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Paging aii Wooden Indians
Want a different kind of bobby? Try carving wooden Indians!
by BARNEY SCHWARTZ
THE law of supply and demand has caught up with the old cigarstore Indian.
Remember him, the fearsome'look' ing lifesize wooden image who sat stoically like a business tycoon and quietly performed a duty similar to that of a circus barker? For decades before and after 1900, he was the mark of a cigar store just as a candystriped pole designates a barbershop.
Today's demand for cigar-store Indians is greater than the supply.
In fact, if you are a good wood carver, have patience, time and the inclination, you could be kept busy until the next century rolls in. Fifty lucrative years! The Cigar Institute '-of America in New York reports there are enough requests from cornel smoke-shops across the nation to keep your carving knife in constant motion.
Richard Turkey, director of the Institute, estimates there are 3,000 wooden Indians in existence, but only ''200 are on active duty on the side
walks in front of business establishments. The other 2,800 are in the hands of collectors who aren't eager to part with them.
Those 3,000, incidentally, are the only survivors of the 100,000 which once served their mission.
The 97,000 which have vanished went the way of all timber. Some ended ignominously in dumps. Some furnished kindling for wood-burning stoves. Some were torn apart for the good wood which was used for some other decoration. Only a sprinkling ended up in college fraternity houses and they were forgotten when ukuleles and racoon coats became main campus props.
Who knows but that Uncle Horace didn't put one in a secluded corner of the old family storage shed, thinking one day he'd chop it to pieces — but never did? Such a prospect bears