New-York tribune., 1920-06-13


side. He sent spy to Oklahoma,
and the spy found nothing against
me or my family there. And then
he tried to attack me on my fathers
side, and he found nothing there. Oh,
l am glad that at last I have right
to talk. | am not afraid. To fear,
one must have consciousness of sin,
| and / have none. I was a simple
Indian girl, raised among my people,
where our nearest neighbors were
! full-bloods; then busy with my work
and my studies, intent upon making
known to the 'palefaces' the beauti-
fjA legends OF my race And then
J met and loved and married Mr..
Croker. I have said it before-he
was my ideal Of man.
Indian Philosophy
Indians know character. They
do not judge people by what they
say, but by how they act. An Indian
notices how people stand; they do
not like people who stand with legs
apart, The habitual attitude Of an
| Indian is the listening attitude, with
head up. Indians notice how people
use their hands. They do not like
people who gesture with their hands
down or out, for Indians gesture
with their hands up. The Indian
walks with his head up, listening to
the birds and the animals and look
ing at the tree tops. 1t was by
things like this that I judged Mr..
Croker.
~ never heard of corrective gym
nastics until l left Oklahoma and
went to Boston. In our race there
are no spinal troubles. When an
Indian mother sees her child stoop-
ing and with head down she says:
! Are you an animal, that you walk
that way? and the child straightens
up. Thus Indians walk uprightly.
"And so / married Mr.. Croker.
But l asked him how his children
would feel about it, and he said they
were all we'll provided for; they
were all married or soon would be.
l had no desire to figure in family
quarrels. Ny husband talked to me
OF his children later, when there
were disagreements; Of course he
did. We do not conceal things from
one another. And I heard him with
out comment, and changed the sub
ject. But was l to join with his
children in attacks on my husband ?
Finally / became outspoken. 1t was
when his daughter called him a liar.
What was an Indian girl, with train
ing such as mine, to think of a
daughter or a son who called the
father liar?
Il trust have moral sense and
religious feeling. At least I know
the Indian philosophy, and there is
an Indian philosophy, fantastic as
it may seem to you. / learned it
from my mother, the Indian woman.
The Indian attitude is the listening
attitude; he walks with head erect.
He did not stoop, even to delve in
( the ground, and he got his living
from the fruits of trees and the
birds of the air. He looked into
nature and listened to the voice of
nature. / had heard no such un-
natural thing as the voice of a
daughter calling a father a liar.'
Her Life Story
Pieced together from the testi-
mony given on direct examination,
under the friendly tutelage of her
attorney, and on a cross-examina-
tion conducted by the attorney for
Richard Croker jr., who attacks the
competency Of his father and the
reputation Of his stepmother, and
her statements in conversation and
the records of her life with which
she has provided herself, Mrs. Gro
ker's life story runs like this:
On her fathers side she is a de-
scendant Of the Archibald Edmunson
or Edmunstone (they were careless
Of spelling in those days. who a
long time ago bought seventy-acre
tract Of land from Lord Baltimore,
the parchment deed for which she
has and exhibited in court. Her
grandfather was A. V. Edmundson,
who married Laura Denman; the
grandfather moved from North
Carolina to Georgia, where Bula
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