The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-02-12
are open to members, their families and all others interested.
sQUAws UNDER THE HAMMER.
Features of the Annual Sale of Brides by the Comanche Indians.

Features of the Annual Sale of Brides by the Comanche Indians. The annual distribution of Comanche
 Indian brides has just occurred at the Saddle Mountain mission, in southern Oklahoma. Fifty of the prettiest wo- men of the tribe were sold at public auction as the wives Of tribesmen who | bid them in. This barbaric custom was to have been discontinued by the Cos manches last year, but it went on more boldly than ever this season, being con- | ducted under the very eyes of the white | settlers
 l The festival of the Comanche pony smoke" as this ceremony is called, is of more than passing interest. Seldom ara so many squaws auctioned off as was done this year, but the surplus was great and needed thinning out, accord- 1 ing to the head men of the tribe. Their parents, refusing to keep them any | longer, the girls naturally needed homes | somewhere, and it was deemed best by i the medicine men to auction them off as wives the highest bidders to take thein choice Big Bow, monstrous fat and ugly redskin, acted as the auctioneers He was assisted by a number of medi- cine men, who performed the marriage ceremonies after the sales had been made.
 Five hundred Indians gathered at the Saddle Mountain mission last week. This mission is located thirty miles di- ,oo of NfLo,,p toix thee range of the Wichita Mountains. The girls who were sold had been cons fined in a lodge for three weeks prior to this meeting, and were well fed and ex- tremely well groomed. They were all clad in gay colors, and their hair ar- ranged in perfect Indian fashion. It was plain to see that their parents had prepared them to bring fancy prices. The girls were in various moods; some hysterical. others calm, and not a few delighted with the experience.
 Among others was a daughter of the famous Quahnah Parker the noted Co., manche Indian chief This daughter. whose name is Amy, had ciispleased him by attempting to run away and marry a white man, and cowboy at that, so Parker decided that the best thing would be to sell her at auction. This is the first time Parker, who is counted by his white neighbors q highly cultivated red man, has ever allowed any of his relatives to be sacrificed at the auction block. But the wrath of an Indian pa. rent knows no bounds
 Sad and silent, Amy Parker was led to the block for sale. The first bid was eleven ponies. Jack Wild Horse, a we'll known scout of the tribe, was the bid- der. He was immediately raised by a rival likewise scout This latter claimant bid fifteen. Others then cut in,i and Miss Parker was run Up to fif- ty ponies. Her face grew pale when she saw that Wild Horse was deter mined to get her, as he is known as the most desperate cavage on the reserva- tion when drunk and angered. It is said that he has killed three wives when drunk Wild Horse, however, won the young squaw for sixty-three ponies. The stock was turned over to Parker, and a medicine man married Wild Horse and the squaw according to the Comanche rites, The couple then went to Fl Reno, where regular mar riage license was issued to them and
  minister. Although the marriage took place only three days ago, dispatch from Lawton says that she attempted to commit suicide after failing in an att tempt to kill her new husband.
 Other young women objected quite as strongly as Miss Parker did to being auctioned off, but it did them no good whatever. Big Bow went ahead with the sale until every one of them was sold. The lowest bid made for any of them was twenty ponies. This was the price paid for half breed woman who had been married to a white man, but the latter having died, she reverted back to her parents again.
 In al over fifteen hundred ponies changed hands in the three days of the pig bridal auction. Not for many years nave the squaws commanded such spiri- ted bidding and big prices as in this attest event of it's kind among the Co., nanches.-Chicago Inter- Ocean.