Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-12-27
SELL THEIR WIVES.


Better Halves Can,Be Purchased or
Traded I'm the klondike.
From the Philadelphia TIMES
Startling reports regarding the extent Of
the wife-se1ling trafic of the Klondike
country is the sensation ,of Vancouver
That man can getIa buxom, dark-eyed
wife for fifty blankets would seem a sort
of fairy story were not the facts so serious
Robert Stead Dun, "a graduate Of Har.
ward. and formerly editor Of the Harvard
Monthly, has just returned to civilization
after a 1,500-mile trip byathe Edmonton
overland trail to the Klondike.
1t was here at Fort Graham that Mr. Dun
discovered the polygafhous condition of So
young women. He found that nearly all
the clerks and employees. had no difficulty
in buying wives. And they bought them.
Sparkling Eyes, noted Indian belle and
the daughter OF a prominent chief, was con.
sidered the prize Of the northwest. From
far and near came offers for her hand. Po-
mics, guns, trinkets, brass watches, yards
of tinfoil and bales Of copper wire were of.
fered for quit claim deed to the maidens
heart.
But the grim old warrior was not to be
caught by any ordinary purchase He
wanted something besides personal proper
ty. He was ambitious for family alliance
with some man of social standing and in
f1uence in the community.
Thus 1t was that when Factor Fox, big
medicine man, superintendent Of white
faced employees, made overtures. with due
ceremony and elaborate array of technicali-
ties, involving the highest etiquette of the
land. the copper-colored chieftain immedi-
ately became an eager party to the negotia-
tons.
Then Factor Fox took the girl to his
cabin, decked her out in beads and gorgeous
trappings, with yellow handkerchief for her
head, purple scarfs for her neck, resplen-
dent brass rings for her ears and fingers
and a peck of f1ashy big-headed pins for
other features of her adornment.
She modestly appreciated her exalted po-
sition in the new life, and although she did
not seek to ostentatiously queen it over the
employees of the factory. yet she had an air
of authority and self-possession that won
her the respect of the boys of the settle
ment.
The old Indian chief must have picked up
some new points from the whites. for when
ne found that his daughter was jewel of
wife, about the finest thing ice in the
west he demanded a codicil to be inserted
in the deed.
He struck for more blankets. If Factor
Fox had no blankets to spare the chief
would take dogs, brass watches or money,
but he preferred guns If he could get them.
Mr.. Fox refused to be blackmailed. 1t
should be explained that the copper-colored
father had threatened to give a low whistle
from the parapet of the fort that the girl
would understand and she would run away.
But the factor had treated her too we'll and
she knew good thing when she had it.
She refused to leave home; she said she
liked the white mans tents and his chill
dren, and for the first time during her
painted career she had found domestic hap
riness.
The old chief was furious and made wild
threats of vengeance. But the girl was
true to her last love. When she looked into
the big warehouses and saw great boxes
of brass watches and barrels of copper
beads crates of hardtack and, best of all,
several barrels of forty-rod whisky, she re-
marked to her oldest stepson: white dad
dy, heap good" The boy gave an Indian
grunt, acquired only after long practice,
and said his father was the best man he
had ever known. The wife then sent a
clerk to warn her father to keep away from
the fort until he could behave himself