re
inclined to believe that he was Will Shakespeare himself.

In France, the fantastic figure in motley lights up many dark and tragic
pages of history. Triboulet, who was jester to Louis XII and Francis I,
was the hero of Hugo's "Le Roi S'amuse," of Verdi's opera "Rigoletto," and
appears in Rabelais' romance. His portrait was painted by Licinio, the
rival of Titian.

Chicot, who was the friend as well as the jester of Henri III, has been
clearly delineated by Dumas, pere, in his "Dame de Monsoreau."

Finally, there is Yorick. "Alas! poor Yorick"--who was jester at the Court
of Denmark, and immortalized by Shakespeare as "a fellow of infinite jest,
of most excellent fancy."

The word "fool" ceases to be a term of reproach when this array of cheery
fun-makers is considered, all of them bearing the title proudly and as an
honor.

The Red Man Eloquent.

Remarkable Speech Delivered in 1842 by Colonel Cobb, Head Mingo of the
Choctaws East of the Mississippi, When the Federal Government
Was Forcing the Tribe Westward.

The American Indian was a natural orator. His inspiration
came straight from the life of the forest and plain.
Figurative language adorned his every-day speech, which was
full of allusions to sun, moon, stars, the thunder, the
waterfall. Exaggeration, of course, was to be expected of
him, and most of the specimens of Indian eloquence that have
been translated and preserved are marred by hyperbole. There
remains, however, at least one bit of native American
eloquence deserving of recognition as equal to the best of
its kind in all nations, and that is the speech delivered in
1842 by Colonel Cobb, Head Mingo of the Choctaws east of the
Mississippi, in reply to the agent of the United States.

The Choctaws formerly inhabited the lands included in what
is now central and southern Mississippi and western Alabama.
They were an active nation, subsisting mainly by
agriculture. Because they flattened the foreheads of their
children, the French called them Flatheads. They
acknowledged the sovereignty of the United States in 1786,
and in the War of 1812 and the Creek War they served the
government. In 1830 they ceded the last of their lands to
the government, and were moved during the next fifteen years
to the Indian Territory, where they developed a form of
constitutional self-rule which has been completely