Genre:

Proceedings, Spoof

Subjects:

Ethnology, Race, War, Commerce, Cultural Geography, Human Species, Animal Behaviour

    Summarises a paper putatively given at the Ethnological Society on the 'manners, habits, and destinies of the American tribe of I.O.U. Indians', who turn out to be Old World white settlers who have gained a reputation of not repaying debts. Noting the English origins of the tribe, explains that the 'deteriorating influences of climate, and still more a vast infusion of inferior animalism, in the form of convict Irish, deboshed Germans, and the accumulated scum of other nations, combined to demoralise the Englishman, and a few generations have brought him more and more closely into assimilation with the aboriginal Indians of the Western Continent'. Goes on to discuss some of the other disagreeable characteristics of tribe members, including their 'strange hatred for the black man', but thinks that exposure to 'European civilisation' will redeem the tribe.