Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1909-09-02
OSAGE LANDS
OkIahoma's Last Indian Reserva-
ton Opened to Settlers.
GREAT NATIVE WILDERNESS.

usage SountTy HlloNIeo III oeNeTdiJ
and Thereby Opened to the Influx of
the White Man--iow the Land May
Be Sold.
If there are persons who love the
Usage Indian reservation for its
streams, its hills. its forests and its
broad prairies and feel the charm of
its history and traditions and look
upon it as almost the last remaining
expanse of native wilderness, they
should hasten to look upon it, as the
old things and the old ways are soon
to vanish forever. The lands, to which
the Osages have fee simple title, have
finally been allotted In severalty and
each Usage citizen has been given title
to his allotment.
Old Villages Still In Use.
This does not mean that the Osages
have abandoned their village camp life
and are living on their individual lands.
As a matter of fact the Usage lands
generally are lying wild as they have
since the beginning of time. Allot-
ment. however. means the incoming of
the white farmer with his industry
and the turning of the grass grown,
| flower strewn acres into productive
| fields. Such lands as the Usage citizen
cannot sell he viii rent. and to that
extent the entire reservation will be
| placed within reach Of the white man.
| There are 2,23O certified allottees in
the Usage tribe, Of which any one who
| failed to get his share OF lands will be
| nai1 anniualnut in Each
J Usage has Coz acres of land. At first
he was allowed to make three sepa-
rate selections of 16O acres. any one of
which he was permitted to designate
| as his homestead, to be inalienable for
twenty-five years. Then he took
fourth selection of 100 acres or a total
of 64O.
| After the bestowal OF all these riches
1t was found that there still remained
untaken land of which the allotment
commission made a per capita distri-
button amounting to seventeen acres,
| Already white men are gathering on
! the horizon of the Usage country to
| spy out its resources and possibilities
and real estate agents are opening of
| fees in the different towns to engage
| in land traffic. 1t will be possible for
| an Dosage citizen to sell all his land
| save his 100 acre homestead under
'ertain conditions. He may rent al
land for grazing or agricultural
| purposes. The sale of his surplus land
| or that in excess of his homestead and
amounting TO 497 acres will be per.
mitted in ewo ways.
Ways of Selling the Land.
One is that he may receive from the
! secretary of the interior Il certificate
OF competency to manage his own af-
fairs. For this certificate 10 Usage
! citizens have made application. of
! which twenty-eight have been submit
ted to the secretary of the interior,
! who approved twenty-five The fling
of applications will move more rapidly
in a month or two. the secretary hav-
ing asked that further applications be
| withheld until he has finished issuing
the deeds TO the surplus lands. All the
homestead deeds are ready for deliv-
! cry.
The surplus lands of the full bloods
and the incompetents may be sold
upon application if the secretary of
the interior is convinced that the sale
would be for the benefit of the owner
The latter would be permitted to
! spend the money from the sale of his
surplus lands only in such manner as
| would be approved by the commission
Ter OF Indian affairs. Pawhuska Okla
| Cor. Kansas CITY Star.
/ New Mail Catching Device.
Albert Hupp of Kansas City. Mo,
has invented Il device for catching mail
pouches and delivering them from
fast mail trains. The postotiice de-
partment has been experimenting with
various devices for many years in the
hope of finding an improvement over
the old system of the iron arm extend.
ing from the door of the mail car to
catch the pouches hung on a crane at
the stations. Mr.. Hupp has invented
collapsible tube device for the mail
cars which. he says. has a capacity to
conduct several pouches at a time
from the station to the mail car. IL
delivers pouches into a receptacle
without stopping the trains. He is
trying to interest the railroads and the
postofiice department in the new IN
! vention.
Good and Simple.
Let it not be in any mans power to
say truly Of thee that thou art not
simple or that thou art not good. but
fet him be n liar whoever shall think
anything of this kind about thee, and
this is altogether in thy power. for
who is he that shall hinder thee from
being good and simple?-Marcus An.
tOniuS
Wit should be used as a shield for
defense rather than as a sword to
wound others.-Fuller.
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