Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-01-12
SELL THEIR WIVES.

Startling reports regarding the extent
of the wife-selling traffic of the Klondike
country is the sensation of Vancouver
That a man can get a 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 T1ar-
ward Monthly, has just returned to civil
ization after a 1500-mile trip by the Ed
monitor overland trail to the Klondike,
says the Philadelphia Times.
1t was here at Fort Graham that Mr..
Dun discovered the polygamous condition
of society. e.
Sparkling Eyes, a noted Indian belle
and the daughter of a prominent chief,
vas considered the prize of the north
west. From far and near came offers for
her hand Ponies, guns, trinkets.I brass
watches, yards of tinfoil and bales of
copper wire were offered for a quit claim
deed to the maiden's heart. r,9o1 ,.
But the grim onld warrior was not to
be caught by an ordinary purchaser. He
wanted something besides personal prop
erty. He was ambitious for a family al
lance with some man of social standing
and influence in the community. r.
Thus it was that when Factor Fox, a
big medicine man, a superintendent of
White-faced employees, made OvertureS,
with due ceremony and elaborate, array
of technicalities, involving the highest
etiquette of the land, the copper-colored
chieftain Immediately became an eager
party to the negotiations.
Then Factor Fox took the girl to his
cabin, decked her out in beads and gor-
geous trappings, with a yellow handker-
chief for her head, purple searfs for her
neck, respondent brass rings for her ears
and fingers, and a peck of fishy, big
headed pins for other features of her
adOrnment.
She modestly appreciated her exalted
position in the new life, and, although
she did not seek to ostentatiOuSly queen
it over the employees of the factory, yet
she had IN air of authority and self-pos-
session that won her the respect of the
boys of the settlement.
The old Indian chief must have picked
up some new points from the white, for
when he found that his daughter was a
jewel of a wife 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
item.
Hr. Fox refused to be b~lackmailed. 1t
/ hould be explained that the copper-col-
ored 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 tn. factor had treated
her too well, and she knew a good thing
when she had it. She refused to leave
home; she said she liked the white mans
tents and his children, and for the first
time during her painted career she found
domestic happiness.
Tie cid chief was furious, and made
wild threats of vengeance. But the girl
was true TO her last love:A When she
looked into the big warehouse and saw
great boxes of brass watches and barrels
Of copper beads, crates of bareback, and,
best of all. several barrels Of 40-rod whis-
ky, she remarked to her oldest stepson:
white daddy heap good" 10
The boy gave an Indian grunt, ac-
quired 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.