Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1899-03-18
ROMANCE OF THE
PALE-FACE GODDESS,
By WINIFRED BLACK.

By wINIFRED BLACK.
TSix years ago Miss Lydia Lyons,
a daughter Of Major Lyons, of
Chicago, in a moment of enthusiast
tic impulse, renowned all the pomp
and vanities of the world and went
out 10 work among the Indians and
to save their souls in the name of
the great White Spirit. Among the
Arapahoes there was one fierce, wild
spirit she could not Christianize.
He was Tixico, the finest fighter and
| the worst Indian of his tribe.
II will become Christian if you
will become my wife," be said. II
| will become your wife if you will
| not commit sin in three years, "she
answered, in q moment of despair,
never dreaming for a moment the
savage could keep bis compact. But
he was stole, like all Indians. And
he did.
"lf / break my promise will
lose my SOUL" she said. "If | mar.
ry him / may save bis"
She plunged a dagger into her
heart last week. Tixico, drunk ever
since the night of their wedding,
shot their baby as it crawled over
her cold breast. He has been jail
ed and will hang.
ea2F,1sESSa2KIS is the stery Of Tixico, a
SkHE1SS chief of the Indian Arapa-
s saAzS hoes, and of Lydia, his
| beautiful white squaw. He was the
brsvest and the worst Indian of his
tribe.
The Indians called her 1.-THE Pale
Face Goddess"
1t is true story, and it is not
quite ended yet. She was found
dead with dagger wound in her
breast. She plunged the dagger in
to her heart herself.
Tixico is under arrest at Tecum.
sch, in Oklahoma. for shooting their
baby as it lay playing upon its dead
mothers breast
This tragedy of two souls-Chris-
tian and savage began in Chicago.
Lydia Lyons was the prettiest
girl on the North Side few years
ago.
Her father was Major Henry
Lyons, man OF position and infu-
ence.
Lydia Lyons had q comfortable
home and a host of friends.
She WAS an enthusiastic, impul.
siye little thing, with pair of long
dashed blue eyes, tina. had trick OF
blazing into remarkable brilliancy
under any strong emotion.
One day, after she had been to a
dance the night before, she went to
a parlor meeting, where "a mission
airy told some pretty stories about
the work among the Indians in the
far West.
All the women at the meeting
were very much interested in the
mission work.
They bought hand worked slip
pers, and plated baskets, and told
each other how sweet the mission
airy speaker was and how they wish
ed they could be noble and disinter
ested like her. And then they went
home and hung the Indian bead
work and the plated baskets in
their rooms beside the dance pro-
grammes snd the college colors, and
forgot all about the Indians and the
woman who told them about them
Lydia Lyons did not forget.
She bought books on the Amer
lean Indian and his mode of life.
She read missionary tracts shout
the blessedness of work among the
sayages. She went to see the mis-
sionary speaker, and one day she
went to her father and said:
I'm going to be missionary to
the Indians. I'm tired of doing
nothing but have a good time.
want to be of some use ia the world.
VIII you help me?"
Brave old Major Lyons looked at
his frail little daughter.
Her cheeks were flaming, and her
blue eyes were ablaze, but she spoke
very quietly.
"Will you help me, papa?" she
cried.
And Major Lyons said yes"
So he sent his daughter to the L.
linois Training School for Nurses.
He thought the hard and the dis
couraging drudgery of the hospital
wards would cure her of her wish to
be missionary.
He was mistaken.
Lydia Lyons was born nurse,