Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1903-08-04

little rooms for the whole household
would be travesty Of home for even
a poor white family in America? What
if the family ate their occasional meals
(like all their aboriginal neighbors)
squatted on the floor and from COM
mon dish? Also that Marcella AMI her
sisters wore the garb Of all Pueblos,
buckskin leggings, wrapped from an
kle to knee. short skirts and fiery red
tunics and quantities of colored cheap
beads about their necks? Notwith-
standing all these things, John Wes-
ley Davis fell in love, in the squalid
Indian home, with Marcella Oginez,
He bought her thoroughbred horse
and superb saddle-the wonder OF
every one in the pueblo. Together Da-
Wis and Marcella rode all over the
country roundabout Laguna. Togeth-
er they explored the geological won
ders over to the west toward the Zuni
country. He taught the Indian girl
how to make photographs. and they
made hundreds OF Photographic plates.
Old man Oginez smoked out in the
shade Of the mud house, and seldom
spoke. As for the old mother. she
| labored like a slave, as usual about
her petty household duties.
Four times John Wesley Davis set
a date on which he proposed going
back to his fashionable New York
home, and to resume archaeological
instruction at Cornell university. But
each time he abandoned his purpose.
He and black-eyed Marcella were to-
gether now for many hours every day.
They made great albums Of their pho
tographs and painstakingly labeled
them. They made collection Of the
geological specimens that they had
picked up in their wanderings about
the lonely region, and Davis taught
the Indian girl how to pick a mando-
lin. The Indians secretly had a slang
name for him, which, translated,
means "Boy-sick- -with-heavy-heart."
The priest in charge OF the Roman
Catholic mission church at Laguna
comes to hold service there twice a
month. When Rev. Father Soto came
that way one warm sunny morning re-
Gently John Wesley Davis called upon
him. AT sunset that day the Indian
girl Marcella Oginez was married to
the sole male heir Of the Davis for
! tune and family prestige. There were
present only the brothers and sisters
Of this modern Minnehaha. Old man
OgInez drowsilys smoked his pipe mp at
the little mud house on the hill and
the squaw mother was butchering
sheep.
The next day John Wesley Davis
wrote to his New York relatives. A
few days later the young man and
his bride packed their effects and went
to Denver. There the bride laid aside
her tribal garb, ionned tailor-made
gown, a milliner's hat. and all the &C
cessories Of an up-tO-date brides
wardrobe For a fortnight the young
husband kept dressmaking estab
lishment busy with trousseau, ther
with several huge trunks he and his
bride started upon tour eastward vis
the Yellowstone park and the north
west.
The Davises in western New Yorl
have never spoken in public abou
John Wesley or his bride. One of thu
sisters, Miss Janet Davis, gradual,
Of vassar college. recently wrote ,
: college chum in Boston: I'VE hav,
been nearly Frustrated because Of thi
affair. We could not bring ourselves
Z to believe that John, our handsome
polished and elegant and only broth
er-haj really taken an Indian wife ul
the uttermost bounds of civilization
John has sent us bunch Of photo
graphs Of his bride, and she Is certain
: ly a sweet-faced, prepossessing youn
= person. John views the matter like
n philosopher. He doesn't seem to car
: what we think or like. It's his ow
q self he's consulting. 80 Oh,
suppose we will soon forgive him an
x be glad that he's so happy.
g We have each sent some weddin
= gift to the bride. but dare not Tel
70 you what we selected for our Puebl
Z sister-in.law. or what a problem 1t wa
q to know what would come nearest tn
o heart Of our little Indian sister,"