Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-07-02
CHARLES d. CARTER, who now Tolls

reSentat1VeS as a member from Oklahoma,
can ride anything that puts foot to the
ground The fact that he carried his dis
trict in the last election by majority of
ten thousand votes is entirely immaterial.
The interesting thing is his ability to ride
and bestride.
He can throw his sturdy legs across a
bucking bronco and make it write its own
name on the dust of the trail, or he can
vault to the back of a milk white steed from
Arabia and ride it to a foam f1ecked finish.
: If occasion arose, he could saddle black
bear and make it curvet through the cool
streets of Skagway, or he could put bit in
the mouth of a giraffe and spur the long
necked mount over all the hurdles of a
steeplechase. 1t is a source of regret among
the friends of this legislative centaur that
the yak exists in far away Tibet; for Carter
could sit yak with all the ease of an aged
grandmother rocking away the hours before
an open fire in December.
The leading equestrian of Congress comes
by his skill naturally. Not only did he
spend his early years as cowboy, but he is
a good Indian. In his biography in the Con-
gressional Directory, he explains in much
detail that he is seven-sixteenths Chickasaw
and Cherokee. And he looks the part. In
the language of the prolific ]. Fenimore
Cooper, he has hair as black as ravens
wing. and his piercing eye can see camp
fire many miles distant.
And the warcry? AS war-crier, he is
great Soon after he breezed into Congress,
bill was called up affecting the Indians in
his district. Rising to his feet, the Hon.
Charles threw nineteen verbal tomahawks
and then got very busy with his scalping ap-
paratus. The air was full of oratorical
knives,-real knives, knives that cut and
hacked and Jared against the stained glass
of the ceiling below which he stood. Out
of his barrel like chest he threw burst of
: real eloquence, and he won his point
This, however, is merely an aside. One
of the most important events of his whole
career took place on the Diamond Z Ranch,
where he was Willing away the time break
, ing mad horses and roping fleet footed steers.
His herd got away from him, stampeded,
blew, beat it, and made its believing way
across the prairie. Cowboy Charlie set out
in hot pursuit, and in the next few minutes
made Mazeppa's ride look like a trick on
the vaudeville stage. He overlook the
cattle, passed them, and then tried to turn
them from precipice by riding in front of
them.
Just at the psychological moment, Char
lies horse stumbled, fell and hurled him
like an aeroplane through space. When the
cowboy finished describing parabolas in the
air and got tired of rolling over in the dust,
he picked himself up, finding that he had
also picked up broken arm. Nevertheless,
the herd was saved, and the broken arm knit
in course of time.
The Congressman is descendant of that
Nathan Carter who was captured when
small boy by Shawnee Indians at the Wyo-
ming Valley Massacre in Pennsylvania.
Charlie, in addition to having the Indian
blood in his veins, has worked with or
among the red men all his life. After his
three years as cowboy on the Diamond Z,
he became clerk in a store at Ardmore, his
present home. Having, in his off hours, Sc
cured pretty good education in the Tisho
mingo school, Chickasaw Nation, the bust
ness of clerking did not fulfil his ambition
He worked up until he was bookkeeper and
cotton buyer for his concern. Then he be-
came auditor for the tribal government, in
which position he made "heap much" friends
with all the men, red and white, in the sur
rounding country.
After that he was in politics with a
whoop and lariat. He was a member of
the lower house of the Legislature. superin-
tendent of the Indian schools, and mining
trustee, and became secretary OF the first
Democratic State committee of Oklahoma.
When the territory was made a State and
Charlie journeyed forth from his tepee to
get the votes necessary to send him to Con-
gress, he succeeded. At every election since
+bay1 no hoe b,,ro af tho door cf he uiu,