The Portland daily press., 1886-10-12
THE SIOUX CAPTIVE.
A Romantic Discovery Brought ABOUT
at the Knights Templar conclave.

at the Knights TemPlar conciase'
During the conclaYe of Knights Tempiar
at St. Louis, an incident happened which IL
lustrates the correctness of the old adage
that truth is often stranger than felton,
This is the story as told BY a st. Louis pa
per;
Mr.. S. p. Beleher is manager Of the Frenen
Silvering Glass Company, of this city; Like
many others, he was forced to leave MS no
tel in lorder to make room for kalgnt
Templar. He secured a room in an up-5Ii9TSn
residence, and was requested Dy MS ,alul.u5 ..,5
to allow two Sir Knights to occupy the Sans
compartment with him for week or SO. .I n1I
cheerfully consented, and ON their. arrival
naturally engaged them In conversation 1L,a S,,e
endeavored to make them reel at nonlSS. S,ir Gno
evening In the latter part OF last weeS, ,iaat Ia
Turned on Indians. One of the Sir knignts
remarked that he had lived among IneIn LOT
six wears, and was deeply struck Win tneir
intelligence. This conversation inaue an I'M I'M
preston on Mr.. Belcher, ana at tne ulnneI
table on the following day he repeated wnat
the Sir Knight had said In regard 70 Ine IN IN
dians A lady who sat epposite quickly
spoke up ard said that she agreed Win the
person who had said that 1.-THE good indian
IS the dead Indian" This remark, coming
from a lady of very evident rennement nat
urally excited surprise, and she quickly ad-
ded 'I was a captive among them Tor three
years, so have good reasons for my opin-
ion." All eyes were at once turned on the
lady as she made this last remark, and as
she was pressed on all sides to tell her story,
she at last consented.
She said that upwards Of twenty-eight
years ago, when she was girl Of u years Of
age, she left her home in New York City to
visit some friends at fort on the frontier.
While there she saw great deal Of the H.
dians, as they were daily visitors at the fort.
ak.x1N
her beautiful auburn tresses especially inter-
ested them. The color seemed to be to them
good medicine" and they begged for locks
of it as it would insure to then good luck ON
the war-path: One young Sioux chief did
not confine himself to a single lock, but re-
quested the whole head, as well as her heart
and hand. His aspirations were cruelty
checked, but he. as well as other members OF
the tribe, still continued to lavish on her
presents of beads and trinkets of various
kinds. This went on for some time, until
one day in October the little girl took her
basket, left the fort and trotted off to the
woods to gather butternuts. While thus en-
gagged, her too ardent friend, the rejected
chief, stole stealthily upon her, and before
she was aware of it her head was enveloped in
a blanket, she was lifted TO the back OF a
horse and rapidly carried off, Being taken
to the tent where the tribe was encamped,
she was received with great respect and
treated with extreme kindness. The tribe at
once moved off with their captive, and dur
ing the entire three years she was with them
they moved from place TO place, never re.
manning at any one place for any length Iof
time. Vainly did the poor girl watch for
chance to escape, and yainly did she wait
for a rescuing party to come to her assis-
tance. During all this time she was well
treated by her eaptors, and never once did
they offer any indignity to her. In their fu-
rious bursts Of passion she witnessed many
cruel and vengeful acts on their part, but
never were these acts directed towards her.
She was, as it were, queen among them, so
far as treatment went. but was nevertheless,
placed under the strict surveillance of the
squaws of the tribe. When travelling she
was never forced to walk, but was always
given a seat on pole carriage, or in rough
ground carried ON the shoulders Of stout
buck. Notwithstanding their kindness to
her she hated them violently, aud never
ceased to long for her freedom. From being
a plump, stout, rosy girl, she became almost
a living skeleton.
When she had been with them about three
years they were encamped somewhere in the
Rockies. Her tent was pitched against a tall
cliff, down which ran little stream of wa
ter, and which also ran through under the
tent While she was sitting there in the
company of several Squaws one day, she sud-
denly heard shouts out among the hills. The
shouts were Immediately followed by shsts,
and she knew that conflict of some kind
was going on. A few squaws rushed into the
tent, gave few orders and left. Those who
were in the tent then seized the trembling
captive, threw her on the ground, covered
her with pile of furs, and, Judging from the
weight. she concluded they must have sat on
her. 1t was with the utmost difficulty that
she could breathe, and she thinks she would
never have lived to tell this story had il not
been that she was within reach of the small
parched throat and lips. Soon she heard the
squaws who had gone out return, and after
an interval of deathlike silence she was al
most enraptured by hearing what she had
laII nf nuR nai llfa Tn
her own language. The welcome voice spoke
the following words: "Well, boys, / guess
we might as well take this pile of furs along
too With this they gathered up the furs,
ined when they came to the almost inani-
mate form lying on the ground. She was
quickly restored, and learned that her cap
tors had been almost completely annihilated,
only two or three escaping. Her rescuers
were a military party who were travelling
eastward.
On arriving again in civilization, the girl,
whose name was Mary Otis, at once set
about gaining information of her parents.
This she was unable to do. Every trace Of
them seemed to be lost. Whether they were
living or dead she could not discover. She
no sooner obtained clue as to their where
abouts than something arose to destroy it,
and in this way she continued her effort to
find them, but never succeeded Gradually
she brought herself to consider all her friends
as gone, and to look upon herself as alone
free and among civilized people once more,
and for that she was unutterably thankful.
At length lady whom she had met at one Of
the forts where she with her rescuers were
stopping, and who had taken great fancy
to her, asked her to live with her. This the
poor lonely girl consented to do, and at once
accompanied the kind lady to her home in
Michigan. Here she filed the place of a
daughter, and spent many happy days with
her new mother, entirely resigned to her fate,
and regarding the one who had adopted her
as her mother. Time sped ON, and she once
robustness. Soon her charms attracted the
attention of an army officer, and she became
his wife. The officer, her husband, Isl
Knight Templar, and they together visited
the cOnclave,
During the progress of the story the lady
incidentally mentioned her maiden name,
Mary Otis. No sooner had Mr.. Belcher
heard the name than he became suddenly ex-
cited, and questioned her as to her antece-
dents and family On receiving her answer
he at once made known to her the fact that
his wife's brother-in-law was one Of her
Otis; he had a brother, John Otis, and sis
ter, Mary Otis. The sister had been spirited
away, they knew not how, and had loRg
since been given up for lost. But there was
no doubt that the lady from Michigan and
Mary Otis were one and the same. This dis
cOvery greatly affected both parties interest
ed, as well as the others present, and Mr..
Becher was unable to transact any business
for the remainder Of the day. The lady was
also overwhelmed, and before her departure
a few days after, opened correspondence
with her brothers. The lady is now quite
gray. more through trouble and anxiety than
through age. She is very intelligent and re-
fined, having received liberal education
from the old lady by whom she was adopted.