GEO. W. MOORE.

* * * * *

THE INDIANS.


THE FOURTH BROTHER.

BY FRANK WOOD, ESQ.

I believe that if the Master were visibly present with us to-day, and we
should ask, "Where shall we go first with the Gospel?" he would say, "Go
to that fourth brother, the North American Indian;" and for the
strongest reasons.

First, because he is in the greatest need. There are no people in want
whose cry does not at once reach the heart of the American people. When
Chicago was burned, when there was an earthquake in Charleston, when
there was a famine in Ireland, public sympathy was immediately awakened,
and all that was needed was sent. The only people who seem to be in need
and do not receive help are the aborigines of our soil--the people whom
we have dispossessed; whom we have crowded from their homes; whom we
have shut into reservations until they are nothing but prisoners of war;
whom we have placed under the control of a despot called an Indian
agent, who is not controlled by law, who on that agency governs by his
own will, with no courts to protect those who are wronged. These Indians
are shut in on these reservations, kept from all civilizing and
Christianizing influences, kept from trade and commerce. A trader is
appointed over them, from whom they must buy everything they need,