing to do
with .hick Trere learns of tli3
stories that are being circulated
about liis lady love, and, aided by his
friend, S. Harry Harmon, proceed#
to hunt them down to the ground.
Jim, not knowing that Billie’s name
has been brought into the affair,
runs away; -to stay until his wife’s
wrath shall have cooled.
Mrs. Greaves sends for the valet
that attended Mr. Greaves in that
London flat, and tries to bribe him to
tell her the name of his companion,
or at least to describe her. Lady
Duncan speaks to him and obtains
his silence, and then Mrs. Greaves
exclaims: “Oh, shall I never know
who ‘Wang’ was?” Innocent Billie,
wjio hasn't thy least understood what
all the row was about, tells that
“Wang” was once her own nickname,
and says she wrote those letters in
Mrs. Jim’s possession. Whereat Mi's,
Jim goes wilder than ever, and orders
Billie from the house.
Perplexed, Billie thinks her lover,
too, imagines evil of her, and getting
into a great temper, returns his ring
to him. But her lover works faithful
ly to clear the name of the girl he
loves, and it is needless to state that
he accomplishes it; also that Lady
Duncan is shown up in her true col
ors. And we are all very glad to
have Jack and Billie “make up.” and
to observe the manner of the making
up. THE ASTBOLOGEB.
DISHES FROM ABROAD
Europe and Asia Supply Us with
Some Strange Foods.
Jews anil Gen Mien, Mi>Immmi-ilu n*
• nil Conf iiclann, Import Tln-ir
Aiilionnl Ualiitlm with
Great IIi-«ularitf.
[Special \V ash i lie ton Letter]
^ I MJU reading during the Lenten
season your tisli story was
creditable," says 'Font Cava
naugh, a veteran customs inspector,
lie added: "Hut you ought to tell
your readers something about the
multifarious foods which pass throng.i
the customs houses.
“You are probably not aware of the
fact that upwards of 70 nationalities
are represented in our composite citi
zenship. At some time every year each
one of these nationalities will appear
on the books of some port of entiy.
because of the desire <>f the immi
grants for home dishes. [here are
hundreds of these dishes, and all of
their names are unfamiliar to our peo
ple.
“The Irish cannot make many boasts
concerning the excellence of their na
tive gastronomy; and yet they import
regularly pieces of baeon, genuine
‘murphies’ and Irish moss; a peculiar
kind of dried seaweed which is gathered
on the western coast of old Ireland.
This is said to be especially wholesome
for persons disposed to be dyspeptic.
It is not very attractive in appearance,
to Americans, it looks somewhat like
the material used at our coast resorts
for the preparation of clam bakes.
When it is cooked, however, according
to tlie notions of the old folks, it de
velops into a dark gelatinous mass
which is very agreeable to the taste,
and undoubtedly beneficial to the
health.
“There is a seaweed very like the
Irish importation which the Scandi
navians import from Norway and
Sweden; and they also import several
kinds of bread, and a very small cab
bage. There are three kinds of bread;
one like German pumpernickel, one
like unleavened bread, which the Jews
call matzos, and another kind which
seems to be betwixt and between the
two. All of these breads are palatable,
and extremely nutritious. They tire
usually toasted and served with milk,
cream, butter or cheese.
“The amount of food which a French
man will import is limited in quality
and quantity only by his financial
limitations. The French have no re
ligious belief more deep seated than
their belief that their people alone
have been blessed with an absolutely
perfect understanding of what to eat,
and how to prepare and serve it. They
import everything that goes on their
table, if they have money enough.
They will even eat and declare that
they enjoy chewing the toughest of
leather, in the form of imported cox
combs. The'nnimal tissue of the coxs
teomb is sometimes put up raw, but is
usually half cooked, and then pickled
or spiced. Jt, is brilliant, but makes
the molars of an American work over
time while acquiring the taste, lint
imported French blood pudding, dark
er, heavier than the German blutwurst,
is the worst of them all. Made from
the blood of beeves and horses, these
puddings are so extremely disagree
able that very few Americans can ac
quire a taste for them, lllood pudding
can be found on the tables of French
restaurants and boarding houses in al
most every city of this country, and
it is usually the imported article.”
“Nearly everybody is familiar with
the German food importations, and
the American imitations of them.
Upon many American tables it is cus
tomary to find sauerkraut, sausages,
pickled herrings and soused mackerel.
But, particularly in winter time, the
A SECOND HELPING WANTED.
German-born citizens import wild
boars and hares, and a singular con
fection called matzapan, which is
made of white sugar, cream and
blanched almonds. They also import
various kinds of bread and pastry, oc
casionally bringing in German cab
bages and potatoes. Their cabbages
are very small; little baby cabbages, in
deed. llut they are of finer fiber and
more delicate flavor than ours. Their
potatoes are very small and every way
inferior to our product; and yet. a cab
bage soup, enriched with those pota
toes, will stick to the ribs, and make
you send up your plate for a second
helping; indeed, they expect you to
call for a second dish of soup of their
own importation and of' their own
making. If you are being entertained
by a German-born friend who wants to
give you a full fatherland meal you
may expect goose breasts, which have
been dried, smoked and pickled, and
you don’t dare turn up your nose at
this delicacy, either. All of their vari
ous kinds of ham tire delicious, and
their mushrooms, grown in caverns
along the Rhine, are almost tit for
angels’ food.
“Nobod3’ will be glad to ii«^
continued Mr. Cavanaugh, "bn? _
S U fact that the villainous race re-'
fently driven off of this hemisphere
>y Scliley and the other men behind
lie guns knows more about sausages
than all the rest, of us. Thej' im
port, long, thin, narrow sausages,
mioked until they are almost as dr3r,
alack and hard as a piece of wood,
and call them Vie. Catalan and
i’.asque sausages. They are liner
than any sausage that comes to this
•ountry, or than any other people
an earth can make. And I guess I
know something about good eatin’
myself.”
And he does. Rig TcWn Cavanaugh
mows more about delicatessen than
iny other man in this ten-niiles
square seat of government.
“These people who used to call us
American hogs,’ have good ideas of
food,” continued the veteran customs
inspector. “They import gunyada
and gunyabada, which are made
from the guava fruit alone, or are
mixed with other fruit and boiled
down so hard as to justify the use of
the Castilian knife and fork when
served upon tlie table. They also
bring in the red and green peppers
which have been canned in 10 or 20
pound tin boxes. Then thtJre is their
Andalusian cheese. Its flavor can
only be accounted for on the good
ground that the cows were dieted
on garlic and onions.
“Hut it makes my mouth water to
think of their preserves of eocoanut,
pineapple, orange, banana and guava,
made by boiling the fruit and then
adding to it brandy or strong wine
to keep it. from fermenting; and their
beef, air dried, which resembles so
much the smoked meat of our own
smokehouses, but which differs from
it altogether in taste and tender
ness; and to think of their Spanish
sardines, smoked or dried, and their
vario.is forms of anchovies, the most
pungent of a'ft tlie finny tribes; and,
say, it makes me forget Lent and all
of my Catholic ancestors when I
think of these good things which are
i itrUUft (‘(J. .f-p.ip.v—Spa in by l V^y- net-., --
(.t-* /ous devils Wi7.HI -W1!'recently
fired out of our hemisphere. I wish
we could shoot a lot of their good
foods, and a whole heap of the good
qualities of their best men across the
ocean into our midst.”
“The Japanese have a practical mo
nopoly of the nests used in making
soup. And a whole lot of our people
have yet to learn that bird's-nest
soup, prepared by an American" chef,
is the most delicious dish of its class
in tlie world. From Japan come all
of the armies of dried devil fish; also
tree mushrooms and sea mushrooms,
which are deliciously flavored too.
The sea mushrooms boil away like
marine glue, and the tree mushroom
has a flavor of wood bark—the com
bination making thickening for soup*
nnd stews. We get from Japan every
eatable dried fish from minnows to
sturgeons and sword fish. Their dry
ing processes are peculiar, and are
applied to the lower forms of sen life,
and they desiccate clams, inus<-cls,
oysters, prawns, shrimps, erJbs and
crawfish until they resemble\ stone.
Thus their foods endure nil cli^ntes^
“The Chinese are deeply interest
eu in American marseis, ror Tin y
send to us a long list of delicacies,
such as crystallized lories, dates, figs,
watermelon rind, preserved water
melon seed, dried ehickens»and ducks,
which arc cleaned and flattened out
until they resemble hemlock shin
gles; tremendous sardines in oil, each
fish a foot long, and the boxes each
more than a cubic foot In dimen
sion; salted cabbage, of which the
leaves are an inch wide and throe or
four feet long; sugared flowers, lai
chee nuts, matais, sweet pumpkins,
and all sorts of sweetmeats, mr.de
upon the plan of the Canton ginger,
being the fruit, cleaned, prepared
and boiled for hours in strained .
honey. In August and September,
they send us countless numbers of
moon cakes, curious little pieces of
pastry used in celebration of the
harvest moon festival. They look
like small pork pie, stuffed With ....
quaint mixtures of almonds, raislns^-v
watermelon seeds, lard, ginger, sugar,
rice, flour and spices.”
This customs house raconteur told
a lot more about the imported things,
making one’s mouth water with hope
less greediness for goodies unobtain
able. Some day, when nti of us have
plenty of sixteen-to-ones, we may
buy these importations and fully
realize all of the pleasures of intel
ligently conceived gluttony.
SMITH D FRY.
Xo Dividend. No Salary,
The directors in German compa
nies get no salary unless the annual
di\ id end exceeds 4 per cent., and the
limit they may receive is $t>,<^0 a
year. The law forbids the manager
of a company beinjVi member of its
board. Detailed statement must be
printed for stockholders prior to a
a stockholders’ meeting.