The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-09-20

with its Indian population, has infinitely
better order than the towns along the rail
road where the whites have been permitted
to do business. The hotel here is good and
l have not seen bit of disorder or any
drunkenness during my stay here 1t is
against the law to sell liquor in the terri
tory, and that which is brought here is
Struggled in by the whites. There was
big celebration at Fort Smith the
other day and the railroads going
through the territory gave excursion
rates. The cowboys along the line at
tended and l happened to be travelling in
one OF the trains by which they returned.
| have never seen a more drunken, dis
reputable and disorderly crowd. The men
were wild with liquor, and red-faced cow
boys, with big hats on their heads. jumped
up and down, yelling and Growing like
ROSTERS and swearing they could whip any
BANKED man in the car One of the worst
OF these men was deputy marshal, whose
hair was like tow and whose face was as
red as beet. He came from Muscogee,
and he is evidently good fellow when he
is sober, but he is devilish mean one when
he is drunk. This man staggered to and
fro, making letter S of his tracks, which
ran from end Of the car to the other.
Every now and then he would clap his
elbows to his side, hop up and down and
crow like rooster There were
others with him quite as bad, and
there were a couple of half breed
Indian girls who were drunk, and now and
then you would see man jerk revolver
from his hip and Drandish it around, and at
times there were half a dozen revolvers
out. 1t was by no means safe, and | was
glad when we finally stopped at Wagon or,
where | was to stay over night. Here
stopped at hotel called the Valley house,
kept by a drunken landlord n AIMED Harris,
and was given room just ov er the Office,
where | could hear Harris and the cowboys
carousing far into the morning.
THE NEGRoEs OF THE INDIAN TERRITORY.
There are many negroes still in the In =
dian Terrietory and you find many of tn g
Greeks who have intermarried with the
negroes. The Choctaws have also many
people of mixed Indian and negro blood and
the ChickasaWs bad big cotton plan tations
before the war and had many slaves
These Cherokees here are the proud
est of all these Indian tribes. They
are the aristocrats of the Five Nations.
They seldom intermarry with the negro,
aud they have separate schools for them.
! There are stores here run by the Indians
| quite as good as those OF the white men in
the towns along the railroad, and l am sur
prised to see what big stocks of goods they
carry and what variety of articles they
use. The dry goods stores contain all
kinds of ladies' dress goods, and these
women here do not confine themselves by
any means to Calico Such as have seen
wear as good clothes as you will find worn
by the women of any town of this size in
the United States and they dress in exactly
the same way. Most of the families of
Tahlaquah have sewing machines, and
nearly every house has piano or organ
They use cooking stoves and have exactly
the same kind of household furniture tina,
you will find in an American villege. The
men dress in the same way and of the Chero
KEGS only only the fewest cling to theil
old habits and there are more. l think, but
who wear citizens closthes. Some OF the
poorest Indians, and these are generally
full blooded ones, live in log cabins, ant
these do nothing but fish and cultivate
little ground for their own corn. These,
understand. are chiefly in the eastern par
of the nation where there is some mount
Gus country
AS far as l can learn, the Indians would
get along better if the whites were KEEP
entirely out of the territory. The most O.
those who come, come to rob the Indians
and they are as rule shiftless, unscrupul
i Gus and bad citizens. The Indians them