. The Indians' secrets of health : or, What the white race may learn from the Indian . this place we had to cut our waythrough the thorny thicket, and our faces, hands, andbodies all suffered with fierce scratchings and thorn-pricks. Several times we stuck fast, and there wasnothing for it but to jump out into the water with axin hand and cut away the obstructions or lift over theboat. My Indian, Jim, though dignified and serene,as I shall fully explain elsewhere, had the promptnessthat over-niceness destroys. He was out over the sideof the boat as quickly as I was, ready for the hard and 102
. The Indians' secrets of health : or, What the white race may learn from the Indian . this place we had to cut our waythrough the thorny thicket, and our faces, hands, andbodies all suffered with fierce scratchings and thorn-pricks. Several times we stuck fast, and there wasnothing for it but to jump out into the water with axin hand and cut away the obstructions or lift over theboat. My Indian, Jim, though dignified and serene,as I shall fully explain elsewhere, had the promptnessthat over-niceness destroys. He was out over the sideof the boat as quickly as I was, ready for the hard and 102 IN THE RAIN AND THE DIRT disagreeable work. Had I been nicely dressed, andnice about the feeling of water up to my middle, toonice to wade for hours, sinking into quicksands, inorder to find the best passage for the boats, we shouldhsive been there yet. We cut down three mesquitetrees, under water, in order to get our boats over thestumps. We forced our way through tall and densearrow weeds, one in front and the other behind theboat, lifting and forcing, pulling and pushing. It was. IN THE MESQUITE FOREST ON OUR WAY TO THE SALTON SEA. not nice work, but it was invigorating, stimulating,and soul-developing. The other day I went photographing on the SaltonSea. When the launch stopped twenty feet from theisland covered with pelicans, where I wished to makephotographs, I shouldered my camera, stepped outinto the water, which came up to my thighs, andwalked ashore. The engineer wondered. Why shouldhe ? Had I waited, the pelicans would have flownaway. Speed was necessary. Niceness would haveprevented my getting what I went for. When I standon the lecture platform, or in the pulpit, or in the 103 IN THE RAIN AND THE DIRT drawing-room; wlieii I meet ladies in the parlorand go with them for an automobile ride, I dressas neatly as I can afford, and endeavor to look nice;but when I go into my garden to work, I put on blueoveralls, a flannel shirt, and a })air of lu^avy shoes, andI try not
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade191, booksubjectindiansofnorthamerica
