The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-03-25

"Such an institution could Tot last in
country so progressive a Oklahoma is,
said Neal Gordon of Tremlin last night
He was speaking 10 reporter for tn,
EAGLE, and had reference to the old maid:
colony in the Cherokee strip. Mr. Gordon
is probably the only man in the strip whr
eau speak authoritively concerning The
inside workings of the colony. He is
professional well-digger and is employed
in that Capacity in the colony. He is The
only man that has had the honor to bt
admitted into the colony since it was es-
tablished last October. The old maid
started out to do all the work which has
been the lot of man to perform since
| the reign of the red man ceased in that
cnuutry. hut when it came TO digging 4
well they did not want 10 be in it, and had
TO fail back on the male sex. They found
| Mr.. Gordon TO be man who attended
strictly TO his own business, ANA thought
they could safely allow him within the ter
rito-ial boundaries Of the colony.
You might be one of them newspaper
! fellows" said Mr.. Gordon to the reporter,
with a suspicious grin; "if you are don'i
say for wonid lose my job. sure. l came
| up to buy windmill, and not TO talk e
anybody. l am afraid TO say word, for il
| | once opeE NV mouth about that ole
maids colony I'll put my foot in it. sure. VI
| After some pressure aud the appiica-
| fion of never-failing lubricant MIR.
| Gordan concluded at last to talk. exact
| ing a promise, however, that what he said
would not be written in the paper. As he
did not exact any promise against having
| the story printed, it eau be given without
violence TO conscience.
"There Is row in the camp" said Mr..
| Gordon as he put a Glove in his mouth
Yes they had some hair pulling down
there Tuesday morning last. You ought
to see it. | saw three or four wom-n fight
ing in the Bowery the year after the war,
but it wasn't a patch to the fight them old
maids had"
"How many of them fought ,"
Two of them fit first, but after awhile
they all took sides and pitched in and the
way they scratched faces and pulled hair
was Il caution. A little woman named
Nellie Evans came out of the fight nearly
baldheaded'
what did you dos"
"What do you think did! 1 was there
to dig wells and that's what | did. You
would do the same thing il you were there.
Suppose I'd pitch in to seperate seventeen
old maids and they would change their
mind and jump on me where would | be?
hHON Luc udtuIc VI tuCm hhu VI CElOtCtS
and I'll let 'em fight every time, you bet. !"
'HOw did the fight start?"
at all happened about the digging OF a
cyclone cellar Every little cloud that
came up from the west as big as a mans
hand would scare them nearly to death,
aud finally they decided Monday night
that they must have cyclone cellar
Three of them were to dig one day, three
another, and so on till the cellar was dug.
Tuesday morning Nellie evans, Harriet
Jones and Nancy Corwin took their
spades. spit on their hands. took a fresh
hitch on their apron strings and began TO
dig like good fellows. l. was fun for
the first foot, but when they got
down to the hard-pan they became
cranky and began to wish they weren't old
maids. l watched 'em like a hawk TO see
how they would act. About 10 O'Clock
they began to wish it was dinner time, for
they would lean on their spades for two
minutes at the time and figure on how
high the sun was. They also became very
thirsty, from the frequent visits they made
TO the house for a drink of water. About
IL Stella Wolf, the cook, came out to see
how they were getting along, and she
thought she would act smart by taking
Nancy Corwin's spade to show her a thing
or two about digging cellar. She started
to smooth down the side of the wall. but
the spade slipped and came down on Nellie
Evans bunion with all its force. Nellie's
eyes shot ten different kinds of fire and
for Stella VOLTS curls and lifted enough
to fill good sized pin cushion at tue first
grab
And what did Stella do?"
"She howled a howl that no Wolf e'er
bowled before and buried her finger nails
in NeiiIe's face. Nellie plucked another
riuglet from the head of Stella and then
the latter ceased war upon Nellies face
and went for her hair with such terrible
fury that Nellie'5 head was like plucked
hen in two minutes. Harriet Jones now
pitched in and proceeded TO harrow the
face of Miss Wolf with her finger nails.
but she bad not proceeded far when Nancy
Cor win took sides with the Wolf girl aud
made Harriet Jones wish she had never
been born for she harpooned her under
the eye with her thumb and had il nearly
gou red out when the other old maids
cam running out of stables, hen coops and
garden patches, like so many animated
scare crows and pitched into tine fight
without ever asking what it was about.
One of the women, Clara Nelson, had just
MIXED the Cow and she threw the bucket
Harriet Jones her eye. All of one old
maids clothes were torn off of her and
then had to crawl down in the we'll and
didn't see any more, and | was glad of il
for never, in all my life, saw such hor-
rible fight.
Have they made mp again?"
Those that remain In the colony have,
but five of them have left the colony aud
are gone out west of Alya to start An old
maids colony of their own"
Which of them have lefts"
Nellie Evans, Harriet Jones, Bessie
King. Ella King and girl named Simp-
son or Simmou. / forget which. The cy-
clone cellar was nearly completed when |
left. but they'll never again have such a
cyclone rs they had that day. Don't write
anything for the paper about what / told
you," said Mr.. Gordon, AS be took another
Glove and a pretzel aad started for mis-
lodgings at the Goodyear house.