. Annals of Iowa . enby the wrong buck or vice versa. Time and a pony willmake all things even. There is no bleeding and breaking ofthe heart. The pistol, the knife, the poisonous cup, theblighted maiden, the lorn old bachelor, the ninety-day di-vorce court, the destructive judgment for alienated affections,or alimony, all these and many kindred and dire calamitiesthey know not of. Some of the younger members of the tribe have pro-gressed beyond the wickiup and live in board houses. Onmy winter visit I called on the best sample of this kind, oneJames Poweshiek. He had a one-story house about 1
. Annals of Iowa . enby the wrong buck or vice versa. Time and a pony willmake all things even. There is no bleeding and breaking ofthe heart. The pistol, the knife, the poisonous cup, theblighted maiden, the lorn old bachelor, the ninety-day di-vorce court, the destructive judgment for alienated affections,or alimony, all these and many kindred and dire calamitiesthey know not of. Some of the younger members of the tribe have pro-gressed beyond the wickiup and live in board houses. Onmy winter visit I called on the best sample of this kind, oneJames Poweshiek. He had a one-story house about 12x20feet, with a stovepipe running through the roof. Before thedoor stood a good lumber wagon. At the barn was a smallhaystack, and a crib of about 200 bushels of corn, and sev-eral chickens basked in the lee and sunny side of the the house, a sleeping platform four feet wide and twofeet high with touseled blankets and other things, extendedacross one end and one side of the room. A soft coal heater. THE TAMA COUNTY INDIANS. 201 and a wood cook stove roared away in the vain effort to keepnp with the incoming cold. A little girl stood at a table ac-tually washing dishes. Two young bucks were lying on theplatform, with their feet lopping over upon the floor. Thescrawniest and most wrinkled squaw in America, sat Indianstyle, on the platform, clad in a calico dress, crooning andrepeating a wild lament of eight syllables. At the end ofeach chant she parted her pliable and thin lips from her hardshut mouth and gave us a full view of a perfect set of teetheven back to and including the molars. James wife wasneither a beauty nor overly tidy, but she easily led any otherlady in red that I saw that day. All wore moccasins, andMrs. James had on her reddest blanket. Here we had chairsto sit upon. This was the last place I visited, and after thewickiup, it seemed palatial. James raised ten acres of cornthat year, besides some potatoes. I speak thus fully ofJames, because at
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