Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-05-21
DAILY. STORY.
WHO WAS ARAPAHoE JOHNNY?


walked into our newspaper office al
! Ieavenworth, Kan. and inserted the
following advertisement:
Information Wanted - Concerning my
| parentage: have faint remembrance of
| being in big house hill. with ex-
! tended view. and n lady who l suppose
! was my mother; next L remember my life
| with the Arapahoe Indians; a squaw
| took care of me; her husband was white
\ man, though he was seldom with her. AT
| one time when he had been long absent
| she gave me a locket attached to a gold
| chain. On one side is the picture of a
| man. on the other that of a woman. both
evidently refined persons. Letters IN. F.
| on the case. She also gave me some bits
| of II childs clothing. cautioning me not to
| tell her husband when he returned. He
came back suddenly. and there was great
commOtion. The soldiers followed very
| soon after; there was fight; the Indians
| were routed; the squaw man was taken
and hanged to a tree. The officer in COM
mand of the troops, seeing l was white
| boy. took me to Fort Leavenworth. where
l became IL drummer. l must have been
| taken from my parents twelve years ago,
when 1 was about four years old. Any
one who can fit these facts to an occur
renee will oblige
ARAPAHOE JOHNNY.
The boy furnished an order drawn by
the colonel commanding at Fort Leav-
enworth to insert any advertisement
he desired, to be charged to- the colonel.
The boy was so handsome, so manly
and so intelligent that | became inter
ested in his case at once. l won his
confidence and he confided to me that
he had conceived Il boys love for the
little daughter of one of the captains
at the fort; hence his desire to learn of
his identity. The girl he told me. was
fifteen. | wrote an article about the
mystery attending the boys birth, and
it was copied far and wide.
Letters came from all over the coun-
try giving all sorts of disappearances
and suggestions for clewS, but none of
them fitted into the circumstances at
tending tile boys life and memory.
Finally one morning a man walked in
to my office and said that he was
the father of the boy who had ad
vertised. l suspected him from the
first. He did not resemble the picture
of the man i'll the locket. and he could
give no proof whatever of his claim
The boy felt as / did about II, and we
advised him to go back to Baltimore,
where he said he came from.
Instead of doing so he remained in
the town several days and one day
came into the office with n gentleman
who produced evidence that he repre-
scented one of the most respectable law
firms in Philadelphia. Arapahoe John
ny met him in our office. and when the
attorney looked at the locket he pro-
duced other pictures of the man and
woman whose likenesses We're in the
case
MY boy" he said, you are Norman
Tanning, son of Norman Tanning and |
Rosalind Bernard, his wife You come |
of an old and wealthy family of Phila- !
delphia. There was a black sheep in |
your fathers family-Maurice Tanning |
his younger brother-who was disin- |
herited by his father. / have no doubt !
that you being the only person except |
your father. who was in bad health, |
between Maurice and the estate, he
kidnapped you, brought You to the west
and put you in charge of his squaw. A |
man answering his description was
hanged when you We're taken by the
soldiers. He had committed so many
crimes that it IS a wonder he didn't
kill you. This man who claimed to be
your father was in some way in league
with Maurice Tanning or cognizant of
his doings, we don't know which and.
seeing your advertisement, came here
to get you under his control. Finding
that impossible he wrote me that he
had found you and l, as executor of
your estate. have agreed to pay him
$4,000 for his information, If correct.
You are heir to fine estate left you by
your father, provided you shall claim it
<,pn l., 4
appeared by that time 1t was to go to
charity.
You had better apply for dis
charge at once, for it will require some
time to get one and / need your pres
ence in Philadelphia. Besides, it is
high time you were beginning your
l attended dress parade that after
noon at the fort and saw Arapahoe
Johnny marching about beating his
drum as usual. His case had attracted
Il good deal of attention from the first
and now that it was known that the
young drummer was heir to several
millions the whole garrison was out TO
look at him. The colonel had offered
to detail him for his orderly till he
could, be put through the formality of
4 discharge, but the boy preferred to !
remain with the band. | was princi- :
pally Interested to discover his sweet :
heart, especially as an officers daugh- (:
ter she had no business to have any
thing to do with a drummer.
i soon picked out a girl who seemed
beside herself with excitement. and
rs ArapahOe Johnny marched by.
while the command stood at rest
caught the telltale blush on her cheek. :
She was a little beauty, as 1.-the as q :
Young willow. and it was easy to see :
that the only being for her on parade :
was the boy who beat one of the snare
drums.
Young Norman Tanning as soon as
discharged went to Philadelphia, where
lie attended school, and by the time he