The Wichita daily eagle., 1903-07-19
BLACK EYES
FOR WICHITA
Many Fake Stories Sent Out
of This City Are Recalled.
ROSA WHITEFACE ONE
Then the Woman That Was
Rescued by a Suction Pump.
ROSA WHITEFACE 0NE

will recall the incidents and the
writer's:
Il have noticed that the newspapers of
| Chicago and the eastern cities are not
getting so many wonderful stories from
the west as they used to-. said the VEN
cradle exchange editor, leaning back in
| his chair and peering over his spectacles-
THE profitable industry of taking seems
| to be in its decline in that section and the
correspondents in Kansas and the Dako-
tas appear 10 have given up the hight
| they conducted so long and SO valiantly
! TO secure for their respective states the
reputation as the home Of the newspaper
| fake"
1T certainly is lucrative industry
when properly conducted" said the tele-
graph editor, who was raised on the
| banks of the Kaw and had seen grass
| hoppers eat up a prosperous town in
| single night. Sending out hair-raising
stories of thrilling events that existed
only in my mind has brought me many
hundreds of dollars" he confessed, with
no blush of shame.
well, when l was in Pierre garnered
a few ducats that way myself" said the
exchange editor. smiling at the recollec-
tion What newspaper man hasn't-in
Dakota?"
! Il amt a-sayin nothing, said the old
reporter with apparent seriousness. and
the things he had done in his time. laugh
ed loudly.
The Rosa Whiteface yarn was one OF
the best paying fakes 1 ever manufac-
| tured," started the telegraph editor, light
| ing his pipe Il was in Wichita then.
Rosa was supposed to be an Usage In
dian girl. of rare beauty for an Indian,
whose father. a hard-hesrted savage, had
decided to auction her off to the highest
bidder The girl was rich-you know the
| Usage Indians really are wealthy, and
this gave the story little foundation.
Sure" nodded the old reporter, as he
drew up a chair and sat down, cooking
his feet on the exchange editors desk.
well" continued the telegraph editor,
ROSA Whiteface had a lover"
Get onto the romancer interjected the
exchange editor.
Rosa had a lover" went on the tele-
graph editor, "a lover poor but noble,
who begged the stern father to postpone
the auction until he could develop mine
in Arizona. The savage pater refused.
The lover committed suicide. All these
things took time, you know, and got the
country worked up to a respectfully high
pitch of imag agination. One newspaper edi-
tor wired an offer of $1,000 for the rescue
of the Indian maiden.
- 'Whiteface has shut her UP in an un-
derground prison. telegraphed in reply.
Then every sympathetic soul in the land
was convulsed with inexpressible indigna-
ton and sympathy for the poor, beauti-
full Indian girl.
THE day of the auction approached.
Rosa 1ell into a decline. Nothing seemed
to arouse her and even government ra-
tions remained untasted. Finally old
Whiteface was bought off for a large
sum. furnished by the newspaper whose
editor had offered a reward for the res
cue of Rosa. The newspaper got great
advertisement out of it, and the editor
brides himself to this day on his chival-
rous conduct"
WHO got the money!" asked the old
reporter.
That's a Kansas mystery"
The exchange editor, who had been
cleaning and rehlling his pipe during the
narration, lit it and began, it being his
turn:
There was an old woman who once
fell in a well-and thereby hangs a tale
Jane Smith was her name. and she was
the frugal and handsome. if somewhat
corpulent, wife of a farmer, same name,
living five or six miles out of Wichita.
She was walking along through the farm
yard with a pail of milk on her head,
if l remember rightly. when k'chug! she
went feet first into a bored well. The
well was only eighteen inches across,
and if the handsome wife had gone in
head first she would have been killed in
stanter. l wot not but as it was, she
stuck in the we'll about six feet from the
top When her husband found her she
was slipping down. inch by inch, and. as
YOU may suppose. it was a pathetic sight.
The well was 200 feet, 9 inches deep.
Keep your courage up. Jane" shout
ed the farmer as he ran for rope.
He lowered the rope and the woman
grasped it. By that time she was thirty
five feet down the well. Try as he would.
the farmer could not raise the woman by
the rope He ran for the neighbors, and
by the time "a the farmers in the coun-
try roundabout had abandoned their
plows in the fields and the farmers wives
their pans in the kitchens and assembled
at the well Mrs. Smith had descended to
a depth OF fifty feet They could hear
her voice. She was. according 10 the cal
culations Of a mathematical son OF Jones.
neighbor. twenty-five feet from the
water.
But, one hopeful thing about it was
that she had started slipping down in the
solid rock the bore was 8 little narrower
and she didn't go quite so fast
My gracious. man. how did you ever
get the woman ouv?" shouted the tele-
graph editor.
Simplest thing in the world" said the
exchange editor. Il put a suction pump
and exhausted the air from the bore
down 70 where the farmers handsome
wife was stuck"
Yes"
That created q vacuum IN the top of
he well. and she rose 70 the surface
with the ease that a fishing cork bobs
around on the top OF the water. Il took
them Two days q carry cut the scheme,
and in the meantime gave the Wichita
telegraph operators nervous prostrztiou
getting my stories or
--But. after ali. said the telegraph edi-
tor. of all that IS grea; Kansas affords
the greatesi-so they say out there
really believe that this one IS better
than all s.s PREDECESSORS