The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-09-05
INDIANS. POLITICS AND OKLAHOMA

4
civilized Indians look miserable; tn
uncivilized are pictures of perfect com
fort 1t is an old story of how the In
dian will scrape off the veneer of civi
lization and become a savage again
over night
In this connection, 1 heard this
John Williams. son of Bull Thunder
was elected register of deeds of thi:
county with the express understanding
that he would act civilized and he
struggled bravely TO be nineteenth
century type of intellectulality. He
resisted beef issues; mocsasins: sun
dances and polygamy. He tore
down the skin wigwam and built a
frame house. A daughter died, and
under the pressure OF an Indian Gus
tom, the Indian office holder gave in,
and with great ceremony burned his
| frame house, to the great delight of the
| blanket Indians The white people
did not despair. They persuaded him
| to build another frame house. But
another child died and the house went
UP in smoke again Then the good
people gave UP.
We arrived here today at noon and
found the people still Indignant over
the fake Indian scare last night
and the night before the people kept
pouring into the little town for pro-
lection, frightened almost to death.
Everybody in this part of the country
is talking of the Indian outbreak ex-
cept the Indians themselves This
place is twenty three miles north Of
Watonga and twenty-five miles from
Hennessey, west Of the latter place.
The road from here to Watonga is over
broken prairie and part Of the time
through black-jaeks
A few miles north of Watonga, in a
blackjack grove, / found a whole FAM
lily making sorgham- This was the
Higgins family. One of the Hig-
gins boy drove the horse around and
another Higgins chucked the cane in
between the crushing-roIls. The Juice
trickled down into great pan through
a rubber hose Under the pan was
fierce fire and the sorgham boiled,
while Mrs. Higgins, an intelligent wo-
man, puddled it with an immense pad
die, and another Higgins offspring
skinned the liquid with scoop, and
Mrs. Higgins fed the fire. 1t is best
to have very hot fire and 1 found this
was accomplished by the use Of "grubs."
Grubs are the roots of blackjack
which are pulled out This whole fam
lily was engaged In making molasses,
and Mrs. Higgins told me: $50 long
as we have corn cakes and sorghum,
we can not starye" The Higgins fam
lily, however, has no even remote
thought of privation- Their cotton
is fine; their cereals fair.
We are getting into the log cabin
country. These are perched on hills,
and backed up into hill-sides and nest
ling in draws. We passed, also. log
school houses, which are growing I'M
der the necessity Of furnishing future
presidents. Most Of the people look
prosperous There are Germans here
and their Rheinish origin is shown in
the frequent appearance of vineyards.
There are also Russian minnonites and
a colony Of Adventists in the vicinity.
There is a good deal of cotton, but more
wheat and corn than further south.
To the west of us as we travelled north
is range of ragged hills These hills
lie fifteen miles west and are full of
deep canyons and receSseS. The
canyons furnish any amount Of pic
turesque hooks. Crystlizations of
gypsum hang in stalactites from the
walls Of a long tunnel, and curious for
nations by the action of the elements
are numerous. Mr.. Chapman, the editor
of the Okeene Eagle. has number OF
Of the strenge spot in a
prairie country. 1t IS his ambition to
have natural park establHhed in this I
the park TO include these |
The Okeene Eagle Office, in which I |
am writing this, is fifteen by ten feet |
square. In the center is an army press /
and three cases. The paper comes out /
weekly and is run by Mr. Chapman and /
his son. Loren.
Loren is n cripple and printer Il
was discussing Oklahoma Journalism /
with him when a man came in and in
troduced a watch and asked Loren TO /
find out what allied IL. Loren put down /
his composing stick, and shook the |
small marker of mans stages in etern-
Ity; shook it, listened 10 it, pried open
the cases and said: 'She's jumped the /
forks" The owner, without saying
so, looked as though he knew what this
meant and then betrayed himself by
asking how long it would take TO fix it.
Loren juggled it a little and STARTED
1t on its long journey again. 4 few
moments later a blooming farmer
maiden came and asked demurely If
she coulud have her picture taken.
Again the Oklahoma journalist drop
ped his connection with the art preser-
Fative OF all arts, and led the new Gus
toner across the street to his home, !
where the photograph was duly taken.
Journalism ST 0keene. when coupled
with some good business or trade, at
ratio of 10 OF something else. to 1 OF
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