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344
Fisk assumes an ownership
in the phrase "its own" that Utes
would fi nd hard to understand.
This is a benevolence
as crude as the malignant
designs of Hayt and Pitkin.
Both outlooks are unworldly.
When an unworldly outlook
is acted on, as Pitkin's,
alas, was, then the world gets
a rare clear-cut disaster.'
-- `Fisk on your temperamental
shortcomings -- ' And Meeker smiles,
`Dr. Johnson says, Perhaps,
if we speak with rigorous
exactness, no human mind
is in its right state.
Perhaps
if Fisk had explained to us
what "the Indian character"
is, and what temperament
is fi tted to deal with it ...
-- Truth to say, the Utes and I
were rather too much alike
than the contrary; that is,
neither they nor I were -- patient.'
I say, `That philosopher
I've been reading said, It takes
patience to appreciate
domestic bliss: volatile
spirits prefer unhappiness.'
He says, `Volatile spirits
will have a reply ready.
Still, I plead almost guilty.
I sometimes wonder whether
my going to White River
was one headlong wrong impulse,