Haskell News du lieu suivant : Haskell, Oklahoma • 11

a a a a a a a a CURRENT VT CO COMMENT By J. H. LOWRY I Readers Associations. Readers Associations. It is true that organization has been overdone in our country, and that one of the greatest needs of the land is to get rid of about 75 per cent of the organizations.

The churches have SO many organizations the engines can nardly pull the machinery, and the country is honey-combed with social, charitable and industrial organizations, many of which do no greater good than furnish many people jobs. Organization, where needed, is great and powerful; where not needed, nothing better can be said of it than it is expensive. But in spite of the fact that the world already had too many organizations, nothing has transpired recently that gave me more satof isfaction, or the world greater promise good, than the recent institution another organization. I refer to the McGuffey's Readers Association, recently organized in one of the Middle States. Already a move is on foot to organize in other States, with a strong probability that a national organization of the same character will soon be in existence, holding meetings annually, with delegates and members in attendance from every State in the Union.

The purpose of this new organization is to keep alive the literary excellence of and the great morals taught by the old McGuffey readers. Only a few of the old books are left in the world. I possess a complete McGuffey library, but only a few other mortals are as fortunate in this respect. Several people have recently advertised for the old readers, tendering fancy prices, but few were successful in obtaining the old books. There is little danger, however, of the selections carried by these old readers perishing from the earth.

Even if every McGuffey reader left should be destroyed, a few old McGuffeyites who carry all the lessons in memory, could get together and soon reproduce the books. I would advocate printing an edition of each book of the McGuffey series, but some how I entertain the fear that the rapid-fire printing presses and counterfeit grades of paper of our day could not reproduce books that would have the appearance of and satisfy the eye as did the books thumbed and studied by the boys and girls of half a century ago, and I am sure we have no artists now who could reproduce the pictures of the old readers. By all means, we should have a McGuffey's Readers Association in Oklahoma, right away. At each meeting of the association a dozen or more of the classics carried by the old readers should he read from memory by the members. I will volunteer to read "The Lark Is Up to Meet the Sun," "Harry and the Guide Post." "We Were Crowded in the Cabin," "The Boy and the Butterfly," "My Mother's Bible," "No Excellence Without Great Labor," or most any other selection that may be called for, and I am confident that I can read all in the same sing-song tone the speakers used in days of old.

and that I can make every gesture just as the teacher taught me half a century ago. Speaking of the old McGuffey readers, makes me bold to ask why they were ever discarded for other text books on reading. Surely, no reader excels them in literary excellence, in wide selection of topics, in morals taught or in information assisting the student in becoming a good reader. There has been trouble in school circles ever since these books were discarded, and surely no such devotion is or has been shown any other books or their contents. When the McGuffey readers were in use all the boys and girls committed to memory all the poetical and many of the prose selections.

Readers are used in the schools at present, I presume, yet I never hear a boy or girl read. or even speak of the selections carried by the books now in use. No one will contend that the books now used gain the hold Osage Indian Reign of Terror V7 HAT is referred to as "the reign of terror in the Osage of Oklahoma- conspiracy to deprive the Osage Indians of their valuable oil lands--is believed to have been checked by the indictment by a Federal Grand Jury of W. K. Hale, wealthy stockman, and John Ramsey, farmer.

Nine murders in the last four years, in connection with the last of which Hale and Ramsey were accused, are said by government agents to have resulted from the conspiracy. Others say the toll of murders is twenty or more. First Acts of Violence. It began, this reign of terror, early in 1922, when the body of Anna Brown, a wealthy Osage Indian of Gray Horse, was found in a secluded canyon on Three Mile Creek east of Fairfax. There was a bullet hole in her skull ranging downward.

The skull was one of the principal exhibits at the recent hearing, been kept by the Department of Justice at Washington since the investigation started. Anna Brown's death did not arouse a 'great deal of interest. Her oil lands were valued at $2,000,000, but it was assumed that she had become entangled in a brawl or a feud, and had been killed by either feudist or a jealous lover, A few weeks later Henry Roan, a cousin of Anna Brown, was killed. This considerably more than passing interest, for it was recalled that the original estate of Anna Brown had been held by Lizzie Q. Brown, an old Indian who died suddenly, As in the other cases, her death caused little comment, but when it was pointed out that three deaths in the same family had occurred within a short time, all under mysterious circumstances, suspicion was aroused.

Again and again the hand of death struck, quickly and effectively, None of the victims attacked ever was left alive, crippled or maimed, to tell. the story. First it was one family, then another, but always death struck the wealthiest families of Indians, and a member who controlled a large share of the fortune. Finally the Osage country was thrown into a state of panic in the part of 1922. Charles Whitehorn, a relative of Anna Brown, was found slain on a hill in the outskirts of Pawhuska.

Two months later George Bigheart, son of the last hereditary chief of the Osages, was taken ill suddenly. He was brought to a hospital in Okla- the students that the old McGuffey readers gained upon the children of long ago, and when the McGuffey readers were in 1 use from year to year, there were no school book scandals as we have now. Agents of the school book trusts did not wine and dine the people's representatives in the Legislature as now, there was no text book commission to pay, no expensive law suits over contracts, there was not a new set of books, to buy each biennium, the price of books did not go up with each succeeding year, and there was never such a scandal as the burning of a million dollars' worth of good books by order of Texas officials. Wouldn't it be well for Oklahoma and all the other States to purchase the copyrights of the McGuffey readers and the old blue black spellers, employ Oklahoma printers to print the books at reasonable prices, and adopt a constitutional amendment to the effect that no change from these books would be permitted for a thousand years? Dangerous Animals. The annual mortuary report of the State of Mississippi shows that 50 people were killed in that State last year by mules.

The long-eared beasts that have played such an important part in the development of our country, and do so much toward making the dining tables of the land worth visiting, kicked, ran over, pawed, threw, or in some way fatally injured fifty human beings and snuffed out fifty human lives in one year, in one State. Multiply the number of our States by fifty and you will see that the mule is annually taking a terrible toll of human life; provided of course that the mules of Mississippi do not excel their brothers and sisters in other States in their attacks upon human beings. I have carried on with the mules of Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas and Texas, and did not find the Mississippi mules more belligerent than those of the other States mentioned, and am confident that Arkansas, Tennessee and Texas mules are responsible for as many graves as the mules of Mississippi. So far no crusade has been started against the mule on account of its Adventures of Captain Jacob (Continued from Preceding Page.) as an officer. These two officers maintained a dignity of studious politeness toward each other, although an older brother of the latter, Jefferson C.

Davis, had killed General William Nelson, who was a brother of Colonel Anderson Nelson, at the Gault House in Louisville, Kentucky, during the Civil War. Exchange of visits between officers of Forts Dodge, Hays and Larned, Kansas, and the Indian Territory posts, were of frequent occurrence. On the trail between the Kansas Forts and Camp Supply, there were two relay stations where a few soldiers were stationed with extra mules for the return mail. These stations were some times attacked by hostile Indians and several soldiers had been killed at each station. Builds Redoubt to Protect Stage.

Lieutenant Jacob's company was ordered to go to a point mid-way between the two stations and build a redoubt for the protection of the stage, stock and guards. The young lieutenant was the only officer in the company. They left camp in the afternoon and camped on the Beaver River that night. As they proceeded on their way next morning, rain began to fall and the wind shifted to the north. The men were soon drenched to the skin and their clothes froze on their bodies.

In this condition they marched about ten miles, finally reaching a small creek, tributary to the Cimmaron River, where they encamped, The men put up their tents then took off their clothes and wrapping themselves in blankets, they made fires and prepared hot coffee. As hard as this appears, the men suffered no bad effects from the severe exposure and were ready next morning to proceed onward, Near the Cimmaron River they found two companies of the Third Infantry engaged in building a defensive earthwork, similar to the one Lieutenant Jacob and his men were to build farther up the trail. Redoubt Creek and Redoubt post office in Northwestern Harper county, are named from this construction, but for some reason the name which appears on the maps of the State, is spelled "Readout." The two defensives were similar in construction. One was built near the Kansas-Oklahoma line and the other half way between there and Fort Dodge. Army life, as related by Captain Jacob, even at that early period, was not altogether without its pleasures and relaxations.

Even under the rigorous condition necessarily involved in maintaining a frontier post, there were occasional incidents that made for pleasure of those concerned. At this time there was only one unmarried lady at the post. the beautiful daughter of a field officer. As usual, every subaltern in the garrison, who was not himself a married man, was deeply in love with the young lady, excepting Lieutenant death-dealing propensities. We need the mules, and even though they hurl humanity into eternity at a fearful rate, humanity will take its loss gracefully and keep old Pete and Beck at the wagon and in the furrows.

It is better to bear the ills of the mule than to fly to vacant pantries. There are many other beasts that assist materially in keeping the death rate of humanity high. Quite a few are killed annually by bull yearlings. I have never known a boy to be successful in an attempt to ride a bull yearling, but every boy believes he can, and puts his belief into action, and as a consequence many boys go over the heads of bull yearlings into eternity, with the dews of youth upon their brows. There are porterhouse steaks, pot roasts, Irish stews and delectable hash in the yearlings, SO humanity laments its loss a few hours and goes ahead raising more yearlings, to kill more boys.

I have known a few people to die from injuries inflicted by hogs, but humanity does not hold a few deaths worthy to be compared in horror and dread to the gustatory glories of ham, ham gravy, breakfast bacon, sausages and spare ribs, and so no one ever expresses a desire to exterminate the porcine family. Our friend, the dog, does not fare so well at humanity's hands. The dog, like other beasts, is responsible for the death of human beings, but the dog's toll of human life is very light. I have read the mortuary report of our own State three or four years, and the highest number of deaths I have noted from hydrophobia in one year is two. Every year within my memory I have gone through one or more mad dog scares, and yet while I am now within hailing distance of my sixtieth mile post, I have never heard of a case of hydrophobia in the human family in any community in which I have lived.

A few years ago I asked the seven doctors of my town, some of them old in years and the practice of their profession, how many cases of hydrophobia they had treated, and what success had attended their treatment of the malady. Each of the physicians said he had not treated, neither had he ever seen, a case of hydrophobia in the human family. Somehow, the report of a mad dog in the community brings before us men and women writhing in the agonies of death, followed by pictures of caskets and shrouds, but if no other malady took a higher toll of human life than hydrophobia, there would be very few deaths among those not worn out by age, and life insurance would be very cheap. Three Bales of Cotton On One Acre of Land. Making three bales of cotton grow 011 one acre of land was as great an achievement, as great a triumph for the mind and hand of man, as making a heavier-than-air vehicle navigate the realms of ether.

Both were on the list of impossibilities until a short time since, when a farmer of East Texas grew three bales of cotton on one acre of land and thereby won a $1,200 cash prize. Man is short-visioned so long as he is content to look no further than he has seen, but vision widens when he makes a courageous attempt to look beyond. Five years ago a bale of cotton per acre was accepted as about the greatest yield land was capable of giving, but man has made it produce three, and will make it produce five bales. Blonde Vs. Brunette.

Reading the announcement columns of many papers of the State, the people are reminded that there will be a material change in some of the political contests this year. In some races the voters will not be guided in marking their ballots by whether the candidate is a member or an opposer of the Ku Klux Klan, or whether he used to be for or against prohibition. The point for the voter to decide will be which does he admire most, blondes or brunettes? In one county two widows are candidates for the same office. If Jived in that county I am confident would tell two lies, provided, of course, that all the widows are passable in appearance and well up in the art of smiling. Oklahoma Brief News homa City, and died next day, with symptoms that indicated poisoning.

Just before Bigheart died he made a statement to Charles Vaughn, his attorney. Very soon after Bigheart's death, Vaughn's dead body was found beside a railroad track. Appeal for State and Federal Help. By this time Osage county citizens were appealing for help from the State and Federal governments in clearing up the murder ring that was believed responsible for the mysterious deaths. One evening in May, 1923, the home of W.

E. Smith, who married a wealthy Osage woman, was dynamited. Smith, his wife and a servant girl were killed. Then State and Federal officers got together and started a vigorous investigation. The tract of land which forms Osage county was given to the Osage Indians in the eighties after they had fought among themselves and with other tribes in the Indian Territory.

The Osages were a peace-loving people. They signed a treaty with the government, accepting the land given them, settled down upon it and led a quiet life. Here the tribe stayed, seldom crossing the boundaries of the Osage Nation, as it became known, and as it still is called by the old timers. White men let them alone, for they had little more than a bare living. Matters went along in this way for many years.

Then in 1912 oil development swept through the country and gusher after gusher was discovered on the lands owned by the Osages. In a short space of time the Osage Nation was transformed into a land of gold and the Indians were among the world's wealthiest people. The average Osage income is $1000 monthly. Too Much Wealth and Luxury. An invasion of sharpers followed the oil boom, Here they found the fields more fertile than anywhere else.

The Indians, unused to wealth and luxury, proved easy prey, White men married Indian women and Indian men found many white women willing to marry them. One of the most notable examples of inter-marriage was that of Jackson Barnett, perhaps the wealthiest of all the Osages. His fortune is counted in seven figures and he has removed from his hut and tepee to a home of luxury. His fortune now is in constant litigation. Though the reign of terror apparently has ended, and farmers no longer install electric light plants to keep a brilliant glow around their homes, the Osage Nation has fallen.

It now numbers only 200 full-blooded Osages on the rolls of the Indian agent at Pawhuska, although 2,200 estates, inherited by descendants who have married into other races, are still managed by the agent. NOBLE FARM CLUBS TO BE INCREASED. At least fourteen junior farm clubs with a membership of 400 is the goal set by the Noble county junior federation for 1926, according to Mrs. Jessie McCafferty, home demonstration agent. TO STUDY USE OF MILKWEED.

Possibility of utilizing the milkweed, from which to extract rubber, and which grows wild in certain parts of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona is to be studied by the Department of Agriculture. It is claimed that the milkweed can be planted in rows and cultivated like any other row crop. TO MARK HIGHWAYS WHERE DEATHS OCCUR. Two white crosses will mark spots on Choctaw county highways where fatalities have resulted from automobile accidents, as a result of a safety first program adopted by the Hugo Lions' Club. The plan was approved by the State Highway Department.

SCRUB WOMAN LEAVES $25,000 ESTATE. Miss Dolly Wakefield, 50 years old, who was paid $1 to $1.25 per day as a scrub woman and window washer, died in Oklahoma City recently, leaving $25,000 in cash securities. The money will be turned over to relatives living in Cameron, La, She left no will. NORMAN CITIZENS PLAN BEAUTIFICATION DRIVE." Norman citizens will meet at a dinner some time in February to discuss plans for city beautification, according to Rev. F.

M. Warren, pastor of the First Christian Church and chairman of the "city beautiful" committee. The general plan is to clean up Norman and make plans for work with lawns in the early spring. Jacob, who declares he was not under the intoxicating spell of the young charmer. An outstanding figure among the licensed traders at Camp Supply at this time, was Gus Tracy, who moved away in the fall of 1871.

This man had lumber nauled from Hays City, Kansas, and erected a substantial home, which building was later sold to the government. It came to be the quarters of commanding officers of General W. J. Davidson's company and in recent years is known as the "Custer House," though it was not built until some time after General Custer left Fort Supply. In the late fall of 1871, Lieutenant Jacob's company was transferred from Camp Supply to Fort Dodge, Transas, and in the spring of 1872, to Northwestern Dakota.

LARGEST SINGLE INHERITANCE TAX. The largest single inheritance tax ever collected by the State of Oklahoma has just been paid to the State auditor by the estate of the late Frank Anderson of Oklahoma City, it was revealed at the office of State Auditor Childers. The total amount collected was 000 and is considerably more than half of the inheritance taxes usually collected in any one year in this State. The fee from this one estate brought the total collections for the month on inheritance taxes to $140,000. LEGION MEN ATTEND "MOONLIGHT SCHOOL." Members of Holdenville Post of the American Legion are attending the "Moonlight School," which opened in Holdenville Feb.

2. The State Department of the Legion last fall pledged itself to use every effort in the campaign to eradicate illiteracy in Oklahoma. In many instances local posts have been active in recruiting students for the schools. The school here is operated by regular teachers in the city school, who have volunteered their services. INDIAN LEAVES LARGE ESTATE.

Dying unmarried and without issue, Robert Thompson. a member of the Quapaw Indian tribe of Oklahoma left one of the largest estates coming before. the Bureau of Indian Affairs for settlement, according to the probate papers adiudicated at the Interior Department. Its appraised value totaled $440,733 derived chiefly from lead and zine royalties allotted him in the Quapaw reservation. Determination of the heirs of the $440,783 estate was handled by the probate division of the Indian office.

Thompson was 45 years of age at the time of his death. U. S. IS TAKING CARE OF ITS HEROES IN FRANCE. The United States is leaving no stone "unturned in taking care of its heroes who fell overseas during the World War and every attention possible will be given the hallowed ground of their permanent resting places in France, according to word received by J.

A. Yeager, father of Will Yeager, the first Tulsan to die in France. Several cemeteries are being cared for by the United States and all of the American dead are being placed in these burial places. They are to be maintained by the government for all time. The graves will be permanently marked with white headstones bearing the name, rank, division, organization, date of death and State from which deceased came.

All graves will be given the same attention without request or action on part of the relatives..