Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-02-26

Furnishes Theme for Magazine Article.

INC last uIOpJ Out II lSAL drugs SHe
needs-it's oxygen. I'll come around
tomorrow and find that window stuffed
up tight
'But the white man who married
her and left her destitute?' l asked.
That chap" was the contemptuous
reply. well, what brand of oil dc
you think he ought to be boiled IMP
That question was one too many
for ne. so l asked another: why dc
you suppose he married herr"
''In his case l think 1t was for the
land. You know every white man who
marries an Indian girl also marries a
a hundred and sixty acres allotted to
her by the government, and the same
acreage is given to each one of her
children. Now the chap who built
that shack and raised that family got
hold of five quarter sections, but ne
was too lazy to work them or do any.
thing with them. and when that school
ma'am came to the agency he ran
away with her, leaving his own family
landpoor and nearly starving"
In Gregory, S. D., saw bright-eyed
| hard-muscled, clean-lookin2 young fell
/ low from Iowa who had just returned
/ from a honeymoon trip to Sioux Falls
( with as neat a piece Of red calico as
/ you would find IN a long days jour
ney The girl was suspiciously close
/ to the age limit fixed by the govern
ment, but intelligence. good humor,
and true womanly nature beamed from
! her button-bright eyes. l happened 70
! follow this couple into a restaurant.
I \ = hr hn frl
was plainly dressed in neat, pluE:
colored travelling suit, and the only
thing about her makeup that suggest
ed the Indian was pair of wide, bead
ed bracelets of striking color and de
sign. The honeymoon pair talked low
over the table. the girl looking proudly
at her new husband while he ordered
dinner and when he laid down the bill
of fare her hand stole under 1t and
pressed tightly upon his She blushed
a little. just as a white girl would
have done when a ranchman came IN,
slapped her husband on the back, and
congratulated them both in the crude,
prairie-folk way When the meal was
served. she ate with her fork. And
mind you. she was a full-bIooded Sioux
men only a few years ago and didn't
know a fork from a French horn. AT
ter they had gone out, the man who
had congratulated them told me all
about it.
she's got as pretty piece OF gov
eminent land as there is on White riv-
err said he, good rich gumbo. She's
a nice girl-been to school six or seven
years. and she'll make Charley good
wife. If they have as many as three
children. he'll get a whole section,
counting hers. and that's going to be
worth $4,000 to $4,000 in ten years,
the way lands going UP now
No great wonder, is it, that so many
young men of the prairies, who know
pretty girls and good land when they
see them. are fascinated by the black
eyed Sioux maidens
Gentle. but perhaps doubling, reader,
if Won are not convinced of the lasting
happiness of any of the marriages OF
palefaces to the modern Minnehahas,
I wish you would come with me to the
Rosebud country There, near Turtle
Butte. lives happy John RAMS, who
has an Indian wife and a family of ten
children to each of whom has been
allotted a quarter-section of good farm
ing land. or 1.760 acres in all, count
ing in the wife's portion. Some OF
Ramis's grown sons. who have been
trained to work as farmers, cultivate
the soil, and RAMS lives a sort of
baronial life in a good stone house. sur
rounded by modern comforts and con-
veniences. His children are being
we'll educated, his sons are splendid,
hardy fellows. and his daughters are
rosy and comely.
The name of Raymond figures fire.
uuently upon the map of this region
This is accounted for by the fact that
in the early days Enoch w. Raymond,
a guide and ranchman, wooed and won
q pretty Indian girl named Betsy Faith
full. This couple lived happily together
"a years, till a year ago last July,
when. amid her mourning children.
Betsy Faithful was gathered to her
fathers.
Two comedy. bright-eyed Sioux Sis
tiers, Mary and Louisa Giroux, made
good marriages some years ago with
white men of influence in
the community. Mary married oIS-
phen f. Estes. a cultured and respect |
ed man who had been an agency Off |
ciaI and a school teacher; Louisa /
welded D. L. McLane, now chief clerk |
of the agency.
But this consideration of quarter
sections may have made the reader
Is it all matter of land
and nhysicaI comforts? he asks. Is |
there nothing of romance? What OF
the girls own claims to the beauty /
and grace of their foremothers who
found a way into legend and fiction?
Well. to be sure, the modern Indian
girl will not average up in attractive
ness to her pretty prairie sister Of
white parentage; but now and again
one sees strikingly handsome types,
and these have no trouble in securing
white husbands, il they want them.
Out on the ranch where she lives
with her father. Maggie Noisy Greek