TOPEKA, KANSAS, DAILY COMMONWEALTH.

[Miscellaneous Items.]

Thank to Dr. Sam Dicks, historian at Emporia State University, we have more items taken from The Commonwealth, starting with July 9, 1873. MAW

[Note: The first item is humorous.]

BORDER EXPLORATIONS.

Special Postal Cards From the Commonwealth Commissioners.

The New York Herald Eclipsed In Enterprise.

The Daily Graphic’s Balloon Venture Completely Outdone.

Excavating For Indian Remains in Butler County.

DISCOVERY OF THE LONG LOST SIR ISAAC KALLOCH.

He is Found Surrounded by a Tumultuous Mob of Natives.

Seeing the Elephant at Eldorado and Augusta.

Reception of Crew at Arkansas City.—Eloquent Addresses by the Commissioners.

Departure for Coffeyville.

Crossing the Prairies as of Old the Pilgrims Crossed the Sea.

The Home of “J’ingalls.”—Banking Facilities.—The Great Heat.

Severe Ravages of the Paper Cholera.

The Commonwealth, July 9, 1873.

NUMBER ONE.

AUGUSTA, July 5, 1873.

To the Grand Mogul of the Commonwealth.

SIR: Took in the celebrations, etc., at Augusta and Eldorado yesterday. About 700 folks here; 2,500 at Eldorado. Start from here to Arkansas City tomorrow to get the cholera. Col. R.’s face a beautiful blush-rose tint. Will write you tomorrow. S.

FROM THE OTHER COMMISSIONER.

HEADQUARTERS COMMONWEALTH EXPEDITIONARY CORPS, July 5, 1873.

To the Commander in Chief.

SIR: I have the honor to report the complete success of the COMMONWEALTH expedition for the discovery of Sir Isaac Kalloch. He was found by the undersigned yesterday, at Eldorado, the seat of a local cannibal chief named Modoc. Eldorado is a large place, but Modoc requires it all for his seat. When discovered, Sir Isaac was surrounded by a tumultuous mob of at least 2,500 natives, and was reduced to the last degree of distress, his provisions having become exhausted, with the exception of a small package of Hennessy. I relieved his pressing wants from my stores of preserved Crow, and this morning, much refreshed, he departed, in company with Modoc, for a station called Wichita, from which point he proposes to explore the Long Horn. He speaks with much enthusiasm of the rounded limbs of the natives, and expresses no desire to return. R.

NUMBER TWO.

ARKANSAS CITY, July 5, 1873.

To the Most Worshipful Grand Hirokum Jokum.

SIR: We are all here; it is evening, and the sun has sank behind the western hills. This is a most charming place. There is a chain of four or five little lakes, nestling amidst thick timber, with green banks, irregular, clean, and full of numberless persuasions to repose when summer pants in Topeka and blazes in the sky, “twinkle, twinkle, little star, up above the world so high.” Permit me to report, most respected chief, that your distinguished representative (I allude to the Colonel), was honored with a serenade this evening. I am also happy to state that in response to frequent calls he appeared on the piazza, struck the position of a Roman gladiator, opened a dictionary before him, and thus spake to the impatient multitude.

“There are times when the hearts of men are more easily touched than at others. When the feelings of our better natures tire of the burdens of active life and turning to more peaceful scenes yield to the quiet influences of home. Thus it is that I am among you tonight. I feel honored at the reception you have given me. It is not a diaphanous tribute, but a spontaneous outburst of the popular feeling in your locality. I know it. I understand your wants. I am familiar with the motives which ever actuate the American people—a people rocked in the bosom of two might oceans, whose granite bound shores are whitened by the floating diaphony of the commercial world; reaching from the ice fettered lakes of the north to the febrile waves of Australian seas, comprising the vast interim of five billion acres, whose alluvial plains, romantic mountains, and mystic rivers rival the wildest Utopian dreams that ever gathered around the inspired bard as he walked the amaranthine promenades of Hesperian gardens, is proud Columbia, the land of the free and the home of the brave. But, gentlemen, I weary you; there is one upon my right the buckles of whose suspenders I am not worthy to unloose; a legal gentleman who has the whole United States for a client, whilst I only represent the Commonwealth of Kansas. (“Hear him,” “hear him.”) S.

ADDITIONAL INTELLIGENCE.

ON THE PIAZZA AT ARKANSAS CITY, July 5, 1873.

Oh Thou to Whom This Heart Most Dear.

SIR: In response to the calls of “hear him,” the eternal attorney above alluded to rose majestically and began casting his oratorical pearls around him like a Croesus, squandering in the two hours which he spoke the materials for an octavo volume—giving the listener his richest thoughts without copyright, or an engagement with a publisher. He detailed the principal events of our expedition; told how we discovered Sir Isaac; how we victimized the hotel keepers on our route; how we took our vermifuge; how we drank the lite blood of a representative of the Atchison Globe who chanced to invade our territory; how we alleviated the distresses of the unfortunate, and how virtue becometh its own reward. He said the hospitality of the people in the country through which we passed was grandly sublime. We were poorly clad and ye stripped the coats from off our backs; we were hungry and ye divided your last fire-cracker with us; we were homeless and ye took us in. Such kindness is overpowering, so much so, that an insult would be absolutely refreshing to either of us. (A voice: “Let us repair to yonder’s grocery and partake of the beverages thereof.”) “No, no,” said the speaker, “tempt me not. Ask me not to go to my cups. I have lived to see and suffer all the evils which cling around the flowing bowl. I have seen hearth-stones blighted; men shorn of their manliness; women from whose pale cheeks sorrow had crushed the roses; children across the golden threshold of whose lives trails the black shadow of an inebriated pater familias. With these scenes before my mind’s optical demonstration, I decline your invitation with pleasure.” The sobs of the audience here became so boisterous that the speaker had to retire. It was a very impressive occasion, and there was not a dry tear in Arkansas City that night.

We shall sleep upon our arms tonight and proceed on our journey in a day or two. We have not yet decided on a programme for future action, but will give you complete particulars of our subsequent explorations.

P. S. Please forward what little washing of ours has been handed in since our departure. Will remit by return mail. R.

LATER.—CARD NUMBER THREE.

Coffeyville, July 7^th, 1873.

To the Presiding Elder of the Commonwealth.

SIR: We arrived here this morning. Col. R. did not wish to stop; the name Coffey-ville did not sound very pleasantly to his ear. If it had been Sodawaterville, he says he would have had no hesitation whatever. I finally induced him to tarry with me, after having him curried off at the office of the Coffeyville Courier. My wit isn’t a circumstance in comparison with my pathos. You are aware, I suppose, that this is the home of the distinguished legislator, “J’ingalls,”—a man who acquired more distinction and notoriety in the late senatorial unpleasantness than even Pomeroy or York. He bears his blushing honors with become dignity and permits us to draw at sight on his back—a kindness which we can never hope to reciprocate. This is a delightful place to spend the summer; you ought to come down and see us—there is money in it. The Col. now thinks he will remain here some time, at least until that “repudiation” matter blows over and the Atchison and Leavenworth papers have forgotten all their points in regard to the railroad question. I can’t make him believe but what a railroad has a right to end where it pleases. The air out here seems to agree with him, and he looks as rosy as a school birl on commencement day. More anon. S.

THE VERY LATEST.

KAUGHYVILLE, July 7, 1873.

Most Potent, Grave and Reverend Senior.

SIR: As will be seen by the heading of this letter, we are at Kaughyville, and I have been coughing ever since we struck the town. I would not have stopped here were it not that the town was visited by a terrific tornado some time last year, and I want to write it up. The people always appreciate enterprise, you know. “Skoph” is with me still; he is as punctual and regular in his demands on my exchequer, as are the epistolary visits of our Great Bend correspondent. The heat here is quite warm. I think it is the hottest heat I ever saw. My paper collars melted in my trunk yesterday while we were crossing the prairie. It was the paper cholera that ailed them. I now wear a handkerchief in place of a collar, and let people imagine I have a sore neck, or “a cold id de hed,” or whatever the please. We have heard of the shooting scrape at Atchison and the attorney will hasten home to take charge of the case. He says these border outrages must be stopped, and the guilty parties prosecuted to the full extent of the law. “Skoph” is anxious to know if the editor of the Patriot was fortunate enough to get shot in the melee, or in the head either. Those monthly statements of my accounts at various places are received and placed on file. Thanks for sending them. “‘Tis sweet to be remembered.” Yours in haste, R.

FROM BUTLER COUNTY.

The Educators of the Southwest.

The Town of Eldorado.

Vineyards of Cowley County, Etc.

The Commonwealth, September 2, 1873.

ELDORADO, August 22.

To the Editor of the Commonwealth.

The teachers are wide awake here in the southwest. We arrived at Wichita on the 18^th, and found Judge Emerson, county superintendent, busily making ready for the onset. Sedgwick is a new county in which educational matters are as yet imperfectly organized, but the people are progressive and zealous to do their duty in this regard.

The following well-known educators were present: State Superintendent McCarty, still a forlorn bachelor, but, considering the facts, wonderfully enthusiastic and energetic; Profs. Norton and Carmichael, of the state normal school at Emporia (the latter is the handsomest professor in Kansas and still a bachelor!), Ex-Superintendent McCartney, of Grasshopper Falls, and Prof. Tucker, of Wichita. There was a fair attendance of teachers, a goodly concourse of citizens, much interest, and boundless hospitality.

Wichita is full of people, money, merchandise, and hope. Kansas has not another so live a town. The two Modocs are running the best paper in the southwest. Judge Mead, J. C. Fouker, Colonel Woodman, and many other friends, seem to be prospering in business and are jubilant in spirit. The roughs of the plains, and congenial female associates, are not wanting, but the police force is efficient and order prevails. Colonel Steele looks as joyful as ever, and sells land with his old vindictive frenzy. A splendid four story hotel is nearly enclosed—almost superfluous in a town boasting the Douglas and Empire Houses. New buildings are going up on every side, and omens are entirely favorable for the happy future of Wichita.

We reached Eldorado on the 20^th. “Institute week,” is among the gala times of this little city. We found over a hundred and twenty teachers in actual attendance. Dr. Hoss, the genial and scholarly President of the Emporia normal, left just before our arrival. The session was marked with much enthusiasm, great kindness, and solid progress.

We found Judge Campbell and his estimable lady at home, and their door hospitably open. Judge Campbell is a rising man. He is thoroughly solid and practical, is an accomplished jurist, and a prompt, clear-headed magistrate. T. B. Murdock, who publishes one of the best papers in Kansas, has just returned from a trip to “My Maryland.” Notwithstanding his wonderful achievements in the line of bivalves and crustaceans, he manages to hold his own and improve a little. He is the pride and delight of the fair young schoolmarms who so abound in Butler County. He manifests little grief on account of losing the Copenhagen consulate, and his numerous friends are delighted that he is spared the necessity of having to “speak Copenhagen.”

The Walnut and Arkansas valleys are this year especially favored. While drouth has made barren the east and the west, the rains here have been abundant and crops are immense.

We found the whole region reveling in grapes from Arkansas City. Max Fawcett, of that favored burgh, has shown that the lower Arkansas valley is the best fruit region in Kansas. Three years ago the first furrow was turned in Cowley County, and now we see the markets of Wichita, Winfield, Eldorado, and Augusta all abundantly supplied from this one source. Latitude, altitude, and soil are all favorable for fall and early crops. Mr. Fawcett harvests his last grape before September 1^st; his sale is over before the grapes of the Kaw valley are in the market. This will give to the fruit growers of Arkansas City a great and permanent advantage over all the rest of Kansas.

This superb country only lacks the one thing needful—railroads. Eldorado has all the rest: enterprise, energy, culture, fair women and brave men, and the iron horse will put in an appearance in time. RANGER.

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Commonwealth, September 14, 1873.

Mrs. G. H. Newman writes from Toledo, Ohio, to Major D. M. Adams of this city: “There is a family here by the name of Bender. Shall I inquire if they are related to Kate, of Kansas fame, and if they can be induced to remove to Topeka and enter into the business you once mentioned?” The sequel to the above is that it was stated that Adams had offered a premium to any Bender family who would establish themselves in the cemetery business in Topeka a sufficient length of time to kill off about fifty of the old fossils of the town who are continually opposing every valuable improvement suggested in the community.

THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT.

The Commonwealth, Wednesday, September 17, 1873.

Not long ago we suggested the wisdom of discussing, as soon as convenient, the proposed amendment to the state constitution, which is to be submitted to the election of the people of Kansas this fall. To bring this about, and to create an issue, we stated as our affirmative of a proposition, that the amendment was a delusion and a snare—or more emphatically a fraud—and argued it at some length, and asked for someone to come up to the support the negative. The truth in all things and the better judgement of the people, proceeds from discussion.

And now the Walnut Valley Times, a very excellent and able paper of the southwest, accommodates us with an editorial, illustrated by a diagram, insisting on the falsity of our proposition. The diagram serves to fix indelibly in our mind the fact that Topeka is in the center of the northeastern sixth of the state, and the argument illustrating it, or which it illustrates, is intended to show the inequalities and the injustice of the last state apportionment; that northern Kansas is the residence of nearly all the state and federal officers, and that the public buildings are for the most part located in the northern half of the state, all of which we could grant for argument’s sake without for a moment making our position untenable or unjust. The column editorial of the Walnut Valley Times, though it shows with a convincing ardor of eloquence that there is obvious inequality in the apportionment of the state and that there is grievous neglect of the various “strips” and “tracts” in the southwest in the selection of state and federal officers, is yet, we are sad to say, not at all to the purpose of the present argument.

The adoption of this amendment will not, we submit, alter this a whit for the better. The populous counties of the southwest that now complain—and justly—of inadequate representation, and point to the excess accorded under the present law to the upper counties, have no remedy this side of a reapportionment which cannot take place until 1876. This little move will prevent their ever righting this inequality, for such counties as Ford, Pawnee, Kingman, and Comanche, et id omne genus, will snap up all the vacancies long before the time of the next apportionment. The truth is the legislature is large enough already, and there is no necessity of increasing our legislative expenses twenty-five per cent merely that a lot of rotten boroughs may send up a shystering lawyer each, to get his winter’s keep at the cost of the state. The inequalities which the Times complains of can be remedied on the basis of the present aggregate of representation. The law providing that the apportionment shall be made on the basis of a census taken just previous to its making, it is plain that if southern Kansas can show a population that will warrant its increase of representation, the present constitutional limit can and will be equalized so as to give them their equitable share. But how has the margin of ten representatives been used since the last apportionment two years ago? It has been occupied by counties for the most part without wealth or population, which the new committee on the “Frontier,” which was order to investigate their organization last winter, found to be wholly unworthy at their inception, or since, of representatives in the state legislation. Counties without half the population each of an ordinary agricultural township, are manifestly receiving more than their due in being allowed equal voice with counties of the population and wealth of Butler County, for instance, in the state legislature. But then this is a matter easily tested. If Butler County and the other populous counties of the southwest favor (much against their ultimate interest, we candidly believe), this constitutional amendment, they can convince the north of their populousness and of their power, by voting it up at the coming general election. The event will prove, we think, that in the newly organized counties this proposition will receive no greater support than in older selected localities, and in the end will be badly beaten. As we before remarked, it lacks thickness.

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Commonwealth, Wednesday, September 17, 1873.

One Hugh Maher has begun a curious suit against the Hon. C. B. Farwell, M. C., in the Chicago courts. It seems that Maher got up from a little game of “draw,” with Farwell, ten years ago, $1,700 in arrears. He was unable to pay the debt, so he gave to Farwell a deed for eight acres of land as temporary security. Maher claims that he has never been able since then to obtain a surrender of the deed though he shortly after the “little game,” and frequently since, has made tender of the full amount of the debt. The proper has appreciated since so that it is now claimed to be worth $80,000. If the story be true, it is another striking illustration of the moral lacking and devious ways of the modern congressman.

OPENING OF THE NORMAL SCHOOL.

FARMERS CONVENTION.—TEACHERS INSTITUTE.

COAL BORING.—COUNTY FAIR.

The Commonwealth, Wednesday, September 17, 1873.

EMPORIA, KANSAS, September 15^th, 1873.

From our Special Correspondent.

The Normal School has opened grandly. The attendance is far greater than ever before. The entering class now numbers one hundred and six, and more are coming. The total, exclusive of the model school, will be nearly two hundred this term.

Dr. George Hoss vacates his chair at the end of this term, for the purpose of resuming the chair of “Polite Literature” at the University of Indiana. His successor has not yet been chosen. Miss Smith, of the Oswego, New York, training school takes charge of the model department. She seems eminently qualified for her position. Mrs. Morse, of the city school, has been appointed preceptress of the normal school. The friends of the institution feel that its dark days are over.

The teachers’ institute of last week was by far the largest and most successful ever held in this county. Profs. Hoss, Norton, Carmichael, and Miss Smith, acted as instructors. Superintendent Cavanness is winning golden opinions from everybody by his energy and thoroughness.

The “farmers’ convention” was held today. There was some discussion, owing to contested seats, but the attendance was large, and a full county ticket was nominated, strictly agricultural.

The boring for coal, now over 700 feet deep, has been resumed. The maxim of the company is “coal or China.”

Next week will be busy. The county fair, a Methodist festival, and a public course of scientific lectures, are announced.

It is rumored that Gov. Eskridge will run for the legislature in opposition to Mr. Fiery, the grange nominee. RANGER.

EMPORIA, Sept. 13, 1873.

IS HE A BENDER.

Died of Fear.—A Strange Story from the Indian Nation.

Singular Conduct of an Unknown Man.—A Mysterious Package.

The Commonwealth, Wednesday, September 17, 1873.

From Pete Flynn, who has just returned from a trip to the Indian Nation, we learn the particulars of a strange case. It seems that on the 26^th of last month a strange individual stopped at the house of a colored man, named Rabb, forty miles south of this city, on Big Cana. He was a man about 35 or 40 years old, and six feet high, light complexion, auburn hair, spare build, had one upper tooth out in front. On the left side of his body was a large scar, which looked to be from the effects of a burn.

When he stopped at Rabb’s house, it was near night, and he said he wished to remain overnight. He was granted permission, and Rabb gave him a rope to “stake out” his pony. After he tied the pony, he was seen to take a bundle which he carried, and going some distance from the house, unrolled it, and took out a small package which he secreted somewhere, and which they have never been able to find. Next morning he told Rabb that he wished to remain there several days to allow his horse to rest. His conduct by this time so frightened Rabb that (he says) he was afraid to refuse him. The man was restless, and seemed to be in great fear all the while. Every person that would go by the house, he would inquire who it was, and if it was a marshal. He refused to tell his name, or anything connected with his past life. It was not long until the whole neighborhood knew of his presence, and some wild speculations were made in regard to his conduct.

On the morning of September 1^st he died without any apparent suffering or disease. An inquest was held, and it was decided that he died of fear.

The only paper found upon his persons was a slip, on which was the address of “J. C. Tilton, Pittsburg, Pa.” He was buried by citizens a short distance from Rabb’s house, close to the cattle trail. Someone passing along has written upon the head-board the following: “Supposed to be one of the Benders.” The people down there all think he was one of the Benders, or else an accomplice in their deeds of murder. A vigorous search has been made for the mysterious package, but it has so far proved unsuccessful.” Coffeyville Courier.

FROM THE INDIAN TERRITORY.

President Grant’s Policy.—The Quapaw Agency.

Progress and Improvement of the Indians.

Satanta and Big Tree.

Claim of Van and Adair Against the Osages.

The Commonwealth, Thursday, September 18, 1873.

QUAPAW AGENCY, INDIAN TERRITORY, September 13^th, 1873.

To the Editor of the Commonwealth.

For some four years past there has been an especial interest manifested in all parts of this country in regard to this Territory. It has been a part of the policy of Gen. Grant to remove as many of the Indian tribes in the country as possible to this Territory, and to settle them as fast as possible upon reservations. It was in some respects an experimental policy, and the results have been watched with the deepest interest. After a period of four years, we may proceed to examine the results in order to ascertain whether the experiment is successful, or whether it is a failure. The policy has been from the first to set apart the Indian Territory for the exclusive use and benefit of the Indian tribes of this country. Every Indian tribe was told by the agents of the government that here they should be protected from white men; they should have this territory to themselves, and be permitted to work out, unmolested by white men, the problem of future destiny. The success of the experiment has been somewhat interfered with by the several efforts that have been made in congress and out of congress to thwart that policy, by opening up the Territory to settlement and to confine and establish the Indians upon individual headrights. This would simply be to repeat the history of the Indians in Indiana, Illinois, and Kansas. The proper title to any bill which provides for the opening of the Indian Territory to the settlement of white men, no matter in what guise it comes, is simply and purely “an act to extinguish the Indian race. The good faith of the government is pledged to these helpless people against any such wrong. The construction of one railway through the territory; another partly through it, and the efforts of other powerful corporations to extend similar roads through it, coupled with repeated efforts in congress to throw open the territory to settlement, has had the effect to alarm and discourage many of the Indians, and there has not been that progress among them that there would have been but for this fear. Notwithstanding this fact, and that the future is full of uncertainty and fear, there has been a marked progress in the condition of all the Indians who have been removed to this Territory. Relieved from the presence of white men, and almost entirely from the corrupting influences of whiskey, they seem to have been inspired with courage and a generous ambition to see who could do the best. The result is that many of the Indians, who in Kansas, were shiftless, worthless loafers, spending their time and money in drinking whiskey, have been transformed by the change to sober, industrious men, with good farms and good homes.

The Quapaw agency is in charge of H. W. Jones. Two years ago when Mr. Jones took charge of the agency, there was but one school, and very little interest manifested in that; now there are four. Then there was an enrollment of less than thirty scholars, now there is over two hundred. The tribes embraced in the Quapaw agency consist of the Quapaws, Peorias, and Miamis, Ottawas, Eastern Shawnees, Wyandottes, Senecas, and the Black Bob Shawnees, in all some twelve hundred and nineteen Indians. Without estimating their annuities or their land (which is held in common), their individual property amounts to $207,241, an average of $170 for each man, woman and child in these several tribes. In educational matters the improvement has been equally rapid. There is a good school in each of the tribes and a good schoolhouse among the Quapaws, Peorias, Ottawas, Senecas, Shawnees, and Wyandottes. Considering that most of the children could not speak a word of English when they first commenced to go to school, their progress has been as rapid as among the same class of white children.

The season has been dry as well as in Kansas, and in some cases the crops suffered from the chinch bug as well as the hot weather; still, among the tribes mentioned, there was raised this year 2,134 bushels of wheat, 64,772 bushels of corn, and 3,250 bushels of oats; they have on hand 997 head of cattle, 881 horses, and 3,621 hogs. Their fields are enclosed with good rail fences, and in many cases they live in fine white houses with barns and wells and all the conveniences of advanced civilization. These are the results of Gen. Grant’s policy among the Indians of this agency. I am told that among the other tribes in the Territory, the result is substantially the same. Facts are stubborn things to deal with, and the result so far is a complete vindication of the policy of the “Friends” or Quakers in regard to the Indian Territory.

The Quapaw agency is situated sixteen miles south of Baxter Springs and four miles west of Seneca. There is a fine farm here called the “agency farm,” consisting of over fifty acres. The house in which the agent lives is very much decayed and not worth repairing. A well is also much needed. I noticed that all the water that was used by the family was hauled from a distance. When men are found who will remove with their families from the comforts of civilized life to live amidst privations among the Indians, the government ought to see to it that they are made as comfortable as possible. There is a blacksmith shop located near the agency. It is in the midst of the Shawnee reserve, and within convenient distance of the several tribes who are under the direction of this agency. Agent Jones is assisted by his son, Endaley Jones, a young man thoroughly posted in business and of great promise. The result shows what zealous Christian effort, guided by judgment and intelligence, is capable of accomplishing for the advancement and civilization of the Indian. I omitted to state in the proper place that there was this year in cultivation among the tribes specified at least 800 acres more of land than was cultivated last year. I am surprised at the beauty of the country: small prairies almost surrounded by timber; beautiful valleys with gently sloping sides; thickly covered with oak trees; then a larger extent of prairie, surrounded as far as the eye can reach, by timber of all shades of color, green and brown, and blended with distance into purple and blue. There is scarcely any underbrush at all; hence it is easy to get through the timber in almost any direction. I am told that the want of underbrush is caused by fire, and the fire is set so as to keep the underbrush down and enable the hunter to see his game. The streams here are beautiful; in most cases gently sloping banks, with smooth, gravelly beds. There is plenty of fish and some turkey and deer. I am reminded in looking over this fine country of the remark of the late A. D. Richardson in regard to Kansas: “God might have made a more beautiful country, but it is doubtful as to whether he ever did.”

The commissioner of Indian affairs, E. P. Smith, will be in Kansas about the 25^th of the present month, on his way to Fort Sill, to be present at the release of Satanta and Big Tree. It is to be regretted that these men were not released at the time the government promised to release them. The Kiowas had performed their part of the contract in perfect good faith; but it seems that the Modoc outrage, thousands of miles away, was made the pretext of holding these chiefs in custody for nearly six months after the time agreed upon for their release. The government ought to set a better example.

I learn that at the payment made to the Osages, about two months ago, Col. Van and Mr. Adair, both well-known Cherokees, famous lobbyists at Washington and clamoring with Boudinot to have the Territory opened for settlement, prescribed a small bill of half a million against the Osages for services at Washington. The agent couldn’t see it. Van and Adair then counseled with the Indians apart from the agent. This resulted in allowing $300,000, and the Osages entered into a contract with Van and Adair to pay them that amount. The history of the claim is briefly that a bill was pending in congress to sell the Osage land in Kansas at 40 cents an acre; through the influence of Superintendent Hoag, the Washington committee of Friends and the board of Indian commissioners, the bill was changed so as to fix the price at $1.25 per acre. It was this difference of 85 cents that Van and Adair claimed to have saved the Osages, for which they now ask the small sum of $300,000. In the meantime, Superintendent Hoag, finding that there was trouble among the Osages, dropped down among them, and of course explained the whole thing to the Osages in the presence of Van and Adair. The Indians then explained that they supposed it was $3,000 instead of $300,000; only a mistake of a few ciphers, and a small thing to make a fuss about. C.

THE KIOWA CHIEFS.

Satanta in the Bosom of His Friends.

Big Tree on His Native Heath.

The Commonwealth, Friday, September 19, 1873.

Satanta and Big Tree, under guard, arrived at Fort Sill on the 4^th, and were turned over to Gen. Davidson’s command. Their relatives were permitted to see them. The captives were informed that they would be kept in confinement till the end of the month, when Governor Davis and the Indian commissioner would treat with the tribe for their release. They were warned that any attempt to escape would meet with summary punishment. Satanta replied he was used to being in jail. Both are looking well, but reduced in flesh since their confinement. The night after their arrival, signal fires were seen blazing at various points on the Wichita mountains, indicating to the various camps that the great chiefs had arrived.

On the day following they were visited by various distinguished Kiowas, among them Kicking Bird, Lone Wolf, Big Bow, White Horse, and a brother of Big Tree. A correspondent of the St. Louis Times gives the following description of the interview between Satanta and his family.

This evening the prisoners were visited by Satanta’s father and mother, each of whom is over seventy-five, his three wives, and from six to eight “little Indians standing in a line.” Big Tree was visited by his mother, Kicking Bird and Lone Wolf being also present. The old man, on first seeing him, stood quite rigid, looking fixedly at him with his hands clasped for some seconds; then rubbing his eyes, as if to assure himself his failing sight was not deceiving him, threw himself into his son’s arms. When the squaw and small fry were let in, wasn’t there a Babel! All were crying, laughing, and chattering together, like any other women.

Of these Satanta took comparatively little notice until he came to his eldest son, a boy about sixteen years of age. He embraced him passionately, and after holding him some minutes in his arms, he buried his face in his hands while the boy slunk into a corner of the cell and covered his head with his blanket.

Affecting as the scene was, it wound up with a rather ludicrous incident. Satanta’s youngest wife sidled up to him, and after unwrapping enormous folds of buffalo robe and blanket from what looked very like the old budget of an itinerant tinker, she rather morosely plucked his sleeve, and pointing to a sleeping papoose scarcely six months’ old, desired him to “look at his son.” For an instant the chief’s nether jaw fell an inch or two, and he rubbed his scalp-lock and looked reflective. His discomfit, however, was momentary, and, like a sensible savage, concluding that “to be sad about trifles was only folly,” he tossed his head, and laughed, and said his heart felt good to see all his folks around him.”

THE ARKANSAS VALLEY.

The Land of the Locomotive, Pioneer, and Steam Plow.

Thirty Thousand Homesteads Awaiting Settlement.

The Commonwealth, Friday, September 19, 1873.

Of all that has been written of the Arkansas valley and its various localities, much has been left unsaid, and if the observations of one who has no special interest in any one particular part of it, nor inclination to give some gentlemanly proprietor of a “saloon and boarding house” a puff, you are liberty to use this.

As often as I have been over the road and up and down this valley, at each succeeding trip new and interesting features unfold themselves, and attractions that have hitherto passed unnoticed, meet the gaze. The time was when this valley had no such appearance of fertility and verdure as it now possesses. But a few years ago, and within the memory of many of the living, it did not belie, in numerous respects, the name of the “Great American Desert,” applied to that unknown and almost unexplored territory or plain lying west of the Missouri, the remembrance of which, as gathered from the then crude geography of our boyhood, arises still in our minds as the Golgotha of America, a parched, barren, desolate region, and that to enter upon its leagues of dreary waste was but to leave all hope behind. From whatever cause, there can be no doubt that all that boundless, billowy region of prairie, that now is so enchantingly unrolled by a journey over the A. T. & S. F. R. R., was once bleak, uninviting, barren, and desolate. With no denizen but the savage and wild beast, its limitless expanse trod under foot by herds of buffalo, its verdure destroyed by fire, that, speeding its way from Indian wigwams or from lightning, has in the course of years had its effect upon it.

It was then a land suited to its tenantry. But like the hidden gem that lurked in some unknown cavern for ages, to be at last discovered and set in a princely coronet, so this land, in the fullness of time, has been occupied for just what anyone who has ever been over it will say God intended it—the land of the locomotive, the pioneer, and steam plow. It has at last entered upon its duties appointed of Providence, and this land has approached its destiny, for the accomplishment of which, unknown and beyond the ken of mortal wisdom, its silent wastes listening to the onward march of the pioneer, and who at the proper time would enter upon and possess it. Though the ways of Jehovah are often past finding out, yet its leagues of prairie had not, for all these centuries, nodded their verdure to the passing summer cloud for nothing. The mysterious alchemy of time was perfecting it for man’s use; and little by little it assumed the habiliments of culture and fertility. Washington Irving, in his journey through a portion of this region nigh on to forty years ago, mentions his encountering the progress of the wild bee westward as the avant courier of the pioneer; and it might well be said as supplementary to this, that with the settler the buffalo flies to other fields, and a new and better verdure unrolls itself at the heels of the first settlers. No traveler’s journey is better defined than the steady march of the blue stem grass, as civilization moves its ceaseless steps beyond the western horizon; and not alone in this, but with the settling and development of the country come the rains, frequent and more abundant.

The Arkansas Valley throughout its whole length has, during this year, so far constantly kept the machinery of storm in motion, and it has been an ill-favored locality that has not had its weekly copious and blessed shower. So today, through the beneficence of government, and enterprise of capital, the Arkansas valley sends greeting to the houseless and the shelterless, the shout of welcome, and tenders its thirty thousand homesteads to any who will but seek them. Could the unceasing monotonous stretch of fertile prairie vined with healthy streams of water, where but to puncture the surface makes it drip with moisture, be but correctly miniatured to the hives that swarm the olden world, how a new ardor would startle their sluggish blood, and new hopes people their brain. In all lands, in all times, a hearthstone of their own all desire to have, and a roof that knows no grasping landlord, to shelter the little ones. And here they are; the vision with ease shapes itself into reality, and no one so poor, and none so ignorant but what he can procure a home, and a better inheritance, but let him essay however feeble an effort.

Starting from Topeka at early morn, it is not expected that much will be learned or discovered of that portion of the country lying between there and Emporia, and so with the window open we feel the cold dark currents of the morning breeze fan our cheeks and utterly oblivious to Carbondale, and Burlingame with its turmoil of strife with Lyndon for the county seat, or Osage City with its ochre, coal, and brick, we are through by daylight to Emporia, and as the trains run from the junction to and through the town, we catch a slight glimpse of the decorous little city, its prim streets and coal hunting inhabitants. Let no traveler attempt hurling a brick-bat into the throngs that crowd its streets and jam the depot grounds, for sure as he does, the slates of this unambitious town will have to be rearranged and some new man put forward as candidate for the United States senate in place of the wounded one. If Emporia has a weakness, it is in this direction, but withal, for a town of three thousand people, it is entitled to the appellation of the nicest town in Kansas.

Refreshed by a six-bit breakfast, we leave this place, believing ourselves at peace with all mankind and prepared for the cozy sights of farm and field, of wood and stream, of verdured slopes and fertile valley, that come like an ever-changing panorama to the eye, along the Cottonwood from Emporia to Cottonwood Falls, where, across the river, half embowered in shade, sits the village. It is noted for its two dams, one, Hon. S. N. Wood, and the other built across the river and used for milling purposes. It has the finest courthouse in the state, and as fine building stone as is gathered in any part of the west. Chase County has fine lands; her cattle upon a thousand hills; one of the best counties for cattle and sheep, and as good land lying in its valleys as was ever covered by the old time deluge. Travelers should not think poorly of Cottonwood when the station is called out, but, if in quest of a good county, you can be gratified by stopping here and investing.

Next come three or four rural hamlets and neighboring settlements, and Florence with its flagging quarries. Here is where the Marion Centre people get on and off; and we are now in another splendid county for land, rock, water, cattle, timber (such as it is) and people. The old quiet Presbyterian county seat lies up the valley to our left some seven miles, and Peabody, the next station in Marion County, some ten miles west of this, is where the austere Yankee, with his business and intelligence, has broken out in a chronic form. All the country we are passing through is Marion County. Here is your land, my young friend! Bought for a bagatelle from the railroad or obtained as dowry by marrying some rich farmer’s daughter. On we go to Newton, a place the sowing of whose wild oats has cost it an odium from which it only recovered by the exertion of some of the best people we will meet on the road. The cattle trail, the dance house, the Texas sombrero, the painted sepulchres, that mocked femininity, have all departed, and Newton buries out of sight her score or more of those who were victims of the bowie, bludgeon, and bullet, and is today quietly and surely treading its way onward to the position of a leading town of the western portion of the state. It is the county seat of Harvey County, whose fertile land is only limited by its area; a county that has no foot of bad soil, whose inhabitants mean to stay, where no extravagance has been indulged in, and the county is out of debt. What do you think of that? No inconsiderable item these times. At Newton will be found the residence of the founder of the grange, an institution whose principles are dear to every American heart and adored by every lover of liberty. Success to the cause. [Source: Unknown.]

POSTAL AFFAIRS.

The Commonwealth, Friday, September 19, 1873.

Postal changes in Kansas during the week ending September 13, 1873, furnished by Wm. Van Vleck of the postoffice department.

Established—Chalk Mound, Wabaunsee County, Wm. Brewer, postmaster; Farms, McPherson County, Isaac P. Carper; Hebron, Clay County, Wm. Milroy; Oak Bridge, Howard County, David H. Faler.

Postmasters Appointed—Cherokee, Crawford County, Solon L. Manlove; Covington, Smith County, Augustus Payne; Godfrey, Bourbon County, H. P. Merigold; Lincoln Centre, Lincoln County, D. W. Henderson; Muscotah, Atchison County, Seneca Heath; North Lawrence, Douglass County, James Walker; Rubens, Jewell County, Thomas West; Scotch Plain, Republic County, Joseph McGowan; South Cedar, Jackson County, Samuel B. Jones.

ALF. BURNETT.

The Commonwealth, Friday, September 19, 1873.

Concerning the appearance of the great humorist at Kansas City, the Journal of yesterday says:

A crowded house witnessed Alf. Burnett and the fine combination at the opera house last night. Mr. Burnett appeared, in addition to “Mr. and Mrs. Candle,” in his original sketch, entitled “Women’s Rights.” Burnett is immense, and must be seen to be appreciated. There is more fun in an hour with Burnett than with any other man in the world. The entire performance went off with bursts of applause.

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Commonwealth, Friday, September 19, 1873.

The Blade of last evening contained a very ungenerous, unjust, and entirely uncalled for attack on the bowling saloon on Sixth avenue. So far as our observation extends, Mr. Faxon keeps as orderly a place as any man in the city. No one was arrested in his place on Wednesday, as stated in the Blade, and the police do not hang around there any more than at any other saloon in the city; or if they do, they certainly neglect their duties in other portions of the city. We are authorized to state that the article in the Blade is a misrepresentation of the facts from beginning to end. When the Blade urges the suppression of the bowling alley, it forgets that the alley is authorized by ordinance, that Mr. Faxon pays his license promptly, and that he has entered into bonds to keep a respectable place. When he violates the provisions of his license, it is then time to talk about suppression.

CAPITOL HOUSE, TOPEKA.

The Commonwealth, Friday, September 19, 1873.

We call the attention of the traveling public and all persons who intend visiting the state fair, which commences on the 22^nd, to the fact that the Capitol House is prepared to receive and accommodate an unlimited number of guests. It has recently been enlarged and improved, and will be found one of the best resorts in the city during the fair week, or any time thereafter. The Capitol House is well known among commercial men of the leading cities of the country, and we are pleased to state that it also bears an excellent reputation among them for good management and hospitality. The accommodations of this house are good, its rooms airy and well furnished, its location convenient, and the table we are assured will be daily spread with the choicest viands our city markets can afford.

The Capitol House now has a reputation second to no house in Topeka, and Mr. Kellam understands and performs the duty of host to perfection. He superintends everything about the house, while our genial and popular friend, Brown, at the clerk’s desk, looks directly after the comfort of guests. We shall expect that during fair week the house will increase its already large circle of friends, and its tables be daily filled with visitors who want strictly first-class board at reasonable prices.

AD.

The Commonwealth, Friday, September 19, 1873.

Hand sewed custom boots, every pair warranted, in half sizes, fit guaranteed, only nine dollars at Hill & George’s, 188 Kansas avenue, boot upside down. Sept. 17.

THE ARKANSAS VALLEY.

A Trip West From Newton.

General Appearance of the Country.

Some of the Towns Along the Road.

The Commonwealth, Saturday, September 20, 1873.

Correspondence of the Commonwealth.

Shall we go to Wichita? No! Let the busy metropolis go ahead with its business and its beeves. We are going up the Arkansas valley, and unless our geography as issued by the railroad is wrong, will strike it at Hutchinson. Thirty miles then through as lovely a country as ever the sun traveled westward over. They say the Mennonites are settling about Burrton, and if the story be true, that they eschew politics as a sinful occupation, what a lot of backsliders their ranks would contain in a very short time. We know some men who to pass through the community would set out the contagion or infuse the virus for holding office. But we forget that here is more land waiting for you or someone else, and we wonder, as the Indiana man we met with on our trip did, why they do not plow it. People come in droves and scatter out, and are lost in these stretches of prairie that follow the setting sun long after we have seen it dip. They come by rail and by toiling teams both night and day; and some have left the wife and babes to fight the wolf in distant places from here, and have trudged on as best they could to this land of Eldorado, to win with pluck and thrift a home denied them in a land where Sunday schools are plentier and cheap lands scarcer. We wish them success.

Two miles out from Hutchinson, and the passengers are intently gazing out of the window toward the northwestern sky. The car is all commotion, and ejaculations that speak of thrilling surprise run like an electric spark from passenger to passenger—and no wonder: for there against the noontide sky miles away, comes on with ponderous gait, a huge black object that strides the air like a thing of life. Awe and consternation seize the happy innocents on board from Ohio and Peru, Indiana, until some passenger with the daily Graphic in his hand partially allays the rising fears by informing them that in all probability it is Wise with his balloon, out of course, and departed from his reckoning. “Ladies and gentlemen, keep your seat; there is no danger, it is only the eastern bound storm for this week, twenty minutes late. Peanuts, peanuts,” cries the train boy and the drouth overtaken inhabitants from the western reserve and the pocket regain their seats in safety.

But here is Hutchinson, a village of 800 people, who look like they had been picked out of the best people of the east and set down here with none of the signs of transplanting; live, wide awake people who believe in schools and churches, and who have laid aside the conventional subterfuge of whiskey-shops and started out with seventeen drug stores with back room accompaniments to supply its thirsty inhabitants with alcohol for purely mechanical purposes.

Successively have we passed Emporia, Newton, and Hutchinson, three towns who hope they have within their limits the individual who is to be the next senator. It would be well for all who travel westward to notice particularly these places, for once on your journey westward of them you have bid a last good bye to towns so ambitious, and you will no more see in all your further trip individuals aspiring in that direction. It is sad to think that the other towns we shall flit by, with all their schools, churches, and intelligence, are in this particular so destitute and needy! From Hutchinson to Great Bend, where we get off, is fifty-three miles, and we encounter the thriving town of Peace, In Rice County, pass Raymond with its hopes of a ten thousand dollar schoolhouse already paid for, and Elmwood, in Barton County, where over 200,000 Texas cattle have crossed the Arkansas river this year. The next station is Great Bend, of which more hereafter.

The man who is not satisfied with the country along the Arkansas, over which we have just rode, would, had he been in the Garden of Eden, have raised a row before Satan conceived the thought of tempting Eve. Just think of a prairie that runs out of sight in every direction, green as verdure can make it, traversed by streams of pure, healthy, and refreshing water, a soil that has no superior in fertility on the discovered globe, underlaid with a vast ocean that sweeps with perceptible current through the porous soil, all the wilderness of green in sight, and which lies so near the surface that the warmth of the sun and genial character of the soil, unite to cause a continual cloud of moisture to float upward to sustain and nourish, however dry the season, all the various vegetation of this climate. This can be depended on, year after year. The Nile overflows its banks and gives with its floods the substitute for rain. In Illinois it rains and the non-porous condition of its mud leaves many a cornfield in June, in such a condition that it cannot be approached except by a scow. But here a current of water ten feet beneath your feet, and showers that come with a precision and punctuality hardly to be believed. Let it rain; it produces no mud, and the plow need not stop. Then again my friend, all this land you see is selling or to be sold. If a man is too poor to homestead a quarter, he is still able to buy one of the railroad. Little payments and divided over the space of ten or eleven years are hardly felt, and you are not compelled to stay on the land, but in intervals of leisure on the place, you can go where you please, hunt work, and make money. You have the advantage of a railroad that will do as much to help you along, as you dare ask it to do. The steam plow can go a day’s journey without obstacle, and by putting on a head light, can return at night. Grass as nutritious as ever grew, timber as easily raised, and what this valley cannot produce thriftily and well is not worth the planting.

But here is Great Bend, the county seat of Barton County, where at present a huge cattle trade is being transacted. The town is alive with cattle men, and all the attendant evils that afflict the trade. There is a good schoolhouse, and a fine courthouse is now half completed. With all its extremes of good and bad, its hilarity and dissipation, there have been no feuds, battles, or debauchery to bring odium on the town. It is making every inducement to have the bulk of the cattle trade for next year; a hotel is talked of, and with its bridge across the Arkansas, would undoubtedly be one of the best towns in all this region if a suicidal town site question between the citizens and town company could be settled as it ought to be. The people here will be found wide awake, of the better class, and all on the make. J. G. W.

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Commonwealth, Saturday, September 20, 1873.

An iron bridge is soon to be built across the Kansas river at the state line by the Kansas Pacific company.

The Commonwealth, Saturday, September 20, 1873.

New stock of gents’ furnishing goods just received at Funk’s, 191 Kansas avenue. Latest styles direct from New York.

The Commonwealth, Saturday, September 20, 1873.

The hand sewed Kilsheimer boots, best quality, only ten dollars, at Hill & George’s boot upside down.

The Commonwealth, Saturday, September 20, 1873.

The sale of tickets for the Burnett entertainments commences today at Wilmarth’s. Secure your seats early and avoid the rush.

The Commonwealth, Saturday, September 20, 1873.

If a Topekan looks unusually pleasant and happy nowadays, it is because all his wife’s relations are coming in to stay with him during fair week.

The Commonwealth, Saturday, September 20, 1873.

A large stock of hats, caps, gloves, hosiery, gents’ underwear, etc., now being received by J. G. Funk, 101 Kansas avenue.

The Commonwealth, Saturday, September 20, 1873.

Goslin & Co.’s store will be closed on Monday next on account of Jewish New Years. Any orders for furniture or other goods for the fair must be arranged for today.

The Commonwealth, Saturday, September 20, 1873.

Out—the big button boot in front of Ennis & Renick’s “Queen City Shoe Store.” Everybody should be reminded today when they see this handsome sign that it represents the finest shoe store in the west.

The Commonwealth, Saturday, September 20, 1873.

Wilson Shannon, Jr., well known in Topeka, died at Lawrence yesterday morning, after an illness of about ten days. Bishop Vail went to Lawrence this morning to officiate at the funeral services, to be held tomorrow.

The Commonwealth, Saturday, September 20, 1873.

You can talk of expositions, state fairs, and baby shows, but the rush for the “Kilsheimer excelsior” gaiter at the “Queen City shoe store” beats all combined. Remember Messrs. Ennis & Renick are the only agents in Topeka for this fine work.

The Commonwealth, Saturday, September 20, 1873.

Mr. Olson, the artistic tailor, has received the finest selections of fall and winter goods we have ever seen, and we know that he gets them up in ta-ty style. It only requires an inspection of his goods and workmanship to convince you that Olson cannot be excelled in his line of business.

The Commonwealth, Saturday, September 20, 1873.

At a meeting of soldiers held at the office of Justice Cock, on Wednesday evening, September 17^th, the following persons were elected delegates and alternates to attend the state convention of soldiers and sailors to be held in Topeka on Monday, September 23^rd, 1873. Delegates: John Guthrie and Thomas Archer; alternates, C. E. Bazin and J. G. Waters.

AMUSEMENTS.

The Commonwealth, Saturday, September 20, 1873.

The visitors to the fair next week, as well as the residents of our city, will be glad to learn that they are to be provided with a rare treat at the opera house. The great humorist, Alf. Burnett, will appear at Costs’s opera house each evening during the week, assisted by Miss Helen Nash and Mr. James W. Sharpley.

Mr. Burnett will appear as Mr. Caudle in the sketch written especially for him by H. Douglas Jerrold, entitled “Mr. and Mrs. Caudle at Home.” Miss Nash and Mr. Sharpley both appear in this charming sketch. Mr. Burnett will also give his “Preacher from Hepsidam,” which, without exaggeration, may be said to be the most laughable sketch on the stage. Reserved seats are now on sale at Wilmarth’s.

THE ABORIGINES.

The Commonwealth, Sunday, September 28, 1873.

The report of the recent conference between the U. S. commissioner of Indian affairs, E. P. Smith, and the head men of the various bands of Osages, will be found to be interesting and important enough to deserve the space and attention we have accorded it. Our correspondent has reproduced the speeches of the Indians verbatim, as translated into the vernacular by the official interpreter, and they will be found a quite entertaining study of the directness and simplicity of aboriginal thought, if destructive of traditional ideas as to the beauty and force of its imagery. The sordid subject of money, and a trifling per capita of money at that, is not suggestive of high similitudes nor provocative of grand sentiments. There is at the beginning of the conference a very encouraging assurance of disinterested affection on the part of the Indians for their great father, for his deputy, and for all their pale-faced brethren, an affecting declaration of their willingness to work if they only had the money to buy tools; and a pathetic reproach of the government authorities for chiseling them out of their broad, rich acres, and giving them a barren waste in return.

Mr. Smith, with much moderation, and with a patience truly parental, endeavors to instil into their puerile comprehension a realizing sense of their weakness and dependence, and tells them he would not be so cruel as to give them their money, except their annuities, any faster than they can demonstrate their ability to take care of it, and to use it with thrift and expend it with profit, and recalls to them their past lamentable experience in trading for themselves, showing them that if they had been left to their own devices as free financial agents, they would not now have any money to ask for. Their willingness to pay Vann and Adair $200,000 for slight services as their attorneys, which would be well paid with $200, and their readiness, even anxiety, to dispose of their lands at seventeen cents an acre to capitalists, were cited as by no means extreme cases in point.

The Indians, after approving the truth of the adage that “soft words butter no parsnips” ceased attempting to cajole, and began to bully. Their most valuable spokesman, “Hard Rope,” kept reiterating as he deemed an unanswerable argument, that the money was theirs and they could not rightfully be kept out of it. Joseph Pah-ne-no-pah-she, or as he is familiarly known, “Big Hill Joe,” who has had twelve years education in a Jesuit college, under Father Shoemaker [Father John Schoenmakers], and who is but masquerading in blankets and beads, and pretending not to understand English, demagoged in the same strain, though the evidences by the greater breadth and ingenuity of his argument that he knows the position to be untenable, and only talked to please and retain his influence among his brethren.

These Osages are the finest specimens of aboriginal manhood on the plains. They are physically a magnificent race, and are chiefly notable for their fondness for barbaric finery. Everyone of them is a splendid study of color, with his red blanket about his loins, his brilliant crimson scarf tied around his forehead, his necklaces and earrings, and the variegated feathers perched on the coxcomb of stiff hair that bisects his cranium. These admirably set off a splendid figure, which seldom falls below and oftener exceeds a height of six feet. Friend Smith, in looking over these big hulking fellows, sees in them splendid possibilities in the peaceful tillage of a rich soil, and tells them they must go to work. He lays down a policy in their regard which he undoubtedly intends to follow with all the Indians of the Territory, and this policy is both wise and reassuring. The Osages are errant cut-throats and horse-thieves, and he tells them plainly that they must reform their habits of this sort if they expect any favors, or continued forbearance. His sentiments held to the Osages will, we are sure, be read and approved by all the citizens of Kansas, especially those who live along the border subject to the predatory enterprise of Big Hill Joe and the loquacious Hard Rope.

THE OSAGES.

Big Talk With Commissioner Smith.

THEY WANT MONEY TO FARM WITH.

Plain Language from Mr. Smith.

Specimens of Barbaric Eloquence and Diplomacy.

Lively Recriminations About Murders and Robberies.

The Commissioner Lays Down a Policy and Tells the Indians

They Must Go to Work.

The Commonwealth, Saturday, September 20, 1873.

LAWRENCE, September 25^th, 1873.

Special Correspondence of the Commonwealth.

It has been understood for some ten days past that the commissioner of Indian affairs, Hon. E. P. Smith, would be in this place today on his way to the southwest. In anticipation of this the Osages with their agent, Isaac T. Gibson, have been here three or four days awaiting his arrival.

The Hon. commissioner came as expected; arriving in this city yesterday. The delegation of Osages consisted of the governor, Joseph Pah-ne-no-pah-she; the agent, interpreters, and sixteen of the chiefs and head men of the tribe. The Osages have been in the Indian Territory about three years. They now number about thirty-five hundred. The tribe is divided into eight bands, and each band has a chief and counselor. In addition to this they have a still more exalted dignitary with the title of “governor.” This office is at present filled by Joseph, whose surname is “the man that killed a Pawnee.” The extent of their ambition seems to be to imitate the Cherokees and to want everything they see. These dusky dignitaries have come down to see their “great father” and tell him what they want. They act upon the motto that is sometimes printed and posted up in country stores, “If you don’t see what you want, ask for it.” They want all they can get, and I guess would take it if they got a chance. So far as “wants” are concerned, an Osage Indian can discount a column in the New York Herald. They have adopted the customs of the Cherokees—especially those of Vaun [Vann] and Adair. They informed the commissioner that they wanted their money all paid to them. They wanted to go into the law-making business on their own account; set up an independent government, with the meek and docile Joseph at the head of it. They could dispense with agents and superintendents, and thus save a good deal of expense. I presume they got their ideas of economy from Vaun [Vann] and Adair. As a specimen of their economy, I might state that they contracted to pay the said Vaun [Vann] and Adair the trifling sum of three hundred thousand dollars for two weeks talk, and as they once made a treaty providing for the sale of their lands at seventeen cents per acre, their economy and ability to take care of themselves cannot be questioned. It was owing to the efforts of Superintendent Hoag that their lands in Kansas were sold at $1.25 per acre, instead of seventeen cents; and it was owing to the same superintendent, the Washington committee of Friends, and the commissioner of Indian affairs, that the scheme of Vaun [Vann] and Adair to rob the Osages of $300,000 was not successful. If the Osages had been permitted to have their way, they would have been beggars now. They may thank Superintendent Hoag and the good and true men who labored with him that they are not reduced to penury. The interview between the Osages and the commissioner today was very interesting. The Indians were seated in a semi-circle in front and in their red blankets, feathers, and paint.

The contrast was very striking with the sober dress and attire of the rest of the party. The commissioner of Indian affairs was assisted by Major C. F. Larrabee, of Maine; who was also appointed a commissioner to visit with the Indian commissioner the Indian tribes in the southwest. The Major is a gallant looking gentleman and in action as well as in appearance is a worthy representative of a state that produces tall trees and smart men.

This is the first visit that Commissioner Smith has made to Kansas. He was one of the earliest friends of the state, and his first contributions to our stock of reading were in the shape of “Beecher’s Bibles.” The Indian commissioner is a fine looking man; with a frank, pleasant smile that finds it way down into your heart in spite of yourself. He gains the confidence of the Indians by his kind, straight-forward, and truthful manner. He tries to encourages them and yet he does not flatter them, nor say things simply to please them. He tells them the truth, and it is easy to see from his manner that his object is to be patient, just, and firm. I predict that E. P. Smith will be one of the most popular and efficient commissioners that we have ever had. There is no air of red tape about him and none of that over-crowing investiture of brief authority in which smaller men are apt to strut.

Beside the two gentlemen named, there was present today at the interview of the commissioner, Supt. Hoag, Cyrus Bede [Beede], Mr. Nicholson, H. W. Jones of the Quapaw agency, Agent Gibson of the Osages, and Agent Newton of the Pottawatomies. The superintendent looks careworn, but active and kindly as ever. Bede [Beede] looks strong, watchful, and alert; Dr. Nicholson, patient and thoughtful; and the agents, one and all, are faithful and zealous men.

The conference between the commissioner and the Osages was, throughout, in the nature of questions from different Indians, and replies by the commissioner. The Indians were first introduced to the commissioner by Supt. Hoag, and as their names were called, they advanced and gave the commissioner a hearty shake of the hand. The commissioner then addressed them as follows.

“I have been in Washington but a few months, and don’t know as much as I shall bye and bye. I have been among the Indians laboring for them and with them more than three years. I have seen the Indians away to the north and south of you, but have never seen your tribe before, and all that I know of you is what I learn through letters from your agents. I am very glad to hear from them of the new state of things with you.

“I am glad to know that you are thinking, and that your agent is trying to help you think about a different life. It is a very important thing for you and for the white people of the country. You have heard that the railroad is coming your way, and you know that the country is fast settling up with white men, and that it will be impossible for you or other Indians to live in a wild state any longer. It is very good that you have a good agent with you; it is important that you should have, and I am confident that you have. Now, if you have anything to say, I shall be glad to hear you.”

Whereupon Gov. Joseph Pah-ne-no-pah-she replied substantially as follows.

“My friends, I see you on a very pleasant day today. Our agent asked us to come and see you; in doing so I came through the land that belonged to my forefathers. In looking back, if I had taken the advice that was given me, I should not have been living where I am, but would be living like the whites. Five years ago we made a treaty, and agreed to remove from Kansas. There were some things in the treaty that we did not like. We wanted to use our lands as we liked, and we wanted to use our money in our own way. We wanted a piece of land from the Cherokees, and it was promised us at fifty cents an acre. We selected a piece of land and moved there, and then the Cherokees took the best part away from us. We were afterwards told by commissioners that we could have a better country.”

No-par-wal-la [No-pa-walla or No-pa-Watha (Thunder-Fear)], chief of the Little Osages, then shook hands and proceeded as follows.

“My friends, this is a pleasant day and I am glad to see you. We wanted to go to Washington, but as you are here, we will talk here. Our forefathers and the whites made peace near the Mississippi river. On your way here you saw a great country that used to belong to us. We now have but little land; our fathers died poor. This large quantity of land was sold for a small price, and they do not seem to have been benefitted by it. Now, this is the only land that we have left, and we want the commissioners to advise us so that we may not lose what we have. Our great father wants us to change our lives, and we think we ought to do so, now that our large quantity of land is gone. I will stop now. I may have more to say bye and bye.”

Chetopa, [Che-to-pah (Tzi-Topa)], chief counselor of the Osages, then arose, and after shaking hands, said:

“My friends, we have come together on a very pleasant day. Our people all know that we have come here on business, and I hope that I shall have some good news to take back to them that will make them very glad. You see here the head men of the Nation, and I hope you will have a little pity on us. Our fathers heretofore went to see the great father. Our lands have been sold, and we have seen hard times. We have come for help. We have sold our land, as we were advised by the government, and we were all agreed. We expected to get our land at fifty cents an acre. We were compelled to remove and live further west, and in doing so we got only bad land. Our agent lives in the heart of it. There is not enough good land to divide among ourselves. I have a good place myself, but most of us have not.”

Ne-kah-ki-pah-ne, chief of the Hominy band, shook hands and said:

“I have come to see you and we are all glad to see you. Our superintendent has told us twice that he wanted some of us to go to Washington. We have had not chance, but you are here now and I hope that we shall have an understanding. The government has made our forefathers and us many sweet promises, and in that way taken our lands; but we can’t see anything coming to us. We sold our land and removed to this country, expecting to find it good. When we got there, we found it was bad. We were afterwards promised better land. We are living there now, but it is very poor. We were told when we got on our land that we must study a different life. We have done so. Our agent can’t do much because he has got no good place to stay. We want schools for our children. We were not crazy when we promised to change our lives.”

The commissioner replied as follows:

“I understand now about your land question. Is there anything else you would like to talk about?”

Paul Akin, interpreter, said:

“By the influence of our agent, our people are trying to do all they can in farming and stock raising. Considering the time they have been trying, I think they excel all other Indians. They have little farms, and some have hogs, and yet they are wild Indians. They are building houses and trying to live a civilized life. They are trying to make laws for the benefit of their children. We see that we can’t live like wild Indians. These men you see here are foremost in this work. Our means are light. Our agent tries to teach the people. Civilization is the word, and everybody is talking about it. Our country is very poor. We had a good piece of land on Caney river, but it has been surveyed away from us. The Indians should have good land, because they are just beginning.”

Hardrope [Hard Rope (We-He-Sa-Ki)], counselor of the White Hair band, then arose and said:

“We have met upon a very pleasant day, and I think that it is through the power of our great master. I have come a long way to see you. We have as much business as you have papers scattered about the room. All this country was once ours. Then our head men had but little sense, all they thought about was to kill white men. But after a while they made a treaty like a chain, and it has been linked ever since. We see many rich white people; we made them so. Yesterday we went to the fair at Topeka. I saw a great deal, and I know that it all came from the Osages; and it made me think that we ought to be a great people, but we have only a little piece of land, not large enough for a bird. We are told that we can’t do as we please with our land; but we think we are a great people and ought to speak for ourselves. We know right from wrong. We want to do right, but we have nothing to work with. Our agent knows our situation. We have at least four days’ talk, and no time to waste.”

Governor Joe then arose and said:

“About three years ago some commissioners came from Washington, buying land from us. In our treaty a large piece of land was given to Kansas for schools. We wanted the same amount of land back again. On account of our poor land, we wanted a piece of land next to the Arkansas river. We were promised pay every year for the land sold to Kansas. They wanted another year. We would like pay without putting it off any longer. I have not received a patent for my land, but I have advised my young men to work. It looked hard for our people to go into council without money to use as we liked. We hope to have stock, and that is why I advise my people to work. You are the head men, and I think you will help us, and let us know how much money we have coming to us and how much belongs to us.”

Augustus Captain, a half-breed, then spoke.

“I generally assist in all business of the Nation. We have about one hundred persons who can read. All the half-breeds and the blanket Indians want the Catholic church to teach our people. I do not speak for all in the matter of farming. Some want to work; and by the example of the half-breeds, some of the full blood Indians are working. The half-breeds want some of the benefit of the money given to the Indian. If I put on a blanket, I could get my share, and I ought to have it without doing so.”

The commissioner and superintendent then explained that the government does not propose to tech the Indians religion, but that the field is open to all religious societies to labor as much as they are disposed. The commissioner then asked them: “If your people know how to work, why do they want assistance?”

Augustus Captain answered: “They are very poor; they work for the full bloods. The money is appropriated for all, and we think it should be equally divided.”

Agent Gibson then remarked that the Osages must be protected in order that the poor and old may not suffer.

“I have given the half-breeds the preference when I have hired laborers, and have paid them from $25 to $50 per month as such. The half-breeds claim that they are entitled to an equal share in all that is given to the Osages.”

The commissioner then arose and replied as follows.

“From all the information I get, it seems to me that you are paying too much for your land. Your superintendent and your agent say so, but you must remember that they speak in your interest. The Cherokee agent will speak for his people and may tell another story. I have only heard one side, and that is your side, and so now I think as you do. But should I find out that it is all wrong, I don’t know that it can be righted now, and so I cannot promise you anything other than that I will look into it. I cannot say anything about the Arkansas river land yet; and as to your money, I can’t say just how much you have in Washington without looking at my books. I want you to go to work and make laws for your government. The men who spend their time as councillors should have some help; but I am afraid paying them will cause much talk and little law making. This, however, will regulate itself after a while. I am going to authorize your agent to expend this year $3,000 for your councillors. He will also give you the same money in hand that you had last year. If some of your money that you spend for clothes was expended in New York or Philadelphia, you could get clothing for about half that you are now obliged to pay for it. I will send a coat and a pair of pants to any man who will go to work. I said I didn’t know how much money you have in Washington. It is there to be given you whenever it is needed. It will come in faster than you need it, and will be kept for you. You may think that you want it all this summer; and if you knew how to use it, you might as well have it, but you do not yet know how to use it. You will have to have a little at a time and learn how to use it, then you can have more. Your half-breed friends even did not know how to take care of their money; they spent all they got for their lands and now have nothing and are poor, and have come to live with you again. I don’t see why you may not have everything you need as fast as you need it, in order to enable you to live like the whites; but you are not able to take care of much yet. When your school are ready, I want you to send your children. When you get able to take care of cattle, and not eat them as fast as you get them, you can have cattle given you. The buffalo are fast going west and you will need cattle.

“I have seen a great many Indians lately, and three things are necessary for all of them.

“1^st. They want good land to work.

“2^nd. They want implements to work with.

“3^rd. They want a good agent.

“Now a good country to live in, means to help him make a farm, and an agent to show him how to work, and also look out for his interests, are all an Indian needs. Now you have all these. You have, it is true, some bad land; but you have much good land. You have money enough from the sale of your lands to give you things to work with, and I think you have a good agent. Now what you want are good hands and good hearts, and everything will go well with you. The country is full of poor white men, who would jump with joy at your chance. All these white men you see here were born naked. They had someone to teach them and show them how to make a living. They use their heads and hands, and so they are able to support themselves. I have seen a great many Indians in my life; but I never have seen so large Indians as you are, and I think you are able and willing to work. The government will help you, and I am confident that you will prosper and be able to do much for yourselves.

“Your governor asks me how much money you have in Washington. I can’t tell, because I haven’t the figures here. I could tell if I was in Washington. Your land in Kansas is being sold for you; and as fast as it is sold, the money is put at interest for you. One hundred dollars now of your money will be one hundred and five dollars next year; this is what I mean by interest. So that you get every year not your money but the interest on your money. It may be that some time you will want more than the interest to buy stock, etc., but now you will get only the interest; and hereafter, you will not get the interest paid in money, except your annuity money, but you will get whatever your agent may think best to purchase for you. With a good many Indians, I am taking this course. The Indian that works gets paid for it; those who don’t work, don’t get anything—and it is better that they should not.

“I had a talk with your cousins, the Poncas, some time ago. I found them coming up to the warehouse twice a week, and when they got their flour, etc., they would go off to some shady place and cook and eat it. I told the agent to stop it; that it would spoil the Indians. I said to him, ‘Tomorrow when they come for flour, give it to them if they will work; otherwise, don’t give a particle.’”

“The Indians came, and said that it was their flour and that they wanted it; but the agent said, ‘You are my children and I am going to take care of you. I am not going to injure you. I am going to do you good. If I feed you without work, I will spoil you, and I will not do it any longer. The way to make a man of you is to make you work, and you must work in order to get food.’”

“Now you may say that you are able to take care of yourselves, and that you want your money to use yourselves; but you can see by these papers (some papers were held up before them), which you have signed, that you do not know how to take care of yourselves. By signing these papers you have given away more than you have received during the last three years. Your superintendent, your agent, and myself are the only persons who can make a contract with you, and anyone who says the can do so and so for you, is deceiving you. Now this paper, signed by you, is worth nothing; and any man who would try to charge you such a price for work, is not a good man for you, and you had better let him alone.”

Governor Joe arose to reply, and said:

“I told you we were trying to make laws. How can we do this without means? We have sold our Kansas lands for money and we expect the money to help us in schools. Our own laws will make us expend the money properly. Your speech is good. I like it well, but I would like to know which way our money goes. I signed none of the papers you speak of and know nothing about them.”

[Note: The commissioner did not acknowledge Governor Joe’s statement that he had not signed the papers spoken of and knew nothing about them.]

The commissioner replied as follows:

“You see that you are not prepared to handle and spend your money. You have signed a paper giving away all this money. Any person who can’t read and write is not fit to do business for himself. You can make laws to punish a murderer or thief, and you should make such laws; but you cannot make laws to regulate money matters. The government don’t want to keep you as children any longer than they can help; but until you are able to take care of yourselves, they will have to treat you as such. It was a great misfortune to the Cherokees that their money was turned over to them. They would have been better if it had not been done. I don’t want to be impatient or feel disheartened. We want to do what is best for you. You take hold and work and you will have enough. You are rich men, if you only knew it. I don’t say that you will never get your money in hand; but as long as I have anything to do with you, I shall try and have your money put into that which will be best for you, and you will live long enough to thank me. The monies that you have been getting as annuities, you will get as usual. The $40,000 that is paid to you in cash would be three times as good for you if it were given to you in another way.”

Hard Rope arose and replied to the commissioner as follows.

“Three commissioners have told us that we were to have certain things and not other things. I think they had their papers made out before they came here. I opposed the thing. They wanted us to have our country marked out in lots and I opposed it. I saw at the time that we could not control our money, and I opposed it; but as the other chiefs signed, I agreed. These objections were spoken of before the treaty was signed by us. I don’t see why, if we own a thing, we can’t use it. If I went to Washington and undertook to use your money, you would not like it. The reason we sold the land was we wanted money. It would be of no use to me to have an education if I could not have money. This is all I have to say.”

The commissioner then replied.

“Two men came to you and talked two weeks, and then you gave them two hundred thousand dollars of your money. This shows that you do not know how to take care of your money. If it was all given to you, it would be surrendered in the same way. This being the case, we must take care of you and your money. If I had a boy ten years old and he had ten thousand dollars, would I give it to him? He might say that it was his, but I now that there are people about him who would try to get it away from him, and so I would not give it to him. Now, why do I do this? It is because I love the boy and must take care of him, and I know if I give him the money, he will not take care of it and will do him harm. I will bring him books and clothes and send him to school and guard his interests, and this is what the government wants to do by you. When you are fit to take care of yourselves, you will not want an agent or superintendent to look after you.

“Now, you must make up your minds that this is what is going to be done. It is for your good and you must be contented.”

Big Wolf then said:

“I heard that you were to be here, and I have come. It don’t seem that you want to do anything that we wish. We have been trying for some time to see the president; but from what we see now, we think it would be of no use to see the president. We want our money, and if we don’t know how to handle it, we can learn. If a man can’t do a thing, he keeps on till he can. All our people are doing the best they can. We can’t get anything to work with.”

The commissioner then said:

“I have given you some money for your councilors; but about the land I can’t say, for it isn’t for me to say. I want you to have good land, and enough, and I don’t know but that something can be done to get the land you want. The time is coming when you can’t hunt buffaloes. It may come next year; it may not for two or three years, but I want you to be ready. It will depend upon how you act when you are out on a hunt.”

(He then told them about the late Sioux and Pawnee fight.)

Superintendent Hoag then said:

“In your treaty of 1868 you agreed to sell all your land in southern Kansas at seventeen cents per acre. If it had been done, you would not now have a dollar in the world. I was sent to see if it was right and just. I reported that it was unjust and fraudulent, and the treaty was destroyed. Then bids of twenty and twenty-five cents per acre were made; but we watched the legislation until a bill was offered, allowing $1.25 per acre, and through that bill you get your money today. Now this is why you should be thankful that you have friends to look out for you, for if the bill had passed as you agreed, you would have nothing today.”

Governor Joe then said:

“Is the $40,000 to be paid now?”

Superintendent Hoag then said:

“No; twice a year, or two installments each year.”

Governor Joe then said:

“We are not asking for ourselves but for our people. We have large families and five dollars is nothing for them. Our people refer to our lands that are sold and say, ‘We expect money in payment.’”

“My people may already have spent what they are to get next time. If the money is to be had, we want it. I ask it as a favor.”

The commissioner said:

“It would be easier for me to do what you wish than to refuse, and it would be pleasanter for me to promise you more money now; but I know that it would not be as well for you. I have seen a good many Indians have money and they always owe all they are to get. They never have quite enough, and it is so with white people. You can’t find a man in Lawrence, who has all he wants. Everybody wants a little more. I don’t have half I want. If I should ask anybody to give me more, they would say ‘go and work for it.’ Now I know it would be much better for you to have your money expended in agricultural implements and so I don’t do what I would otherwise like to do.”

Hard Rope then said:

“You understand that our land is very poor, when the Cherokees talk with you. We want a commission appointed to examine the lands. You look upon us as children; but we think we ought to have our money. You are to look out for us, and we look to you.”

The commissioner then said:

“If the Osages were the only Indians I had to look out for, I could carry it all in my head; but you must remember that I have hundred a times as many Indians to look out for, and I keep everything in books, and I cannot carry my books with me, I have so many. I didn’t know that I was to see you at this time. I want you to believe what I say to you. I send your agents to you and your superintendent, and what they tell you, you can depend upon. If you can’t believe them, you can’t believe me. I am going to be in Washington all winter. If you come there, I can tell you all, and will be glad to see you. You will see the president; but he will tell you that I am the man who looks after you.”

Hard Rope then said:

“I would be very glad if some of us could go to Washington and find out all about our affairs. We would like to know when we are to have our little money. We are educated enough to count the days when we are to have our money. Our main dependence is our horses. I lately lost three horses; I want pay for them. White man stole one fine horse. I made claim and sent it to Washington.”

No-pa-wal-la then said:

“We let the commissioners have our land because they told us good stories. They told us we should have $50 per head at once. Then afterward, the money would get bigger and figured up to $80 per head, and after it was all sold, we would get $160 per head; and that is why we required the treaty. They told us that the government wanted us to be like white men. We liked that, and so signed the treaty. Since then my men have gone out and tried to farm, but they have nothing to farm with. I ask and ask, but when am I to get something? Do white men farm with nothing? I did not sign the Cherokee paper.”

The commissioner then said:

“Have you not had one hundred dollars and a cow and calf this year, and have you not a farm and rails to fence it in, and why do you then complain? The people of Kansas say that the Osages have taken a good deal of their stock, and so I can’t make them pay for stock until you pay for theirs. If it was settled, it would cost you much the most, as you have stolen the most. I can’t tell you any plainer about money matters. Last year you had about thirty dollars spent for you. This year you will have more, and next year, more yet; but you want to see the greenbacks in your hands, and I want you to have a farm fenced in, and that is why I don’t give you more money. When you get along further, you will see that a farm is worth more to you than your little money. I want to do you good, and that is the reason that I do not do what you ask.”

Hard Rope then answered:

“Last year the whites stole sixteen ponies from me. I followed them to Wichita, found them, and took them. The men were tried four days. I got back twelve ponies; four were lost. I want the government to pay me for the ponies. The whites have no proof against the Osages. They never found their property in the hands of the Osages. We are willing to pay all just claims. The government is for us as well as for the whites.”

The commissioner closed the interview as follows.

“I have papers in Washington from the agent wherein the Osages admit that they stole cattle and horses. The Osages did pretty well to get back twelve ponies. The whites haven’t got anything back. Now, one thing more! I had word in Washington of the bad conduct of some of your men. You killed one of the best friends of the government. I telegraphed over the wires to the superintendent to take soldiers and go and have the murderers given up; but he found when he got there that you had arranged it so that he did not do anything about it. You have agreed to live in peace with whites and Indians, and that foolish and wicked practice of killing someone because you do not feel well, won’t do. Remember this. I shall be glad at some future time to see you on your own ground.” C.

[The above articles relative to the Osage Indians leave much to be answered. In the first place: they speak of the Cherokees (Vann and Adair), getting $300,000 and then later $200,000. Most confusing! The parting comment by Commissioner Smith about the Osages killing “one of the best friends of the government” is worthy of study. I was unaware of such a murder taking place. It is apparent that the “white horse thief ring or rings” from Kansas were taking Indian horses. It appears that the Osages decided to retaliate by stealing horses in turn from the “whites.”]

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

COFFEY COUNTY.

The Commonwealth, Saturday, September 20, 1873.

Eugene Bacon reporting. Held fair at Burlington, October 8th-10th, under auspices Coffey County agricultural, horticultural, and mechanical association, which was very successful. Amount of premiums paid, $391.45. Other expenses, $165. Receipts, $630. Crops in this county are good, and with the exception of corn, will be above the average.

COWLEY COUNTY.

The Commonwealth, Saturday, September 20, 1873.

J. B. Fairbanks reporting. Corn on old ground is of first quality; average, large. Corn on sod, planted early, good. Late planting, very light. Winter wheat very good; average yield, 22 bushels per acre. Some farmers report 35 bushels per acre; quality very fine. Spring wheat, fair. The amount of wheat produced in the county is probably sufficient for home consumption. The acreage sown this fall is large. Potatoes light, but good. Some interesting experiments have been made with cotton with very gratifying results. Hedges are being extensively reared. The people are alive to the need of fruit growing; and next year, if favorable, we will have considerable fruit. County agricultural society held fair at Winfield, September 6^th to 18^th. Receipts, $760. Premiums awarded: $500.

DAVIS COUNTY.

The Commonwealth, Saturday, September 20, 1873.

N. T. Greene reporting. Crops, except corn and potatoes, are very fine. Fruit crop very light. Wheat sown this fall looking finely. Condition of stock fine.

HOWARD COUNTY.

The Commonwealth, Saturday, September 20, 1873.

Charles S. King and A. Ellis reporting. Corn very fine; oats and rye poor; potatoes on bottom land fine.

[The following item relative to Arkansas City definitely contains new information about this city and structures being built at the time...MAW]

FROM THE SOUTHWEST.

The Lower Arkansas Valley.

The Indian Tribes.—Growth of Arkansas City.—Judge W. P. Campbell.

The Commonwealth, December 27, 1873.

ARKANSAS CITY, December 24, 1873.

Special Correspondence of the Commonwealth.

The Arkansas Valley, from Wichita westward, has been fully described through the various newspapers. The A. T. & S. F. has opened it to the observation of the world. But the same valley, from Wichita south to the state line, though vastly better in all respects, has been comparatively unnoticed.

It is superior in the fact that it is better timbered and watered, has a better soil, a moister climate, and denser settlements. For here every acre is open to actual settlers, and to them only.

THE FINEST CROPS OF KANSAS

have this year been raised in Sumner and Cowley County. The traveler down the river is astonished at the density of the settlement and the wonderful progress which has been made during the past three years.

ARKANSAS CITY

has almost doubled since my last visit. Here is by far the finest structure in the Walnut valley: a school building, of brick trimmed with cut stone, with a spire eighty feet in height, now rapidly approaching completion. The design was drawn up by Haskell, of Lawrence. Arkansas City also boasts the only church spire in the Walnut valley. There is a fine bridge across the Arkansas and another across the Walnut, both free. Newman & Co.’s mill cost some twenty-five thousand dollars; it is located near the mouth of the Walnut river, upon an excellent water-power. Speer & Co. are about to erect a large steam flouring mill. The Mowry house is the largest and finest hotel in the Walnut valley. It is enclosed and nearly finished.

THE NEW KICKAPOO RESERVE

lies in the adjacent portion of the territory, the nearest point being about five miles from our town. The trade of these tribes, and that of the surveyors and soldiers, adds much to the business of the town. There is a decided difference in temperature between this and the northern part of the state. No snow here yet, except a few scattering flakes.

The “Free church” of this city is one of the curiosities of theology. After the various sects had vainly tried to erect buildings and support services in the old style, a number of daring persons, representing various sects, came together and promulgated a constitution, of which the following preamble is the only allusion to a creed.

“We, the undersigned, desiring to form an organization for the maintenance of religious worship, accepting the gospel of Christ as the divinely appointed word of God, and denying the right of any pope, synod, or council to enforce upon us any other creed, do hereby organize ourselves into a religious society, called the “Free Church of Arkansas City.”

This simple and thoroughly catholic style of organization has commended itself decidedly to the good sense of the people. A commodious house of worship has been erected, the only one in the place, and the society is prosperous and steadily increasing in numbers and influence.

POLITICAL CURRENTS

are sluggish. The people are languidly awaiting the session of the legislature, and the repeal of the “ten per cent penalty.” Judge W. P. Campbell, of this district, one of the ablest jurists of Kansas, is strongly talked of for Delahay’s vacant place. The high position could hardly find a worthier occupant.

RACKENSACK.

1874

SETTLERS IN THE SOUTHWEST.

The Petitions for the Relief of Settlers on the Osage Diminished and Trust Lands.

The Commonwealth, January 4, 1874.

[From the Winfield Courier.]

As we promised last week, we now call attention to a petition, or petitions, that are being signed to some extent upon the Osage diminished reserve, and which had their origin with the Wichita Eagle. The Eagle says in introducing the petition to its readers: “In view of the facts that under the existing law, the settlers upon the Osage Indian trust lands are compelled to pay for them within one year from the date of settlement, etc.” Now what is true of the trust lands, is also true of the Osage diminished reserve, and action should be taken to embrace all the Osage lands. The trust lands are in Howard, Greenwood, Butler, Sedgwick, and the counties lying west of Sedgwick. The diminished reserve is embraced in the lower tier of counties in the state, of which Cowley and Sumner is a part. The settlers of Cowley want a congressional law that will allow them time to pay for their claims, and they are not so much interested in the wants of the people on the trust lands as to be signing petitions for them.

The plan proposed by the Eagle will not do at all, even if it were a desirable one. The government is not going to bother itself by making mortgages and foreclosing the same.

The proposition is defeated by the suggesting. The payment of taxes could not be enforced on land thus encumbered. No one would bid the land off at sale, and take the chances of ever getting their money back or obtaining title to land; and any system of taxation that will not insure the collection of taxes is a failure. A better plan by far would be to compel each claimant to file with the register at the local land office, at the time of each annual payment of interest is made, a receipt from the county treasurer, showing that the said occupying claimant had paid his taxes in full for the preceding year. To do this congress should confer upon the legislature authority to tax government lands within the Osage trust and diminished reserve limits, for it is really government land. Then provide by congressional enactment, making the claimant forfeit the right to the land and improvements within a certain time after default of payment of interest and the presentation of the tax receipt aforesaid. This would make a simple and effective law.

An attempt was made last winter to have a law enacted by congress giving settlers five years time to pay for their lands upon annual payment of the five per cent interest; but our congressional delegation were so engrossed with a senatorial election that their attention could not be obtained for the bill, and the probabilities are that the story of last winter will be the story of this. Col. E. C. Manning, of this place, visited the commissioner of the general land office in person, at Washington, in January last, and urged him to recommend the passage of some such law, but the commissioner thought the settlers were getting along well enough. The whole question was clearly and tersely put to that gentleman, and its great importance urged upon him in a way, which those who know him best, knew Col. Manning to be capable of; and we may say here that the commissioner’s endorsement is necessary to obtain any change in the land laws.

It is ruinous on the settlers of southwestern Kansas that they are forced to pay for their lands. The money-loaners will get it. The records of Cowley County along show that there is loaned upon real estate within its limits about $200,000. The annual interest upon this is at least $75,000. What a drain upon the energies of a pioneer people!

We are anxious that some plan be adopted that will relieve the settlers upon all the Osage lands, but a practical plan is necessary to success.

THE INDIANS.

The Whereabouts of Satanta and Big Tree.

White Outlaws Depredating in the Guise of Indians, Etc.

SETTLERS IN THE SOUTHWEST.

The Petitions for the Relief of Settlers on the Osage Diminished and Trust Lands.

The Commonwealth, January 9, 1874.

Lawrence, Kan., Jan. 2. A letter received by the superintendent of Indian affairs in this city, today, from the agent at the Kiowa and Comanche agency, says:

“For the week past I have to report the Indians of my agency, so far as I know, are peaceable. Most of them are out killing buffalo to have the robes to trade. I notice a report in the papers that Satanta and Big Bow, with their people, are camped on the Canadian river. That is a mistake. They are camped on the Washatich [Washita], and according to the reports of the surveyors, are doing very well. Big Tree in company with several bands of Kiowas, was at the agency during the past week. I made inquiry about the murder charged to them. They denied any knowledge of it. Big Tree looks badly. He has been sick most of the time since his release. The Kiowas, all to whom I have talked, say Satanta and Big Tree are using their influence and talking to their people to keep them doing right. I have not heard of any further raids in Texas.”

The letter further says a party of white men were recently captured by a scouting force from one of the Texas forts, who were disguised as Indians, and a lot of stolen horses.

Another letter, written two days earlier says:

“A scouting party from Fort Griffin followed, as they supposed, the trail of a band of Indians a few days ago. Coming on them they captured eight persons, four of whom they killed in making the capture. The other four, it is said, met the same fate in trying to escape. Instead of red Indians they proved to be counterfeit white men in Indian disguise. This confirms what has been asserted by several persons from that region, as well as other places, as to the existence of such a body, numbering from 60 to 100. I am fully satisfied that many of the offenses charged to the Indians are committed by white men in disguise.

“A surveyor arrived in this city on yesterday from the vicinity of Fort Sill. He says that surveying parties have been called back by order of the authorities on account of the hostile demonstrations by the Indians.”

WIFE-SELLING IN SAN FRANCISCO.

The Commonwealth, January 10, 1874.

[From the San Francisco Call.]

The thriving town of Workington was honored the other day with a visit by a young man from Whitehaven, in charge of a pony and cart, the latter containing a quantity of apples, which he offered for sale. During his wanderings through the town, he fell in with a laborer and his wife; and after some conversation, the laborer offered to sell his “missus” to the apple dealer for two shillings. The offer was accepted, and as the lady set out with her new lord and master on her travels, and did her best to assist him in disposing of his stock of apples, her husband, by way of consoling himself for the great loss he had sustained, spent his wife’s purchase money in beer.

After the money was gone, the desolate man began to examine the situation, and arrived at the determination to have his wife back again. With this view he set out in search of the apple-dealing pair, and having found them, explained to “the young man from Whitehaven” that he had repented of his bargain, and that it was his intention to take the partner of his joys and sorrows to his heart and home again. The apple-dealer intimated that before anything of the kind could be done, the purchase money would have to be refunded. To comply with this demand was impossible, as far as the distracted husband was concerned, for he had swallowed the price of his wife. A bitter wrangle ensued; the husband wanted his wife; the apple-dealer was firmly resolved to have either the lady or his money; the lady—alas for her sex—took part with the apple-dealer against her liege lord; and at length took refuge in a house in King street.

A crowd assembled to witness the fray, and one of the number told the husband that his wife had fled down the street. Away in the direction indicated sped the frantic man, and the moment he did so, the woman came out of the house, got into the cart (which was standing at the door), the apple dealer took his seat beside her, and the pony set off with the pair at a rattling pace in the direction of Whitehaven. The husband, running down the street, heard the sound of wheels, and the truth flashed across his mind. With a cry of rage and despair, he turned round and started in pursuit of the runaways. His efforts to overtake them, however, were in vain. His two legs were no match for the four legs of the white pony, and in a short time he was compelled to turn back, a wifeless and melancholy man.

CAUGHT AT LAST.

Arrest of the Murderer of Henry Route, Who Was Killed in Cowley County

Two Years Ago.

The Commonwealth, February 3, 1874.

[From the Winfield, Kansas, Courier.]

Chas. G. Brooks, a Labette County detective, arrested at Danville, Illinois, sometime in the middle of January, a man named Reuben Bloomfield, charged with a number of crimes, the principal one being the murder of Henry Route in Cowley County about two years ago. Word was received at this place by acting County Attorney Fairbanks to the effect that Bloomfield was in custody and wishing to know if he was wanted here, and if he was not, he would be tried for some minor offense with which he was charged. Mr. Fairbanks told them to bring him along; but in a short time he received notice that he had committed suicide by taking strychnine shortly after his arrest.

We take the following particulars from the Danville Times, which was kindly furnished us by Mrs. Mullen.

“There are a few items in regard to the murder of Henry Route not yet made public, which by the kindness of Mr. Brooks, the reporter is able to lay before our readers. In April, 1872, Route started with his own team from the neighborhood of the Bender murders in Labette County, in company with Bloomfield, with the ostensible purpose of visiting Cowley County in the same state, where Bloomfield claimed to have some land. Route had a little money and a team, and it was the proposition that if Route liked the land and the price, he would buy it. Nothing was heard of the parties until some time in May, when Bloomfield returned without his companion, but with his team. He said that he had sold Route a quarter section in Cowley County and taken his team in payment. In the meantime he had been in various places spending money freely and leading a dissolute life on the strength of the money, which it is now believed he had robbed of the murdered man.

“Time passed away and no tidings came of Route, whose wife yet lived in Vermillion County. Sometime in the summer Route’s coat was found on Big Hill creek, in Labette County, cut and slashed by a knife in several places, together with his hat, but no traces of the body. The hat and part of the coat were sent to Mrs. Route, who identified the hat and believed the coat (from its texture) to have been her husband’s. The body was found in Cowley County in July by a party looking for land. One hand and part of the arm attached, were first found, and it was not until several days had elapsed that the other remains were discovered. These were hauled about the prairie, and the flesh eaten off by wolves and buzzards. Some remnants of clothing were found, which identified the body as that of Route. It is supposed that the hat and coat were brought this long distance—80 miles—and left as a blind to mislead. The cloud of death hangs over all concerned. The entire circumstances of the terrible crime will as a matter of course forever remain a mystery. Henry Route was twenty-five years of age and left a wife and two small children.

“Bloomfield was living in the country near Danville, and when he was arrested, he was not far from his house cutting hoop-poles. When the officer made known his business, he made no resistance, but seemed rather pleased. Bloomfield said he wanted to go to Kansas anyhow, and wished to know if this would afford him a chance to get there on a free pass, and was told that it probably would if he went there with an officer. He then asked leave to change his clothes, which was granted, and it was at this time that he is supposed to have procured the strychnine, which he doubtless kept concealed in the cabin. He then told the officers the best route to follow to the city and after kissing his wife good-by, took his seat in the buggy with four officers. On his way to the city, he turned round and took the poison, spilling a portion on his clothes. The sheriff hurried ahead to a house for an antidote; but before the carriage arrived, Bloomfield was dead.

“It is now established that Bloomfield was engaged in building the Bender house—arranged the screen in front of which the victims were placed in order to dispatch them, and was an inmate of the house for some months during the scenes of those terrible murders which so shocked the civilized world, and made Labette County so notorious.”

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Commonwealth, February 7, 1874.

The president’s recommendation to congress relative to such legislation as will enable certain Russian emigrants to settle in a body in this country is meeting with the desired attention. The senate committee on public lands will soon offer a law making such concessions that several bodies of these excellent people may be located where they can both buy lands and other homesteads on the same terms as our own citizens.

The Commonwealth, February 7, 1874.

In the debate before the constitutional convention of Ohio, the question being whether or not God should be recognized in the preamble of the new instrument, one gentleman, much given to a turgid style of eloquence, seemed to forget that the Divine Being continues to live and to move, for he said:

“The memory of God remains embalmed in the hearts of men, and shines clearer, and man’s love for him looms brighter amid the ruins of revolution than in the luxuriance of an unbounded prosperity.”

The Commonwealth, February 7, 1874.

A plucky California widow has solved the question of her personal rights as a woman in so practical a way as to deserve commendation. Her husband died, leaving her and their children no other means of support than a weekly paper, published in Mendocino County. She at once entered the deserted sanctum, took up the editorial pencil, and pushed ahead, let us hope, to prosperity. Her salutatory is more personal and less aggressive than it might be.

“One of the last wishes of my late husband was that after his death, I should become the editor and proprietor of this paper. Knowing full well the inability of women to compete with men of brains, I take my new position with fear and trembling, trusting to the kindness and generosity of the many friends and patrons of the Dispatch, and that the right will always succeed, I shall gain coverage as I advance, hoping, if not to improve, at least to retain the position for the paper that it has already obtained—making of it really the best newspaper in the county. The great responsibility of three little pairs of eyes looking up to me for protection—three little mouths to feed—three little hearts to love and cherish—knowing that their natural protector has been called to an early grave, may cause my position to be one of doubts and misgivings; but such things have been done by women—why not again?

A PIOUS FRAUD.

The Meanest Man in Kansas.

A Warning to the Givers of Alms.

The Commonwealth, Thursday Morning, March 19, 1874.

Our reporter was yesterday made acquainted with facts that stamp James Roberts, of Oak Hill, Clay County, Kansas, as the prince of dead-beats. He represents himself as a broken down Baptist minister, and writes pitiful letters to different parts of the country, asking for assistance, when in fact he is in comfortable circumstances, well clad, owns 2 horses, with harness and wagon, 2 three year old colts, 14 head of stock, corn, wheat, farming utensils, and other articles too numerous to mention. He has been practicing this game for four years, with signal success, and though extensively published in the newspapers of Kansas, he continues to receive money orders and boxes of goods from all parts of the country, east and west.

On the 18^th of December last he addressed the following appeal to the Rev. N. T. Burton, of Davenport, Iowa.

DEAR BROTHER: As you are pastor of the First Baptist church, and I am a poor, broken down Baptist preacher, and was burned out by the prairie fire on the 29^th of October, I write to you for help. The fire consumed nearly everything we had, leaving myself and family in a most deplorable condition, for clothing and provisions. A more destitute family is not to be found west of Chicago. We are all in rags, my wife and children have already frozen their feet for want of shoes and stockings, and I have had to pull my own feet up to rub them with my hand, while in bed, to keep from freezing for want of sufficient covering. This occurred last week.

We are having prodigious cold weather. I am all in rags myself, not having a pair of pants fit to wear; my shirts are totally worn out. I need a suit of clothes throughout. I need a warm cap. There are four of us in the family: two small children. Lewis, the little boy, will be eight years old the 8^th of next March. Fannie, our baby—the joy of the family—will be three the 25^th of May. She is a good child, and can talk nearly everything, but has outgrown her clothes.

Now, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, is it asking too much of you to try and sympathize with us in our starving condition? Yesterday I walked three miles to get something to eat. I got a good dinner, and twenty pounds of corn meal, and that is all we have to eat. I have been a Baptist ever since I was 16, and I am now 53. My wife has neuralgia, and would like to get a good warm dress and a hood for her head. As we have no cow, nor meat, perhaps some of the kind brothers can spare a little pork or lard. For the last two months I have had a continued gnawing at my stomach for want of sufficient food of the right kind. I do like a cup of good tea when I can get it.

I would say that you need not hesitate to send cast-off clothing, or old boots and shoes; all will be of service to us. Size of cap, 7½, size of shoes, for myself, 7's; for my wife, 6's. If in the kind providence of God you should take compassion on us, please direct the box to Junction City, and He who says “Love one another as I have loved you,” will bless and reward you. JAMES ROBERTS.

N. B.—I would like three or four bottles of Dr. Rogers’ liver remedy, for my asthma and catarrh, as it does me more good than anything else I have tried. It costs $1 per bottle. J. R.

Upon receipt of the above, Mr. Burton wrote to a friend in Clay County inquiring as to the truth of the statements made by Roberts, and Mr. H. W. Smith, of Exeter, was appointed to investigate the matter. He reports that Roberts has been imposing on the public by begging, when he is in good circumstances, and much better off than many of his homestead neighbors. Mr. Smith writes us under date of March 17^th, and says that Roberts is unworthy of aid or sympathy.

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Commonwealth, Thursday Morning, March 19, 1874.

In addition to what has been said in the telegraph lately about the Prince Imperial, we desire to add a hope that he did not attain his majority by fraud.

The Commonwealth, Thursday Morning, March 19, 1874.

We learn that the L. L. & G. railroad has consolidated with the Missouri River, Ft. Scott & Gulf road, both roads to be under the same management after April 1^st.

The Commonwealth, Thursday Morning, March 19, 1874.

It seems to be the intention of providence to render the month of March as disagreeable as possible, and we can only rejoice that we have passed through the biggest half of it.

The Commonwealth, Thursday Morning, March 19, 1874.

The Leavenworth Times has lately been going for Buell, the voracious but not veracious correspondent of the Detroit Free Press and St. Louis Republican. Burke always was a fellow what would Hugh to the lyin.

[The correspondent in the next article was “N,” believed to be Professor Norton.]

A BLACK WEEK ON THE PLAINS.

A Trip to the Osage Indian Camp on the Arkansas.

A Plains Storm.—A Council and Treaty of Amity.—An Osage Funeral.

The Scalp Dance.—Etc., Etc.

The Commonwealth, April 1, 1874.

ARKANSAS CITY, March 26, 1874.

From Our Regular Correspondent.

The recent delay in the confirmation of the Osage agent, and the discussion in regard to the habits of that tribe, call to mind events which came under my observation upon the plains one year ago.

I started, on the morning of the 26^th of January, 1873, from the Apache village on the Cimarron for the Osage camps upon the Salt Fork of the Arkansas. There were two teams, with their drivers, and an Osage guide, Montihe. The morning was clear and pleasant, with an inch or two of snow upon the ground. We crossed the “Eagle-Chief,” a deep-banked, miry stream, and camped that night upon the crest of the divide between the two rivers. The night was mild and starry, but before morning a chill east wind began to blow, and the air became hazy. Fearing a storm, we geared up hastily, and started toward the north.

Before nine o’clock the norther had grown to a screaming hurricane, and the now was falling in blinding sheets. The sun was invisible, the prairie trackless, and Montihe dumb. He lay rolled up in his blanket at the bottom of the wagon, and refused to stir or speak. At 3 P. M. the exhausted animals refused to face the tempest any longer. It was truly horrible; intensely cold, snow falling in clouds, the wind blowing like an Arctic hurricane. And we were out upon the salt-plains, with no semblance of shelter, and no chance for a fire. Montihe gave us but cold comfort. He only said, “I am glad you have stopped; we are all going to die now.”

We tied up our exhausted animals to the lee side of the wagons, strapped all our blankets upon them, rolled up in buffalo robes, and struggled for life during the night. The sun came out by ten the next morning. We had wandered many miles out of the way, and did not reach our destination until sunset. We were badly frozen, and about ready to succumb, having been thirty-six hours without food or fire, in the worst storm of the winter.

We found the Big Hill Osage camp crowded with strangers. A large delegation of Pawnees had just arrived from Nebraska. These Pawnees are the most adroit and successful of horse thieves, but for once had been beaten at their own game. A party of Cheyennes, a few months before, had stolen upon their camp on the plains, and had stampeded about fifteen hundred horses. And, so the devil being sick a monk would be, and these Pawnees had started out upon a grand peace-making expedition, and had come to the Osage camp to hold a council, make a treaty of perpetual friendship, and endeavor to learn the whereabouts of their missing animals.

The council was held on the 28^th. Being a white man, and able to write formal documents, I was called in, and produced the following.

“KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS, That we, the chiefs and counselors of the Great and Little Osages, and of the Pawnee Nation, have assembled in council at the Big Hill camp on the Salt Plains, upon this twenty-eighth day of January, 1874, for the purpose of making a treaty of peace and friendship.

“We hereby acknowledge that we have, in times past, been guilty of many acts of hostility and violence toward each other; and we heartily repent of having committed such acts, and mutually forgive all past injuries and offences.

“We furthermore agree to abstain from molesting each other by acts of murder, theft, or any sort of unfriendliness or violence; and we pledge ourselves to meet each other with kindness and good will at all times, and to live together as loving brethren henceforth forever.

“In testimony whereof we have hereunto appended our signatures at the time and place above mentioned; and we request that copies of this treaty be sent to our respective agents, for permanent preservation in the archives of the Osage and Pawnee Nations.”

To this document the euphonious names of the various dignitaries were duly appended, each touching the pen as his own peculiar polysyllable atrocity was registered. Two clean copies of the treaty were made out for the agents. “Send a copy to Uncle Enoch Hoag,” remarked Bill Conner, the half-breed; “Peace is more’n half a Indian’s living.”

There was a great feast, and then the Pawnees started south toward the Cheyenne camps. Before leaving they told the Osages that one of their number was left up toward the Kansas line; that he was hunting, had strayed from the rest, was probably encamped, and would come in on their trail as soon as the cold abated. They asked that he might be kindly treated, which the Osages promised.

Upon the next day Leotasa died. She was the daughter of the well-known Little Bear, and wife of Connor aforesaid. She was murdered by the aboriginal representatives of Betsy Prig and Mrs. Gamp. Suffering from pneumonia, and in the pangs of child birth, she was carried out upon the ice with the Mercury near zero, and there her baby was born. In less than six hours, both were dead. She was educated at the Mission; spoke English fluently, and was the only lady in the Osage Nation.

The widower was immediately beset by the “young bucks.” Why not send out the war-party at once, and kill that Pawnee?

You must know, gentle reader, that every Osages funeral, properly conducted, included as an integral part a war party, fitted out at the expense of the survivor. The dead cannot rest well unless a fresh scalp is hanging over his grave. This custom is, as far as I know, peculiar to the tribe. Nine tenths of the murders committed upon the whites and upon other tribes may be traced to this source. The party is usually sent out after thirty days of mourning, but in this case the proximity of a lonely Pawnee was enough to overcome usage. Soon after a party of seventy men, fully armed and painted black, rode toward the north. They were not pleasant to look at. The sad, gentle, almost beautiful little woman in whose honor the horrid rite was enacted, was buried in a shallow grave by the Salt Fork.

Upon the following day loud yells and rapid volleys in the distance announced the approach of the victorious (!) Party. They came wildly galloping into camp, brandishing upon a lance the Pawnee scalp, and with the voices and faces of devils incarnate.

Preparations were speedily made for the last act of the war dance. A great oval ring was cleaned of rubbish; two burning log-heaps occupied the face of the ellipse; in the center sat the orchestra, a group of old men beating improvised drums and shaking calabashes of small pebbles. In the midst a pole was planted, decorated with skunk-skins and Pawnee scalps. The oval track was occupied by men and women ranged alternately, adorned with their utmost efforts in the way of paint and finery.

[Article has “Chetopa.” Generally “Chetopah” was used in newspapers.]

The scalp-dance that followed was perhaps the most imposing ever witnessed upon the plains. It was a mad, demoniac orgy, which I have no power to describe. Let the imagination of the reader fill up the picture. The dance was repeated at intervals for many days. A month later, I was in Chetopa’s camp of Little Osages. Che-she-wa-ta-in-ka, the finest flower of Big Hill dandyhood, came into camp with the same Pawnee scalp, which seemed as inexhaustible as the widow’s cruse. The orgy was repeated on a smaller scale. Chetopa is sometimes considered the finest specimen of Osage civilization. He is too old and fat to dance, but he was head drummer in the orchestra that day.

After the dance was over, “Alvin,” or “Eawaska,” Chetopa’s interpreter, asked me what I thought about it.

“It is very bad,” I said.

“I think jes’ so, we’re ‘shame,’ said Eawaska.

I was delighted at this expression of penitence, and began to hope that the good seed sown at Osage Mission by Father Shoemaker [Schoenmakers] was germinating. But Eawaska continued.

“My frin’, we think it mean to dance around scalp the Big Hills git. We’re going to git scalp ourselfs. Soon’s grass starts, we’ll send out war-party, and if we find them Pawnees, we’ll kill it.”

I was disgusted.

The Little Osages were as good as their word. The war party went out, and killed Isadawa, the civilized Wichita, about which I will tell in my next.

My object in writing the above is to illustrate the beauties of the Indian treaty system, and the need of a better policy of the Indian territory. The principal mystery is, that such old offenders as the Pawnees were so easily taken in.

And I wish to illustrate the fact that the Osages need a strong government, stronger than they have had for the last four years. N.

MORE REFORM.

The Commonwealth, April 1, 1874.

We have had occasion to criticize a good many of the acts of the last legislature, and thought that we were about through with the unpalatable business. But in an “act” published in yesterday’s COMMONWEALTH, we find many other counties that of Harper included, with leave and power granted to the board of county commissioners of that county, to issue bonds, not to exceed fifteen thousand dollars. Some time last fall Harper County was said to have been organized. It was represented in the last legislature by one Wm. H. Horner. The circumstances of that organization were, to say the least, very questionable; so much so that it was a matter of serious investigation by the house. It was freely stated and admitted by all, except Mr. Horner himself, that there was not one solitary family actually residing in Harper County, at the time it was said to have been organized; but owing to the fact that the election returns were sworn to, and those returns showed, on their face, that Harper contained the requisite number of voters, namely 250, the committee saw proper not to go back of that, consequently Mr. Horner was allowed to retain his seat. But what is the indebtedness of Harper County? It has not been organized more than six months; with a population not to exceed two hundred and fifty persons, and yet three men have been empowered by our late reform legislature, to issue fifteen thousand dollars of the bonds of that county. In other words, they may mortgage every foot of land in that county before hand, to liquidate an imaginary indebtedness, divide with Mr. Horner, pocket the remainder, and return to the bosom of their families at Baxter Springs, where they all reside. So much in the name of retrenchment and reform. We will have more to say of this in the future. Winfield Courier.

[The lengthy heading of the following article was almost completely obliterated on the microfilm copy. I may have erred in some of the words. MAW]

OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.

The Financial Question.

The Black Bob and Kaw Indian Lands.

Reasoner Most Likely to be Confirmed.

The Republican Party Influence of Ingalls and Harvey.

Commissioner Smith.

The Commonwealth, April 10, 1874.

WASHINGTON, April 2, 1874.

From A Regular Correspondent.

Between the memorialists and the crusaders, there is a sad disquietude resting with its melancholy cloud over the capital city. It is nearly as quiet on the banks of the Potomac as when McClellan was pressing on to Richmond with his face towards Washington. This is the month of showers and tears and discontent, made still more wet and miserable by the continued presence of that itinerant hydrant, Dr. Die Lewis. Washington is not only threatened with a deluge, but it is being undermined by a fossillized production of the old canal. This singular species advances backward, with its tail always toward the city. It is found all along the “sewers” and near the Pyramid, and is commonly called a crazy fish. Geologists have carefully examined that immense stratification which from a distance resembles an oil derrick, and calculated the ages of both, and alas for science, both date back and are absolutely lost in the pre-Adamite period. In addition to this, congress is threatened with a raid. The intention seems to have been to get up an immense moral spectacle that should throw the impeachment of Andrew Johnson in the shade. Messrs. Chandler and Carpenter were invited to meet the ladies arm in arm at the door of the senate—an impressive tableau of temperance and virtue. The invitation of the ladies was referred to the “committee on finance,” there being no other standing committee in the senate. The druggists, saloons, and hotel are getting daily notices and the door-keepers and pages of both houses of congress are running their legs off with notices to different members. I suppose that those little tete-a-tetes that one sees so often in the interior of committee rooms, and in the subterranean restaurants of the capitol are entirely upon the subject of temperance. There has been a good deal of preying in congress and a good deal of gushing and sprouting; it will doubtless increase with the present impetus until with the “tidal wave,” it submerges the entire country.

THE FINANCIAL QUESTION.

The votes of both houses of congress have demonstrated the fact that the reactionists and the contractionists are in a minority. The majority of this congress are in sympathy with the wants of the people. Its policy is very plainly indicated, and the result will be an increase of confidence and a general revival of business. What was especially wanting was a plain and emphatic declaration on the part of congress as to what its financial policy was to be. The entire country was waiting with anxious suspense for the statement. It will breathe freer and easier now that it is made, and none the less so than it fully justifies the confidence and expectations of the people. Theories are false and fatal when they fail to include in their analysis the existence of stubborn facts. The business of the country had wonderfully increased, and the supply of currency was constantly diminishing. The supply was not equal to the demand, and hence the natural laws of trade were changed or failed in their application to the present condition of things. The people want no better currency than greenbacks. The national banking law has some objections, not the least of which is its monopoly feature. A free banking system, based upon government bonds and the issue of currency upon every bond that is presented, would regulate the question of currency in the most practical manner, upon the principle of supply and demand.

THE POWER OF THE WEST.

The star of empire is in the west. The fifty added members of this congress are from that section. The west is becoming a power in legislation as well as in politics. It demanded an increase of the currency, and the votes of both houses show a practical compliance. It demanded cheap transportation to the sea-board, and one house has already responded to that demand. It demands the improvement of that great highway of western commerce, the Mississippi river. The transportation committee of the senate will report upon the subject next week, and it will most unequivocally recommend the improvement of the mouth of the Mississippi. Senator Ingalls has devoted much time and the most industrious research to this question, and the conclusions of the committee have been largely influenced if not controlled by his superior judgment and ability. The report of this committee will make a most able and exhaustive history of this question, and consist of two volumes of one thousand pages each.

THE BLACK BOB INDIAN LANDS

are situated in Johnson County, Kansas, and consist of 34,000 acres of the best land in that county. There has been a continued controversy for years between the settlers living upon these lands and certain speculators who had purchased the land from the Black Bob band of Shawnee Indians in regard to the title. Senator Ingalls has drawn up a bill, which will undoubtedly pass both houses and become a law, which will be satisfactory to all parties. The bill provides for the appointment of three commissioners to graduate the price of these lands, the average price not to be less than five dollars per acre. The settlers have the preference, and may take the land in quantities not to exceed 160 acres each at any time within one year, at such graduated price. If the land is not sold within one year, the purchaser from the Indian may come in and take the land at the same price, and get credit for the amount paid by him to the Indian. If the land is not sold to either of these parties, it is to be sold by sealed bids at not less than the graduated price. All the patents know as the Black Bot patents, issued under the treaty of 1854, are set aside and declared null and void, with the exception of those deeds which have been approved by the secretary of the interior and delivered to the purchaser. The amount thus approved is only 400 acres. If the land is sold by sealed bids, the proceeds are to be disposed of in this manner: The purchaser from the Indian is to receive back his money with twelve per cent interest from the date of purchase, and in addition thereto twelve per cent for legal expenses, and the balance is to be distributed among the Black Bob Indians who have not sold their land, in per capita payments of $600 each, and the remainder to be divided equally between the whole band. If Senator Ingalls’ bill becomes a law, it will not be long before this rich and valuable tract of land in Johnson County will be taxable, and the tax-payers of that county relieved from an oppressive discrimination.

THE KAW LAND BILL.

Senator Ingalls has introduced a bill for the sale of the Kaw Indian lands to the settlers at the appraised price of the lands with a discretionary power in the secretary of the interior to reduce the appraisement 25 per cent if he believes it is too high. Payments are to be made by the settlers in six annual installments, with a six per cent interest, the first installment to be paid January 1^st, 1875, and subsequently on the first day of January of each year. The Kaw trust lands consist of 137,000 acres and are appraised at an average of $2.25 per acre. The diminished reserve consists of 80,000 acres, which are appraised at an average of $8.00 per acre. This portion was offered for sale the [an entire line of print is obliterated by streak] expense of advertising. The present bill will undoubtedly become a law. Our members of congress deserve a great deal of credit for their untiring efforts to dispose of these “reserve” questions in such a way that the lands will not only fall into the hands of actual settlers but be made to contribute their proper share to the burden of local and state government.

PREDESTINATION AND CONFIRMATION.

Calvin Reasoner was nominated sometime ago by the president to be receiver of the land office at Cawker City. It was referred to the land committee in the senate, where it sweetly sleeps. Calvin is not considered an orthodox republican. It is not forgotten that he voted in the last legislature for Simons for United States senator, only changing his vote to Harvey, when that gentleman was certain to be elected. It is too early to appoint a receiver for the “new party.” The little game of “Simons,” in which the democrats all join with “thumbs up,” is too thin.

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY

is not yet dead in Kansas. When it dies it will be quite soon enough to appoint an administrator. On the contrary it is vindicating its past history and fully justifying its claim to the continued confidence of the people. It is in the front line of reform. It does not stop to look backward and county its wonderful achievements. It acts in the living present, and turning its face resolutely to the future, keeps even step with its advancing line.

The signs of the times indicate with prophetic certainty that the next national contest will be between the democratic and republican parties pure and simple. The local success of the democrats in Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri, and later in New Hampshire and Connecticut, all tend to secure the triumph of republican principles in that contest. The Bourbons are wheeling into line, and these are the bugle notes of preparation.

In Kansas the effort to build up a new party with these old democratic fossils for its chief cornerstone will fail. Kansas is no longer the “rotten commonwealth.” The republicans have cleansed their own stables. The money-changers have been driven from the temple, scourged by republican hands. The Pomeroys and Caldwells will hardly be possible again in Kansas politics. Did it cost nothing to do this? What party was ever able to do such a work beside the republican party? We may safely challenge a comparison. In the place of Pomeroy and Caldwell in the senate, we have the gifted and scholarly Ingalls, and the plain, honest, and incorruptible Harvey. In the house we have the zealous and intrepid Phillips, the firm and eloquent Cobb, and the solid and industrious Lowe.

From its very nature and organization, the republican party must continue to be the party of progress and reform; and upon every question of practical interest to the people, it will always be leading in the advance.

PERSONAL AND POLITICAL.

The people of Kansas have reason to be proud of the reputation and influence of their members in both houses of congress. Senator Ingalls is frequently called to preside over the senate, and he always does so with dignity and ability. When Senator Boutwell declined to serve as chairman of the District of Columbia investigating committee on account of ill health, Senator Ingalls was requested to serve as chairman in his place. This very flattering distinction was declined because the investigation had proceeded so far as to make it unadvisable to take it up at that point. Senator Ingalls not only enjoys the respect and confidence of his associates, but he is evidently in high favor with the president. I have reason to know that this is true, and the people of Kansas may well be proud of such a distinction.

Senator Harvey is winning golden opinions every day by his quiet, unassuming but dignified manners. He is a man of much more ability than the people of Kansas have generally supposed. He will wear like iron, and the longer he is known, the better people will like him. Harvey is the “Old Reliable” of the senate.

Governor Osborn and Colonel G. W. Veale have gone to New York. It is understood that the governor goes there to appoint a fiscal agent for the state. Capt. Smallwood is still here. I learn that he is favorably spoken of as the prospective candidate for governor. Size is nothing, but brains will tell.

THE VINDICATION OF COMMISSIONER SMITH.

The Hon. E. P. Smith, commissioner of Indian affairs, is undoubtedly the most efficient and competent officer that has been at the head of the Indian bureau in the last twelve years. Most of the commissioners have been satisfied to sit in the Indian office and form their opinions on Indian affairs from the reports of the agents. Commissioner Smith has visited most of the Indian tribes in person, and ascertained by personal observation their wants and necessities. It is generally known that charges were preferred against Commissioner Smith last summer by a man by the name of Welch. It is known because they were published from Maine to California. These charges were fully investigated and Commissioner Smith was fully and completely vindicated. This is not as well known because the papers which have circulated these slanders are not as quick to publish the vindication. It is a matter of serious regret that a faithful and competent officer like Mr. Smith is slandered and seriously injured in his feelings and character, and yet the newspapers that have aided in this injury are not more prompt to publish his innocence. It will soon be so that an honest man won’t dare to hold an office. C.

[Note: It is believed that Professor Norton wrote the following article.]

ON THE PLAINS.

The Funeral War Parties of the Osage Indians.

The Commonwealth, Wednesday Morning, April 15, 1874.

From a Regular Correspondent.

ARKANSAS CITY, KAN., April 8, 1874.

During the month of April, 1873, I spent some time at Chetopa’s camp on the Shawkaska river. While there I observed a man in mourning on the outside of the camp. He had long, matted hair, and was fearfully dirty, shabby, and emaciated. He had lost his wife in the fall, and had spent the winter in fasting and mourning, prolonging it much beyond the usual time, which is thirty days. During this period of mourning, no food is taken during the day till sunset, and then barely enough to sustain life; there is no washing, combing, or painting, and the face is smeared with clay and soot. The mourner described above was the son-in-law of White Swan, Chetopa’s chief counselor.

After the dance around the Pawnee scalp described in my last, the mourner announced to his people that he had been in grief long enough. He now wished to send out the war party.

The organization of this was placed in the hands of two men: Wasashe-Watainka, of the Big Hills, and Ah-humkemi, or the Sentinel, of the Little Osages. About forty men enlisted, and the party started toward the southwest.

They traveled nearly ten days before they found any individual or group convenient to kill. The went down to the north fork of the Canadian, crossed the Chisholm trail, struck northwesterly across the Cimarron at the Red Hills, and finally camped in a little ravine near the “Eagle Chief” creek.

Upon the following morning, a scout announced that some person, a strange Indian, was coming toward the camp. The party instantly mounted, and drew up in line in front of the stranger, hidden from his view by a little rise of ground. He rode quietly along, unsuspicious of danger, till fairly within their power. His little boy was riding a quarter of a mile behind him.

At the proper moment the Osage chiefs gave the signal, and the whole party then charged at full speed, yelling and firing. The stranger halted and faced them passively, seeing that he could not escape. When the assailants reached him, the blood was pouring from several wounds, but he still sat straight up on his horse, and gave his name, ISADAWA. He was instantly pulled to the ground, beheaded, and scalped. The boy escaped, though fiercely pursued. Isadawa was one of the most intellectual and well disposed of all the Indians in the territory. He was head chief of the Wichitas, and had done much in behalf of the civilization of his people. There was no cause for war between the two tribes.

The Osages were pursued, but reached their reserve after a terrible journey, in which several horses were ridden to death. A prodigious scalp-dance followed.

Salt Creek is a small stream flowing into the Arkansas on its east side. Here are the permanent camps of the Little Osage, Big Hill, and White Hair bands.

Shortly after the scalp-dance, scouts came in with a false alarm—that a large party of Wichitas and Cheyennes had been seen approaching. The result was a wild alarm and a midnight stampede across the reserve and into the Cherokee nation.

When the murder was announced at the Osage agency, a special agent, R. Wetherell, was at once dispatched to the Wichita agency, and speedily returned with a party of forty-five Wichitas. There were United States troops at the Osage agency to preserve order. The Wichitas came in just before the payment, and at once demanded that the murderers be delivered up. This the Osages refused, offering a thousand dollars instead.

But the Wichitas wouldn’t accept the money. They wanted the murderers, and nothing less. “You are fools,” said Ah-humkemi, “We would sell any chief we have for less money than that!” But the Wichitas were obstinate.

The Osages declare, that if once in the hands of the Wichitas, they would have been tortured to death out on the plains.

Finally some hundreds of the Osages armed and gathered around the council. The Wichitas, frightened, compromised, accepted fifteen hundred dollars, and went home unmolested.

“Cheap enough,” said Ah-humkemi, “that’s only two dollars per lodge of us; we’ll give that for a scalp dance any time!”

So the Little Osages and Big Hills were covered with glory. Two war parties had been sent out, and each party had succeeded in murdering a solitary and unsuspecting wayfarer. The heart of the Black Dog Osage was moved with envy.

In June the band of Osages last mentioned sent out a war party. They found three white men in camp, on the new Abilene trail, just west of Sewell’s ranch on Salt For, One of the Indians was sent out to reconnoiter. He approached the camp and shot Chambers, the well-known cattle dealer. The two companions of Chambers returned the fire and killed the Osage. The other Osages then came to the rescue, and the white men fled. Chambers was instantly scalped, beheaded, and otherwise mutilated.

The Osage authorities smoothed over the matter by saying that the murderer had been killed and no one else was to blame. The fact is, that the men who formed the war party, and who scalped and beheaded Chambers, were all murderers. And it would seem that every man of the Osage nation has been, or is expecting soon to be, engaged in some similar tragedy.

Chambers was murdered about the middle of June, 1873, and that month the Black Dogs danced around his scalp.

The agents of the other tribes complain bitterly about this habit of sending out funeral war parties. They say that it is peculiar to the Osages, and that thereby a constant state of warfare is kept up. These people are better armed than any other tribe, and the war spirit seems to be growing among them.

Ah-humkemi speaks good English, and is the best interpreter in the Osage nation. Soon after the murder of Isadawa, he came to my house, very sick. His Osage neighbors had assisted him to ride some fifty miles. He was quite broken down by his ride for life from the Cimarron to the Osage agency.

“Professor,” said he, “I’m a-going to pass in my checks. I’ve brought my horses along for I think you can spend ’em better’n these d d Indians; and I wish you’d take care of me.”

I took care of him, and he did not “pass in his checks.” He went home with his horses in about two weeks, greatly improved in health.

The grass is beginning to start on the plains. It will soon be time to hear of more “funeral war parties” of Osages. N.

[Note: In Volume II, The Indians, from the newspaper accounts given, particularly the Winfield Courier, it appeared that Bill Connor was a full blood Osage. Thanks to Professor Norton, it is now clear that he was a half-breed. Norton used the Indian name of “Ah-humkemi” for Bill Connor. C. M. Scott called him “Ah-hun-ke-mi,” and considered him a close friend during the later events covered by Scott. MAW]

STATE REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE.

The Commonwealth, Wednesday Morning, April 15, 1874.

There will be a meeting of the above committee at Topeka, on Wednesday, the 15^th of April prox. SAM D. LECOMPTE, Chairman. LEAVENWORTH, March 23, 1874.

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Commonwealth, Wednesday Morning, April 15, 1874.

A correspondent from Aurora, Kansas, sends us a postal card briefly telling of a sad casualty that happened in that neighborhood. Two children named Coaler were playing around a wood pile with an axe when by some unexplained process one of them, a little girl, so placed her hand that it was chopped off by the other. If there is a moral in this brief story, we leave doting parents to hunt it out.

The Commonwealth, Wednesday Morning, April 15, 1874.

The Girard Press details an account of a horse-whipping in that town which does not speak well for either the fair play or order loving character of some of the neutral land settlers. It appears that one Charles McReynolds was living on a piece of land which the highest court in the county had decided belonged to another, and which McReynolds showed no disposition to purchase from the railroad company that owned it. A man named John Long did purchase and pay for this land, and McReynolds, learning the fact, waylaid him in the street, first presented a loaded pistol at his head to prevent his resistance, and gave him a cruel horse-whipping. The witnesses of this action, who were sympathizers with McReynolds and the principle of illegal usurpation he represented, proceeded to divide the horse whip into inch pieces, which they sold at 50 cents a relic to the sentimental admirers of such brutal cowardice, and the amount realized, $5, they presented with admiring effusion to the assailant. The people and press of Kansas have bestowed a large amount of sympathy on these neutral land settlers, and praised their moderation in accepting the fiat of the courts after using all peaceful endeavors to retain their homes. It would seem from this that this sympathy and praise, as regards some of the neutral-landers, is decidedly misplaced.

The Commonwealth, Wednesday Morning, April 15, 1874.

There are in Kansas today hundreds of men waiting to begin improvements on town lots and farms who are only detained by the high interest rates on money. If congress does not consume the session before it fixes the currency at the figure of the pending bill, there will be begun and ended more improvements in Kansas this year than ever before, notwithstanding it follows the panic.

THE REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL CONVENTION.

The Commonwealth, Wednesday Morning, April 15, 1874.

The COMMONWEALTH has already published a list of the committee appointed at the congressional convention at Lawrence in the fall of 1872. This committee is now called upon to make arrangements for holding congressional conventions in the several districts the coming fall. By a call which has appeared at the head of our editorial columns for several days past, it will be seen that the committee will meet in this city today. What it shall do is not as yet known, we suppose, to any of the members, but plans will be developed in discussion and the best decided upon. The province of this committee, as we understand it, is general and extends throughout the state. It has the power to fix a time and place for holding conventions in the several districts, at which conventions the district organizations in each district and be perfected. It is a very important political duty that has been entrusted to this committee, and one which they cannot too carefully and conscientiously exercise. We hope their session will prove harmonious and result to the credit and advantage of the party.

THE U. S. DISTRICT COURT.

The Commonwealth, Wednesday Morning, April 15, 1874.

In our proceedings of the United States district court yesterday, it will be seen that a large number of cases have been continued generally or a nolle prosequi entered in behalf of the defendants. It was found that the docket was cumbered with a mass of cases in which the parties defendant were fugitives from justice or had never been arrested, though frequent alias writs had been issued. The United States district attorney, the court coinciding, thought it a wise measure of economy to continue a large number of these cases generally, and thus clear them from the docket where they impeded business and cost the government money. Trials will proceed regularly today, the case of J. T. Holmes, of Wichita, charged with opening registered letters, being fixed for a hearing. It is likely this case will continue several days, and witnesses from several states have been subpoenaed and are in attendance. The court finds it difficult to secure the attendance of witnesses, a defect that seems always to have existed in the federal judicial machinery of our state. Stringent measures will now be initiated to remedy this defect and compel obedience to the court’s mandates. The bent of all the officers of the court seems to be towards a dispatch of business, and it is to be presumed that there will be little reason hereafter to complain of the law’s delay.

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Commonwealth, Thursday Morning, April 16, 1874.

The action of the house in passing the senate currency bill is already bearing its legitimate fruit. Our dispatches this morning indicate a very depressed feeling on Wall street yesterday.

The Commonwealth, Thursday Morning, April 16, 1874.

Dispatches from Washington are to the effect that a scheme will be sprung in congress in a [three words impossible to read] for the immediate recognition of the independence of the Cuban republic by the United States.

The Commonwealth, Thursday Morning, April 16, 1874.

An insane man visited the white house at Washington on Monday and demanded admittance in order that he might present his claims for office. He was arrested and taken to the station house, where he will serve his country until further orders.

The Commonwealth, Thursday Morning, April 16, 1874.

A bill has been introduced in the Ohio house of representatives to amend the code of civil procedure so as to exempt editors and proprietors of newspapers from testifying as to the identity of persons from whom they receive communications.

The Commonwealth, Thursday Morning, April 16, 1874.

Spotted Tail and his band, like evil-disposed tenants of civilized extraction, refuse to submit to the discomforts of removal, and say they won’t budge an inch from their present reservation. The tribe also contends that its numbers just as much now as ever it did, and wants its rations augmented instead of being cut down.

THE GREGARIOUS BENDERS.

The Commonwealth, Thursday Morning, April 16, 1874.

Another flock of the ubiquitous Bender family has been arrested, this time at Salt Lake City, where the excitement over the event is so great as to completely obliterate the hostilities existing between Mormon and Gentile. The circumstances of the arrest may be summed up as follows: Some weeks ago an old man emerged from the Wasatch mountains, one hundred and fifty miles from Salt Lake, and from his general appearance and conduct, he was believed to be the original, moss-backed Bender, of Kansas infamy. His photograph was taken and sent to the governor of this state, who returned it with statements from Senator York and others, all agreeing that the photograph greatly resembled the murderer. He answers fully to the published description, and has several times been recognized by different parties in Salt Lake; one knew him in Pike County, Illinois, for seven years, and another had seen him at least fifty times at different ranches in Kansas within the last two years. Judging by the photograph, he looks mean enough to have performed all that is charged against Bender without realizing any mental compunctions.

Since the arrest of the supposed old Bender, the officers have brought up from the south a young man who answers to the description of young Bender, and are now scouring the mountain passes for a young woman who answers to the description of Katharine Bender, such a person having been seen in the southern settlements, recently, almost naked. After obtaining food and clothing, she disappeared, and it is now thought the whole family have been in the mountains all winter, and have been driven out by starvation into the settlements.

In addition to the above, Fred Lockley writes to the Leavenworth Commercial that he has looked the probable Bender square in the face, and believes him to be the notorious monster and bloody murderer of Cherryvale celebrity. Since his arrest he has been playing the insanity dodge, and pretends to understand nothing that is said to him, though the correspondent states that he has several times casually answered to the name of Bender. So firm is Lockley’s conviction that the man now in durance file is the genuine Bender, that he proposes a plan for his punishment that will at once commend itself to every lover of poetic justice. His suggestion is that the culprit be hung up by the thumbs and worked into mincemeat by the process of being perforated with a gimlet. This operation may seem like torture, and, if carried out, the Benders might feel considerably bored over it, but certain it is that no punishment is too severe for the enormous crimes committed by them. The story of this family, living for months over the secreted bodies of their victims, is the most horrible on record, exceeding in atrocity the most disgusting tales of outrage in the French capital, and their final capture will be a very gratifying item of news to the people of Kansas.

WASHINGTON.

THE FINANCE BILL.

The Commonwealth, Thursday Morning, April 16, 1874.

Washington, April 15. The finance bill having received the signatures of the president pro tem of the senate and of the speaker of the house of representatives will be presented to the president tomorrow for his approval. There are no indications that he will withhold it.

GOVERNOR OF COLORADO.

Washington, April 15. The senate committee on territories, as a result of a prolonged investigation of the charges brought by Delegate Chaffee against Edward McCook, decided to recommend as governor of Colorado in place of H. B. Ebert, to be removed.

CONFIRMED.

The senate has confirmed Llewellyn Davis, receiver of public moneys.

STATE OF MEXICO.

The house committee on territories today agreed to report a bill for the admission of New Mexico into the union as a state.

FOREIGN.

Arrival of Livingstone’s Remains.

Archbishop Ledowiski Convicted.

Terrible Explosion in a Coal Mine.

The Commonwealth, Thursday Morning, April 16, 1874.

TERRIBLE EXPLOSION.

London, April 15. A shocking explosion occurred today in a coal mine in Duncanfield, near Lancashire, by which a large number of miners were killed and injured, many of the latter being terribly burned. Thus far 30 bodies have been recovered. It is feared that many more remain in the mine.

A later dispatch states that 46 bodies have been recovered from the mine at Duncanfield in which the explosion occurred. One hundred miners have been safely recovered. The explosion was caused by naked lights.

LIVINGSTONE’S REMAINS.

The Goulhauytion steamer Molina, with the body of Dr. Livingstone on board, arrived here this morning.

THE REMAINS RECEIVED.

Southampton, April 15. In accordance with the programme, the mayor received the remains of Dr. Livingstone at 11 A. M. today, when they were taken to the railway station on the way to London. During the passage of the procession minute guns were fired and bells tolled. A multitude of spectators lined the route of the procession.

ARRIVAL AT LONDON.

London, April 15. The train bearing the remains of Dr. Livingstone arrived at London this evening. There were few spectators at the depot, and the body was transferred to the hearse and followed by a line of carriages to the geographical society’s rooms, where the coffin was deposited to await the final obsequies.

STANLEY RECOGNIZED.

London, April 15. (Herald Special)—Fifty thousand people were present at the landing of Dr. Livingstone’s body. Mr. Wainwright, on meeting Stanley, recognized him and gave him a circumstantial account of the last news of the great explorer. The funeral has been appointed for Saturday, at Westminster Abbey. Stanley has been selected as one of the pall bearers.

CONVICTED.

Berlin, April 15. The trial of Archbishop Ledowiski, of Posen, for violation of ecclesiastical laws, resulted in his conviction, and he has been sentenced to dismissal from his see. No appeal from the judgment will be allowed.

THE COLLIERY EXPLOSION.

London, April 15. Dispatches from Ashton-under-Tyne, this evening report that 53 persons were killed by the colliery explosion at Durkenfield, and 50 bodies recovered.

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Commonwealth, Friday Morning, April 24, 1874.

A school teacher in De Witt County, Illinois, has introduced a new method of punishment into his school. When one of the girls misses a word, the lad who spells it has permission to kiss her. The Clinton Public says: “The result is that the girls are fast forgetting all they ever knew about spelling, while the boys are improving with wonderful rapidity.”

The Commonwealth, Friday Morning, April 24, 1874.

Speaking of the new Senator, the Boston Advertiser says: “The man upon whom the lot has fallen will not abuse the confidence of Massachusetts. He has been a long time in her service, and in every station of duty and responsibility, he has shown wisdom and courage, faithfulness and devotion to the public welfare. Honors have come to him without seeking, but they have not been misplaced.”

THE BENDERS.

The Old Man Captured at Salt Lake Believed to be the Genuine Article.

The Commonwealth, Friday Morning, April 24, 1874.

From the Fort Scott Monitor, 22^nd.

Yesterday, in company with Mr. Bettis, of Oswego, Labette County, we called on Mr. James Newberry, at the county jail, and were shown some photographs just received by him, of the old man lately captured at Salt Lake City, who is supposed to be the old man Bender. Mr. Bettis knew the old man very well when he was in this state, and he pronounced this photograph to be the exact likeness of old Bender, except in this picture the beard is long, bristling, shaggy, iron gray, while the old man when here usually wore his head cropped or saved close. The eyes, forehead, hair, mouth, etc., are the same. Others who knew Bender give it as their opinion that there can scarcely be any doubt but this photograph is that of the old man Bender himself.

Mr. Newberry received the photographs yesterday from the chief of police at Salt Lake City, enclosed in the following letter.

Marshal James Newberry, Fort Scott, Kansas.

A man who has been identified by four men as old Bender has been captured in the southern part of this territory. The men who arrested him have backed out and left him in my custody. As the reward will not do more than cover expenses, I do not want to start with him until satisfied that he is the right man. Enclosed please find photographs which you will do me the favor to examine, and telegraph immediately whether he is the man or not.

Yours respectfully, ANDREW BURT, Chief of Police.

The photographs enclosed were of the most villainous-looking man that ever sat before a camera. We believe that it is Bender. Four men there identify him, and several men here, who lived in the same county and know him well say that old man Bender and nobody else sat for those photographs.

OLD BENDER.

HIS ARRIVAL IN TOPEKA.

The Venerable Head of a Family of Butchers.

He Exactly Tallies With the Description.

A Full Account of His Apprehension and Capture.

The Family Hibernate in the Mountains of Utah.

An Old Lady in Custody for Mrs. Bender.

The Commonwealth, April 28, 1874.

Kansas will not soon forget the series of unparalleled murders that were brought to light last year in the vicinity of Thayer, just off the Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston road. The revolting facts need only be referred to, the name of Bender being almost a household word in every state in the union.

It is enough to say that the annals of crime in America furnish no parallel to the ghoulish atrocities committed by this family consisting of four persons, an old German and his wife and their son and daughter. In every part of the country Old Benders and Kate Benders have been apprehended by the score, that exactly tallied with the description and who as much as confessed they were the famous criminals. In Indiana, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, and North Carolina, and other states for aught we know, curious acting people who were without antecedents and who could not give a coherent account of themselves were straightway clapped in jail for members of the Bender family, and the governor of Kansas telegraphed to for a requisition. If this request had been complied with in every instance it has been made, we would have an assortment of suspicious people that no

ROGUES’ GALLERY

in the land could match.

There was a common sense theory as to the direction the Benders had taken, which all detectives who have given any attention to the case coincided in, and which Governor Osborn considered the only true theory on which to base a search. This theory supposed them to have made tracks as fast as possible to Texas, by way of the Indian Territory, thence they would endeavor to double like foxes, and might make their way into New Mexico, cross into Colorado, and possibly not stop till they reached the mountains of Utah. This was undoubtedly their course, and they undoubtedly made most of this roundabout course on foot, avoiding as much as possible contact with people who might be supposed to be familiar with their crimes. It will be remembered that they had

A MONTH THE START

of their pursuers, and during that time could have been far enough along in their circuitous journey to complete it at their leisure, without danger of being overtaken.

YOUNG BENDER.

About two months ago a young German came to some miners at the foot of the Wasatch mountains, in a very destitute condition, and asked for work. This was given to him and his wants supplied. He had been employed but a short time when the miners noticed some footsteps in the snow leading from his tent door up the side of the mountain. They called his attention to these and received no explanation, but the next day the man disappeared and has not since been seen. The miners thus had their suspicions aroused and began to reconnoiter the valley, when, within a day or two, they fell in with the individual who is now in the Shawnee County jail, and supposed to be

OLD BENDER.

When found he was in the most abject condition, having on what was supposed to be a suit of pilot cloth, but the original material was so obscured with filth as not to be recognizable. His feet were enveloped in improvised shoes, made out of old boot legs, and were badly frozen. The shoes were found to exactly fit the tracks in the snow leading down the mountain side to the tent. He was taken into custody and at first assumed to be dumb. He refused to understand either English or German. His silence was first overcome by asking him if he would like to have some tobacco, and, before he bethought himself, he blurted out, “Ja.” He was then tied up out in the cold, and the rigors of the climate soon brought him to terms, and he said that his name was Johann Koch, and that he was from Buffalo, New York. When accused of being old Bender, he held up his hands—from both of which the little finger is absent—remarking in guttural Platt-Deutsch that Bender had

ONLY ONE FINGER GONE,

while he had two. In conversation with a German in Salt Lake he admitted that he had farmed in Kansas, but would not say where or when. Before being brought to Salt Lake, it is said that a German met him, recognized him, and conversed long and familiarly with him. It was suspected that this was young Bender. He was searched for soon after, but had disappeared, and pursuit was at once institute for him, and it is said that he has since been caught and is in custody in southern Utah.

BENDER IN TOPEKA.

On Sunday morning it became known throughout the city that old Bender and Mrs. Bender were in the county jail, and a throng of people soon surrounded the iron-grated basement and began peering curiously through. A reporter of the COMMONWEALTH visited the jail in the afternoon, and there met Mr. Alvin Burt, the chief of police of Salt Lake City, from whom he obtained most of the above facts. Mr. Burt said that the old man had been recognized by two or three individuals in Utah as the veritable old Bender. One had been a county clerk in the county in Illinois that old Bender came from when moving further west. He had recorded some conveyances for him and knew him well. The name which he has not assumed, that of Johann Koch, is the name of his brother-in-law, who lives in Illinois. When first brought to Salt Lake, Mr. Burt said that he had been addressed in English, French, high and low German, but had pretended ignorance of them all. Mr. Burt sent photographs to the governor and the chief of police of Fort Scott. The governor sent them to A. M. York, who replied that they bore a startling resemblance to Bender senior. The Fort Scott official was most sanguine. He replied confidentially by telegraph,

“THAT MAN IS OLD BENDER.”

A requisition was applied for and sent on, and Mr. Burt came to Kansas with his prisoner. He said that the reward of $500 would not more than pay his expenses, though from the published descriptions which Governor Osborn had caused to be scattered all over the country, he had little doubt but that this was the head of the Bender family.

HIS APPEARANCE

would justify anyone in arresting him on suspicion, at all events, for if he is not the father of the house of Bender, he certainly ought to be. He is too much the ideal Bender not to be the real. He is a man about five feet seven inches high. His grizzly beard straggles like seaweed over his face and his matted gray hair falls in filthy negligence over his eyes and around his ears. His complexion is sallow, his forehead low, and his wide-apart, deep set eyes of pale blue cast, glower from under his heavy overhanging brow like the eyes of a wild animal. His shoulders are bent more from habit apparently than from age, and he has the clumsy shuffling gait of a trained bear walking on its hind legs. His voice is pectoral, being emitted from the chest in a sort of dissonant guttural. In speaking, which he does after much persuasion, he posts out his lips, opens his mouth several times as if shaping the word, and begins with an incoherent stutter. All these traits he has in common with Bender of the published description, and another peculiarity that establishes his identity with Bender is the habit of nervously lifting his hat and scratching his shaggy head with his forefinger. It was suggested by someone, when this habit was referred to, that it might be rather parasitical than pathological. There is

LITTLE OR NO DOUBT,

however, but that this is the veritable Bender. Nature, however prolific with lower types, is not likely to make two such creatures as this in the same mould.

A PUBLIC INSPECTION.

Before the ancient Bender had been long in town, the jail was surrounded with curious throngs. Mr. Burt suggested to Sheriff Wade that there might be someone in the crowd who might be able to identify him. He said that in Salt Lake he found it necessary to satisfy the curiosity of the crowds who surrounded the jail and clamored for a sight of him, by placing him in the door and letting them gaze their fill at a monster whose atrocious fame has filled the civilized world. Sheriff Wade, therefore, brought up old Bender, placed a chair for him on the courthouse steps, and for an hour or two his lowering, brutal face and figure were scanned by hundreds of people. All day yesterday he divided the interest with the circus, and curious crowds tried ineffectually to perforate the stone walls with their vision. Many were admitted to look at him. Telegrams have been sent to Senator York and others who had seen the Benders, to have them come here and identify him, but up to the present writing they have not arrived.

HEARING OF HOME.

While the reporter was interviewing Bender in his cell, a friend who accompanied him began a conversation with the illustrious prisoner. He became communicative for a moment and rattled away quite cheerfully in his guttural patois about his being from Buffalo, New York. All at once our friend claimed him for an old acquaintance; said he had met him at Thayer and at Cherryvale, and the venerable Bender shut up like a clam, with a very wicked cunning and intent look on his battered visage. His memory of his Kansas acquaintances is very defective.

On a bench in another corner of the cell sat a quiet, dejected-looking old woman, well dressed in a drab shawl and gloves, a cleanly dress and a green baize ribbed bonnet of a Quaker-like shape. She had a German cast of countenance, and looked like some hard-working old frau, who had seen unpleasant days. Her face was not a pleasant one to look at, yet she was not ill-looking. The old woman had been arrested on the train by some super-serviceable detective as

MRS. BENDER.

She does not tally with the description and it is very unlikely that that old harridan was ever as well dressed as this suspicioned party in her life. She is the victim, beyond doubt, of that Bender catching mania that seems to have possessed every pragmatical numbskull with a bent to the detective business, in the country. She should be released from custody at once, and sent to her home and friends, if she has any, without delay.

KATE BENDER.

It is said, too, that Kate Bender has been in Utah, and that detectives are on her track. It is said a woman answering to the description of Kate Bender obtained work from a family at Provo, in southern Utah. She was in a most deplorable condition, half naked and nearly famished. When she had been relieved and was recruited from her sufferings, she took all the food there was on the supper table and suddenly disappeared. It is believed that this family have been hiding somewhere in the mountains all winter, and being made desperate by hunger and privations, have ventured down into the settlements.

The old Bender seems at times to be overcome by paroxysms of fear and will set to shaking as if afflicted with the ague. He wrote his name on a slip of paper for the reporter in German characters. The letters were neatly formed, though the cramped fingers made it a slow process. The name written was “Johann Koch.” It will be known when the witnesses arrive from Bender’s home whether this is the veritable Bender or one of the strangest coincidences of apparent identity on record.

A COSY PLACE.

The Commonwealth, April 28, 1874.

The throng around the courthouse since the arrival of Bender (?), is small in comparison with the crowds that visit Pete Miller’s reconstructed cigar store, 189 Kansas avenue. He has recently made many improvements in the inner arrangement of the store, re-painted the wood-work, ornamented the walls, and “erected” a beautiful carpet, soft as velvet to the tread. There is nothing in Topeka, in the way of a store, that is neater than Miller’s.

We are glad to be able to state that his cigars are becoming very popular every day, and it is with difficulty that he supplies his constantly increasing trade. He is about adding to his manufacturing facilities, however, and will soon be enabled to meet any demand. He has also just received an assortment of new pipes of the latest spring and summer styles. People who are now using pipes, which are three thousand years old, a puff of whose smoke would raise a blister on a door knob, and the smell of which would be as productive of results as a stomach pump, ought to throw them away immediately, or sacrifice them upon the altar of cremation and buy new ones at Miller’s.

BENDER OR NOT BENDER.

That is the Agitating Question.

The Wild Man of the Mountains.

Now Thought to be Only a Resemblance.

The Reported Mrs. Bender a German Missionary.

The Commonwealth, April 29, 1874.

Two persons arrived from the neighborhood of the Bender butcheries yesterday to see if they could identify the nondescript plantigrade who is now held with the belief that he is the man. One of them, a physician from Chetopa, brought a letter from Col. York to Gov. Osborn. He said he believed that this man was the veritable Bender. Another man, a German named Dietz, who claimed to know Bender well, says it is not Bender at all. Among those who profess familiarity with his personal appearance, the opinion as to his identity seems to be about evenly divided. He yesterday gave some intelligible account of himself to Wm. Tholen, Esq., of Leavenworth, who visited him in his cell. He says his name is Johannes Koch, that he was born in Winterlingen County (Oberamml,) kingdom of Wurtenburg, Germany, in the romantic and celebrated Schwartzenwald or Black Forest. His sister, Cara Koch, married one Hans Jorg Stieber, and resides now, he believes, in Buffalo. Ten years ago he was threatened with consumption, and his physician advised that he live in the open air and undergo hardships. He therefore wandered to the western wilderness, in which he has been living the life of a hermit ever since. He subsisted on what he killed hunting, and put up with what rude shelter he could make for himself. He managed to live without great suffering until this winter, when he froze his feet and hands, and became helpless. He lived in an almost inaccessible region in Suabian, Germany, and speaks a dialect that is hardly intelligible to anyone who does not come from his district. It is a region occupied by people whose summer employment is the felling of trees and sawing of timber, and whose work during the long and terrible winter is the making of German toys and cuckoo clocks. It was in one of these Schwartzenwald saw-mills that he says he lost his finger. Mr. Tholen believes his mind is affected, and it was only in long pauses and after waiting for lucid intervals that he got this information from him. Much of what is aid was not intelligible, owing to the difficulties of the dialect. It is very dubious whether this Bender is the Bender, and whether Mr. Hampton (we made a mistake in printing him Burt yesterday) has not had his journey and expenses for nothing.

THE SPURIOUS MRS. BENDER.

The old lady who arrested for Mrs. Bender is, it seems, an authorized traveling missionary of the society of Christian Israelites, a sect that preserves the forms and beliefs of the Jews, except that they hold that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. She was on her way from Salt Lake and some asinine Paul Prys concluded that she acted curiously, and after they had frightened her into incoherency so that she could not give a clear account of herself, they concluded that she must be Mrs. Bender, had her arrested at Wamego, brought to this city, and committed on information as Mrs. Bender. Sheriff Wade treated her in the kindliest manner, knowing that she was the victim of the detective scabies that is still ravaging through the west in regard to the Benders. Today she recovered her shattered senses enough to speak, and soon convinced the sheriff of her harmless and pious mission. She had the most flattering testimonials from persons in every part of the world, and was provided with half fare passes as a preacher of the gospel, procured on a letter from a Mr. Thomas, of New York City. She supported herself by the sale of tracts, a supply of which is awaiting her at the express office in Kansas City. She preached last night in the Methodist church in this city and evinced perfect familiarity with the scriptures and scripture history. She is said to be a highly educated lady in her native tongue. We are afraid that we have had all our ado over the Benders for nothing, and the arrest of innocent persons for these infamous murderers is getting to be slightly porous.

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Commonwealth, April 29, 1874.

Old Bender seems to be a victim of appearance rather than of misplaced confidence.

The Commonwealth, April 29, 1874.

The only place in town to buy the famous “Kilsheimer” is at Renick’s “Queen City” shoe store.

The Commonwealth, April 29, 1874.

The police made three arrests in the city, last evening, all for drunkenness and disorderly conduct.

The Commonwealth, April 29, 1874.

Kate Bender is sojourning at Salt Lake, and will bend her steps toward Topeka in a few days. The balance of the family will arrive from time to time.

The Commonwealth, April 29, 1874.

There will be a large crowd at the opera house tonight to see and hear Joe Murphy in “Help.” A few good seats can still be secured at Wilmarth’s.

The Commonwealth, April 29, 1874.

General F. W. Butterfield will be present and give some recitations at the social of the library association, to be held at their rooms on Friday evening next.

The Commonwealth, April 29, 1874.

Workmen have been engaged for a day or two in touching up the Topeka national bank building, and the beautiful structure is now the admiration of all passers-by.

The Commonwealth, April 29, 1874.

Married, in Topeka, April 27^th, at the residence of Mr. John Black, by Rev. Dr. F. S. McCabe, Mr. James C. Carroll and Miss Edith E. Adams.

The Commonwealth, April 29, 1874.

No inflation in prices before or since the veto at 203 Kansas avenue.

The Commonwealth, April 29, 1874.

Mr. D. Royce Drake, representing the Kansas City Journal of Commerce and the New York Graphic, two very excellent papers, arrived in the city yesterday, to take a peep at the “Who is it,” alias Bender.

THE INDIAN TERRITORY.

The Commonwealth, Thursday Morning, April 30, 1874.

The Kansas City Times says that “the people of Kansas are almost a unit in favor of the Indian Territory.” If it means that the people of this state are in favor of the opening of the Indian Territory to general settlement, its assertion is absurd. Not one in ten is in favor of any such thing. Atchison Champion.

The Champion might go still further and truthfully say that the only supporters any such movement has in the state comes from a class of roving and impecunious political adventurers who re seeking new field wherein to plant themselves. This is the only element in the state which favors opening and organizing the territory. Paola Spirit.

No sensible Kansan wishes to see the territory just south of us opened up, not because it is a better country than this, for it is not. But because people would make a rush down there all the same, leave pleasant homes here, and although at the end of the year they would find themselves willing to come back, the mischief would be complete. No, gentlemen, none but the politicians about Washington and the hangers-on and loafers about our own towns wish to see the territory open for settlement. Winfield Courier.

Some time since, when Senator Dorsey’s bill for the organization of the territory of Oklahoma was first reported, we gave a synopsis of the provisions of the bill and dissented from the wisdom of its passage for the very reasons reiterated in the above chain of comments. The St. Louis Globe replied in a lengthy editorial ridiculing the position as narrow and selfish, and denying its truth. Then a Galveston exchange made lengthy reply, and the Kansas City Times took its cue from this for a lengthy article from which the Champion makes the extract above. The Parsons Sun, which is the organ of a local ring of territory organizers, of which George A. Reynolds is the traveling fugleman and sends those long-winded associated press dispatched from Milton’s “infant wonder” of towns to make “public opinion” in favor of opening the territory to white settlement, devoted a column of severe sarcasm to our demolition. It seems that the ad hominen argument addressed to the Kansas people is of sufficient force to require all this vigorous refutation. It might have been advisable to advance another and more pertinent reason why the territory should not be organized, and that is, that such a course places the government in an attitude of most arrant bad faith to the Indians, violates solemn pledges, and works most flagrant injustice. But this weak plea would not have a pin’s-weight with the flock of hungry speculative kites and crows now on the borders of the territory and poising for a flight upon the tempting quarry. The argument we did adduce addresses itself so forcibly to the people of this state that it needs only to be propounded to awaken a strong popular opposition to the Oklahoma business. The entire advocacy of the scheme has been so transparently fraudulent to observing people that we need not give much space to its argument. The quarter-breed Cherokee, Boudinot, an exile of his tribe, has been lecturing all through the west and in the principal cities of Kansas, obviously under the auspices of the M. K. & T. railroad ring, and there is a quiet, canny Oklahoma lobby constantly operating in Washington. Scarcely any of the Indians ask for the bill, and its passage means their speedy extinction to a certainty. But as we before remarked, no Kansas citizen who had any permanent interest in the state should favor the bill because its first effect would be to largely reduce the population of the state and seriously retard its growth. The immigration to Kansas this year is exceedingly large, but the opening of the territory before the new comers had secured homes, would unquestionably divert it. The potent bias of human nature that makes stolen waters and forbidden fruit sweet, will attract thousands even from Kansas to the Indian Territory. One hundred and sixty acres of land will produce no more there than here, but they will not be convinced of this truth till they have tried. Western home hunters have, in a degree, the bent of California gold miners, who would abandon paying diggings to search for reported rich leads in another locality. No argument is therefore fair which does not admit and duly and soberly consider this fact. Texas wants an unimpeded cattle drive; St. Louis and Kansas City want an additional market for goods; the land grant railroads want to come in for their subsidies; the town lot speculators want to make a speedy fortune without capital; the land sharks see the opportunity of their lives. But Kansas people should raise their voices against a policy calculated to do an irreparable injustice to a helpless and dependent people, and to work lasting injury to themselves.

The Commonwealth.

BY HENRY KING.

The Commonwealth, Thursday Morning, April 30, 1874.

The question of Mr. Sumner’s retirement from the committee on foreign relations was ventilated in the senate day before yesterday. The explanation given of that event is a justification of the republican members from the splenetic imputations of the posthumous speech published in the New York Tribune, and reflects anything but credit on the petty spirit that could stir up strife over the grave by republishing it.

The Commonwealth, Thursday Morning, April 30, 1874.

The Leavenworth Call has succumbed to the stress of penury and the veto and has temporarily suspended. Since Legate took hold of this newspaper, it has contained some vigorous and original writing, and deserved at least to live. It labored under the disadvantage, however, of being printed in a town where there was one too many newspapers, and the question was which was the one. The Call, by its suspension, has answered it, and friend Legate will return to his potato drill and sub-soil plow a better if not a wiser man.

The Commonwealth, Thursday Morning, April 30, 1874.

The Rev. Isaac S. Kalloch of the First Baptist church of Leavenworth made a ministerial tea strike on Sunday last. He secured the services of Caroline Richings and her concert company as a church choir, and his usually crowded church was on this occasion overflowing with worshipers. The reverend gentlemen made use of the occasion to press home a lesson in liberality, defending the resort to every appliance not in itself immoral, and good singing in particular, even by operatic artists, to draw the indifferent and the ungodly to the sanctuary. He wished, however it was brought about, that so large an audience could be gathered together every Sunday night to listen to the Holy Word.

THE BENDER.

There Is Little Doubt But That He Is A Bogus Article.

The Commonwealth, Saturday Morning, May 2, 1874.

Day before yesterday, Mr. Hampton, the officer who brought the old man now under suspicion of being a Bender to this city, returned to Salt Lake. He became pretty well convinced before he left that it was not the head of the family of murderers that he had in custody. He was out about six hundred dollars on the old man, and as the reward was only five hundred dollars, even if his prisoner had proved a bona fide Bender, his bringing him here would have been very much in the nature of a labor of love. For two days past a deputation of citizens from Montgomery and Labette counties has been expected in this city to look the old man over and identify him if possible, but they have not come. Yesterday Deputy Marshal Charles Hallett, of Fort Scott, who has repeatedly seen the original Bender, visited the prisoner and pronounced him not the man. He says the original Bender has a broader and fuller face, and one of the fingers of his right hand is very noticeably stiffened and bent. Though this man has some characteristics in common with the original Bender, he does not bear out the original in many particulars, especially in his hair. The hair on the true Bender was iron gray and coarse as a horse’s mane, while on the prisoner it is comparatively fine. Old Bender, Mr. Hallett avers, was shorter and more compactly built than this man.

Yesterday afternoon, Sheriff Franklin, of Labette County, arrived in the city, and proposes to take this venerable unknown to the neighborhood of the murders, so that all thereabouts may have a chance to inspect him and to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion regarding his identity. Sheriff Franklin does not believe it is the man, from accounts he has heard of his personal description from those who have seen him. Before he leaves, Sheriff Wade will have him washed up, his hair cut and combed, and another and more decent suit of clothes put on him.

[Note: A very important communication from Prof. Kellogg is given below. He and Professor Norton were responsible for many events that assisted Arkansas City and Cowley County in its early development. Kellogg ran the Arkansas City Traveler in its infancy before returning to Emporia, where he later became President. Thanks to Dr. Sam Dicks, these early events are now possible to tell. It must be remembered that there is no microfilm record of the Arkansas City Traveler before 1876. MAW]

KANSAS MATTERS IN CONGRESS.

The Commonwealth, Saturday Morning, May 9, 1874.

Prof. L. B. Kellogg writes as follows to the Arkansas City Traveler, from Washington, concerning legislative matters in which Kansas is specially interested.

Those who have lived on the frontier, in proximity to the Indians, have often been led to wonder that the average New England mind is utterly unable to understand that in any of the frequent collisions between Indians and whites, on any portion of our country’s frontier, that the Indians are in any other situation than that of exercising the inalienable right of self-defense from the depredations of marauding white aggressors. The same sentimentality had an illustration in the United States the other day. The question was on a proposition to distribute arms and ammunition to the settlers on the extreme western frontier of Nebraska and Kansas, to protect themselves from the barbarities of Indian incursions. Pending the discussion, Senator Buckingham, of Connecticut, chairman of the senate committee on Indian affairs, introduced an amendment to the bill to the effect that an equal amount of arms and ammunition should also be distributed to enable them to protect themselves from the whites! Senator Ingalls, of Kansas, replied to this in a deservedly sharp and cutting five minutes’ speech, that occasioned the withdrawal of the amendment.

CHEROKEE STRIP.

I have written you that the bill for the relief of the settlers on the Cherokee strip was by the earnest work of Senators Ingalls and Harvey brought up by unanimous consent and passed far in advance of its regular time and place on the calendar. As soon as it is signed by the president, I will procure an official copy of the bill and send you for publication. It is substantially as published by you last winter shortly after its introduction in the house of representatives by Mr. Lowe.

OSAGE LAND.

The bill to extend the time of payment on the Osage lands another year passed the house, but has not yet been introduced in the senate. It will have to take its place on the calendar and cannot be reached for some little time.

CATTLE TRAIL BILL.

The cattle trail bill has been introduced in both the senate and house, and has in each been referred to the standing committee on Indian affairs. Senator Ingalls, who is a member of the senate committee, says that his committee have agreed to report the bill favorably.

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Commonwealth, Saturday Morning, May 9, 1874.

The Emporia News has been cogitating a little over the new party problem, and comes to the following conclusions touching the make-up of the opposition to the republicans.

While the old party has its burdens, and groans beneath its load of corrupt, unprincipled men, it can rejoice at the number of shysters who abandon it for a new movement. Every effort to organize a new party helps the old in this respect. It would be a blessing to the republican party and to the country if some new movement would be made popular; but we despair of any such thing while the “cast offs” rush so eagerly into everything of the kind. Such men as York, Robinson, Bronson, and Ross will render every movement of the kind unpopular with the people.

The Commonwealth, Saturday Morning, May 9, 1874.

A correspondent of the Emporia Ledger makes a nomination for state superintendent of schools which he can heartily and unreservedly endorse. He says:

“We would nominate one who has hosts of friends all through the southwest, and is well known through all the state—a gentleman of large experience in school teaching, and progressive withal, keeping abreast with the times in all educational and scientific matters. We refer to Prof. H. B. Norton, of Arkansas City. We need only mention his name. He needs to eulogy from us. His especial fitness for the office will at once be recognized. In Prof. Norton we shall have a state superintendent of whom we shall always be proud.”

Prof. Norton is well known to the readers of the COMMONWEALTH through his admirable letters on Indian affairs, and we hazard nothing in saying that there is no man in the state better qualified in all respects for the duties of superintendent.

The Commonwealth, Saturday Morning, May 9, 1874.

Mr. Frank G. High, western traveling agent of the Chicago short line, via St. Louis, Kansas City & Northern and Chicago & Alton railroads, favored us with a call yesterday. Travelers going east should avail themselves of the excellent privileges provided by this line.

The Commonwealth, Saturday Morning, May 9, 1874.

Nearly every team that comes in from the country brings a wagon-load of sod, which meets with ready sale. Thus our front yards are transformed into verdant pastures, and the prairies into barren fields. The traffic in this portable real estate is becoming quite extensive, and farmers say they can raise sod easier than any other article of commerce. They raise it with a spade.

The Commonwealth, Saturday Morning, May 9, 1874.

The Clay Center Dispatch relates a pathetic accident in this light, unfeeling way: “A young man in this town went sparking the other night, and in order to make a good impression, drew from his pocket a piece of poetry prepared for the occasion. But unfortunately he let two or three round tin pieces fall on the floor at the same time, and before he could recover them, the young lady picked up one, and to his great mortification read aloud, “Good for one drink, at Mittendorff’s.”

THE KAW RESERVE.

Interesting Items from Council Grove.

The Commonwealth, Saturday Morning, May 9, 1874.

From our Traveling Correspondent.

COUNCIL GROVE, May 6, 1874.

This is one of the historical places in Kansas, celebrated as the point where the council fires of the noble red man were lighted when he desired to hold a talk with the representatives of the great father at Washington. But that day has departed, and the last of the Kaws has left this section and gone to “the nation,” leaving one of the fairest portions of the state, which is known as the Kaw reserve, to be settled and improved by white men and made productive of wealth to the yeomanry of this fair state.

The city is improving slowly, but the growth is substantial, and it bids fair to become one of the leading inland cities of Kansas. The population is at present about 1,500, made up, like all towns in Kansas, of representatives from every quarter of the globe. The country is rapidly filling up with a substantial and well-to-do class of immigrants, and most, if not all, the choice land outside the reserve is already taken up by actual settlers.

The chief topic of interest just now to the people here is the action of congress in relation to the bill for bringing the Kaw lands into market, and the general sentiment of the people appears to be in favor of such action as will most speedily cause these beautiful lands to be sold, and so help in adding to the taxable wealth of the county. The valuation as made by the board appointed for that purpose seems to have been so high that many who proposed to purchase were deterred from doing so and sought homes elsewhere; and it is believed that the best interests of all concerned would be subserved by reducing this valuation to such rates as will induce settlers to purchase and thus speedily improve them, and add to the material growth of this portion of the state. At all events it would seem as if something should be done and that promptly to settle this vexed question; and if the bill proposed by Mr. Phillips does not meet with the views of congress, some other should be introduced and passed without delay.

There are two weekly newspapers published here: the Democrat, edited by John Maloy, Esq., who, by the way, has also achieved the dignity of mayor of the city, and the Republican, published by Mr. P. Moriarty. The COMMONWEALTH, however, is the standard daily, and has a large list of subscribers, which is constantly increasing.

Crops of all kinds are looking splendidly, especially fall wheat, of which a very large acreage has been sown in this vicinity. Most of the farmers have their corn planted, and a successful crop this season will go far to help out the people of this county. There was never a better prospect for fruit, and indeed everything now betokens prosperity to the agricultural interests.

An excellent hotel in this city is presided over by Mr. Hamilton, who is always ready to attend to his guests and make them comfortable. RANGER.

EDUCATIONAL.

Teachers’ Institute of the 13^th Judicial District.

The Commonwealth, May 29, 1874.

EL DORADO, May 12, 1874.

To the Editor of the Commonwealth.

An institute of the 13^th judicial district representing the counties of Butler, Sedgwick, Sumner, Howard, and Cowley, was held at El Dorado, Butler County, commencing the 5^th inst., and closing the 8^th. Prof. H. B. Norton was the principal conductor and lecturer. If there is one place which will test a man in the teacher’s profession more than another, that place is to put him in charge of a large class of real and wide-awake teachers. The institute held a daily session of about six hours, and much earnest work was done. Every teacher present seemed determined to improve to the utmost the advantages offered by the institute.

Superintendent McCarty was on hand, and presented many practical ideas on physiology, theory, and practice, and various important topics. His lecture on “Little Things,” Thursday evening was replete with illustration and genuine common sense. All were pleased with it.

But the man who was brought face to face with the teachers more than any other, who understood teachers and teaching better than any other, who infused more vitality into every exercise which he conducted, who left the most indelible stamp on the minds of all present, whether teacher or spectator, that man was Prof. H. B. Norton. It made no difference what exercise he conducted, whether replying to the questions from the query box or handling the whole institute in a calisthenic exercise; whether presenting a model object-lesson or exhibiting the beauties and advantages of scientific knowledge; in all these cases he was equally at home with his subject. The teachers all loved him. His lecture on “The Iceberg Period,” Wednesday evening, was delivered to a crowded house. Full of new thought, it was presented so plainly none could fail to comprehend it. Though the lecture was delivered without manuscript, the professor never wanted for a word and his rhetoric was excellent.

The teachers present, learning that Superintendent McCarty positively declined to run for re-election, unanimously adopted the following resolution.

Resolved, By the teachers of the 13^th judicial district, that we present the name of Prof. H. B. Norton as our unanimous choice for the office of state superintendent, and that we will by all honorable means labor to secure his election.

The professor is known throughout the southwest as a man of learning, of deep piety without sectarianism, of unimpeachable moral character, and as a man thoroughly conversant with the school wants of our young and flourishing state. H.

THE OSAGE SETTLERS.

The Commonwealth, Saturday Morning, May 30, 1874.

The writer of this was in attendance at the great mass meeting of the settlers on the Osage ceded lands on Wednesday last, and listened to the speeches delivered, and observed the demonstration of the large body of citizens who are now contending for their homes. We are prepared to bear testimony to the apparent honesty, undoubted intelligence, and commendable moderation of these settlers as a class. They thorough believe they are demanding a right, and are not simply persuaded by interest. They have at stake everything they possess, to be sure, which no man would give up without a struggle, but more than this they have a reason, and a right sound and convincing reason for the assertion of their rights. We have studied this case closely; have examined it in all its bearings; have read the acts of congress, and the treaties and the arguments delivered by counsel on both sides, and we are profoundly convinced of the justice and equity of the claim that if the lands do not belong to the settlers, the railroad have certainly not the slightest color of title to them, and their attempt to obtain them has been a piece of high-handed usurpation, in which they have thus far had the questionable, and certainly the illegal, assistance of the interior department.

It is not necessary to go over the entire history and agreed facts of the case, which have already been fully and frequently published and commented on in the COMMONWEALTH. Our judgment, derived from what examination we have made in the case, is, that the title to the lands still rests in the Great and Little Osage tribes of Indians, and will so rest until the treaty stipulations have been carried out, as they have not yet begun to be—until the lands are surveyed and sold and the proceeds applied as directed in the treaty, which up to this moment has not been done. The lands do not belong to the government, but are held in trust by the government for survey and sale as is dictated by the terms of that trust. We are not a lawyer and cannot tell what refinements and quibbles may serve to warp the judicial opinion from what seems to us on the face an obviously righteous conclusion . We do not express this opinion in prejudice of the proceedings now underway in the United States circuit court, but simply reiterate the views we have always held.

The settlers who are the parties indirectly though mainly in interest in these suits are not a mob, nor are they seditious or unreasonable people. There may be some hot-headed and foolish enthusiasts amongst them, and demagogues may work upon some of them by incendiary oratory, but most of them are men of intelligence who apprehend their rights and have faith enough in the sanctity of law and purity of courts to rest them with those tribunals, in the certain belief that justice will in the end prevail.

We want to say, too, that these people will owe a debt of gratitude to Capt. Geo. R. Peck, United States district attorney, of they shall be successful in the courts, and will have no reason to complain of either his diligence, enthusiasm, or ability if, perchance (a very remote contingency we are inclined to believe), the courts should decide against them. It is now but three months since he received the order from the department of justice to file a bill in chancery to test the validity of all patents issued by the secretary of the interior to the railroads for any and all of the Osage ceded lands. The case will be argued next week before Judges Dillon and Foster in Leavenworth.

It will thus be seen that the utmost dispatch consistent with thoroughness has been used in securing a hearing and disposition of these suits. The settlers will know within a fortnight whether they have reason to hope for ultimate and speedy emancipation from the thrall of the railroad companies, who, if they secure a title to these lands, will compel payment, not only for the lands themselves, but for the enhanced value which the settlers have given the lands at the cost of their own labor and money. We hold it to be, but fair and right, believing as we do that their cause is just and their demands lawful, to wish the settlers success.

The Commonwealth.

BY HENRY KING.

The Commonwealth, Saturday Morning, May 30, 1874.

HEAD QUARTERS REPUBLICAN STATE CENTRAL COMMITTEE,

TOPEKA, May 28, 1874.

The republican state central committee will hold a meeting at their rooms in the city of Topeka, at 3 o’clock p.m., on Wednesday, the 17^th day of June, proximo, for the purpose of calling a republican state convention. JOHN GUTHRIE, Chairman.

D. B. EMMERT, Secretary.

The Commonwealth, Saturday Morning, May 30, 1874.

DECORATION DAY will be observed by the banks of Chicago, and in all probability by the board of trade, as a holiday.

The Commonwealth, Saturday Morning, May 30, 1874.

By a queer error, the assemblage of Dunkers, which lately met in Illinois, was referred to in some of the dispatches as the “National Conference of Drunkards.”

The Commonwealth, Saturday Morning, May 30, 1874.

The Hutchinson News, for the instruction of the discontented, prints the following significant fact: “We have never known but one instance yet of a man who had commenced to improve a claim and then to sell and go back to the east, and this man is now back in Reno County and trying hard to get back the claim that he left.”

The Commonwealth, Saturday Morning, May 30, 1874.

The Woodson County Post unwillingly remarks: “And now comes D. B. Emmert and says he does not aspire so high as “His Excellency,” and is not a candidate for gubernatorial honors.” We have good authority for saying that David may be still prevailed upon to accept the nomination for secretary of state.

The Commonwealth, Saturday Morning, May 30, 1874.

Senator Hamlin’s opponents in Maine are gracefully disappearing, and it looks now as if he would be returned without opposition, that is, if the latest rumors are true. It is said that both ex-Gov. Perham and ex-Gov. Washburn have been induced to abandon the field, and their places are as yet unsupplied by new aspirants.

The Commonwealth, Saturday Morning, May 30, 1874.

The Washington dispatches of the Worcester Spy say that although there are sufficient votes in the house to pass the senate civil rights bill, there will be difficulty in reaching it in the regular order of business, owing to measures which take precedence and dilatory motions by its opponents to prevent action.

The Commonwealth, Saturday Morning, May 30, 1874.

The house committee on territories will report a bill for the admission of Colorado as a state into the union, with a fairer prospect of its passage by the house than the New Mexico bill had when it was first reported. The bill will be accompanied by a report detailing the population and resources of Colorado. It will be remembered that President Grant favored the admission of Colorado to the sisterhood in his last message.

THE INDIAN PANIC.

Homesteaders Abandoning Their Homes and Coming Into the Settlements.

Eight Men In All Killed and Scalped.

The Commonwealth, June 24, 1874.

We have obtained additional particulars of the Indian outrages in the southwest, which are confirmatory of the original apprehensions that there is an organized raid over the Kansas border by Indians from the Indian Territory with a view of reinforcing their depleted herds of ponies. The facts of the murder near Fort Dodge are, we learn, as follows: Two men with a team were coming from Camp Supply to Fort Dodge and had camped out. They woke in the morning to find that their team was either strayed or stolen, at least not to be found. While looking around for their missing animals, they encountered signs of Indians, and saw a stray pony grazing on the prairie. One of them mounted this pony to look for the missing animals, and being gone long enough to awaken his companion’s suspicions, the latter started in pursuit of him. About eight miles from Dodge City, he found his dead body, scalped and mutilated.

The man who was killed in the neighborhood of Medicine Lodge was named Kime, and his wife, who lives in the little town of Medicine Lodge, is said to be beside herself with grief. Two others were killed on Cedar creek, whose names we could not learn. Two Texans had encamped at the head of Mule creek with the intention of locating a stock ranch there. They were murdered, scalped, and their stock run off. Two were killed and scalped on Medicine Lodge creek, making eight in all whom these red cut-throats have murdered within the last two weeks. The citizens of that section are leaving their homesteads and coming into the towns of Hutchinson and Medicine Lodge. Sheriff Collins, of Reno County, was in the city yesterday to see if Gov. Osborn had the authority to issue rations to the fugitive settlers until the excitement should blow over. From all that we can learn, there does not seem to be concerted action amongst the Indians to carry on a general raid, but parties of Indians numbering ten or twelve in each are roaming over the border ostensibly on their annual buffalo hunt, but killing and destroying unprotected white men as they go, and stealing what horse-flesh they can lay their hands on. A party of ten frontiersmen who have had frequent transactions of a lethal nature with Mr. Lo, fully armed and equipped, have left Medicine Lodge on a little expedition of reprisal for scalps. We are inclined to believe that they will develop a great deal of ignorance of boundary lines, when approaching the territory, and will not be even retarded by the sanctity of reservations, if they once strike the trail of the red-skinned vermin that have committed these outrages. We are informed that the settlers feel amply able to protect themselves, and will only ask for aid in the way of a small issue of arms and rations.

THE FRONTIER.

All About the Late Indian Raid.

The Commonwealth, June 24, 1874.

Our correspondent at Hutchinson sends the following statement in detail of the recent Indian raid in Barbour and Comanche counties. This information was obtained by our correspondent from Mr. Charles Collins, sheriff of Reno County, and is without doubt the most correct version of the affair yet published. He says:

The first outbreak of the Indians was on Mule creek, in Comanche County. It appears that about a dozen of them, supposed to be Cheyennes, made an attempt to stampede the stock and thereby run it off, but were prevented in this by the mail carrier, H. P. Trustal.

They next went to Kiowa, where they ran off about twelve head of horses and fired into the houses, wounding two persons. From there they followed up Medicine Lodge river, and about four miles south of town they overtook a farmer by the name of Kime, who had been to the town of Medicine Lodge. They shot and scalped him and left him dead in his wagon, taking his horses. They then started in a westwardly direction, and after proceeding a few miles, came upon two men at work getting out posts. Both were shot and scalped. It appears from the position in which these two men were lying, they must have shot while at work.

From there they escaped to the Indian Territory with about twenty-five head of horses. The same day another party of Indians, about forty-five in number, attacked two men at the head of Mule creek, who were there locating a stock ranch. The Indians killed and scalped them both. The men were well armed with needle guns, and from the number of shells (or blank cartridges) around them, they must have made a desperate resistance. Five men in all were killed and scalped in the neighborhood of Medicine Lodge. There is a rumor that seven more have met the same fate.

At the present time everybody in and around Medicine Lodge is in the town and fortifying it with a view of protecting themselves from the threatening attacks of the Indians. Their crops, stock, and much other valuable property have been left to the mercy of the Indians. Their crops, I am informed, look well and prosperous, but unless aid can be sent them soon, the cattle and hogs will destroy them, as they are running promiscuously all over the country. The citizens have barely sufficient supplies to last them five days, and are poorly furnished with arms and ammunition. The opinion is that unless they are aided by men, arms, and provisions, they will be compelled to leave the country. In a little town called Kiowa, about twelve miles below Medicine Lodge, there are about twenty-five families, who have left their farms and built a stockade, and are all living in it.

In the town of Sun City, they have also built a stockade, and all the people in that vicinity are living in it—they are also in a very destitute condition. There is a company of forty men already formed by Dr. Flick, in Hutchinson, who are now ready at a moment’s warning, to go to the assistance of Medicine Lodge.

It is the general sentiment here that the Indians ought to be brought to a speedy account, and that by force of arms. There can be any number of men obtained in the border counties who will volunteer to go. All the people ask is to be armed with proper orders, to clear the country of these lawless bands. I am informed that the Indian agents have been apprized of the fact that the Indians were going on the warpath for the last thirty days, and have failed to give any notice to the settlers of it.

SILVER LAKE.

The Commonwealth, June 24, 1874.

Mr. B. F. Payne, trustee, furnishes the following facts in regard to the above township.

Number of cattle, 2,772; hogs, 2,573; spring wheat, acres, 510; fall wheat, 521; oats, 736; corn, 6,354; potatoes, 120.

Wheat is injured badly by chinch bugs; of fall wheat there will probably be only half the usual crop; the bugs are also damaging oats considerably. There is a large area of corn growing, which will make an excellent crop—probably 4,000 more than last year. A small area of potatoes was planted, but there are indications of an extra large yield. Cattle and hogs looking well.

KANSAS POSTAL AFFAIRS.

The Commonwealth, June 24, 1874.

Postoffice changes in Kansas during the week ending June 20, 1874, furnished by Wm. Van Vleck of the postoffice department.

Postmasters Appointed: Caney, Montgomery County, O. M. Smith; Grant, Wabaunsee County, Mrs. Mary McComb; Gypsum Creek, McPherson County, Frederick Sorenson.

Discontinued: Rock Creek, Jefferson County.

THE INDIAN SCARE OVER.

The Commonwealth, Friday Morning, June 26, 1874.

The southwest has for a fortnight past been disturbed as never before by scalpings and rumors of scalpings by the blood-thirsty Cheyennes and Arapahos. Barbour County, being upon the border, was in a peculiarly unprotected condition, and the thousands of settlers that have with two years past populated the broad and rich domain of this county, were affected with a veritable panic of apprehension. Farms were abandoned, stockades built, and nearly all the farmers who were remote from neighbors, as most settlers in a new country are, sought asylum in the towns. Gov. Osborn promptly extended what he could to the beleaguered citizens in the way of arms and ammunition and began at once a lively telegraphic correspondence with General Pope, who it is said is inclined to scout the idea of the presence of the Indians on the frontier, and is inclined to attribute all the outrages committed, or (as he is said to put it) alleged to have been committed, to white horse thieves disguised as Indians. He is said by the Leavenworth Times to have remarked that he had no official information of any Indian outrages, which is more than likely, as there was not a soldier within a good many miles of the scene of the Barbour County murders. He therefore does not approve the promptitude of Governor Osborn in sending arms to the settlers, which he thinks will be employed in slaying buffalo rather than in protecting their homes. One thing appears to be certain: the action of the governor seems to have accelerated the response of the military department to the state’s request for arms. Gov. Osborn yesterday received a telegram from Gen. Pope that one company of cavalry was at Sun City and two other companies, one from Fort Hays and the other from Fort Gibson, were on their way to the region of the reported outrages, and that these companies would scout and police that portion of the frontier thoroughly. From telegrams that were received from the southwest yesterday by the governor, it appears that the fright is pretty thoroughly over and apprehensions of further molestation dispelled. The settlers are all returning to their homes, and by the time this appears in print quiet and a sense of safety will be restored. The presence of the troops in that section will make Indian marauders chary of coming over, and the crops, which are said to be unprecedented in promise, can be garnered in peace and safety. The fact of the scalping is disputed on some hands, and it is claimed that the reports received here have been greatly exaggerated, though there can be no question that men have been murdered and scalped. Horse thieves do not scalp their victims, and the deeds that have been done are unquestionably the blood work of Indians, most likely Cheyennes and Arapahos. We would mildly and respectfully inquire of Mr. Enoch Hoag what is going to be done about it?

THE INDIAN RAID.

The Commonwealth, Saturday Morning, June 27, 1874.

Another deputation of citizens from the southwest were in Topeka yesterday and report additional depredations by Indians. A boy named Cone was scalped on Monday night, and buried at Sun City on Tuesday evening. He was the son of Probate Judge Cone, of that county. The settlers think if they had Gen. Pope down there a few days, they could easily disabuse his mind in regard to the depredations being committed by horse-thieves, disguised as Indians.

The savages are now reported advancing towards the Ninnescah river, thirty miles northwest of Hutchinson. The settlers all along the border are suffering for provisions, and probably need food more than they do arms and ammunition.

One hundred and twenty families have arrived from the southwest portion of Reno County, and are encamped at Hutchinson. Mass meetings are being held at Hutchinson to devise means to aid and supply the people on the frontier.

The Pawnees are passing through the southwest portion of Reno, going home from a hunting expedition. It is presumed that this expedition caused the panic which drove so many families to the towns.

The Hutchinson News of this week is inclined to regard the whole raid as considerable of a scare, and seems to give little credit to the stories about the recent scalpings, pronouncing them in many instances greatly exaggerated.

In this connection we notice that congress before adjourning appropriated $25,000 for presents to the Sioux Indians to induce them to relinquish their treaty rights to hunt in Nebraska. We suppose this refers to hunting white men. It looks like extravagance to throw away $25,000 on a tribe of hair-lifters who could be decently buried for half the money.

THE INDIAN SCARE.

The Latest News From the Front.

Mail Carrier Chased By Indians.

A Lady’s Account of the Demonstrations of the Savages.

Are They Indians or White Men?

THE INDIAN SCARE OVER.

The Commonwealth, June 28, 1874.

HUTCHINSON, June 20, 1874.

Correspondence of the Commonwealth.

The mail carrier from Medicine Lodge has just returned, bringing the information that he was chased by some fifteen Indians about forty miles from this point. Otherwise nothing very definite in a military point of view has been received. Several men have returned recently from the border, and invariably report that the people of Medicine Lodge are huddled up in the town in a deplorable condition. The scare in Reno County seems to be abated, and the settlers are returning to their homes. While there is no question that there are some Indians engaged in this affair, there may be something in the background not yet discovered by the state authorities.

I have closely watched the development of these troubles, and have come to the conclusion that the whole scheme has been gotten up by a set of ill-designing persons for some object. It may be a genuine Indian war, but from what I am able to find out, the following seems to me to be the most plausible. In the first place, there has been serious difficulty in Barbour County, caused by frauds perpetrated by some of the official authorities, that would inevitably bring about serious trouble unless the mind of the people should be directed in some other channel. Secondly, the scare might have been gotten up by some lawless bands for the purpose of plunder, and again, it might have been organized for the purpose of a money making scheme. There are a great many reasons, but in my opinion there is no danger of a general outbreak. The people are so worked up that the sight of a half dozen Indians would cause a general panic, when the entire population would pack up and travel northward across the Arkansas river. Scouting parties are scouring the country, and it is hoped that these lawless bands may be brought to condign punishment. “CYRUS.”

P. S. Since writing I have interviewed a lady just arrived from a portion of the country about forty miles from this point. She informs me that she saw fourteen Indians come close to the house where she was living, waving a white handkerchief, after which one of the white men went and talked with them. The Indians said they were good Indians. Shortly after they left they put on a red shirt, indicating war, but were baffled by the brandishing of guns in the hands of some white men.

The Indians left towards the Indian Territory. C.

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Commonwealth, June 28, 1874.

The St. Louis Democrat does not mince terms in speaking of Senator Carpenter and his recent sly attempts to muzzle the press. It says: “Carpenter, the senator, is one of those unlucky men who never opens his mouth without putting his foot in it. His letter in defense of his gag-law does not disarm the press, nor convince anybody that the bill was not intended as a piece of revenge upon the papers. However, we suppose the public career of Carpenter is well-nigh closed. The people of Wisconsin have never been able to understand his justification of the salary-grab—and never will.”

The Commonwealth, June 28, 1874.

It was stated by a Washington telegram a few days ago that the president had signed the new bankruptcy bill. A later New York dispatch denies this, and adds that vigorous effort is being made to prevent his signing it. Every official or agent of the government in the administration of estates in bankruptcy, is opposed to the change contemplated, because it would reduce his individual profits. Some businessmen are opposed to it also, on the ground of its greater leniency toward bankrupts.

The Commonwealth, June 28, 1874.

We are glad congress got over without any bloodshed. Hawley called Hale, of Maine, dishonorable; Butler called Tremain a jackal; Tremain said he would whip him if he (Tremain) were younger; Foster insisted that Butler was a cockeye; Spencer and Gordon indulged in round-about counter charges of cowardice; Parker charged Garfield with persistent demagoguery; Logan said the whole house of representatives were cowards; and even the bland Blaine lost his usual complacency, and spoke with his mouth sharply. The warm weather did it, though, and now that vacation has come, peace will be restored. All will remark with the spirit of Mr. Garfield to Mr. Parker: “My friend from Missouri cannot make himself my enemy by anything he is likely to say.”

The Commonwealth, June 28, 1874.

Each bureau in the treasury department has received instructions to conform its force with the utmost exactness to the laws which have just passed, and in no case to exceed the appropriations made for the clerical force. Heretofore many devices have been resorted to to make positions for favored candidates by cunning twistings of the law. Secretary Bristow has given the heads of bureaus to understand that everything in the department must conform to the exact letter of the law, and in no degree violate its spirit. In cases where the force for any bureau has been so limited by the appropriation fixing the force as not to allow of the work being done by the present number of working hours, the time for work must be so increased as to make full and prompt performance of the work possible.

THE INDIAN TERRITORY.

The Commonwealth, July 1, 1874.

Area 70,000 square miles; location, between the four great states of Kansas, Texas, Arkansas, and New Mexico; population, some twenty “independent nations,” aggregating about sixty thousand people.

The government of each tribe is generally the “council,” a close corporation, having perpetual succession, and selecting the “chiefs,” executive officers who seem to have no defined authority other than personal influence, and who have no laws to execute.

The “agent” is a government officer also, having no defined authority. “Political agents” are generally understood to grow rich by peculation. “Quaker agents” were selected on the score of honesty, but are generally fresh from the far east, and are as capable of understanding the real nature of the wiry and wily bandits under their charge as so many Tibetan monks.

The only government worthy the name is located at Van Buren, Arkansas. It consists of a United States court, including a marshal and numerous deputies. These last are enterprising young gentlemen, famous for their raids upon the traders whose papers lack a hair’s-breadth of the needful red tape. Their main business is spoilation.

This vast region is in a state of constant predatory warfare. There is no security for life, and no punishment for crime.

“War-parties,” each consisting of from six to thirty men, are perpetually leaving the various agencies, and going into Texas, or the extreme western borders of Kansas, to steal horses and murder wayfarers. These criminals are never punished. The agents almost uniformly deny all charges brought against them, and practically encourage them in crime. The agency is always a safe asylum and city of refuge for thugs of every grade.

The necessities of commerce demand open highways between the great surrounding states; but not a head of cattle can be driven across the Territory without paying tax to banditti. No wayfarer’s life is safe for an instant upon any of the great commercial trails. There is no right of way for railroads, no law or justice, and no hope for anything better, in this whole monstrous and stupendous inanity; to maintain which, our people pay annual taxes amounting to not less than thirty millions of dollars; which money largely goes to support a vast organized ring of jobbers. The whole system is a disgrace to the nation and to the civilization of this nineteenth century.

Congress has lately cleansed several Augean stables. We wonder whether it has virtue enough to attack that cage of unclean birds known as the Indian Territory!

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Commonwealth, July 1, 1874.

Vermont has furnished one postmaster-general, Connecticut one, and Massachusetts two. Maine has the honor to furnish the fifth from the New England states.

The Commonwealth, July 1, 1874.

Congressman H. L. Dawes informs his constituents, in a letter published in the Springfield Union, that having served his district eighteen years in congress, he shall decline a renomination.

The Commonwealth, July 1, 1874.

Charles Francis Adams, Jr., will deliver an oration at Weymouth, Massachusetts, on the fourth of July, when the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the town will be celebrated.

The Commonwealth, July 1, 1874.

Even the Cincinnati Commercial admits that “the house has, upon the whole, been prompt and faithful in responding to the demands of the country for retrenchment and reform.”

The Commonwealth, July 1, 1874.

Senator Eaton, of Connecticut, and Congressman Lamar, of Mississippi, are mentioned by the Louisville Courier-Journal with the query: “How would they look as democratic candidates for president and vice-president in 1872?”

The Commonwealth, July 1, 1874.

The marriage of the Princess Louise, eldest daughter of the king of the Belgians, with the Duke Philip of Saxony, will take place at Brussels toward the end of August next. Great fetes will be given at Brussels to celebrate the event.

The Commonwealth, July 1, 1874.

Among the many candidates who are swarming the 2^nd Ohio district for the seat which Congressman Jewett has just resigned, are Col. Llewellyn Baber, John G. Thompson, and ex-Speaker Converse, of the state legislature.

The Commonwealth, July 1, 1874.

The democrats of the first Ohio district are said to be unanimously in favor of sending the Hon. George H. Pendleton to congress, with a view to placing him on the track for the presidential nomination. The Cleveland Plaindealer tells him bluntly that if wants to be president, he had better keep out of congress.

The Commonwealth, July 1, 1874.

Congress passed a bill granting the Fairmount Park Association of Philadelphia twenty condemned bronze cannon, to be used for the proposed equestrian statue of Gen. Meade. Thus far only $700 has been collected toward paying the expenses of the work.

The Commonwealth, July 1, 1874.

J. B. Koch, ex-county treasurer of Wayne County, Ohio, who was convicted of the embezzlement of $20,000 of the county funds, has been sentenced to an imprisonment of one year in the penitentiary and a fine of double the amount of the defalcation.

The Commonwealth, July 1, 1874.

Pius IX has come into a fortune. The late Cardinal Falcinelli left him all his property, including jewels at half a million of francs. The pope accepted these jewels, but sent to two destitute nephews of the cardinal the rest of the Falcinelli property, valued at 250,000 francs.

The Commonwealth, July 1, 1874.

The secretary of war and family go to New London for the summer; the secretary of the navy and family go to Rye Beach; the secretary of state and family go to Garrison’s; the secretary of the interior and family go to Mount Vernon; the attorney general and secretary of the treasury will remain at their posts all summer.

The Commonwealth, July 1, 1874.

Several prominent citizens of St. Louis have formed themselves into a bridge monument association for the purpose of erecting a colossal bronze statue of James B. Eads, chief engineer of the bridge over the Mississippi at that point, with inscriptions thereon of the names of his associates in the work of planning and erecting the great structure. The project is to be carried out by voluntary subscriptions.

THE INDIAN SCRIMMAGE.

Full and Authentic Report of the Brush Between Col. Compton and Escort

And the Indians on the Morning of the 24^th ult.

The Commonwealth, July 3, 1874.

Correspondence of the Commonwealth.

FORT DODGE, June 26^th.

Having a little leisure time, I will give you a few items of the late Indian fight which took place near Bear Creek, fifty miles south of Fort Dodge and on the Camp Supply road. On the morning of the 18^th of June, the mail party, consisting of one corporal and two privates of the 3^rd U. S. Infantry, was attacked by a party of about thirteen Indians, but succeeded in keeping the Indians off. The corporal was shot through the thigh and is now in the hospital at Ford Dodge, Kansas. On the 19^th, the commanding officer of Fort Dodge, Col. Compton, with the Medical Director, Dr. Perrine, of Leavenworth, left Fort Dodge on an inspecting tour to Camp Supply, Indian Territory, with an escort of about twenty men composed of the 3^rd and 5^th U. S. Infantry. When near Bear Creek, the mail party going to Camp Supply, joined the party of the commanding officer and kept together. On the morning of the 20^th when near the point where the party was previously attacked, a large party of Indians again made an attack on this party, the Indians having the advantage of position and ground. As soon as the first volley was fired by the Indians, the escort promptly returned the fire, and deploying as skirmishers, kept up lively fire, at the same time moving forward with the wagons. The Indians did not care to follow and the party of soldiers arrived at Camp Supply without further molestation. One man of the mail party was slightly wounded in the right arm.

On the morning of the 24^th, whilst returning from Camp Supply, and again near the same point, a large party of Indians, consisting of about thirty or forty, had stationed themselves on an eminence near the road, and when the commanding officer and his party got within about 40 yards of them, they fired a volley right into them, killing a pony belonging to the commanding officer. In less time than it takes to write it, the troops were out of the wagons and headed by Col. Compton, charged and gained the eminence in a minute; then commenced a lively and destructive fire, especially for the Indians. Four of them were shot down at the first fire, and quite a number of them were badly wounded. Eight ponies were captured, but five of them had been badly wounded and had to be killed. Three excellent ones were brought into Fort Dodge. The Indians were terribly demoralized, running in all directions for shelter, while the soldiers were following up and pouring a most destructive fire into them. The Indians divested themselves of everything that would encumber them in their hasty flight: throwing their arms, blankets, spears, bows, arrows, and Indian trumpery away. The soldiers all behaved in a gallant and a most commendable manner, several exceptional instances of bravery occurring.

Private Frederick Klausman, Co. D, 5^th infantry, while in pursuit of the Indians, came on one of them laying down in the grass, apparently wounded, but with his revolver pointed at Klausman. In an instant, Klausman raised his musket and brought it down with such force as to send Mr. “Red” quietly dreaming in the happy hunting grounds.

Private Thomas Gray, of the same company, had a hand to hand fight with a stalwart “Red,” killing his man, and taking possession of sundry articles, such as an excellent Colt’s army revolver, powder horn, blankets, bullet pouch, and several other articles useless to Mr. “Red.” In the bullet pouch was found a baby stocking, belonging probably to some unfortunate white baby.

Pots, Prince, and Herr, of Company A, 3^rd U. S. infantry, also had hand to hand engagements with Mr. “Red,” killing their men, and quietly walking off with their trophies of victory.

No casualties occurred on our side at all except the pony being killed, and the driver of the ambulance containing the commanding officer and medical director getting a bullet through his blouse—lucky escape!

The Indians that could get away got away as fast as possible, and the party were not again molested by them.

The arrival of the party at Fort Dodge created quite an excitement, every wagon, ambulance, and horses and mules being decorated with some Indian trophy of victory. I hardly think the Indians will undertake any more of their little surprise parties. If, however, they do, they will get all they want and deserve, as the country through there is now thoroughly guarded by cavalry.

Should anything more occur, I will give you the particulars. Respectfully, etc.

FROM THE FRONT.

Still They Come.—“San Juan or Bust.”

A Scrimmage with the Lo Family.—“Lo Routed.”

The Commonwealth, July 1, 1874.

SARGENT, KANSAS, June 20, 1874.

From our Regular Correspondent.

The Indian excitement nor the unfavorable reports which come almost daily from the mines, have as yet had no perceptible effect upon the constant stream of immigration to the now famous San Juan County. There have been an average of from fifteen to thirty wagons passed up this valley daily within the past two months, all bound for the gold mines of Colorado. The most of these immigrants hail from Kansas, Missouri, and Arkansas, with now and then a sprinkling from states further east. The immigration to this country is simply enormous. There has never been anything to equal it. The accounts which reach here from that country through parties who have been there and encountered the “elephant,” goes to show a sad state of affairs. The country is overrun, and there is nothing to do. Men cannot get employment for their board. The scanty means of many who went there under the illusory hope of amassing a fortune in a day have been exhausted and they are now in a destitute condition. Cows that would bring forty and fifty dollars where there was a market, are sold for five and ten to obtain the necessaries of life. Everything is high on account of the great distance it has to be freighted. Nothing is raised in the country and the mines cannot be reached, except by narrow passes over precipitous mountains. There is but one mine open and the ownership of this is in dispute, one party holding it by force of arms.

[It appears that part of the article is missing.]

The plains, or the borders of civilization, are generally pictured as a place where thieves, cut-throats, and criminals of every grade resort. Undoubtedly many bad men take to the plains to escape the just punishment of their crimes. The restrictions of law are hardly felt, and the avenues of escape are more numerous than in older communities. But I will undertake to say, that in proportion to the number of inhabitants, and in the almost total absence of legal barriers, the borders of Kansas show less crime than in the more densely populated districts of the east, where the laws are supposed to be rigorously enforced. No such cold-blooded, premeditated crimes as that for which “Keller” died at the hands of an enraged mob, at “La Cygne,” or the more systematic butcheries of the Bender family, or the daily horrors that fill the columns of the eastern press, have occurred on the frontier outside of Indian massacres. The building of railroads through a new and unsettled country brings with it more or less men of desperate character, and this is the class who generally shuffle off their mortal coil without having time to take their boots off. Since the fearless Chris Gilson gave the few lingering desperadoes their final passports at this place, some fifteen months ago, the country has not been troubled with such characters. As proof of what has been said, I would refer to the town of Granada, the western terminus of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad. This town is situated on the extreme frontier, where crime, in all its multitudinous forms, is popularly supposed to hold high carnival.

There have been two fatal shooting scrapes within its limits since it was started and these were by parties passing through or temporarily residing there. This speaks well for the orderly character of her citizens, and refutes the charge of lawlessness so frequently brought against frontiersmen.

Mr. Thomas Bugby, a cattle man living between Aubrey and Lakin station, on the A. T. & S. F. railroad, had twelve head of horses stolen one night last week, his entire lot but one. The trail of the animals was discovered going in a northerly direction. Parties are in hot pursuit with every prospect of recovering the stock and apprehending the thieves.

I enclose herewith a copy of the official report forwarded to Gen. Pope of the late Indian fight.

There have been several changes in this section among troops. The 19^th United States infantry have arrived and relieved the 3^rd United States infantry, who go to Louisiana and Mississippi.

The post commanders are on the alert for Indians, and endeavor to afford every protection to settlers and immigrants in their power. Recently the guards along the line of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad have been strengthened east and west of Dodge City. Cavalry are continually scouring the country. T.

THE INDIAN WAR IN THE SOUTHWEST.

The Commonwealth, July 7, 1874.

We elsewhere publish news of an Indian skirmish and the burning of the bridge over the Cimarron station. Since we received the letter of our correspondent, who resides permanently at Sargent, and whom we here take occasion to pronounce truly reliable, we have obtained additional and authentic particulars by the way of the state executive department. It seems that a party of hunters considerable in number have been traveling in quest of game along the Cimarron river, near where the borders of Colorado, Kansas, and the Indian Territory conjoin. On the 30^th they were attacked by Indians, and have been defending themselves against a series of rapid and insidious attacks for the last three days. On the 1^st of July three white men had been killed and one or two slightly wounded. On the 2^nd the beleaguered party managed to send off a messenger, who arrived in Dodge City on Sunday night in safety and asked that an escort be sent to their relief. Gov. Osborn was telegraphed in relation to the matter, who by telegraph referred the matter to Gen. Pope with an urgent request that it be immediately attended to. Up to a late hour last night, no reply had been received. Gov. Osborn, in contemplation of a possible Indian raid of a serious character, commissioned Adjutant General Morris, on his recent trip to Washington, to procure 1,000 needle guns of the latest approved pattern. These arms arrived last week, and were forwarded in the custody of Major H. T. Beman, of the state militia, to be distributed amongst the people on the frontier who are organizing rapidly and effectively for an expedition against the invading red-skins. Companies have been organized in Wichita, Sedgwick, Medicine Lodge, Hutchinson, Dodge City, and Sun City, and they will all be provided with arms and munitions by the middle of the week, when we hope soon to hear of the extermination of the last Indian, whether buck, squaw, or pickaninny, that is found off a reservation in the southwest.

This Indian business is assuming such proportions as would seem to require the immediate and thorough attention of somebody who speaks as one of authority and who can bring to his service a sufficient force to cope with the copper-colored cut-throats. Gen. Pope recently wrote a letter to Gov. Osborn to the effect that the frontier was thoroughly patrolled and in a better state of defense than any similar extent of territory in his military experience on the frontier. There does not seem to be sufficient force, however, to deter the Indians from coming within twenty-five miles of a military garrison and commit the high-handed outrage of burning a railroad bridge. If the skin of the military will not serve as a covering to the defense of the settlers, we must eke it out with the militia; and a militia such as can be gathered together on the frontier are not the men to go after Indians without at least bringing home their scalps. We believe, too, that when this body of citizen soldiery gets under way, they will not find a reservation line a Chinese wall of exclusion. The sacred policy of non-intercourse and sequestration must give way to the higher law of the safety of men’s lives and property. We believe in the perfect justice and propriety of walking over into the Cheyenne and Arapaho reservations and carrying on such a war of reprisal as will strike everlasting terror to the hearts of the sleek, well-fed vipers whom we nourish and tend as Aesop’s husbandman did the serpent, only that they may rob and murder us at their will and fly to their reservations for shelter.

THE INDIANS AGAIN.

They Run a Man Into Cimarron Station.

A Party of Hunters Attacked by Indians.

The Redskins Repulsed With Three Killed and Several Wounded.

They Burn the Bridge at Cimarron Station on the Night of the Second.

The Commonwealth, Tuesday Morning, July 7, 1874.

From Our Regular Correspondent.

NEWTON, KANSAS, July 3, 1874.

A man by the name of Filler was attacked by a party of six Indians between twelve and one o’clock yesterday, about twenty-five miles west of Dodge City, and driven in to Cimarron station. The Indians followed him to within a few hundred yards of the station, firing as they went. The man returned the fire and escaped unhurt.

On the previous day a party of hunters were attacked by the Indians about thirty miles south of the same place. The hunters made it too hot for them and they skedaddled. Two or three redskins were killed and a number wounded. The hunters then returned to Dodge.

Last night they burned the railroad bridge west of Cimarron station. The people anticipate lively times.

Col. Compton, post commander at Fort Dodge, is alive to the exigencies of the occasion and doing everything in his power to protect the settlers, but the force at his disposal is so small that he could not successfully cope with any considerable number of Indians should they make a concerted movement. What the border at this time needs is a company or two of one hundred men each, armed and equipped by the state, and authorized by the governor to protect the frontier. The men can be raised at a moment’s notice.

On my arrival here from Sergeant this forenoon I found Capt. D. L. Payne, an old experienced Indian fighter. He says that he is ready for the warpath, and I know of no man in the state better fitted for the place. He would see that settlers re-occupied their now deserted homes. The growing crops in the deserted regions are splendid and must go to waste if something is not speedily done for the relief of the settlers. T.

THE INDIAN TROUBLES.

Latest Intelligence From the Front.

Agent Miles of the Cheyenne Agency Coming to Leavenworth for Assistance.

General Pope Sends Three Additional Companies of Infantry.

Four Men Killed in Sumner County, Kansas.

The Commonwealth, Wednesday Morning, July 8, 1874.

From the treasurer of Sumner County, who arrived in town yesterday, we learn that four men have been recently killed and scalped in the vicinity of Caldwell, in Sumner County, and the settlers round there have all come into that town for protection. Governor Osborn yesterday received a dispatch from Judge Campbell, from Wichita, to the same effect, and the governor transmitted the intelligence at once to Gen. Pope. From the same source we learn also that Agent Miles, of the Cheyenne and Arapaho agency, made a forced ride from the agency to the nearest railroad station, a distance of one hundred and twenty-four miles, and yesterday passed over the Santa Fe railroad on his way to Fort Leavenworth to consult Gen. Pope and to ask for aid.

Gov. Osborn yesterday received a dispatch from Gen. Pope, informing him that three companies of infantry had been ordered to the scene of the outrages, and would be stationed from Caldwell west to operate in congregation with the three companies of cavalry that are already patrolling the same country.

Adjutant General Morris goes to Wichita and Caldwell tomorrow with an additional supply of arms to be placed in the hands of organized militia companies only. Everything is being done as rapidly and effectively as circumstances will permit, to assure the protection of settlers and to guard against surprises.

It is thought that when an effective force is sent out to drive the Indians to their reservations that the troubles will soon be terminated and the settlers permitted to garner their crops in peace and safety.

THE INDIANS AND SETTLERS.

The Commonwealth, Wednesday Morning, July 8, 1874.

Major H. T. Beman returned from Sedgwick and Wichita yesterday, whither he had gone to make inquiry as to the extent and character of the reported Indian depredations, and to distribute arms to settlers at Sedgwick and Medicine Lodge. From him we gather the following, which may be accepted as reflecting the true condition of affairs up to the latest returns. At Sedgwick City, which is between Newton and Wichita, Major Beman saw several men directly from the scene of the reported Indian outrages. Mr. Spooner, from the Wichita agency, reports the Indians as apparently restless and uneasy, though not as yet making any open demonstrations of hostility to the whites. There are a number of Quaker families settled around Wichita Agency and a few have been so influenced by their fears that they have removed. Mr. Ford from the Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency, whence the Indians guilty of the recent murders and scalpings are believed to have come, says the young Cheyenne braves are seemingly affected by an irrepressible impulse of deviltry. They have most of them left the agency, ostensibly on hunting expeditions, and are roaming along the Kansas border in small parties. Mr. Ford has no idea that a united and preconcerted raid is contemplated or will be attempted in which the Indians will mass themselves and throw their force on the unprotected settlements to scalp and rob indiscriminately. What killing has been done is, according to his notion, in the way of casual and wanton cruelty, rather than that they are seeking opportunities to kill.

Major Beman talked also with Mr. James Fay, an express messenger on the Southwestern stage company’s line, running from Wichita to Fort Sill. Mr. Fay says that the settlers about the agencies are apprehensive of a general massacre. They are few in number, and unless under the very eye of the agency, are without protection. The Indians have killed four of the horses of the Southwestern stage company within the last few days, and Mr. Fay has witnessed one murder and scalping committed by them. The facts of the latest occurrence were as follows: Last Thursday on the way in from Fort Sill, when the stage was a short distance from Red Fork station in the Seminole nation, he saw from his stage a party of Indians ride up on to a defenseless man, murder him, and sweep on out of sight. Hastening to the spot he found the man killed and scalped lying in the road. His name was William Watkins, and he was brought to Red Fork station and buried. The feeling through the country which his stage traverses is, that the Indians are liable at any moment to break out into a general war. Mr. Cole, from Medicine Lodge, a man of cool judgment and reliable, told Major Beman that the rumor as to the burning of towns and murder of settlers at Medicine Lodge was unfounded and purely sensational. It is true that the settlers have been thoroughly frightened, and apprehensive of an Indian massacre, have abandoned their farms, and come in to Medicine Lodge, where they have built themselves a stockade, and are waiting for a supply of arms wherewith to protect themselves. They are afraid to venture out of their retreat until they have the means of defense, which will be forwarded to them in abundance tomorrow.

Mr. Beman talked with a score or more of Texas cattle owners and herders about the Indian excitement. They affect to despise the whole business, and express their disbelief of any general Indian outbreak. They do not think that it is any more than the usual outrages, common enough on the frontier, done by small hunting parties on whatever defenseless white men they meet on their path.

What causes special alarm just now is that they have extended their bloodthirsty enterprise over the confines of civilization. Greater outrages are committed in Texas every month of the year, without attracting particular attention. The Texans think that the Indian is one of the contingencies to calculate on like the Spanish fever or the green-headed fly, but nothing to be unusually frightened about. Where they have been encamped, there have not lately been any signs of disturbance, and they do not think any need be apprehended. Finally, Major Beman is of the opinion that more injury is to be feared from the settlers becoming frightened and abandoning their homes than from Indians. It is with a view, therefore, to bring about a restoration of confidence and sense of safety that the governor is transmitting arms to the frontiersmen. He will provide them with guns and ammunition sufficient to equip companies from amongst themselves, when he hopes and believes they will find no opposing force to try their mettle on. The bad feeling towards the whites expressed in these recent murders and scalpings originates, beyond question, in the gradual extinction of the buffalo herds through the deadly enterprise of white hunters.

MORE INDIAN MURDERS.

Two Men Killed and Scalped Near Sargent.

The Commonwealth, Friday Morning, July 10, 1874.

SARGEANT, KANSAS, July 6, 1874.

To the Editor of the Commonwealth.

The fears of the people in this section of a raid by Indians have been sorrowfully realized. On Saturday last two men were killed by them, one of them within three miles of this place on the Arkansas river, and the other on Butte creek in Colorado, distant about twelve miles. The one killed nearest this place was a herder in the employ of a Mr. Shepherd. He was a young man about nineteen or twenty years of age. He was scalped and otherwise mutilated. He has a brother-in-law in Granada, where his body was taken. The other man had lately come from Missouri, and had gone out after a load of wood, when he was attacked and murdered. He was literally riddled with bullets, and his head horribly gashed, evidently done with his own ax. He is a man of family, who are left in destitute circumstances. The citizens of Granada have raised funds to send the family to Missouri. The body was not found until the day after his murder.

Another man, a herder, was seen to be chased by Indians on Butte creek the same day, and has not been seen or heard of since. It is thought he shared a similar fate.

Much alarm prevails in this whole country. Three hundred warriors are reported at the Butte mounds, thirty miles from Granada.

Emigration has entirely stopped, and those living on claims and lands remote from settlements have moved into the towns or stations. Everybody goes armed. The people of Granada are momentarily expecting an attack, and are preparing for it accordingly.

These facts are respectfully submitted to the consideration of the peace commissioners.

T.

FROM THE BORDER.

Grand Carnival at Arkansas City.

Eskridge and Piffer on the Stump.

Indian Games and Dances, Boat Races, Balloons, Etc.

The Salt Works.

The Commonwealth, Friday Morning, July 10, 1874.

ARKANSAS CITY, July 6, 1874.

To the Editor of the Commonwealth.

Saturday, the 4^th, was the occasion of a perfect carnival of patriotism and merriment in this city. The gathering was immense—nearly a thousand people thronged the spacious grove where the exercises were held.

The procession was formed at 10 a.m., headed by Lieut. Gov. Eskridge of Emporia, and Judge Piffer, of Fredonia. In the procession were the fine cornet band of this city, a company of mounted masqueraders, a band of Osage warriors, the barbarian splendor of the plains, a squad of Lipsan [Lipan] and Kickapoo women, in all their finery, and thousands of citizens.

A finely decorated speaker’s stand, and extensive seating arrangements awaited the company at the grove and

LIEUT. GOV. ESKRIDGE

took the rostrum. His address was an able one, treating of topics of current interest. The transportation question was specially discussed.

Governor Eskridge is a prominent candidate for congress from the 3^rd district, and will go into the convention with much positive strength from the southwest. He is regarded here as an able and sound man, eminently trustworthy.

HON. W. A. PIFFER

followed in a brilliant off-hand discourse of an hour in length. The judge is one of the rising men of southern Kansas.

After dinner, to which the aboriginal guests did full justice, the committee announced

AN INDIAN WAR DANCE

and some forty of the Wah-satche disciples of Terpsichore took the floor, in the centre of a huge ring, cleared for the purpose. The performance was grotesque, demoniac, and altogether unearthly. I cannot attempt to describe it. All the savagery of the plains was in it. At the close,

TWELVE KICKAPOO SQUAWS

played at their national game of ball for an hour or two, amid a throng of thousands of curious people.

Arkansas City has a superb reach of rowing-water, at the mouth of the Walnut, some two miles in length. Upon this water, which immediately adjoins the grove, there was speedily held a series of

BOAT AND TUB RACES.

Dancing, climbing a greased pole, and other festivities occupied the time till evening, when a grand ball, exhibition of fireworks, and balloon ascension came off in town. The gathering was the largest, and the performance the best carried out of any that have yet occurred in southern Kansas.

Today a large party visited the

SALT MANUFACTORY

located on the county line, six miles west of town. Here is a natural laboratory where many springs, of varying temperature, send up their supply of mineral solutions. One of these is strongly impregnated with Glauber salts, another with bromide of potassium, and others with various gases. The principal product, however, is common salt, which one fountain yields in a very pure solution. The present product, wholly by solar evaporation, is about a ton a week, but it can be indefinitely increased. These springs will yet add much to the wealth and business of Arkansas City. The salt is of the best quality. RANGER.

A TRAIN CAPTURED.—MEN BURNED ALIVE!

The Commonwealth, Friday Morning, July 10, 1874.

ARKANSAS CITY, KANSAS, July 7, 1874.

We have terrible news from the Chisholm trail. Upon Friday, the 3^rd inst., some two hundred Indians attacked a train near Baker’s ranch, and killed four men. One of them was lashed to a wagon and burned alive.

Agent Miles arrived on the spot before the fires were extinguished and assisted in burying the mangled dead.

Caldwell was full of freighters and troops yesterday. There is a regular stampede up the trail. Tyrrell has brought in all the stage stock.

Miles thinks the deed was done by a combined party of Cheyennes, Arapahos, and Kiowas.

The “peace policy” seems to have failed with the Cheyennes. They have been threatening mischief all the spring and have begun in earnest. N.

ALL SMOKE.

A Friend of Immigration Pronounces the Indian Business All a Scare.

Only Four or Five Men Murdered and Burned Alive.—That’s All.

The Commonwealth, Friday Morning, July 10, 1874.

WELLINGTON, KANSAS, July 8, 1874.

To the Editor of the Commonwealth.

On Monday evening, the 6^th, one of the Quaker Indian Agents passed through Caldwell, a small village on the southern border of this county, driving at full speed and evidently badly frightened. He notified the citizens of Caldwell that the Cheyennes and Arapahos had left their agency in their war paint and were well armed; that they were raiding up the trail and would probably burn Caldwell; that four men had been scalped and one burned alive.

From these wild stories of a scared Quaker have grown all the “wars and rumors of wars” that have reached you during the last three days, and which, I am sorry to say, have resulted in a greater panic in Sumner County than I have seen since the Price raid of 1864. Whole families have left their cosy, comfortable homes on account of rumors which never had the slightest foundation in fact, and which would be simply ridiculous were not the results so painful.

Capt. J. H. Folks, editor of the Sumner County Press, has just returned from Caldwell, where he has been to investigate this matter, and from him I learn that there is no word of truth in these rumors, except that three teamsters had been killed by the Indians, near Mozier’s [Mosier’s] ranche, in the Indian Territory, and one of them, a man named Pat Hennesy [Hennessy], (formerly sheriff of Christian County, Illinois), had been tied to his wagon and burned alive.

[Note: C. M. Scott refers to the above in Volume II, The Indians, on page 400.]

Mozier’s [Mosier’s] ranche is sixty-five miles from Caldwell, and no hostile Indians have been seen there. There were sixty U. S. soldiers at Caldwell, and no fears whatsoever of an attack were entertained at that place. The village school was in session, and everything betokened peace and security.

From a man just up from Baker’s ranche, forty-five miles below Caldwell, I heard that no Indians have been seen there, and no fears of an attack are entertained. R. W. Stevenson, chairman of our board of commissioners, has gone to your city for arms, which I hope he will obtain, so that our citizens may feel secure, and such panics be prevented in the future. Such wild rumors always grow as rapidly as they fly, and are calculated to do our young and thrifty county great injury, and should be prevented, if possible. In my opinion, Sumner County is as safe as any county on the border in the state. WELLINGTON.

NEWSPAPER NOTES.

The Commonwealth, Friday Morning, July 10, 1874.

The Cawker City Sentinel has been moved to Phillipsburg.

The Commonwealth, Friday Morning, July 10, 1874.

The Ottawa Times has been enlarged and otherwise improved.

The Commonwealth, Friday Morning, July 10, 1874.

J. A. Hoisington, editor of the Great Bend Register, goes to Iowa this week, leaving W. H. Odell in charge of the paper.

The Commonwealth, Friday Morning, July 10, 1874.

In the last number of the Wichita Beacon, Fred Sowers bids farewell to its readers and introduces Milton Gabel as the future director of its destiny.

The Commonwealth, Friday Morning, July 10, 1874.

The Fourth of July witnessed the appearance at Augusta of a new weekly paper, called the Southern Kansas Advance, edited by C. H. Kurtz. It is well filled with original and selected reading matter, and looks well typographically.

STATE PERSONALS.

The Commonwealth, Friday Morning, July 10, 1874.

Senator Murdock’s father and mother are visiting with him at Wichita.

The Commonwealth, Friday Morning, July 10, 1874.

Miss Lulu Fitch, of Topeka, has been visiting friends at Lawrence for a few days.

The Commonwealth, Friday Morning, July 10, 1874.

Francis Menet, city clerk of Lawrence, has shook off the ague and is at work again.

The Commonwealth, Friday Morning, July 10, 1874.

Hon. W. P. Hackney, of Sumner County, has just returned from Colorado and Mexico.

The Commonwealth, Friday Morning, July 10, 1874.

Col. Wm. A. Phillips arrived in Leavenworth yesterday, on his way home from Washington.

The Commonwealth, Friday Morning, July 10, 1874.

The Journal says a private letter from Philadelphia states that little Bowman Vail, son of Bishop Vail, is getting much better, with the prospect of his ultimate recovery.

The Commonwealth, Friday Morning, July 10, 1874.

President Grant has appointed Jack Sickles, a former resident of Atchison, and civil engineer on the Atchison and Weston railroad, one of the levee commissioners of the state of Louisiana.

STATE ITEMS.

The Commonwealth, Friday Morning, July 10, 1874.

Work has been resumed on the Lawrence dam.

The Commonwealth, Friday Morning, July 10, 1874.

A Wichita firm sold 8,320 bottles of soda last week.

The Commonwealth, Friday Morning, July 10, 1874.

Butler County’s population has increased 8,000 in three years.

The Commonwealth, Friday Morning, July 10, 1874.

Douglas County has a large breadth of land in flax this year.

The Commonwealth, Friday Morning, July 10, 1874.

The chinch bugs didn’t amount to much in the vicinity of Augusta.

The Commonwealth, Friday Morning, July 10, 1874.

The measles are prevailing in a mild form at Wichita. The average is about one measle to each family.

The Commonwealth, Friday Morning, July 10, 1874.

The town of Larned has been victimized by an Illinois sharper who bought town lots with spurious checks, receiving good money in change. He ought to be turned over to the Indians.

The Commonwealth, Friday Morning, July 10, 1874.

The land office at Larned will be open for business on August 15^th. The counties embraced in this district are Rice, Barton, Stafford, Pratt, Barbour, Comanche, Kiowa, Pawnee, Hodgeman, Ford, Clark, Mead, Foot, Buffalo, Sequoyah, Arapahoe, Reward, Stevens, Grant, Kearny, Hamilton, Stanton, and Kansas.

INDIAN MATTERS.

Distribution of Troops in the Southwest.

The Commonwealth, Friday Morning, July 10, 1874.

Gen. Pope, commanding the department of the Missouri, has written a letter to Governor Osborn in relation to the Indian troubles on the border, from which we are permitted to publish the following extract.

GOVERNOR: In order that there may be no unnecessary alarm or excitement concerning Indian hostilities, and that the frontier settlers of Kansas may fully understand what are the dispositions of troops for their protection and to whom to apply for immediate help when it shall be needed, I have the honor to inform you as follows, viz.:

1^st. At Caldwell, Kansas, are the headquarters of three companies of infantry under Captain Ovenshine. These companies are to be posted in detachments, as needed, along the southern line of the state as far west as Lawrenceburg, and also south from Caldwell in the Indian Territory on the road to the Cheyenne and Arapaho agency. A company of cavalry under Captain Upham marched from Caldwell on Monday, the 6^th, along the southern line of Kansas to where the Medicine Lodge creek crosses the boundary, with orders to scout up the valley of that creek and keep in communication with the infantry detachments west of Caldwell. Captain Ovenshine, at Caldwell, commands all this infantry and will promptly render such help as he can and as may be needed.

2^nd. Colonel C. E. Compton commands Fort Dodge and has general charge of the country along Medicine Lodge and both east and west of that stream, as also of the line of the Arkansas as far up as Grenada. He has under his command five infantry and five cavalry companies. Four of the cavalry companies are scouting the country along Medicine Lodge creek and south and southeast of Dodge. The other cavalry company patrols constantly the line of the Arkansas as far up as Grenada. The line of the A., T. & S. F. railroad between Larned and Grenada is guarded throughout by detachments of infantry posted at all important points. Colonel Compton commands the whole and is a prompt, energetic officer who will be ready to act with intelligence and zeal.

3^rd. At Camp Supply there are three infantry and two cavalry companies—the latter scouting continually north and northeast of that post as far as Medicine Lodge creek; Colonel Lewis commanding.

4^th. Colonel Smith, at Lyon, has four companies of cavalry and two of infantry. One company of cavalry is scouting continually the valley of the Arkansas from Lyon to Grenada, about fifty miles. The other three companies are scouting the line of the Purgatory river between Lyon and the Raton mountains. There is a company of cavalry at Fort Hays and one at Grinnell station, just east of Wallace, held there in case of trouble on the Saline and Solomon, if any should occur.

You will perceive that the whole frontier of Kansas is lined with troops constantly in motion, and it seems impossible that the Indians can do any considerable damage. By applying to the nearest of the commanding officers above named, or to any of the commanding companies, any locality threatened can at once be attended to.

Very respectfully, JNO. POPE, Brevet Major General U. S. A.

BY TELEGRAPH.

FROM THE FRONT.

Adjutant Gen. Morris Leaves Wichita With an Armed Force.

The Commonwealth, Sunday Morning, July 12, 1874.

WICHITA, July 11, 1874.

Special to the Commonwealth.

Adjutant General Morris left this city this morning with a picked company of twenty men all well armed and mounted. He will proceed to Caldwell and distribute arms to the people there, and will then, under instruction from Gov. Osborn, scout the whole south part of the state and report in full his observations on the situation, so that the state authorities will be fully advised as to the actual condition of affairs in that section. Gen. Morris has heard of no late outrages or of any Indians north of the state line, and thinks there will be no further danger, and that the people may return to their homes; but he will thoroughly investigate, so that the authorities may continue to take full and prompt measures for the safety of the settlers in that section.

WASHINGTON.

The Washington Taxpayers Form a League.

Contracts for Indian Supplies Awarded.

Flour, Beef, and Bacon For the Savages.

The Commonwealth, Sunday Morning, July 12, 1874.

WASHINGTON TAX-PAYERS.

Washington, July 11. The tax-payers association of this district has adopted a plan of organization which provides for the appointment of a committee of seventy to guard their interests generally and to prosecute in the criminal and civil courts such officers of the late district government as have acted illegally in the collection and expenditure of money, and for other acts performed by them in disregard of law.

INDIAN CONTRACTS AWARDED.

Washington, July 11. The secretary of the interior, commissioner of Indian affairs, and the board of Indian commissioners, acting conjointly, have today made the following awards for contracts for Indian supplies during the fiscal year to June 30, 1875.

Contract for bacon for the Sioux nation, to be delivered at Sioux City, is awarded to J. K. Booge of that city, and is at 10½ cents per pound. Merriam, of St. Paul, is awarded the contract for pork for the Sioux nation, at $19.25 per barrel; also deliverable at Sioux City. Armour, Plankington & Co., of Chicago, secure the contract for bacon for the Kiowas and Wichitas, deliverable at Kansas City, at 17 cents per pound.

The following awards were made for supplying flour.

For Fort Peck agency, C. A. Broadwater, of Montana, at $3.45 per cwt.

For the Sioux nation, deliverable at Sioux City, to J. L. Merriam, at $2.73 per cwt.

For the Sioux of Red Cloud agency, deliverable at Cheyenne, to J. S. Martin, of Colorado, at $2.50 per cwt., the lowest figure ever obtained for this agency.

For the wild tribes of the Indian Territory, deliverable at Kansas City, to J. W. Sleaven, of Kansas, at $2.40.

For Fort Hall agency, to David McCranor, of Montana, at $4.80. McCranor also secures the contract for flour for the Blackfeet agency, at $5.50 per cwt. Owing to the ravages of the grasshoppers in this vicinity, the supply of flour for the Blackfeet has to be imported from a distance at the above high prices; the quantity, however, is only 225,000 pounds.

Corn for Fort Peck agency is to be supplied by C. A. Broadwater, at $2.45 per cwt.

The corn contract for Red Cloud agency, deliverable at Omaha, is awarded to T. T. Granger, at 50 cents per bushel.

Corn of the Sioux on the Missouri river, deliverable at Sioux City, to be furnished by J. T. Merriam, at 78 cents per bushel.

Contracts for wheat for the Yankton agency at 95 cents per bushel and for Santee agency at 85 cents, are awarded to N. W. Wells of Nebraska.

Beef cattle contracts are awarded as follows, prices being per hundred pounds gross.

For Fort Peck agency, C. A. Broadwater at $2.25.

For the wild tribes in the Indian Territory, J. M. Daugherty at $1.64, the lowest figures ever reached.

For Fort Hall agency, Idaho territory, David McCranor at $2.40.

For Blackfeet agency, David McCranor at $2.20.

For Crow agency, Wilson & Rich, of Montana, at $1.94, the lowest ever reached at this agency.

For Santee and Ponca agencies, F. A. Largey, of Montana, at $2.68.

The contract for supplying 22,500,000 pounds of beef for all the Sioux of Dakota, is awarded to J. K. Foreman of Nebraska, at $2.30 per cwt. The contract price last year was $2.73.

CURRENCY REDEEMED.

The amount of national bank notes received for redemption under the currency act to date is $2,862,070. The facilities in the office of the Unites States treasury for counting national bank notes and remitting new notes in the place of those sent for redemption are not sufficient to allow as prompt attention to the requests of banks as the chief of the new division would desire; additional room however will soon be secured.

FIVE PER CENT DEPOSIT.

All the available force in the treasurer’s office is now busily occupied counting notes and collecting and crediting drafts forwarded on account of the five per cent deposit, but as remittances are so numerous, there may be some slight delay in acknowledging them. The amount received today on account of the five per cent deposit required, to be kept in the treasury as reserve from national banks is $12,227,240 [? figure obscured].

SOME MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

The Commonwealth, Sunday Morning, July 12, 1874.

MORE ABOUT THE BIG FIRE.

New York, July 11. All day the oil fire, which broke out at Weehawken last evening, raged with unabated fury and when it was seen that the tanks would all go, the laborers employed in the yard were put to work removing property and succeeded in running off about a thousand barrels; but the heat became so intense that it became impossible to remove more. In addition to the destruction of the tanks, the large wooden storehouse and contents was entirely destroyed. Another storehouse, a brick structure, was saved, but the cooper shop was burned. The burning oil ran out into the river and burned away 100 feet of the long pier, entirely destroyed the short pier and burned out a section of the trestle works, a portion of which was saved by the firemen, who cut away between 50 and 75 feet. At about 7 o’clock this evening the last tank burst and the flames were then confined to the property in the yard. The total loss is estimated at $45,000. Sixteen tanks containing from 5,000 to 20,000 barrels of oil each, and estimated to have contained 75,000 barrels in all, were consumed. Besides the destruction of the warehouse and cooper shop, and the damage to the trestle works, the road bed was ruined, sleepers burned, and rails twisted into every conceivable shape. Four cars, sixty-five cords of wood, valued at $2,000, and barges were also destroyed. The insurance does not exceed $100,000, effected in five Boston and a number of New York companies.

SUICIDE.

Mortimore Maynham, a well known fencer and writer of late for weekly papers, was found dying today from the effects of Paris green, and in the same room was found the already decomposing body of his wife, who died from having taken the same poison.

SUFFOCATED.

Two laborers were suffocated tonight while cleaning tanks at 318 West Thirty-third street.

DIED.

Raleigh, N. C., July 11. Gov. Caldwell died this evening of cholera morbus.

CONFIDENCE MAN ARRESTED.

Richmond, Va., July 11. A man who has been here for some days and falsely representing himself as agent for Commodore Vanderbilt, was arrested tonight. He had in his possession a large amount of forged drafts.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Goldsmith Maid Wins at Indianapolis.

Important Action of Railroad Authorities.

The Great International Rifle Shooting.

The Commonwealth, Sunday Morning, July 12, 1874.

RAILROAD TICKET OFFICES.

New York, July 11. The officers of the chief railway companies in session here recently, agreed to greatly reduce the number of ticket agencies; in fact, to abolish all beyond the regular offices established by the companies. It was agreed that the latter meet all the requirements of the traveling public, and that the commissions paid their agents and the additional expense in printing and advertising were useless expenditures, and that they brought no increase in business, and the risk ran in the circulation of so many tickets was very great.

RUMOR CONTRADICTED.

Boston, July 11. The report from Washington of the intended resignation of Vice President Wilson, has no foundation; in fact, the vice president’s health is better than it has ever been since his illness.

RACE HORSE INJURED.

Long Branch, July 11. McGrath, the owner of Tom Dowling, says that horse broke down yesterday morning from having ruptured one of the tendons of the left fore leg.

HEAVY FAILURE.

New York, July 11. The daily Bulletin this morning announces the suspension of J. H. Diggs & Co., wholesale dealers of Leonard street, with liabilities of $500,000. Assets not given.

CHARGES AGAINST MAYOR HAVEMEYER.

The governor’s secretary called at the city hall today and served upon the mayor a copy of the charges made against him by the committee who waited on the governor on Wednesday.

THE GREAT RIFLE MATCH.

The amateur rifle club, who on behalf of the riflemen of America, have accepted the challenge of the Irish champion team, publish a circular which has for its object that of drawing together from all parts of the country the best shots, so as to select from them an American team to shoot against the Irish eight. The circular gives notice that six competitive matches will take place at Creedmore, on the 15^th, 18^th, 22^nd, and 29^th inst., and on the 1^st and 5^th proximo. Matches are open to all natives of the United States, and any rifle of American manufacture that comes within the rules of the club may be used.

FROM CUBA.

New York, July 11. It is stated that there have arrived in this city two Venezuelan gentlemen who have been over two years with the Cuban insurgents, commissioned by the president pro tem of the republic of Cuba to treat with Captain General Concha about a compromise between the Cubans and Spaniards. The gentlemen went from Comagonda, where they had an interview with Gen. Concha, who had agreed to let them embark for this city.

AFFAIRS AT THE FRONT.

The Commonwealth, Sunday Morning, July 12, 1874.

The editor of the Sumner County Press has just returned from a trip to Caldwell and the adjacent country, and gives a full report in his paper of what he saw and heard in the matter of the Indian disturbances. He found almost the entire population of that region “on the move,” having deserted their homes and crops in apprehension of death and pillage at the hands of the savages. He failed, however, to find confirmation of all the terrible stories that have been set afloat concerning the operations of the Indians, and is inclined to think that so far as relates to that section, the “war” is about nine-tenths scare to one-tenth truth. Several roving bands of hostile Indians are known to have been on the warpath in the Territory south of Caldwell, he adds, and there can be no doubt of the killing and scalping reported by Agent Miles; but he thinks that the worst is now over, and that there is little reason to anticipate further trouble.

Our regular correspondent at Sargent, on the other hand, tells a different story about the situation in his locality, and we know him to be a gentleman who writes only what he has the best of reasons for believing. According to his story, there must be quite a body of Indians on the Cimarron and Butte Creek, and they are certainly not spending much of their time in the smoking of pipes of peace. It is best not to get excited about these things, but we must frankly own that if we lived in the vicinity of Sargent and Granada, we should not feel very anxious to wander out on picnics or fishing excursions.

Adjutant General Morris left Wichita yesterday morning with a troop of forty picked men, well armed and provisioned, and will thoroughly scour the country around Caldwell, with a view of getting at the facts in the matter, and promptly furnishing whatever may be needed by the settlers for their defense and protection. Col. Rossington, of the COMMONWEALTH, accompanies the party, and will furnish our readers with a full and reliable report of the situation at the earliest practicable moment.

FROM THE FRONT.

The Indian Situation from a Sargent Standpoint.

The Commonwealth, Sunday Morning, July 12, 1874.

SARGENT, KANSAS, July 9, 1874.

From Our Regular Correspondent.

Matters remain about as they were at the date of my last letter. Small bands of Indians are seen almost daily south of the sand hills, and large bodies of them are reported on the Cimarron and Butte creek. Nobody dares to venture out any distance alone. The settlers and cattle men have collected together as much as possible for mutual protection. In addition to the shocking murders of Saturday last they attacked a Mexican train near Butte creek, ran off some stock, and wounded two Mexicans. They also ran off six head of horses belonging to the Messrs. Hurdest, of this place, five belonging to the Foley brothers, one to a Mr. Lawrence, and the entire herd but one of Mr. James. Mr. James was on his way from Granada to Butte creek when the stock were taken.

Six white men who passed through this place on the fourth were arrested at Granada on the evening of that day on suspicion of being implicated with the Indians. They had an examination before a justice of the peace of that place yesterday, but nothing being proven against them, they were turned loose.

The air is full of rumors of massacres, but they are so vague and contradictory as to create a doubt of their correctness.

That there are Indians in the country, and that they are bent on further mischief, admits of no cavil. Everybody who has seen the newspapers knows that these savages left their reservations as long ago as April, and their hostile designs were not attempted to be concealed. This intelligence emanated from “official” sources, yet no effort was made to restrain them. The consequences are known and need not be repeated. It is but a repetition of the sickening horrors to which frontier citizens have been subjected for years. They are of annual recurrence, and these people have come to look for them as they look for the return of spring. Is it not a burning shame that a government which suppressed a formidable rebellion, and which could muster a million men for any emergency, should allow these roaming bands of pampered vagabonds to murder and scalp its citizens whenever they feel like gratifying their desire for blood? Suppose there may be white rascals connected with the Indians, does that lessen the obligation of the government to guarantee protection to its citizens, in conformity to whose invitations they have settled upon and improved its lands? There never can be any security for life or property so long as the Indians are licensed to go where they please and to murder at will. Government cannot plead ignorance of these things. They mark the annals of border history from the foundation of the government to the present time.

It is time this trifling with human life were stopped. It is an easy matter for those residing in distant latitudes to say that white men are responsible for all these atrocities, but it won’t go down with those who are daily confronted by the stern realities. If the gentleman who made his “headquarters” in the saddle while leading Stonewall Jackson from Culpepper courthouse to Manassas would make his “headquarters” on the frontier for a short space of time, he might possibly be convinced that the Indians were on the warpath and would largely outnumber the rebel prisoners he “captured” on a famous occasion. T.

[Note: The above paragraph refers to Maj. Gen. John Pope, who alienated his troops by his “Address” when he took command of the Army of Virginia during the War of the Rebellion (Civil War). When asked by a reporter where his headquarters would be, he replied “in the saddle.” This prompted the quip that Pope had his headquarters where his hindquarters should have been. When faced with the combination of Lee’s strategy and Stonewall Jackson’s tactics, he lost complete control of the situation during the 2^nd Bull Run campaign and got his short-lived army soundly defeated. He was relieved by McClellan, who again headed the army.]

FROM THE FRONT.

All About the Indian Excitement.

“Commonwealth” Commissioner’s Report of the Situation.

The Commonwealth, Tuesday Morning, July 14, 1874.

WICHITA, July 11, 1874.

Editorial Correspondence of the Commonwealth.

The Indian excitement which now prevails in southern Kansas seriously involves the interests of the state, in the matter of immigration especially. It would be impossible to describe the universal panic that ensued among the settlers of Sumner, Barbour, Sedgwick, and other southwestern counties as the rumors of Indian incursions, many of them of the most preposterous character, began to spread. On the second of July, the settlers on the Cowskin, not fifteen miles from Wichita, hastily secreted, as well as their trepidation would permit, their few movable effects, hitched up their teams, and fled to this town. On the third and fourth the settlers in the western and southwestern part of Sedgwick County followed their example, and camped in the neighborhood of the town. On each of these days those that came in the night before, having had time to recover from their fright, returned to their homes. I learn that three white men, horse thieves and desperadoes, one of them known as Hurricane Bill, who is now in jail here, started this alarm among the settlers of their homesteads. Several young Wichita lawyers, who went on the 4^th instant to struggle with the bird of freedom at farmers’ picnics, found themselves without an audience. As an instance of the credibility of human nature, I saw some men from Cowley County yesterday, who had heard that Caldwell and Wellington had been burned and two thousand Indians were sweeping down on Wichita and would devastate Cowley County, which is one of the most populous counties in the southwest. The extent of the damage which such rumors are doing the southwest and whole state as well can be seen at a glance. Many settlers who are in no sort of danger from Indians have abandoned their homes and some have left the state.

There have been but five murders by Indians as far as can be learnt committed in Kansas, and these by small bands overtaking solitary and defenseless white men on the road. There have been no attacks on parties of men traveling inside the state borders, and not one single settler, however remote from neighbors, has been molested. The fight between Col. Compton and the Indians was in the Indian Territory, as was also the murder of the train men and the burning of Patrick Hennessey.

[Note: C. M. Scott called him “Patrick Hennessy.”]

There is no indication that any Indians contemplate a raid into Kansas, or that they have in view any organized attack upon the whites. The story of Agent Miles that three thousand young warriors comprising Cheyennes, Kiowas, and Arapahos were on the warpath is treated by such old Indian traders as Jas. R. Mead and Wm. Griffenstein as nonsense. To furnish a quota of 3,000 men, these three tribes would have to bring out all their old men, when it is admitted that only the young warriors have donned their paint and feathers. It is not thought that there are more than three hundred Indians on the warpath, divided into small parties roaming through the northern part of the Territory, and particularly on the cattle trail. Men whose judgment is worth something in the matter think that the Indians, having already committed sufficient outrages on the cattle trail to awaken the white men and call on the soldiery, will now hie them away to the fastnesses of the Llanos Estacados, or staked plains, and wait for the storm to blow over.

Considerable apprehension is felt here for ten herds of cattle of one thousand each which should be somewhere between the Red river and Wichita, probably at Red Fork, near which point William Watkins, a well known citizen of this place, was killed by Indians a few days ago. A telegram was sent to Gov. Osborn, to ask for aid, and was forwarded to Gen. Pope, who will probably order a detachment to that vicinity. In fact, this is the only serious significance that posted men in this city accord to this Indian business, that the herds now on their way through the Territory may be stampeded, the herders killed, or their ponies stolen. Indians do not care for horned cattle, and never go to the trouble to steal them; but if they should deprive the herders of their ponies, the cattle could wander at will and could not be driven. It is therefore thought very essential by the people of Wichita, and the whole southwest for that matter, that military protection be sent to the cattle herders without delay. So much for the general phases of the Indian affair. To descend to particulars.

Captain Morris, the adjutant general, arrived in this city yesterday to raise a company of mounted militia. He came to Wichita because here are obtainable the right sort of men for the purpose—frontiersmen, scouts, and old Indian fighters—men of nerve, coolness, judgment, and indomitable physical endurance. He might have recruited a hundred such, but he contented himself with enlisting forty picked men, who furnish their own horses. They will be armed with Sharp’s carbines and revolvers, of course, and provided with rations and subsistence. The object of this expedition, which Captain Morris accompanies to Caldwell, where he will make his headquarters, is to scout along the southwestern border and find out if there are or are to be any fears to be had of Indian outrages, and to engage any party which may be found. The Captain’s object is to satisfy the people of the state that no danger is to be feared and to restore confidence. It is believed by many who know anything about Indians that as far as Kansas is concerned, it is all panic, but it is essential that the settlers be convinced of this fact, and that immigrants be assured that no danger exists. A sense of safety is already reasserting itself amongst the settlers, and many of them from Barbour County are returning to their homes. But it appears that the farther settlers are from any rational apprehension of danger, the greater is their foolish fear of scalping and rapine. Witness the exodus of the Sedgwick County settlers, who are in no more danger from Indians, nor ever were, than the citizens of Topeka.

The militia company is officered as follows, the officers being elected by vote at a meeting yesterday: S. M. Tucker, captain; Mike Meagher, 1^st lieutenant; and Cash Henderson, 2^nd lieutenant. Mr. Tucker is an old soldier, formerly a resident of Fort Scott, and now a practicing lawyer in this city. Mike Meagher is a famous scout in the southwest, formerly marshal of Wichita, and a terror to the long-haired, pistol-shooting gentry from Texas and the Territory. Mr. Henderson is a salesman in a dry goods store in this city, but a good man for the position notwithstanding the peaceful character of his occupation. This small army moves out at nine o’clock this morning and will camp out about seventeen miles from the city, where they will overtake the three companies of infantry under command of Captain Ovenshine.

Reports came in two days ago which appeared to be confirmed yesterday that M. B. Pride and Tom Smith, both formerly of this city, were killed on Skeleton creek, in the Territory, by Indians. Reed, one of the men reported killed by Agent Miles in his dispatch to the interior department, is returned alive and well and is harvesting oats about fifteen miles from this place.

The only remaining effects of the man, Patrick Hennessey, who was tied to a wagon wheel and burnt alive, which Miles relates, have been brought here and are in the hands of James McCullough, city attorney of Wichita. They consist of an old pocket-book and diary, which the Indians wrapped about with paper and fantastically decorated with Indian feathers, and then attached to the wagon near where the body was found consumed. It is supposed to have some superstitious significance, but what is past finding out.

The following is the effective force now in the field and scouting along our southern border and into the Territory and Colorado.

At Caldwell, Kansas, are the headquarters of three companies of infantry under Captain Ovenshine. These companies are to be posted in detachments as needed along the southern line of the state as far west as Lawrenceburg, and also south from Caldwell in the Indian Territory on the road to the Cheyenne and Arapaho agency. A company of cavalry under Captain Upham marched from Caldwell on Monday the 6^th along the southern line of Kansas to where the Medicine Lodge creek crosses the boundary, with orders to scout up the valley of that creek and keep in communication with the infantry detachment west of Caldwell. Col. C. E. Compton has five companies of infantry and five of cavalry under his command. Four of the cavalry companies are scouting along Medicine Lodge and south and southeast of Dodge. The other cavalry company patrols constantly the line of the Arkansas river to Grenada. The line of the A., T. & S. F. railroad, between Larned and Grenada, is guarded throughout by detachments of infantry. All these troops are in Kansas and are exclusive of considerable forces from Camp Supply and Fort Lyon, scouting through the Indian Territory and along the eastern line of Colorado. Reserves are held at Fort Hays and Grinnell station, in case of emergency. The following militia companies have been organized and armed with the improved Sharp carbine: One company at Medicine Lodge and one at Sun City, in Barbour County; one at Sedgwick City and one at Wichita, in Sedgwick County; one at Dodge City in Ford County; and two companies in Reno County. W. H. R.

WASHINGTON.

INDIAN MATTERS.

The Commonwealth, Tuesday Morning, July 14, 1874.

Washington, July 13. General orders from headquarters of the military division of Missouri, received at the war department, announces that in consequence of the hostile attitude of the Comanches, Kiowas, and Cheyenne Indians, the existing orders fixing the limits of the department of the Missouri are, subject to the approval of the president, so far modified as to extend to the southern line of that department to the main Canadian river. In conducting operations against the Indians, either for the purpose of punishing them or for the protection of persons and property against their depredations, commanding officers of the department of Missouri and Texas may disregard the lines separating these departments. Gen. Pope, commanding the department of Missouri, has written a letter to the governor of Kansas, a copy of which has been forwarded showing that the whole frontier of Kansas is lined with troops constantly in motion and it seems impossible that Indians can do any damage. By application to the nearest commanding officer to any point threatened or to any of the moving companies, the threatened locality can be promptly attended to. Gen. Pope says in relation to trading firms at Dodge City who have in violation of law and to the incalculable injury of peaceful and honest farmers and frontier settlers of Kansas, established trading posts, or rather grog shops, in the Panhandle of Texas, seventy-five miles along the Arkansas, to trade with buffalo hunters and ruffians who have invaded the Indian country and committed violent and inexcusable outrages upon Indians, he has no word of sympathy or concern, and if he should send troops to the locality of these unlawful trading establishments, it would be to break them up and not to protect them. He says to the unscrupulous and illegal transactions of these people, the murder of innocent settlers on the frontier are largely attributable, and they ought to be punished. Gen. Pope writes to Gen. Sherman that except to careless stragglers outside the military lines and to a few remote settlers, he thinks we are fully able to give protection from Indian outrages.

THE INDIAN MATTER.

The “Big Hills” Reported on the Warpath.

The Commonwealth, Thursday Morning, July 16, 1874.

ARKANSAS CITY, KANSAS, July 12, 1874.

To the Editor of the Commonwealth.

Some families of Osages have come in, who announce that the “Big Hills,” the largest of all the Osage bands, numbering about 800, have joined the Cheyennes. It seems certain that these people are still out on the plains, and we know enough of their tastes and habits to give the story credence. Agent Williams, of the Kickapoos, reports the above.

The settlers of Cowley County, even on the extreme border, have not left their homes, but are maintaining a patrol along the line. Will the government act with the energy which the case demands? N.

FROM THE FRONT.

The Kansas Militia on the War-Path.

An Explanation of the Indian Outbreak.

The Commonwealth, Friday Morning, July 17, 1874.

IN CAMP, NEAR CALDWELL, KANSAS, July 17, 1874.

Editorial Correspondence of the Commonwealth.

The Kansas mounted militia, numbering 25 men inclusive of officers, and an outsider like your correspondent, left Wichita on Saturday morning. It is not my purpose now, nor have I the time or the opportunity, to enter into a detailed description of the command or the country passed over. All I can send is a brief military journal of the progress of this campaign.

The first day the company reached the Ninnescah, eighteen miles from Wichita, where in a beautiful and umbrageous spot just to the left of the cattle trail, we encamped. This was the summer camping ground of Capt. Madden’s company of the 6^th cavalry last summer. We had expected to meet Capt. Ovenshine’s battalion of the 5^th infantry, but were disappointed in learning that they had gone the other road. We had expected a pleasant picnic with the very agreeable and gentlemanly company of officers who make up the command.

Rising before sunrise on the morning of Sunday, the 12^th, we made a march of 36 miles and arrived in Caldwell before sunset, and passing through the town, encamped on Fall creek, about three-quarters of a mile from town. We posted an extra guard, anticipating trouble from horse thieves. In the morning Adjutant General Morris paid his respects to Major Upham, captain of company E, 6^th cavalry, who was encamped about three-quarters of a mile from the militia camp, on the beautiful plateau on Bluff creek. From him we learned that just before our arrival, the border had been disturbed by two or three panics, which had almost depopulated some portions of Sumner County. He had been transferred by Gen. Pope’s request from the department of Texas to the department of the Missouri, and stationed at this point to scout along the border for twenty miles on either side of the cattle trail.

From Major Upham we learned that a general council of the wild tribes was called at the Red Hills, about fifty-five miles southwest of this point. The tribes taking part in this council were the Kiowas, Comanches, Cheyennes, Arapahos, Osages, and Kaws. The council was called by the Comanches, and all the above tribes were represented. The point of discussion before the council was of no less gravity than a declaration of the independence of all the wild tribes, of government guardianship and reservation surveillance. The Comanches claim as the rationale and provocation of this course, that there is a solemn treaty extant and not yet abrogated, that pledged the government to the preposterous condition of allowing no more white settlements south or west of the Arkansas. Strange to say, just such a treaty exists and the retentive memories of the Indians restore it as an important fact. Just now all this is of the nature of surmise, but it is so authentic that it amounts to certainty. The Cheyennes told the Arapahos, who were indisposed to go into this council for the purpose of declaring war, that if they persisted in going on “the white man’s path,” that they (the Cheyennes) would hold them as enemies. Agent Miles was informed of this fact some time ago, as were also Agents Gibson and Stubbs of the Comanches and Kaws, but with the singular secretiveness of all Quaker Indian agents as to the warlike intention of their charges, kept it to themselves until it disclosed itself in the recent Indian outrages.

The theory of Major Upham as to the recent murders and scalping is that while the council was in session in the Red Hills, certain parties of young braves stole out with a view of precipitating its decision in favor of war, and captured what unprotected supply trains they could find and gathered the cheap glory of taking the scalps of whatever solitary horsemen came in their way. Their programme is to furnish themselves by force with a large supply of sugar and coffee, when they propose to abandon their reservations and scatter themselves through the rugged and extensive tract known as the Red Hills, which is almost as impregnable a refuge as the lava beds of the Modocs. As proof that this is their intention, they have ceased levying their road tax from Texas cattle herds, and are only directing their attention to supply trains. They are believed to be lying in wait for the large supply trains containing Indian stores now held at Sewell’s Ranch. The train is under the charge of Laflin, contractor for transporting Indian supplies, and consists of seventeen wagons containing 86,000 pounds of freight, with nineteen men, and only three guns. The men refuse to move further down the trail unless Laflin furnishes them arms. Major Upham, who is also in command of the infantry detachment, has ordered Capt. Carter’s company to march down to Sewell’s Ranch and furnish the transportation train an escort to the Indian agency. The goods are intended to supply the Cheyenne and Arapaho, the Kiowa and Comanche, and the Kaw agencies. The curious and somewhat ludicrous spectacle is presented of the government protecting by a large military force the supplies intended for the Indians from the depredations of the recipients.

Major Upham will proceed tomorrow with a force of cavalry on a scout as far as Sewell’s Ranch and return, and will soon be able to know the exact danger to be feared by the supply train. He received orders from Gen. Pope today to remain in the region of his present position and overlook the country. It is thought that at the next light of the moon, which will be about the 20^th, the fact that the grand council was for war will become very apparent.

No apprehension is to be feared of an Indian invasion of Kansas, on this border at least. Major Upham will establish a line of signal stations and pickets on elevated bluffs east and west of his present camp, which can reconnoitre the country for thirty-five miles up to the large region of uninhabited country west of this, where no protection is essential. The other part of the border is policed with equal efficiency.

The militia, which struck camp tonight and removed to the banks of Bluff Creek, will scout along the border for three or four days, and endeavor to restore confidence to the panic-stricken settlers. Capt. Ovenshine informs me that on his way to Caldwell, he met large numbers of settlers who were flying from the country. They had not seen any Indians, or heard of any, but they were going north of the Arkansas for fear of danger, which they could give no good reason for apprehending. They camped out on the prairies in their wagons, and left all their improvements behind.

The country around here is full of horse thieves, the town of Caldwell and the timber of Bluff Creek being a sort of refuge for them. Bully Brooks, formerly of Dodge City, and a number of ruffians of that kidney, have been driven in from the Territory by fear of Indians, and are hanging around the cavalry and militia, casting wistful eyes at their horses. Large guards are mounted every night, and they are welcome to all the horses they can get from the Kansas militia.

The purpose of the militia will be accomplished in a few days, when they will return home.

The Indians just now are quiescent, and the U. S. soldiery will be ready to “jump” them when they are again ready for business.

One fact wants to be borne in mind by the friends of the peace policy, and that is that Major Upham has most incontestible proof that a large proportion of the Indians that have committed outrages up to the present, and will be in on any future forays, are the Osages, the special pets of the Quakers and the bright consummate flower of the peace policy. You shall hear the result of Major Upham’s scout and all important facts as soon as I learn them.

W. H. R.

SENATOR INGALLS.

A Serenade and Welcome by his Atchison Neighbors.

The Commonwealth, Friday Morning, July 17, 1874.

On Wednesday evening a large crowd of prominent citizens of Atchison, accompanied by the cornet band, waited upon Senator Ingalls at his residence to formally welcome him home. In response to an address of welcome by Col. Martin, the Senator spoke as follows.

GENTLEMEN: I should assume an indifference which I do not feel, and of which I believe I am incapable, were I to pretend to be insensible to this most cordial and gratifying demonstration of esteem and good will on the part of my neighbors and friends and fellow townsmen of the city of Atchison.

An occasion like this is one of the few compensations of public life. Honestly pursued its emoluments are inconsiderable. Its labors, toils, anxieties, and responsibilities are great. They are usually undertaken at a period when the mental and physical powers are in their fullest activity, and capable of producing their utmost profitable results. At a time when others are making acquisitions for the future, and guarding against that inevitable night of the faculties which cometh wherein no man can work, the honest and faithful public servant is devoting his time and strength to the discharge of duties for which he receives a compensation that is inadequate to the exacting demands of public and domestic life. Thrown out of the usual avocations and channels of business, he often retires at the end of an arduous career, having spent the accumulations of his previous industry, to pass an old age of penury, and bequeath nothing but the memory of honorable deeds to those who follow him. There is not a lawyer in full practice, a prosperous merchant or manufacturer, a sheriff or treasurer of any popular county in the land, who does not receive larger pay for less labor than senators and representatives in congress, who are called upon to deal with questions of the greatest magnitude, affecting the property and welfare of the entire country.

Hence it happens, gentlemen, that public men must look elsewhere than to the treasury for their recompense. They must find it, if at all, in the consciousness of an honorable life, in the rewards of an approving conscience, and in the favorable verdict of the state, the nation, and of mankind.

In my brief career hitherto, I have had but one ambition, and that has been to faithfully serve the constituency that has so honored me by its confidence. In all my public acts I have had no private purpose, no selfish or personal motive. I have addressed myself with zeal, and devoted myself with ardor to the accomplishment of novel and interesting duties, with an eye single to the welfare of the entire country, and a heart devoted to the glory and honor of the states.

Therefore, gentlemen, considering your presence as a token of your approbation of my conduct, it would be dissimulation were I to deny that your presence is inexpressibly gratifying to me. It consoles me for the struggles and disappointments of the past: it stimulates me to renewed exertions in the future, and if I ever forget to prefer the interests of my constituents to all personal considerations, may my right hand forget her cunning and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.

Without detaining you longer, I thank you all, individually and collectively, for the honor you have done me this evening; and for the generous words of welcome which you have extended to me. I wish you all health, prosperity, and length of days, and invite you cordially to partake of the simple hospitality of my humble cabin.

A CURIOUS CASE.

Indian Law of Marriage and Divorce.

The Commonwealth, July 22, 1874.

In the district court yesterday, Judge Morton delivered the following opinion:

In the matter of the estate of Che-Cop-Kis-Sa, deceased.

This is an appeal from an order of the probate court of Shawnee County, directing the administrator de bonis non of the estate of Che-Cop-Kis-Sa, deceased, to pay over the funds in his hands belonging to the estate, to Pe-Tah, whom the probate court decided was the heir of the deceased.

From this order, the administrator, John Anderson, and Keb-Bah (or Cap-Pah) Laframboise, who claims to be one of the heirs of Che-Cop-Kis-Sa, appeal. Two of the alleged heirs of the deceased, Wah-Kas and Arch-Ange, do not join in the appeal. They do not seem to have appeared in the probate court, but their claims seem to have been presented in the final report of the administrator (as will be stated hereafter) and to have been thus before the court and acted upon.

It is not easy to see why the administrator appeals. He is not aggrieved by the decision of the probate court. As will be shown in the statement of the case, he has a certain sum to pay over—and he is not injured by being obliged to pay it over to one party, instead of another. The only question, so far as he is concerned is—not whether he should pay the money—but to whom he should pay it.

But there is no objection made to his appeal, and as all parties seem to be willing to present the question of heirship generally before the court, I will regard the appeal of the administrator as if Wah-Kas and Arch-Ange (whose claims in the court below seem to have been presented by the administrator), instead of the administrator, had appealed. This may be somewhat informal, but no one objects.

In 1868 Che-Cop-Kis-Sa died; John Anderson is the duly appointed administrator de bonis non of his estate. On the 6^th day of April, 1872, said administrator filed his final report, giving in detail his receipts and expenditures as administrator, charging himself with the amount he has received, and crediting himself with what he had paid out and his commission and fees, and showing that the sum of $460.51 was in his hands belonging to the estate. This amount he desires to distribute to the heirs of the deceased, and in that report he suggests to the probate court that Cup-Pah (Keb-Bah) Laframboise, Wah-Kas, and Arch-Ange are the heirs, and asks that “upon kinship being established,” he be “ordered to pay the distributive shares in said estate.”

Upon hearing said report and making a final settlement of the estate, the probate court approved the report, found and decided however that Pe-Tah was the widow and only heir of Che-Cop-Kis-Sa, and ordered that the administrator pay to said Pe-Tah the said sum of $460.51, the amount in his hands.

As before stated, from this order Cup-Pah and the administrator appeal.

As claimants of this fun are:

1. Pe-Tah, who claims the whole as the widow and only heir of Che-Cop-Kis-Sa.

2. Cup-Pah (or Keb-Bah) Laframboise, Wah-Kas, and Arch-Ange, one-fourth.

Their claim is based upon the theory that at the time of the death of Che-Cop-Kis-Sa, one Na-Ja-No-Qua (sometimes called, in the evidence, Mary Ann), was his wife; that Che-Cop-Kis-Sa died childless (which all parties admit); that Na-Ja-No-Qua, by a former husband, had two sons, Weh-Zaw (sometimes called Louis), and Antoine Laframboise, both of whom died before the death of their mother, which is not disputed; that Weh-Zaw left two children, now living, viz: Wah-Kas and Arch-Ange, said Weh-Zaw being a widower at the time of his death, which is not disputed; that Na-Ja-No-Qua’s son, Antoine, left a widow, Cup-Pah (or Keb-Bah) Laframboise, one of the claimants; that Cup-Pah is the widow of Antoine is not disputed.

If this theory is true, Cup-Pah, Wah-Kas, and Arch-Ange are the heirs and are entitled to this fund.

If at the time of Che-Cop-Kis-Sa’s death, Na-Ja-No-Qua was not his wife, then Cup-Pah, Wah-Kas, and Arch-Ange are not the heirs, and are not entitled to the fund. They only claim through her, assuming that at the death of her alleged husband she took the estate, and that under section 19, chapter 33, general statutes, if any of her children were dead, “the heirs of such child inherit as if such child outlived its parents.” If she took nothing, their claim falls: to the ground.

If at the time of Che-Cop-Kis-Sa’s death, neither Na-Ja-No-Qua or Pe-Tah was his wife, then, so far as relates to this case, and the evidence before the court, he left no heirs, and his property escheats to the school fund.

The questions as to whether Na-Ja-No-Qua or Pe-Tah, or either of them, was the wife of Che-Cop-Kis-Sa at the time of his death are to be determined by the laws, customs, and usages of the Pottawatomie Indian Nation, of which nation Che-Cop-Kis-Sa and all the claimants, Na-Ja-No-Qua, Weh-Zaw, and Antoine were members, and to and in which nation they had “tribal relations.” In this, as in other cases of the kind, the court has heard the evidence of reputable and intelligent members of the tribe, and whether “fully advised” or not, has to decide what the Indian law was, and is, as to marriage and divorce.

There is no doubt that Na-Ja-No-Qua was, for many years, the wife of Che-Cop-Kis-Sa. It is claimed by Pe-Tah that in 1849 or 1850 she (Na-Ja-No-Qua) was regularly divorced from him under and in strict conformity with the laws of the tribe.

The evidence settles, very clearly, what the law of the Pottawatomie Nation is as to marriages and as to what constituted a marriage.

As to the law of the Nation in reference to divorces, there is not the same precision of proof.

Under the Pottawatomie law, an agreement to live together as man and wife, followed by actually living together as man and wife, constituted a marriage.

An agreement, by man and wife, to permanently separate, accompanied by actual separation, constituted a divorce.

And the decided preponderance of the evidence, as to what the Indian law was and is in reference to divorce, seems to show that an expressed determination of either husband or wife to sever the matrimonial connection, accompanied by an actual separation (at least if not objected to by the other party and submitted to by the other party) amounted to a divorce.

Having thus stated what I find and conclude is the Indian law applicable to the case, applying that law, I find from the evidence that in 1849 or 1850 Che-Cop-Kis-Sa and Na-Ja-No-Qua, before and up to that time, man and wife, separated by consent. They were divorced according to the Indian law. After that they occupied separate lodges, living apart, until in 1868, when, after Na-Ja-No-Qua removed to Soldier creek, Che-Cop-Kis-Sa and Pe-Tah, who were then living together as man and wife, and had been so living together since 1849 or 1850 (under a proved agreement to live together), followed her, and the three for the remaining months of Che-Cop-Kis-Sa’s life, occupied the same lodge, but, as is proved, Che-Cop-Kis-Sa and Na-Ja-No-Qua, not claiming to be man and wife, but she occupying a different part of the lodge from that he and Pe-Tah occupied.

This disposes of the claim of Cup-Pah, Wah-Kas, and Arch-Ange; they only claiming on the theory that Na-Ja-No-Qua was the widow of Che-Cop-Kis-Sa, it follows that they are not his heirs.

Pe-Tah then, having proved her marriage with Che-Cop-Kis-Sa, immediately after his divorce in 1849, or 1850, would seem to be the surviving widow and sole heir.

But it is claimed that her marriage with Che-Cop-Kis-Sa was void; that at the time she and Che-Cop-Kis-Sa were married, she was the wife of another man (Little Jo), and that she could not therefore be legally married to Che-Cop-Kis-Sa.

It is proved that before this time she was the wife of Little Jo, and that he, Little Jo, was living when she married Che-Cop-Kis-Sa. If then she was not, before that time, divorced from Little Jo, her marriage with Che-Cop-Kis-Sa must be held to be null, at least as long as Little Jo lived. It is proved that he died “long ago”—“after he bit her in the nose,” which was while they were living together. It is proved that for some time, I think about two years next previous to her marriage with Che-Cop-Kis-Sa, she lived single, separated from Little Jo, and not having or claiming to have any husband. I think that under a fair construction of the Indian law referred to, this is sufficient evidence of a divorce from Little Jo, and that therefore her marriage with Che-Cop-Kis-Sa must be held to be legal.

But there is another (and perhaps better) reason why her marriage with Che-Cop-Kis-Sa must be held to be a lawful marriage at the time of his death. As a question of fact, I must hold that the evidence fairly proves that Little Jo died before the time of Che-Cop-Kis-Sa’s death, and while he and Pe-Tah were living together as man and wife. This being the case—and applying the Indian law—it seems that the marriage must be held valid from the time of Little Jo’s death—even if there had been no divorce. From that time Che-Cop-Kis-Sa and Pe-Tah were living together as man and wife under a clearly implied agreement so to do. There was, from that time, an implied contract and an actual consummation of the contract. And this, under the Indian law, was marriage.

It must be held that Pe-Tah was the widow and sole heir of Che-Cop-Kis-Sa, and the decision of the probate court is therefore affirmed.

This is a case in which the court has a discretionary power in awarding costs. I shall award no costs against Anderson, the administrator. In this appeal he was not personally interested and in appealing seems to have acted on the theory that it was his duty to appeal. Without his appeal the whole case would have been presented to the court by Cup-Pah’s appeal. I shall direct that Cup-Pah and Pe-Tah each pay the costs of the witnesses they have respectively summoned; that the costs of the officers of this court and of the judge of probate for the transcript, be paid out of the fund in the administrator’s hands, and that the probate judge allow that amount as a credit to the administrator upon producing vouchers for such payment. JOHN T. MORTON, Judge.

FROM THE BORDER.

The Kansas Militia March Into the Indian Territory.

An Indian Pow-Wow on Pond Creek.

Organizing Companies For the Protection of the Border.

The Commonwealth, July 23, 1874.

Editorial Correspondence of the Commonwealth.

With a view to completing the military history of Kansas to the latest date we continue our recital of the marches and adventures of the mounted militia along the southern border with the notes of a short scout into the interior of the Indian Territory with all other happenings of interest in the brief but important campaign. My last letter left the militia in camp at Caldwell, and contained some account of the origin and scope of the Indian troubles, and made cursory mention of a grand council of all the nomadic tribes of the Territory in the region of the Red Hills, which supposedly resulted in decisions on the part of the Indians of the highest importance to the white settlers on the border and to the government. It is my purpose in this letter to continue the relation of the occurrences of the campaign up to the return of the militia to Wichita and the stacking of arms at that place, for a time at least. I may then conclude the series by a brief general consideration of the Indian question, as I had opportunity to study and learn it during my sojourn in the southwest.

On Tuesday, the 14^th, Agent Miles, of the Cheyenne and Arapahos, the gentleman who has since become famous as the martyr to the Quaker policy of concealing the truth concerning the Indians, came into Major Upham’s cavalry camp, on Bluff creek, to inquire as to the intentions of the military department respecting escorts for Laflin’s and other transportation trains containing Indian supplies going down the Fort Sill cattle trail. Major Upham informed Mr. Miles that he had ordered Capt. Carter with a company of infantry to march to Sewell’s ranch, where the train was then lying waiting for safe conduct, and to escort it to the agencies where the goods were destined. In that connection, the Major said that he was going to take a scout into the Territory the next day and would visit Sewell’s Ranch and consult with Mr. Laflin and find out what apprehensions caused his delay. As to other trains Mr. Miles was informed that if he would mass them into large trains, he would furnish escorts, but could not spare the men to take two or three wagon loads at a time. Mr. Miles promised to bring his wagons all together at Caldwell for a large quantity of supplies that were then being shipped from Kansas City, and then took his leave, returning to Lawrence to attend the yearly meeting of the Society of Friends. From our brief conversation with him, we judged him to be a man of superior intelligence, of practical notions and sound judgment, and by far the most creditable representative of the Quaker policy in the Territory.

Learning of Major Upham’s intention to scout down the trail, Adjutant General Morris expressed a desire to accompany him, which was readily acceded to, and the militia were ordered to improvise pack-saddles and prepare three days’ rations to be packed on mules. Rising early the cavalry column, supplemented and fortified by the mounted militia, who barring the uniform, looked and bore themselves like old soldiers, was got under motion and marched into the Territory just as the sun was rising. The only accident that happened to enliven and diversify the day’s march was the breaking away of one of the mules belonging to the militia. His hind foot caught in a prairie dog’s hole, and in recovering himself, he started full speed across the prairie, kicking at imaginary dash boards and barn doors every ten feet. He finally succeeded in relieving himself of his pack, in doing which his heels came in contact with a box of hard tack, which he turned into kindling in the shortest possible order, scattering the bread over an area of an acre or more.

We marched about eight miles west of the cattle trail in a southerly direction, expecting that we might encounter a rendezvous of horse thieves supposed to be in that direction. Maj. Upham sent out two flankers to reconnoiter on the right, and Capt. Tucker, of the militia, sent out two to prospect the left horizon for moving and suspicious objects. In this order we marched all day over a dry, arid prairie, covered with short brown grass, seeing antelope now and then in the distance, and buffalo once or twice, but apart from these no moving object or sign of habitation. We rested at noon on Osage creek, whose banks were of red clay, and whose tepid water was tinged with the same hue. Hard by were a few old poles and the debris of a tepee, where Osage Indians had been jerking buffalo meat. We passed the mouth of the Pole Cat about two miles and a half, to our left, crossed another branch of the Osage, and reached camp at the confluence of Osage and Pond creek, about a mile from Sewell’s Ranch, at half-past four in the afternoon, having marched about thirty-five miles. Shortly after our arrival in camp, we heard that the flankers to the right sent out by Major Upham from his troop, Sergeant Marshall and Corporal Desch by name, had captured an Indian riding alone over the prairie and were bringing him into camp. Shortly afterwards they arrived, bringing in a large, square-built, stolid specimen of the Osage, tricked out in red blanket and ear-rings, carrying an old muzzle-loading rifle and wearing a military hat. He answered to the name of Buffalo John, spoke English with tolerable fluency, and no doubt understood it much better than he spoke it. While Major Upham was endeavoring to get some talk out of him, a small man with thin face covered with a thick beard, coatless but otherwise habited as to color in drab even to his hat, and wearing a standing collar of said cut, stepped officiously forward, and took up the thread of aboriginal conversation. When Buffalo John betrayed an intention of saying something, this newcomer would take the words out of his mouth and pervert what he had said or prevent him from saying anything at all. We found out that this personage was a Quaker by the name of Witherill, who held the office of trail agent of the Osages, a well paid sinecure. His duties as far as we could learn about them were for the most part to act as quasi arbitrator with the Osages in all cases where petitions for damages are filed against the tribe, in such a matter, for instance, as the “cutting out” of twenty head of Texas cattle and the killing of a cowboy in performing the maneuver. In all cases, Mr. Witherill finds it not only to his pecuniary interest but largely subservient to his personal safety to stand in with the Indians, which he is universally charged with doing by people on the trail. He was sent out some days before to call in the Osages, who were off their reservation killing buffalo, but knowing them as well as he did and setting high store by his fine head of hair, got no farther than Sewell’s Ranche, fearing that even his valuable services as special attorney might not be proof against the temptation offered by his scalp.

Before this colloquy had gone far, it was interrupted by an announcement that a number of Indians were coming from the direction of the ranch towards the camp. A detail of cavalry was sent out to bring them in, and presently there rode towards the officers’ camp “Sassy (Saucy) Chief,” a chieftain of the Osages, followed by a number of his band. Alighting from their ponies, they passed around the circle, offering their hands to shake to each in turn. Major Upham refused to perform this ceremony after he had shaken hands with three, and the savages seated themselves cross-legged, a la grand seigneur, on the grass. Major Upham looked around for an interpreter, when Mr. Witherill stepped forward with the air of one who proposed to boss the job. Major Upham firmly and plainly intimated to the trail agent that he proposed talking with these Indians himself, and in his own way, and invited Mr. Witherill to adorn the remote background with his person and hold his tongue. Buffalo John was then brought into requisition as an interpreter, and something like the following big talk ensued in due and ample form. “Tell Sassy Chief,” said Upham, “that the white man has grown tired shaking hands.”

This was conveyed to Sassy Chief, and produced a slight glimmer of sensation on the stolid countenances of the Osages. “Tell him that the great chief at Washington is angry because the Indians have killed his white children on the frontier, and that the great chief of Kansas is very angry and has sent his second chief down here with warriors to find out who killed his white friends and punish them.” This was duly translated by Buffalo John into the halting gutturals of the Osage tongue. In reply to a question why he was off his reservation, Sassy Chief said that they had been out hunting and jerking buffalo, but had been called in, and they were on their way to their agency. Forty lodges of Osages were encamped on the Salt Fork a few miles away.

Major Upham in a few well chosen words adapted to the aboriginal vocabulary and understanding, told them that the young men of the Osages had been out on the war parties with the Kiowas and Comanches and other wild Indians; that the murder of the four teamsters near Baker’s Ranche was committed in part by Osages; and that a mourning party of nineteen Osages had murdered three white settlers at Medicine Lodge. Of all this Sassy Chief avowed his ignorance. Major Upham asked Sassy Chief if he did not know that a council of all the wild tribes had been held in the Red Hills? (No answer.) Major Upham asked if Sassy Chief was not aware that Chetopah’s band, Black Dog’s band, and Big Hill’s band of Little Osages were represented in this council? (No answer.) Major Upham asked Sassy Chief if he did not know that young braves of the Osages had gone in with these other Indians to raid transportation trains bound for the lower agencies for sugar and coffee? (No answer.) All these question were duly interpreted to Sassy Chief, who made no response. “If I were to ask the Kiowa, the Cheyenne, or the Comanche the same questions,” said Major Upham, “I would receive the same reply.” Sassy Chief was offended; he threw himself on the grass with an air of inexpressible hauteur and said nothing, but looked the picture of wounded dignity. Major Upham continued: “Tell Sassy Chief that the white man is on the warpath, and that when he goes out, he won’t know an Osage from a Cheyenne if he finds him off his reservation. The Indians have had plenty of time to jerk their buffalo and dry their plums; and if they do not at once go on their reservations, the white man will deem them hostile Indians and treat them as such.” This he emphasized, telling the Osages present that the white men were not hunting for friendly Indians and the only way they could tell an unfriendly one was to find him off his reservation. He turned to Witherill, who listened skeptically, and told him he meant it, and impressed upon that worthy the necessity of making it plain, and pointed to the Indians. Witherill began his excuses for the Osages, which were cut short, and he promised to see that they all moved without delay. The next day a large band of Indians, with squaws, ponies, and other impediments, moved across the prairie on their way to their sanctuary, showing that the big talk was as Sassy Chief said at its conclusion, “Good,” and had taken early and active effect. At the conclusion of the pow-wow, an Indian advanced with a present of choice jerked buffalo for Adjutant General Morris, to whom the Osages paid the greatest deference. The compliment was returned in the shape of a small quantity of coffee, sugar, and cigars; which were received with all dignity, and duly bestowed in that omnium gatherum of all aboriginal portable property, the blanket. After a brief interchange of courtesies with Delany, Upham’s Italian chef de cuisine, they mounted their ponies with a farewell, “How,” and rode out of camp. Laflin came into camp towards evening and announced his train ready to move whenever an escort should be furnished him. He said that “four long-haired” Indians, supposed to be Cheyennes, had been seen lurking in the vicinity the day before, evidently employed in reconnoitering the movements of the train. Major Upham told him of the coming of the infantry company and told him to be ready to start as soon as arrived on Sunday morning.

The cavalry and militia slept on their arms that night in readiness for an attack. About 3 o’clock in the morning the camp was aroused by a brisk fall of rain. Everyone crawled out of his moist blanket, shook himself into his clothing, prepared a hasty cup of coffee, and began the return march up the cattle trail. On the way up, and about six miles out, we met Capt. Carter’s company marching towards Sewell’s Ranch.

Major Upham had devised an ambuscade, which he gave Capt. Carter verbal orders to carry out. He was to conceal his men in the wagons, which could be easily done, and to keep them as much concealed as possible. The Cheyennes, Kiowas, and the rest may catch a tartar if they should attempt to molest this train. Camp was reached at nightfall, and the next day was given to rest. The militia were ordered to break camp at about 4 o’clock and marched ten miles out towards Arkansas City, and encamped. In the morning we bid farewell to Major Upham and his associate officers of Company E, Lieutenants J. B. Kerr and Sebree Smith. They placed us under infinite obligations by their generous hospitality and courtesy. In this connection we cannot refrain a few words more in reference to the admirable system of signal stations devised by Major Upham, and which the topography of the country marvelously favors. By this means he has perfect reconnaissance of twenty miles on either side of the cattle trail along the border, covering in point of fact all settlements that are in any sort of danger of molestation. The country west in Harper County is utterly uninhabited, the nearest settlements westward being on Medicine Lodge in Barbour County, a district which will soon be well protected by military, as it is by militia organizations. Major Upham proposes to extend his pickets further out shortly, placing at the outposts gatling guns, which will enable a handful of men to protect the signal station against a legion of savages. Two of these gatling guns passed through Wichita on the day of our return. On Monday last Major Upham went on a scout up through Harper County to Medicine Lodge. In this connection we would strongly suggest that another company of cavalry is necessary on this line to scout up through the Medicine Lodge in connection with Major Upham’s company, which has enough to do to police the cattle trail and scout through the Territory.

I forgot to mention that before leaving Caldwell, Adjutant General Morris organized a picked company of men, enrolled and armed them with Sharp’s improved carbines.

We arrived at South Haven at 10 o’clock on Saturday, where we were met by Mr. J. R. Musgrove and Col. Hunter, who had organized a company of seventy-five men. These were enrolled by Capt. Morris, and they were promised arms at the earliest moment. At Arkansas City, where we camped that evening, we were met by Prof. H. B. Norton and Captain Norton, his brother, the latter a thorough frontiersman. Here another company of picked men was organized and enrolled. Everywhere on our march we saw the signs of the panic and conversed with scores of settlers. We informed them all of the preparations for defense that had been made, and left confidence restored in great measure behind us. The next day we marched by way of the towns of Belle Plaine and Oxford to Bitter Creek, where we encamped, twenty-three miles from Wichita, and a brisk march the next day brought us into Wichita, none the worse “even in the estimation of a hair.” The expedition was in the largest sense an important one. It had the most salutary effect on the settlers of the border, impressing them with the comforting assurance that the state of their adoption was concerned for their well-being and safety, and would use every means at its command to protect their lives and property. It resulted in saving at least one thousand settlers to the state of Kansas who, disturbed by constant rumors all the more alarming by reason of their vagueness, were impelled to seek safety in removal. It was by no means a causeless scare, nor has the danger of a general Indian outbreak at all subsided. The Quaker agents of the Territory and their associates are sleeping on a volcano. We will, in a subsequent letter, tell what we learned from old frontiersmen, residents on the cattle trail, and from Major Upham, who, though used to Indian fighting, shares their apprehensions for good reasons of his own. Suffice it in this to say that Capt. Tucker’s company of militia, as good a body of men as ever sat astride a horse, may yet be called upon to make forced marches to the border to find the fight they missed on this trip. Capt. Morris issued a special order at Wichita highly complimenting Capt. Tucker and Lieutenants Mike Meagher and Cash Henderson and the men under them for their services to the state. We were out ten days from Wichita during which time we marched 249 miles, an average of over twenty-four miles per day, which is much better than the regular cavalry are accustomed to do. W. H. R.

FROM THE FRONT.

The Indian Scare Subsiding.

False Reports and Exaggerations Corrected.

Resumption of Business.

Return of Gold Hunters from San Juan, Etc.

The Commonwealth, July 22, 1874.

From Our Regular Correspondent.

SARGENT, KANSAS, July 21, 1874.

There is no material change to note in the situation of affairs on this part of the line. With a little variation I might adopt the language that used to indicate dull times for correspondents on the Potomac, and say all quiet on the Arkansas. It is not definitely known where the hostile Indians are at present, though it is generally believed that the war parties recently depredating along the line of the Arkansas and Medicine Lodge are now paying their respects to the citizens of southern Colorado and New Mexico. The people who have heretofore been favored with their friendly visits should not allow themselves to be thrown off their guard, as they are liable to turn up almost any time where least expected. There is no probability that they will cease their hostilities while the grass remains good, unless they are hunted down and whipped into submission. The sugar policy of treating them will have about as much effect upon them as cold water has upon a duck’s back. The only “suasion” that is likely to prove efficacious in their case is Sharp’s rifles. They have a wonderfully subduing effect on the untutored mind. This powerful and convincing antidote was applied a few years ago by Generals Sheridan and Custer, who fully understood the nature of the disease, and from time to the present eruption the Indians have been measurably peaceable. A repetition of the dose would bring about the same results now.

There can be no assurance of safety for life and property as long as the present false theories are permitted to dictate the policy that shall rule our Indian affairs. The Quaker policy has proved an utter and disgraceful failure, and now the people who have suffered so long at the hands of these merciless demons, demand that another be inaugurated that shall insure protection to life as well as property on the border. When one of these Quaker agents, who has become acquainted with the savage instincts of his “charge,” and, true to his manhood, tells the truth about them, he is politely notified that his services are no longer required. If others should happen to deviate into the same channel of truth and unwillingly to debase themselves for the sake of being continued in office, they would doubtless share a like fate at the hands of the sanctimonious peace commissioners, who seem to think there have only been a few horse thieves killed anyhow. If there were only horse thieves killed, the people of the frontier would rejoice; but unfortunately for them and the cause of the peace commissioners, this rarely happens. This class of outlaws in time of Indian disturbances are found allied with the especial favorites of the commissioners.

Travel has again commenced, and it is hoped there may be no further interruption. Emigrants are beginning to come back from the gold regions. They give anything but encouraging accounts of the country, and say that nine-tenths of those who go there, and who can, will return. Everything is exorbitantly high, corn selling at five dollars per bushel, and flour at ten and twelve dollars per hundred, groceries proportionately dear. Many of these returning emigrants, who have been led to believe there was a fortune in store for them in the sterile, rainless regions of Colorado, express a determination to settle in northwestern Kansas, where they say they know enough can be raised to live on.

It is perhaps unavoidable that in times of unusual excitement many absurd rumors and ridiculous misstatements should find their way into the public press. For instance, I notice among late dispatches a man by the name of Albert Lessenger had been killed by the Indians two miles from this place. Albert is one of the liveliest cowboys on the river, and says if he has been scalped, he does not know anything about it.

The same dispatch says that the Indians were burning bridges and doing a whole lot of other naughty things along the line of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad. There was but one bridge burned, and this did not interfere with the regular running of trains. A few minutes delay in the transfer of baggage, passengers, etc., while the bridge was being rebuilt was all the interruption experienced. This is all the damage that has been done to the road, and the party of six that did the burning were all the Indians that have been seen north of the river before or since.

There is room for almost indefinite amplification on this head, but the foregoing will serve as samples of the reckless character of many of the dispatches sent to the eastern press by irresponsible scribblers anxious to create a little sensation. T.

AGENT MILES REFUSES TO RESIGN.

The Commonwealth, July 24, 1874.

We were yesterday shown a letter announcing the determination of the agent of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians, Mr. Miles, to pay no attention whatever to the officious and impertinent request of his Quaker brethren that he resign. The reason advanced in the resolution adopted at the yearly meeting of the Society of Friends at Lawrence for Mr. Miles’ resignation was, that he had allowed his fear to influence him in his dispatch to the interior department, and in asking for soldiers to protect the white men of the border from scalping; he had departed from the peaceful tenets of the non-combatant order to which he belongs and which he is supposed to represent. We propose shortly to give the real reasons why the Quakers sue Quakers as Agent Gibson and Beede for instance, view with special aversion any man who tells the truth about the Indians of the Territory. We have heard it credibly reported that the day before Agent Miles left the Territory, an Arapaho Indian of Big Mouth’s band came into the agency, and brandishing the bloody and recently taken scalp of Wm. Watkins in Miles’ face, told him he had better leave or he would meet the same fate. Any white man was certainly in danger at the time, and the murder and scalping of the four teamsters as related by Miles in his dispatches was strictly true. He is conceitedly an efficient and honest man, something infrequent in Indian agents, and his daring to tell the truth and admitting that a military force was necessary for the protection of white men on the cattle trail and on the border entitles him to the confidence of the government in an especial degree. As Commissioner Smith says in a letter published elsewhere, “he has done nothing more than ordinary prudence required him to do, and certainly nothing that the government does not thank him for doing.” We cannot see, therefore, what color of right the yearly meeting of Quakers have to ask one of the very few honest and efficient agents to resign for doing his simple duty, or why Agent Miles should obey any such impudent and cheeky request. He has done very right in concluding to retain his office while he may be useful in it.

AGENT MILES’ CONDUCT.

Commissioner Smith Comes Forward to His Defense.

The Commonwealth, July 24, 1874.

Special Dispatch to the St. Louis Democrat.

Washington, July 21. The commissioner of Indian affairs has written the following letter to Zodok Street, a leading member of the Society of Friends, in regard to the action of that body in demanding the resignation of Agent Miles, of their denomination, because he called on the military for aid in protecting his agency in Kansas:

DEP’T INTR. OFFICE INDIAN AFFAIRS, July 20, 1874.

SIR: I have your letter of the 18^th with reference to marauding Indians of the Indian Territory. Since writing it you have probably seen that the Friends in the executive committee at Lawrence have requested Agent Miles to resign, on account of the position he has taken with reference to these troubles. This is a great injustice to agent Miles and, if insisted upon, will work great harm to the peace policy. If it comes to be understood that the moment an agent takes a position like that of Agents Miles and Tatum, in favor of law and order, he is to lose his position in

A KIND OF DISGRACE

with the Society of Friends, it will be impossible to administer affairs through the Society of Friends in the Indian Territory. I regard Agent Miles as the best agent, with possibly one exception, that the Friends have in the field, and he has done nothing more than ordinary prudence required him to do, and certainly nothing that the government does not thank him for doing. Measures are being taken to put all these agencies in a condition of defense, for the protection of all those Indians who remain loyal, and the punishment of those who persist in marauding.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

E. P. SMITH, Commissioner.

THE CRUSADE IN RENO COUNTY.

The Commonwealth, July 24, 1874.

HUTCHINSON, RENO COUNTY, KANSAS, July 21.

To the Editor of the Commonwealth.

The crusade that has turned some of the eastern states upside down hath appeared here also; but unlike in the east, the ladies have taken no active part. A man in this city a short time ago started a beer and soda saloon. The beer, he claims (and I think rightly), is a temperance drink, but some of our saints thought otherwise, and the result was that this offender got fined fifty dollars and costs. How true is the old epigram:

Laws like spiders’ webs are wrought—

Great rogues are freed; little ones are caught.

We have drug stores in this city that sell whiskey, bottled ale, gin, brandy, etc., for medicinal purposes, but no prescription is required, however small or large the quantity required. Judging from the amount of the aforesaid medicines sold by these druggists, the amount of sickness in this locality must be appalling indeed. Now why should these brave and religious reformers attack this saloon-keeper, poor crippled soldier as he is, whose beer, if intoxicating, is infinitely less injurious than 40-rod whiskey, and does not molest these clandestine medicine-venders. At a glance it looks more like a petty spite—a cheap bid for popularity or the result of some selfish motive other than the promptings of sincere morality.

ONE WHO IS NOT INTERESTED, BUT LIKES FAIR PLAY.

CURRENT POLITICS.

Hon. C. V. Eskridge on Prominent Public Topics.

The Commonwealth, July 24, 1874.

We make the following extracts from the able and eloquent oration delivered by Hon. C. V. Eskridge at Arkansas City on the 4^th.

THE FINANCES.

Whether there should be an increase of the volume of currency at this time, I very much doubt. Perhaps the amount now authorized, with the distribution as required by the recent law, may be sufficient to meet all the legitimate demands. However, I can see no good results in the general business interests of the country in a policy looking to the rapid contraction of the currency or the immediate resumption of specie payment. Therefore, as it appears to me, the policy upon this question most consistent with the interests of the west and not inconsistent with the interests of the entire country, is gradual resumption. By keeping resumption steadily in view, we are not as likely to depart as far from the line of policy which will enable us ultimately to reach it as we might if we failed to keep a specie basis as our guiding star. But if, in the meantime, an emergency should require an increase of the currency, I can see no reason why it should not be authorized. The policy of immediate resumption would undoubtedly prove detrimental to the prosperity of the people. In the defeat of such a policy, there is no danger of repudiation. This vast country of ours, with its inexhaustible resources, can find no pretext, even, for repudiation.

With reference to this point the alarmists themselves are not alarmed, and therefore no one else should be. What is true of the whole country with respect to its undeveloped resources is especially true of the west. It is but a new section of the country. Its settlement is rapidly going on and its development but just commenced. To provide itself with schools, bridges, public buildings, and railroads, it has, to some extent, become debtor to the east. This indebtedness was incurred at a time when the newer western states could hardly be said to have had a credit in the money markets of the world, and they were therefore, of necessity, compelled to place their loans at some disadvantage in comparison with the older and wealthier states; and at a time, also, when the currency

[OUCH! SOME OF THIS IS MISSING.]

The last part of the Eskridge article (given above) ends as follows:

I am not opposed to international improvements by the general government, but I must confess to a little conservatism on such questions, and believe that before the people become involved in such a system as was recently presented in the senate of the United States, we should consider the cost, reverse the paddle wheels of public sentiment, and save ourselves from a sea of trouble. It might be well to wait for a more honest era to dawn on the American people. I doubt very much whether the country is in a condition, financially or morally, to prosecute a successful and satisfactory termination of a system so vast as the one recommended by the transportation committee. While I would not, therefore, demand that all such work should stop, yet through the speaking trumpets of the old ship of state, I would call to the engineers to go slow.

Now, as to a policy for southern and southwestern Kansas upon this question, permit me to say that whatever congress may do in providing a system of artificial water ways for the cheap transportation of western products fifteen hundred miles to eastern markets, we should cast our eyes to the gulf, about one-half the distance; and following up the Mississippi river, we may consider New Orleans less than one-half the distance; or Memphis, less than one-fourth the distance, or even Ft. Smith, less than twelve hundred miles from where we are today, at which point both water and railroad transportation in competition all the year round will soon be available for Memphis, New Orleans, and Galveston. The most practicable thing, it appears to me, for southern and southwestern Kansas to do, and perhaps for the whole state, is to seek and strive for such facilities by railroad competition as will at the least cost and in the shortest time enable us to reach the Mississippi at some point nor higher than St. Louis, when, by the cheaper method of water transportation, we shall find an outlet through the gulf.

[Note: It appears that as early as 1874 Eskridge and others realized how valuable it would be to have steamboats as a means of cheap transportation.]

Dr. Dicks is hard at work finding more data covering the early years which we are unable to recover from the local newspapers as they were never put on microfilm. I cannot thank him enough.

I have tried to give the spelling used now for Indian tribes such as the Arapaho or Arapahos rather than “Arapahoe or Arapahoes.” Many changes have been made in the last century, and it easy to err. You will notice, for instance, that Grenada is used as well as Granada. I did not change these words inasmuch as in those days different people spelled them that way.

To fill in the gap between 1869 and 1876 (when county papers were put on microfilm) would be absolutely marvelous to those of us interested in the history of Cowley County. As I research the old county newspapers available to us, I find the early years utterly fascinating. I am utterly appalled at the “fiction” that has cropped up, which distorts the true events as they transpired. Cowley County was indeed the gateway to Indian Territory, a fact that is not apparent to many who live here now. MAW

Return to Updated Papers Index