Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-04-16
SELLS HIS OWN DAUGHTER.

It is now known for an actual fact
that Mr.. Josiah P. w. Davis of Redding
has, in regular form, decided away his
youngest daughter to one Rudolph OFT.
The written agreement has been formally
signed, sealed and delivered. The name
of the girl, Ida Davis, appears on the
document-she is thus designated and
identified as a house, SOW, or any other
piece of real or personal property legally
transferred. Mr.. Rudolph OFT is in the
position of having a right and tight as
surance that the girl will be his, al
though nothing has been said of the
possession of preference that turks in her
large and lustrous eyes, or Of the femi-
nine will which may make a bonfire of
the wooden rivets of the law. But here
she is. in this day of grace, bordering on
the twentieth century, with It's great
promises of emancipation for women.
parcelled out like the feminine goods and
chattels of barba1'ic times! The re-
markable instrument in which Ida Davis,
Rudolph OFT and Josiah Davis must ap-
pear before the present and future, as
It born many centuries after their time.
is as follows:
"Redding. March Is, 1900.
''This is to certify that I, joe Davis.
do hereby give to Rudolph OFT. Is located
mining claims and my youngest daugh-
ter. Ida Davis, in default of which I
promise to pay to Rudolph OFT the sum
Of SIC. 0oo. +
"(signed) ]. P. w. DAVIS.
JAMES McHUGH.
ALBERT SEIGl1R.
witnesses"
1t is a serious instrument, given and
). accepted in good faith by the men. How
, conceived of by the dark-eyed girl, who
!: is given no legal personality, is not
known. She is silent. Perhaps she loves
) Rudolph OFT. Perhaps she is ar obedi-
I avn ~ ,,prhtar IF nOf-"in def9Ilt.
promise to pay $40. 600" Subtract some
: thing for the Is mining claims, and there
remains a few thousand dollars. as the
value placed on a young girl just out OF
her teens, full of beautiful young life
Is it too much or too little? Would it be
compensation to Rudolph OFT if he really
loved her, and she slid wilfully away
l from her fathers contract and her lovers
urgency? Would it not seem high to the
man who finds that roses are lovely, bu'
. very beautiful IL one has the wish tt
pluck them?
. This father has an interesting person
= atty, a history, a career that begins witt
his birth. He is a native of Mississippi
q the som of P. p. Davis, who was a frs
cousin Of jefferson Davis and ever!
o reader of American history knows wha
= good southern stock that is. JOSial
$ Davis fought in the confederate army
and lived through the heat of many bat
ties. His body bears a saber scar, hi
e face the mark Of a bullet.
e He came to Shasta county shortly afte
the war, and soon identified himself wit
n the large mining interests of northern
California. Like most soldiers of for
u tune, who have won and failed in tn
e game of life under various skies, he ha
made and lost many fortunes. Today hi
interests are vested in mining claim
d whose future dividends are uncertain.
He was at one time the proprietor an
u >a;toc Of tho Anderson EyptprnriSo Wyhtc'
- had a strong influence in the county unit
- Davis lost it through acknowledgement
- He has a claim, through his father, to 16
~ acres of land in Missouri, which contai
!" a rich deposit of coal. The deeds hav
been lost, but his attorneys are lookin
into the matter for him.
y With a career so full of adventures an
,,e vicissitudes, Joe Davis is still a remark
- able man, a character, n to whom tn
- wine cup has often proved too danger
ously seductive. but in whom the warn
spirited blood of the south still runs II
headlong course.
"A And the daughter, the Ida Davis s
~ %sumanarily disposed Of? Her father
daughter no doubt, with a childhoO
~ spent in the native majesty of norther
California, a youth lived in WhiskytOWt
She has the glorious eyes of the souther
- woman, the eyes Of a woman who dos
not let another-even her WI father
- choose her love for her. Her mouth al
~ chin, on the contrary, have a masculiI
IN decision in their lines, the look of or
~ who could set her teeth and break In
tn FESTIVE. untamed colt.
Rudolph OFT is undoubtedly a your
man Of determination, of sound busineI
head, and a will to win, whatever II
cost. He has his document. duly draw
up and signed. He is not ashamed of /
unusual character. What matter I'll
Al. means when the end in sight is so fair?
ha Maybe. after all. the contract Of Il
~ Davis heart agrees with her father
ne written word. She may take a humo
Gus view of the II promise to pay" b
st tween her father and her lover. The do
OF ument remains the outward, visible sig
The drama OF hearts is working itself o
-, silently.--San Francisco Bulletin.