Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-09-06


such person is caught he should and does
receive a long term. More cases come into
the courts for introducing liquor than for
any other crime, and to the crime of in
Producing liquor can be attributed many
Others such as shooting or brandishing
firearm, breaking the peace, or assault.
A conVic ton for Introducing liquor is
rarely found by jury. The evidence must
be most conclusive. This is because the
people want liquor, and 1t is hard matter
to get jury composed of men who nave
not fellow-feeling for the man who IN
PRODUCES it. An Indian who has once had
liquor will pay any price to secure 1t, ana
thus the profits of these whisky peddlers,
as they are called, are very great They
highest price for 1t.
The methods which the whisky peddlers
use are interesting. After nightfall they
fire pistol once to notify their customers
that they are about: soon thereafter they
fire a second shot as notice to put the
money down. When they have secured the
money they put the whisky in the place
where the money has been laid and retife
to a concealed place and fire third snot'
which means, There's your whisky
The United States court at Fort smith
Ark, also claims jurisdiction over hquor
cases. and something Should be done by the
next Congress to correct this matter. Be
sides increasing the cost of prosecution to
the government there is another and i'm
the lire from the Indian territory. If an
Indian goes there to trade he is at once ac-
costed by q runner for a saloon, taken in
to a saloon and given a drink. When ne
has had one he wants more, and when he
starts home he is full and takes in his
pocket quart or two OF whisky. About
soon as he reaches home he is seized
by deputy marshal and taken to Fort
Smith for trial for introducing liquor into
the territory. Witnesses are called from
the territory to secure a conviction and
the liquor dealers see to it that these wit
nesses in turn are sent home in drunken
con 1ition and with another supply of
whisky. These Indians in turn are seized
AMI other witnesses are necessary for their
conviction.
Defective Jail buildings.
The iails are totally unfit for occupancy.
The United States Jail at Muskogee is
frame structure, covered with iron, prob
ably fifty feet square. and into it are herd
ed from eighty to one hundred and TWEEN
ty prisoners constantly. The Jail is the
height of two stories, but has only one
floor. The space is divided. the largest
portion being about fifty by thirty-fve
feet. The portion fifty by fifteen at the
southern end Is again subdivided. The
room in the east half of this subdivision
is used as a guard room, and the portion
on the west contains two floors, the first
floor being a cell in which boys are con-
fined. and the upper portion is again sub
divided, one portion being used for dun
geon and the other for hospital. There
were in this hospital at the time l visited
the Jail one young man in the last stages
of consumption and another who was that
morning taken down with the measles.
When long sentence is imposed at all,
the criminals wish for more than a year,
for then they sent to one of the peni-
teutiaries in the east, where healthful
regulations prevail and work of some kind
Is provided, but on a sentence of a year or
less they are confined in this pest hole,
without any sanitary arrangements what
ever, with nothing to do. Some provision
should be made by the next Congress to
put these man at work on the streets of
the towns in which the jails are located,
so that their minds might be properly oc-
cupied, and an opportunity afforded for
them to breathe pure air and see the light
of day. The awful condition of this prison
beggars description. 1t rivals Anderson
vile.
The Cherokee nation has no Jail in which
to detan prisoners before trial They are
keppby a guard, who stays with them con-
stantly until trial is had. Upon convic-
ton they are placed in the penitentiary at
Tahlequah. the capital of the nation.
In the Creek nation criminals are gen
orally punished by whipping. They are
whipped for the first and second offenses
Of larceny and for the third offense are
shot. 1t seems strange to such laws
on the statutes OF nation living within
the jurisdiction of the United States
The establishment of the United States
courts has brought to the principal towns
a number of lawyers with their families,
who have an elevating influence upon the
Indians themselves Merchants have also
come in, and have invested large sums IN
stores of great magnitude. There are de-
pGrtment stores in some of the large towns
One OF these keeps in stock anything in
the way of house furnishings and hard
ware.
The fact that whites have gone into the
territory and engaged in business when
they could not so much as purchase the
ground on which to erect stores is an as
surance that with the advent of the day of
allotment when they will be permitted to
buy the land on which their stores ana
dwelling houses stand, they will make
large investments in every branch of trads.
and the real Indians being in actual nos
session of permanent homes, will take on
the habits of the white man and become
thoroughly civilized and useful American
citizens.