Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1879-09-29
The Legend of the Falls.

r. J. Burdette in Burlington Hawkeye.
There is very tender and touching
legend about these falls. l knew there
must be. II there had been none l
should have made up one, something
hate 10 do most awfully, because l lke
all NV romances to have dash OF truth
in them.
There was, on time within the mem
ory of the oldest inhabitant, trouble
among the Indians. The MOhawks, II II
was the Mohawks, and the Milicetes, II
that is the way you spell it, fell in love
with each other, and each begged the
other for a lock of his hair to remember
him bv. And at the same time, the ar
dent sutton begged the poor boon oil be
ING allowed TO cut off the lock himself.
Moreover. TO show that he meant busl-
ness, he ground his little thomas haWK
and hOned up his persuasive little scalp
ing-knife and announced that he was III
the hair business, no trouble 10 snow
goods, a new crate just opened to-day,
orders from the country promptly at
tended TO.
Well, customers came right along
from the day the sign was hung out on
either side, and both establishments
had all they could do. The supply
seemed to equal the demand, and and
the demand was steady and constant,
with rising tendency. But after a
while il was evident that the Mohawks
had the most and the best men out on
the road and had got the dead wood on
the country trade, and vast quantities OF
IL u-prbaH az nrlnpS 10
suit the times. Things run on this way
until at last the Milicete Indians were
forced out of the jObbing trade entirely
buving in small lots and manufacturing
only home orders, all sales at thirty days,
on a margin of about two and one hall
Der cent. But the greedy Mohawk
put up a few branch stores to Kill OF
this stand and the Milcetes, were at last
driven to little puttering side street bus
mess hardly getting enough hair TO run
the hairing machine.
Meanwhile, the demand in the Mo-
hawk market for Milicete hair continued
unabated, and runners for the house
were untiring in their efforts to secure
the new crops and whatever there was
already in the stack or bins. And when
they brous Int in word one day that the
aival firm had skipped out OF the coun-
try, taking all the Mllicete hair there
was along with them on their heads, the
Mohawks got up, put on their war pant,
piled into their canoes and started down
the river in fierce pursuit. Night closed
i'm alike on the pursued and pursuerS,
but it didn't stop the circus a minute.
The Milicites padded till their backs
ached and the Mohawks made the ripples
fly right behind them. At length the
roar of the ialS sounded in the ears oil
the flying Milicetes and they turned 10
the shore, beached their light barks and
struck Tor tall timber.
All but one. 4 woman, as usual, was
the last one in the train. squaw
whose aboriginal name was either forgot
or never knew-Nary Jane johnson,
maybe, was sculling along at the tail end
of the procession. For two or three
miles before reaching the falls she had
made up her womanly, or squawly
mind. that she would save her tribe and
at the same time avenge them. SO she
lighted kerosene lamp, or 1t may have
been pine knot, and set 1t III the stern.
of her canoe. The pursuing Mohaw ks
saw it, thought it was the last act OF
sullen, hopeless defiance, and they
howled till their cOrns aChed, trying to
reach il. When the fugltlves landed
above the falls, Mary Jane johnson
landed too, but she did not strike for
tine woods. She picked up her kerosene
lamp and trotted around the falls on
the rocks. From rock to rock she MIN
bly, sprung and lightly scrambled until
she reached point far beyond them,
where her flaming signal Just lin
ell the pursuing canoes with the
"split rock" Just midway in
the cataract. On came the Mohawks,
their fierce eyes fastered on the flame
that danced before them, their tiercer
cries drowning the roar of the cataract,
until suddenly the angry white foam
leans into their faces from the swlrIs
and eddying rapids that catch their fra
ollie banks and before their savage yeiis
of hate can be changed to the notes OF
their death song, the mad plunge is
taken. and the gorge is so full of drown
ell Indians that the CorOner'S office Is
worth $500 a year for the next SIX
weeks.
II used the Mohawks up completely:
they went out OF business and joined
the spiritualists. The Milicetcs also,
what was left Of them, reformed, went
out of politics entirely, and the tribe is
now settled in an Indian village down
below here little ways. at the mouth
of the Aroostook, where they live on
theinterests OF their taxes. Mary Jane
Johnson was highly honored by her
tribe. They married her to the chief
and granted her the free privilege OF cut
ting wood and hoeing corn and cooking
for her husband and fifteen children all
the rest of her life.