Did an Indian ever receive a golden crown from a European monarch, as in this story? Not that was recorded. When gifting Indians, Europeans were far more stingy. They were most likely to part with what they thought to be cheap trinkets than anything they valued. Yet being of European descent myself, I like to think it possible that at least one prince or king, overcome with brotherly love (and perhaps too much wine), might have bestowed a crown on a visiting Indian chief—a gift from one blue blood to another. Such a generous gift might have been made by a kinsman of someone like Prince Maximilian of Germany, who traveled through St. Louis in the 1830s and lived for a time among the Mandan Indians of the upper Missouri River. Writing of his travels, Prince Maximilian said, "Wonders passed us as in a dream."
***
As for traveling medicine shows, they were descended from quack doctors called mountebanks who for centuries had sold elixirs and cures across Europe. In America such con artists flourished in colonial times and by the late 1800s had become wildly popular. They peddled tonics, which were mostly alcohol, and provided entertainment.
Whether or not there was ever a medicine wagon pulled by a camel is unproven, but in the later 1800s medicine shows often used animals such as elephants to help draw crowds. In this way they were a forerunner of the traveling circuses eventually made famous by P. T. Barnum and the Ringling brothers. As to whether there were camels in North America by 1849, the first camel to reach North America was believed to have come in the early 1700s to Virginia. And it is well documented that in 1856 the U.S. Army imported camels to Texas to help settle the West, an experiment that failed but spawned a host of colorful stories about the sightings of camels in the wilderness. It certainly seems possible that an enterprising showman such as Dr. Buffalo Hilly, who had traveled to Europe and possibly beyond, could have brought home a camel to pull his wagon.
Did medicine shows include Indians? Oh, yes. People of the time were eager to be treated by the potions and cures that Native Americans had learned from tribal elders or seen in visions. Patent medicine companies, such as the Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company, became successful because of it. Traveling medicine shows included Indians for the same reason. Although many of the traveling shows and patent medicines were later proven to be run by white men who were con artists, there were still patients who claimed remarkable cures thanks to them. Perhaps such patients had been treated by medicine men as talented as Chief Standing Tenbears.
* * *
FURTHER READING
Some of the books I consulted in preparing to write this story include the following:
BOOKS ABOUT ST. LOUIS
Primm, James Neal. Lion of the Valley: St. Louis, Missouri, 1764–1980. 3rd ed. St. Louis: Missouri Historical Society Press, 1998. An encyclopedic look at the great city.
Ross, Oscar Mervene. The History of St. Louis, 1848–1853. St. Louis: Washington University, 1949. A master's thesis written and stored at Washington University in St. Louis. It brought to life the early city of St. Louis for me. My thanks to Washington University for sharing this gem. (A master's thesis is a lengthy research paper by a college student working on an advanced degree.)
BOOKS ABOUT STEAMBOATING AND THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER
Bissell, Richard. My Life on the Mississippi, or Why I Am Not Mark Twain. Boston: Little, Brown, 1973. Worth reading for a perspective on Mark Twain.
Larson, Ron. Upper Mississippi River History: Fact–Fiction–Legend. Winona, Minn.: Steamboat Press, 1998. An entertaining look at the folklore and history of towns along the upper part of the river, as well as the art of steamboating. This one is a favorite of mine, in part because the author has captained modern-day riverboats and in part because he hails from Winona, the river town where I grew up.
Petersen, William J. Steamboating on the Upper Mississippi. Iowa City: State Historical Society of Iowa, 1968. A comprehensive look at the days of steamboating on the upper Mississippi.
Twain, Mark. Life on the Mississippi. New York: Signet Classic, 2001. Mr. Twain's exaggerations in this book as well as in The Adventures of Huckberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer were a constant inspiration.
BOOKS ABOUT APPRENTICES
Rorabaugh, W. J. The Craft Apprentice: From Franklin to the Machine Age in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986. An in-depth look at the demise of apprenticeships in the 1800s.
BOOKS ABOUT GAMBLING
Devol, George H. Forty Years a Gambler on the Mississippi. New York: Reprinted by Johnson Reprint Corporation, 1892. A biography written by a riverboat gambler about his days of cheating and glory.
BOOKS ABOUT MEDICINE
Armstrong, David. The Great American Medicine Show. New York: Prentice Hall, 1991. A well-illustrated history of medicine shows in America. The pictures alone are worth a look.
Dunlop, Richard. Doctors of the American Frontier. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1965. You'll never squawk about a trip to the doctor again after reading this one.
BOOKS ABOUT THE FRONTIER
Brown, Dee. Wonderous Times on the Frontier. Little Rock, Ark: August House Publishers, 1991, or Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, or The Gentle Tamers: Women of the Old Wild West. All of Mr. Brown's work lends sympathy and humor to the lives of the settlers and Indians. Try any of his books—you'll be glad you did.
BOOKS ABOUT NATIVE AMERICANS
Deloria, Vine, Jr. The World We Used to Live In: Remembering the Powers of the Medicine Men. Golden, Colo.: Fulcrum Publishing, 2006. A collection of firsthand accounts about the powers of Indian medicine men, with insightful commentary by the author.
Foreman, Carolyn Thomas. Indians Abroad, 1493–1928. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1948. Tells the stories of American Indians who traveled to Europe.
Goodbird, Edward, as told to Gilbert L. Wilson. Goodbird the Indian. New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1914. The autobiography of a Hidatsa Indian on the frontier. A chance to hear in one man's own words about the coming of the white settlers.
Hoxie, Frederick E. Encyclopedia of North American Indians. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1996. A great source for basic information about Indians.
Matthews, Washington. Grammar and Dictionary of the Language of the Hidatsa. New York: Cramoisy Press, 1873. A dictionary of the Hidatsa Indians that was written in the late 1800s. My thanks to the University of North Dakota for sharing this dusty volume.
Philip, Neil (editor). A Braid of Lives: Native American Childhood. New York: Clarion Books, 2000. A chance to hear Indian children speak of their youth in their own words. You may recognize some things.
BOOKS ABOUT SLAVERY
Franklin, John Hope, and Alfred A. Moss, Jr. From Slavery to Freedom. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988. A very readable overview of the history of African Americans and slavery.
* * *
DICTIONARIUM AMERICANNICUM
* * *
Words are the keys to knowledge.
—THADDEUS POPE
* * *
WARNING!
***
DON'T BE FOOLED BY THE FANCY TITLE
THIS IS A DICTIONARY
AND MAY PROVE
HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH.
***
CONTACT WITH THESE THINGS
HAS BEEN KNOWN TO CAUSE
EPIZOOTIC, MOUNTAIN FEVER
(SPOTTED AND OTHERWISE),
AND PROLONGED FAINTING SPELLS.
***
REPORT ANY
SUSPICIOUS RASHES
TO YOUR PHYSICIAN AT ONCE.
DON'T WAIT TILL IT'S TOO LATE.
* * *
A
accordion
The word may be familiar, but is its history? The accordion is a fairly recent invention, first appearing in Europe in the early 1800s. Dr. Buffalo Hilly's accordion would have been a novelty.
afeard
Afraid.
ain't
Contraction for are not or am not. If you're worried about proper usage, you shouldn't use it, for the word is a
mark of being uneducated. That hasn't stopped a lot of people from using it over the years. There have even been times when this little contraction was in fashion among the upper classes.
airs
Not what you breathe. In this instance it refers to the act of pretending to be more important than you are.
Alleghenies (al-uh-GAY-nees)
Allegheny Mountains, located in the eastern United States and part of the Appalachian Mountains, which marked the western edge of European expansion until the later 1700s.
Aphrodite (aff-row-DIE-tee)
Greek goddess of love and beauty.
applejack
Liquor made from apples. It was an important drink on the frontier, where drinkable water was sometimes hard to come by.
apple-pie order
The best possible shape or condition.
a te dami (ah theh dah-mee)
Translates as "three kings," although the literal translation is "fathers, three." It is from the Hidatsa language. The Hidatsa are an Indian tribe that lived on the upper Missouri River in the 1840s. They still live in the same general area, which today is part of North Dakota.
atwitter
Excited.
B
bandy
To toss words about without thinking over what you're saying.
bang-up
Really good, top-notch, or first-rate.
bankroll
Money someone has. If you withdraw paper money from the bank and roll it into a cylindrical shape, you have a bankroll.
bile
Anger. Today bile refers to a fluid made by your liver to help absorb fats. In Zeb's day it had a much different meaning, one that dated back to medieval times, when physicians believed there were four fluids that controlled a person's health and temperament. Back then bile was considered a fluid that made people easily angered.
bit
A Spanish coin that was worth sixteen and a half cents and was often used in the Old West.
biters
Horses that bite.
Black Hawk
A chief of the Sauk tribe in Illinois. He fought with the British against the United States in the War of 1812, and in 1832 he took part in an uprising that became known as the Black Hawk War. The primary reason for this war? He and his followers refused to be pushed west of the Mississippi River by European settlers.
blackleg
Cheater or swindler.
blacksmith
Someone who forges iron. To forge something, you shape it by heating and hammering it. The word blacksmith comes from iron being called the black metal and a smith being someone who works with metal. On the frontier, blacksmiths did everything from making horseshoes to mending plows.
blimblam
A word that may have been made up by Mark Twain—at least, it appears in his fiction but not in any dictionary researched for this book. It seems to mean to talk noisily and endlessly.
blue streak
A long, fast stream of words.
boiler deck
On a steamboat, the deck above the boilers. The boilers heat (or boil) the water that powers the ship when turned to steam.
bonjour (bone-ZHUR)
Translates as "hello" or "good day." It is from the French language.
brush fence
Fence made from cut brush. It is a quick way to build a fence and often the first type of fence that farmers threw up when settling in a wooded area.
buckboard
Wagon with a seat mounted on springs.
buck the tiger
The phrase means to try to win at the game of faro. The symbol for faro is a tiger, and gaming halls sometimes advertised that they played faro by placing a picture of a tiger out front.
buckshot
Small lead pellets used in a gun.
buckskin
Skin made from a buck (in this case, a male deer or antelope). It was a common material for clothing on the frontier.
bullyragging
Threats.
bumpkin
Someone who's unsophisticated.
bungle
To make a dumb mistake.
bust-head liquor
Really strong liquor. Drink too much of it and you'll feel as though your head has been busted.
C
cast iron
Iron that has been heated to a liquid and poured into a cast or mold. Skillets (frying pans) are one of the more common items made from cast iron. Some people still cook with cast-iron pans.
catarrh (kah-TAR)
The common cold. The term sounds educated, which may explain why Dr. Buffalo Hilly uses it. He wants to impress his audience.
chamber pot
Before indoor plumbing, people had to use outdoor bathrooms or outhouses. A chamber pot was a lidded pot that was kept indoors, usually in a bedroom, to save people a long, cold trip to an outhouse in the middle of the night.
chaw
A measurement that's about a mouthful in size and usually refers to chewing tobacco. Another way to say chew.
chock-full
So full that nothing more can be added. This usage may come from combining choke and full.
cipher (SIGH-fur)
To do arithmetic.
clapboards
Narrow boards used as siding.
cob
A man.
combust
To burn. You may be more familiar with the noun form, combustion.
Conestoga (con-eh-STOW-guh)
Wide wagon used to haul freight or belongings. It is usually pulled by a team of six horses. The wagon is named after a valley in Pennsylvania, where it was first built in the 1700s.
consarn
Mild cuss word used in place of confound or damn.
consumption
Disease that is called tuberculosis or TB today. It is caused by bacteria that infects the lungs. In 1849 it could have been fatal.
cooper
Craftsman who makes and repairs wooden barrels, casks, and tubs.
corn-shuck tick
Tick (or mattress) filled with corn shucks that rustle whenever you roll over.
corn squeezings
Liquor made from corn.
craw
Throat and stomach. The word is most often used to describe a wide spot in the throat of a bird where food collects. It's also used to describe a human throat, particularly if something is caught in it.
crockery
Bowls made of baked clay with covers and used to store food. The Tupperware of its day on the frontier.
crowbait
Worn-out horse that's so close to death, you can use it as bait to attract crows.
cubbing
Working as an apprentice. In the context of this story, it applies particularly to young men learning to be steamboat pilots.
cuss
May be short for customer. It's usually said in a humorous or mean-spirited way and refers to a man.
D
dang
Civilized way of saying damn.
darn
Another civilized way of saying damn.
dast
To dare.
dealing seconds
A way to cheat at cards by dealing out the second card from the top of the deck. The cheater stacks the deck by placing a card that he or she wants beneath the top card (in the second position) then dealing it out whenever it is needed. A slick cardsharp can deal seconds without anyone noticing.
deck passage
Ticket that allows you to ride and sleep on the deck of a ship. It was a cheap way to travel back then.
deed
A legal document showing ownership of something (in this case, the inn).
deuce
Playing card with the number two on it. It's from the French word deux.
dickens
Polite way to say devil.
dilly-dally
Fancy way to say dally, which means to waste time.
dithers
&nbs
p; Trembles or shivers.
dotage
Old age.
drat
Mild way of saying damn.
dray
Low two-wheeled cart that was used for pulling heavy loads. Originally, the word described a sled used for dragging logs in the woods.
dromedary (DROM-uh-dare-ee)
Another name for a camel. It comes from the ancient Greek language and means "running camel." The picture showing this animal is the very one that Chief Standing Tenbears wanted to take to his father.
du ska (DOO shkuh)
Translates as "open it." The phrase is from the Hidatsa language. The Hidatsa are an Indian tribe that lived on the upper Missouri River in the 1840s. They still live in the same general area, which today is part of North Dakota.
E
egg
Not from a bird. This egg is a verb that means to push or agitate someone into action. It is usually formed with on.
epizootic (ep-ih-zoe-OTT-ick)
General illness or misery.
F
fallback
Something you can resort to (or fall back on) if you need help.
fandango
Silliness, playfulness, or foolishness. The word's origin is Spanish. In that language it is the name of a lively dance.
fantods
Irritable fidgets, occurring when you're mad about something and can't sit still.
fare
Food.
faro
Card game of the Old West. It was the most popular gambling game of its day but is no longer played, mostly because it is so easy for the dealer to cheat. The game is played on a cloth that has pictures for each card value (though not each suit) in a deck. Players set their bets atop the pictures. The name is a shortened spelling of pharaoh, the name for the ruler of ancient Egypt. At one time the cards used in the game may have included one with a picture of a pharaoh.
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