The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-01-25
BIDDING For 4 BRIDE
How Usage Indian Braves
Faced the AuCtioneer.
FAIREST OF HER TRIBE
Sweet Mary Was Bid Up to
800 Ponies.

Guthrie, O. T., Jan. 28-The whole ter
hitory is smiling again over an Oklahoma
Indian romance with New York clothes
on. The romance appears in the New
York Journal and reads as follows:
Three hundred and twenty ponies-the
price of a bride!
II was paid in the Indian Territory in
this year of Our Lord for Mary. youngest
daughter of an ex-ehief.
An auctioneer's hammer instead of a
priests blessing; the neighing OF horses
instead of the tune of a wedding march;
the whistling winds of the mountains
waiting the smoke from an army Of pipes
instead of the rustic of silken gowns, in
stead of the perfume of lilies!
1t was Mary's wedding day. The date
January Of this 1900
From far and near came the guests, in
wagons, on horseback, over the hills.
walking through the dust, out of the
prairies. from nearby towns. in sombrer-
os, in blankets. in rags. There were
Apaches, Comanches, Cherokees, Creeks,
Kiowas, Seminoles, Delawares, and,
mightiest of ALL Osages. to which tribe
Mary, daughter of their ex-chief, belongs
Tulsa, nearwhieh she lives. has some
thing like seven houses. We who have
seen the crowds that gather about an
awning should realize that a wedding is
an event everywhere. And when an ex-
chiefs daughter is TO be married near a
city of seven houses and two stores i'm
agine how the long grass Of the prairies
must wave and scatter beneath the APP
proach of the guests.
They came of all sizes and ages. There
were very young girls, with berries in
their hair and glistening beads wound
round and round upon their brown nec6s.
webs formed to reveal glimDses Of
charms. Coquetry was in their eyes,
glowing fiercely in a red ribbon on this
one Dark b aits, nesting softly in a
blue knot in another's glossy coil, clam
oring for recognition in a glorious sash
of brilliant yellow flannel. There were
dirty black-eyed babies, who crowed and
gurgled on the backs Of their mothers
who were just as dirty. Wrapped in dingy
blankets often barefooted with coarse
hair hanging unkept, the suaw came with
her papoose to see Mary married. as she
had been. in the good old fashion blessed
by all true followers of Usage customs.
After her. before her. tumbling at her
heels, came misehievous boys, dreaming
of the feast of goodies that attend all
weddings, whether civilized or otherwise
The most aristocratic wore buckskin
trousers and brilliant colored shirts.
They were future warriors, and had
therefore of the best.
Behind them, dignifed. picturesque 10
the landscape, as the illustrated papers
make them. came the present leaders to
see the young bucks Joined, even as they
had been.
The moments before the ceremony, God
save the word, were spent in crowding,
in jostling. A special mound was set
apart for the auctioneer. It was the spot
of spots so great was the enthusiasm
that il might have been a Paderewsh
matinee instead of a wedding in the
prairies.
The sun was at its brightest. 1t sent its
rays into corners where swarthy braves
sat recalling their own festivities and
their ex-chiefs luck with his other two
daughters.
An old Seminole, between chews Of to-
bacco, commanded attention. He was
willing to be- that Mary would go even
higher.
"Mary's a healthy lass" he said In the
language of mis- kind.
He might have passed, but for his blan-
ket and his earrings and other barbaric
marks, for an aucdoneer's assistant,
there TO bid things up.
"Mary'n make a good suaw," ne said
"a good squaw."
And then-by all accounts yon might
have been nm q pew al some metropolitan
church for the squaws began to gossip
''Mary's twenty-three," said one with
a sigh. as though she regretted It.
Twenty echoed another. "she
is getting on. Now my Anna isn't SIX
teen"
so was I once" And over her pa
poose that she had unstrapped woman
one not yet twenty-five. fell to dreaming