The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1908-11-25

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NATIVE
LAND
Special to Daily Leader.

Special to Daily Leader.
McAlester. Okla, Nov. 25.--This city
contains one of the most unique citi-
zens of the world in that he had no
land of nativity. Herr Gus Lubbes,
town booster cattle man, United
States jailer and at present warden OF
the penitentiary; was born in mid
ocean somewhere sixty-seven years
ago and II was good wlile before
he saw land. In fact he claims that
he could say America" by the time
that he landed on the shores OF this
country.
Herr Gus Lubbes is a Muskogee pro-
duct. With genuine German puck
and goodwill, lie went the even tenor
)f his way In the Indian country and
today he has been here so long tlat
The memory cf man runneth not to the
contrary. He MIS- teamster for
awhile in the United States army SER
vice and was mighty near the battle
of the Little Bighorn in Montana that
lateful June 18th, 1876. so near in fact
hat he heard the firing. saw tle
smoke, and next day drove in amvng
he dead troopers who followed the
yellowhaired chleltain to a miserable
at the hands of Crazy Horse. Big
Bear, Rain-in-the-Face and Sitting
J,hl.
That scene told on Herr Gus's nerves
and he came right back to the sOinn
lent Indian Territory, with its wagon
yards, its cyclones and It's gratis. n4i.
Jus, however, never grated much
Sometimes in Musk gee the newspa
per boys used to accuse Herr Gus ol
,elng IN an Irish potato graft but they
got nothing out of the jolly German
but a grin.
As warden of the Federal PRISON,
Kerr Gus was a strange mixture OF
generosity and strictness. One time
years ag there was a Missourian, un-
fortunate enough to he sent to Herr
Sus's place for ninety days. The
Missourian came from an eXcelleni
family aud like most Missourians, he
possessed the best mother on earth
that sort of mother wlc is a memory
now the mother who was most ire
quently seen on the shady latuced
back porch, with her fragrant woodel
butter bowl or dear hands stained with
the sweet juices of the winters supply
If preserves, Sh loved hcr fami y ant
reared them as best she could--w-on
solomon described. 50 long ago L
words OF imperishable eloquencc and
ruth.
Wen. one day the news came to the
young man in Jail, by round aobut
way. that his mother was dying and
aad wondered why he did not come
lOme.
The heartbroken young fellow sent
Tor Herr Gus l.ubbes. He told MIN OF
the pretty little Missouri town where
.undreds called him by his first name.
of its shady gravalied streets ans
giant elms aud how in the pretties,
yard in ali the { wn his mother lay
lying in home that was home still,
even after fifteen years OF drifting ana
ossing from one place 10 another
Herr Gus did not say much. He
couldn't liberate the prisoner but there
was a quick, unspOken interchange OF
Thought between the two men ana tht
y ung man went Ome TO sit by his
mothers death bed With no tant O.
the prison upon him, a4-d then when
there was a new made grave in tn
town cemetery and the old house was
still because OF the loss OF its mis-
tress' beloved voice, one morning he
slipped eff the train at Muskogee In
the carly morning ligat and walked mp
to the jail ana served his sentence.
Herr Gus's friends say tlat during the
absence OF the young prisoner, Herr
Gus told so many lies that he never
had TO tell another one, but Herr Gus
only smiles when you talk about IT,
! One day a friend told him the story 4
how the sister would not tell the
policeman the truth when they came
after Jean Vatican and of how NiotcI