The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1931-09-11


cousins. Later, huddled miserably on
their reservation, they had issued
forth on foot or in wretched wagons
to pay their seasonal visits and to try
to recapture, by talk and song and
dance and ritual, some pale ghost of
their departed happiness. A shabby
enough procession, guarded, furtive,
smoldering.
But now you saw each Usage buck
in his high-powered car, his inexpert
hands grasping the wheel. his enor-
nous sombrero-larger even than the
white mans hat-fapping in the
breeze that he made by his speed. In
the back you saw the brilliance Of
feathers and blankets worn by the
beady-eyed children and the great
placid squaw crouched in the bottom
of the car. The white man driving the
same road gave these Indian cars a
wide berth, for he knew they stopped
for no one, kept the middle of the
road, flew over bridges, draws, and
bitches like mad things.
Grudgingly, for she still despised
them. Sabra Cravat devoted page Of
the Wigwam to news of the Osages,
those moneyed. petted wards of be-
wildered government. The page ap-
, peared under the title of Indian
News, and its contents were more
than tinged with the grotesque.
The Osages were Wigwam sub
scribers. They read the paper. or had
it read to them if they were of the
older and less literate generation.
Sabra was accustomed to seeing the
doorway suddenly darkened by huge
blanketed form or to look up. startled,
to behold the brilliant striped figure
standing beside her desk in the bust
ness office. II Yancey CHANGED to be
in the occasion became very social.
"How!"
SLOW"
"Want UNI paper"
"All right, Short Tooth. Five dol
lars"
The blanketed figure would produce
a wallet whose cheeks were plump to
bursting with round silver dollars, for
the Usage loved the sound and feel of
the bright metal disks. Down on the
desk they clinked.
The huge Usage stood then. waiting.
Yancey knew what was wanted, as did
Sabra.
"Me want see iron man. Make UNI
name"
Whereupon Yancey or Sabra would
conduct the visitor into the compos-
ing room. There were three linotype
machines now, clanking and chatter
ing away. Once Yancey had taken old
Big Elk, Ruby's father, back there to
see how the linotype turned liquid
lead into printed words. He had had
Jesse Hickey, at the linotype's key
board, turn out old Big Elk's name in
the form of a neat metal bar, to-
gether with the paper slip of its i'm
print.
There was no stopping it. The story
of the iron monster that could talk
and write and move spread like a
prairie fire through Wazhazhe. Whole
families subscribed separately for the
Oklahoma Wigwam-bucks, squaws
girls, boys, papooses in arms. The
iron monster had for them fascina.
ton that was mingling Of admira.
ton, awe, and fear 1t was useless to
explain that they need not take out a
subscription in order to own one OF
these coveted metal bars. 1t had been
done once. They always would do ii
that way. Sabra, if she happened to
be in charge, always gave the five dol
lars to her pet charity, after trying In
vain to refuse<it when proffered. Yam
cey took it cheerfully and treated the
boys at the new Sunny South saloon
now thing of splendor with its ma
hogany bar, its brass rail, its mirror
chandeliers, and flesh-tinted oil paint
| ings.
The Levy Mercantile company had
added fancy grocery and market de
partment to it's three-story brick store
1t was situated on the street floor and