Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 October 1901 — Page 7

The Phonca Sun Dance

The Ponca Indiana on the reservation near White Eagle, Ok., have just lately held their annual sun dance, a ceremony that always attracts more or less of a crowd of curiosity seekers. Two hundred members of the tribe, Including a number of squaws, took part In it and nearly 1,000 of the tribesmen shed the light of their countentnces upon a weird scene. Besides there were » goodly number es whites present, while neighboring tribes of Osages, Kaws and Pawnees helped to swell the motley crowd of spectators. White Eagle, head chief of the Poncas. was master of ceremonies. He is * magnificent specimen of his race, standing over six feet high, erect as the center-pole in his tent and with a

face betokening much intelligence and force of character. The dignity he displayed throughout was worthy of a Roman emperor, and not only did he Inspire his own people with awe, but he called forth the admiration of all the visitors. The scene was both unique and picturesque. The white tepees of the Indians stood in a large circle ou the prairie some distance east of the government agency buildings. To the northward flowed the Arkansas river, whose course is marked by an avenue

Lawton Is Booming.

Lawton, Ok., is a town which grew In a night, and which is still growing. It was a flat, hopeless stretch of prairie one day, the next it was a village of tents. It sprang into being with the babble of men’s voices and in response to their restless greed. Two months ago it was the last corner left of the Indians’ hunting ground, a poor patch, but theirs nevertheless. Then it was converted into a number on a lottery ticket; then it became a camp of landseekers; now it is a county seat. Will it one day be the capital of the state of Oklahoma? Who can tell? The bunch grass was scraggy and brown about it; the sun was hot; there was dust and dreariness everywhere. The trains ran through it from the Atlantic to the Pacific coasts and travelers closed their eyes as they passed, wishing themselves well rid of such hopeless solitude. If anyone hadprophesied that the place would be a hustling town within a month, who would have beloved it? Who would or could have chosen such a place for a town site? It was so pitifully discouraging. Yet there stands a town, almost a city, with a flrst-class post office, a county building, and what not of public establishments. With two

of rugged bluffs clothed in verdure. On the summits of some of these bluffs fires had been kindled and the smoke rose from them in blue circles and spread itself over the landscape, giving the semblance of a genuine Indian summer. Large herds of cattle were grazing on the plain, pnd the twinkling of their bells, mellowed by distance, came faintly to the ears of the listeners. In front of the tepees the braves sat stolidly smoking their pipes, while within the squaws were busy preparing viands for the approaching feast that ends the cerembhy. A Time-Honored Observance. For three days and nights the sun dance continues. Once a powerful tribe on the frontier, the Poncas hold to the traditions of their fathers with unusual tenacity. The sun dance, being the principal festival of the year, 1b especially esteemed, and its observance has become, through long continuance, Imperative. Time and environment, it is true, have modified some of its characteristic features, but in the main it is precisely as It has been for a century or more. The custom came to the Poncas from the Sioux long ago, but even at this day in essential details it is the same as the sun dance of the Sioux. The Poncas Bay that the dance is an invocation to the Great Spirit through the power and majesty of the sun for an abundance of food in the coming year and for preservation from disease and evil spirits. It also expresses gratitude for whatever good fortune has come in the past. The literal significance of its customs and of the decorations and equipments of dancers is difficult to learn. Even the most capable students of the sun dance have told little else than how it

miles of business streets, with 300 stores and offices, with 8§ saloons, what a prospect has Lawton before her! People who have witnessed such growths before in the building of the west Bhake their heads dubiously over Lawton. It may disappear, even as it came, they insist; such things have been known. The town may be alive to-day; it may be dead tomorrow; each day which passes is but so much unraveled from the tangle of its destiny. Merchants are satisfied that they have been prosperous for the day; they dare not anticipate the future, so uncertain is it. What the town stumbles upon must be accepted whether it is for better or worse. Lawton town site was bathing in the sunset when prosperity struck it. When the sun rose again Lawton was a town. Where the clatter of'crickets had re-echoed the day before, the shouts of men were to be heard. Homes were of white canvas, streets were weed grown, but the town of Lawton lived. A great army had settled down flpon the prairie and a new chapter in the development of the west was begun. With all the carelessness of an excited, hurrying people the

BUSY SCENES IN THE TOWN OF LAWTON.

was performed, advancing Into perplex* lng uncertainties when they attempted to tell why this or that thing was done. However, the motives that prompt its observance are not faV removed from those that influence the whites in their observance of a day of national thanksgiving.

A Pale-Faced Guest.

For the observance of the sun dance a level plain is selected. A circle is made of the tents of the Indiana and within this the ceremonies take place. On the recent occasion the entrance to this circle was from the east, toward the rising sun, the tepees facing toward the center. First the customary council of the head men was held

to decide upon the program. Only the head chief and his band chiefs have the right to sit in the council of their own volition and the honor of an invitation, seldom conferred, is greatly coveted by Indians whose status is simply membership in the tribe. Unless invited the latter are not even permitted to approach the council tepee. Culpeper county, Virginia, has decided to mark within its boundaries the lines of battles during the civil war.

Lawtoniteß began to lay out their town. Stakes had already been set here and there by government surveyors, who had planned and named Lawton. The name was for the brave man who had fought and died in the Philippines, and, patterning after him, the town had been courageous of undertaking and prompt of action. It has sprung into a city, sturdy and full of promise. No time to pave its streets nor to house itself with brick and wood, yet Lawton has a schoolhouse, a first class post office, churches and many another of the institutions which follow the American people. Grand avenue is the longest and finest of the thoroughfares, paved with bunch grass and lighted with tallow candles. It is lined on each side with shacks and tents, each of wlblch bears an elaborate sign to indicate its usefulness. There is "The Owl Drug Btore,” "Mother’s Grocery Store," "The Bon Ton, Gent’s Furnishings,” and so on down the street. The wit and ingenuity of the citizens of Lawton have not been spared. Streets are named "Goo Goo street,” "Bluffers’- avenue," “Lucky Number boulevard," and so forth. The town is up to date in everything.—Busy Scenes in Lawton.

MYSTICAL ODD NUMBERS.

Three, Seven end Nine Have Many **» v enltaurtttee to Their Credit. Three, seven and nine appear to have jeen the favorite numbers all tbs world ever. The ancients had three fates, three furies and three graces; Neptune’s trident had three prongs, Jupiter’s thunderbolt three forks sad Cerberus three heads. We have three estates of the realm, a man who accepts a bill has three days* grace and three persons congregated together may make a riot Shakespeare was well aware that he must have neither more nor less than three witches in ’’Macbeth,” and that the brindle cat must mew thrice, and our popular folklore insists upon three merry men, three blind mice and three wise men of Gotham. Three meals a day is the usual scale of feeding. Of a more mystical character than three is the figure seven, or, at any rate, it has a larger number of religious applications. Noah had sevea days’ warning of the coming of the flood, and when it came he took fowls by sevens and clean beasts by sevens into the ark; the ark touched on Mount Ararat in the seventh month, and after seven days a dove was sent out, followed seven days afterward by another. In Pharaoh’s dream there were seven fat and seven lean Una, which Joseph Interpreted to mean seven years of plenty and seven years of famine. At the destruction of Jericho seven priests bore seven trumpets seven days, and on the seventh day they walked round the city sevea times, after which the walls fell. la the apocalypse almost everything is seven, except the number of beasts. There are seven churches, seven golden candlesticks, seven lamps before seven spirits, the book with seven reals, the lamb with seven horns and seven eyes, seven angels with seven seals, seven kings, seven thunders, seven thousand slain, the dragon with seven heads and seven crowns, sevea angels bring seven plagues, and there are seven vials of wrath. In merely secular matters seven occurs frequently enough. We have seven wonders of the world, sevea champions of Christendom, seven sleepers, seven wise men, seven planets, seven deadly sins, seven ages of man, and our ordinary leases are made for seven or a multiple of seven years. But however mystically significant three and seven may be, they cannot lay claim to any such peculiarities as are the property of the figure nine. That the ancients had nine muses, nine rivers in the Infernal regions, a hydra with nine heads and nine gods for Lars Porsena to swear by, or that in modern times nine tailors to make a man, or that possession is nine points of the law, are facts that pale into insignificance after one has sat down with pencil and paper to investigate some of the special peculiarities of the figure nine. For Instance, if you multiply nine by any other number you will find that the figures composing the product when added together will always amount to nine.

IN A HASHEESH DEN.

German's Visit to a Resort Where Mea Smoke Their Reasons Away. A German physician describes his first visit to a den of hasheesh smokers in Cairo, Egypt, hasheesh being a species of hemp prised in the east for its intoxicating properties. The German's guide was a donkey boy, who could speak German. In a dark and dirty alley they came to a lighted doorway. Entering they passed through a room filled with men playing dominoes to the smoking-room. “Here," said the explorer, "we were welcomed like old acquaintances. Tbs aromatic odor and the smokers were in a very happy mood. On the walls were Arabic inscriptions and pictures of European beauties. In one cornpr was a stone bearing a mass of glowing coals. “A man cut up some tobacco, another filled a clay pipe bowl with it, a third bit off little pieces of brown hasheesh and laid them down on the tobacco, a fourth added some glowing coals and attached the bowl to a narghilch or water pipe, which he then handed to his neighbor. The pipe passed from mouth to mouth, each man taking a few whiffs and expelling the .smoke from nose to mouth.” The German physician declined the proffered smoke and ordered coffee. All the smokers talked and laughed incessantly. Most of them were young or middle-aged men. Suddenly an elderly man rose to his feet and stood staring at the floor, with a vacuous smile. He was a hasheesh wreck, an imbecile. "He is a philosopher,” said one of the others, and a general laugh followed.

Montana Said to be Sliding.

Is Montana creeping into Idaho end Wyoming? There is some evidence on the affirmative side of the question, but not enough to cause alarm in any of the three states. Still, for several years it has been known that there is some trouble with Montana’s foundations. which are slipping, and leaving evidence of the fact on the surface of the ground. Railway companies have found quite plain and strjutge twists in the alignment of their roads, and civil engineers have found “bench marks” changing their elevations in' a confusing manner. Quito recently these reasonably spspected movements have become apparent, and left large cracks in the earth at several points in the city of Butte, extending for a number of feet, and being in extreme cases 12 Inches wide. The effect of this is not only to throw railways out of line, but to cause much more serious damage to gas pipes and water mains.

The WeeKLy Panorama .

ffeto Comptroller of Currency. President Roosevelt, in conformity with his policy to carry out as far as possible the plans of President McKinley, has appointed W. B. Rldgely. of Illinois, as Comptroller of the Currency. Mr. Rldgely, who is the son-in-law

WILLIAM BARRET RIDGELY.

of Senator Cullom, was the choice of the late President for the post made vacant on October 1 by the retirement of Charles Q. Dawes. In fact, the commission was signed by Mr. McKinley Just before the Journey to Buffalo, but formal announcement of the appointment was delayed.

Can the Kitchen be Abolished?

In offering solutions of the servant girl problem it is a singular fact that Bcafcely anyone thinks of suggesting the plan of elevating cookery to a Bclence that is worthy the attention and study of the brightest American women. The solutions that are now being proffered all tend toward one end, the complete abolishment of the kitchen as an adjunct of the modern home. One of these kitchen exterminators recently outlined his plan In the New York Sun and commended It to the consideration of American housekeepers. Hls plan is to incorporate a company with sufficient capital to establish in various districts of a city large kitchens under the management of competent chefs, with a properly organized force of assistants and helpers. These various district kitchens are to be controlled from a central station and are to prepare and distribute meals at the .residences of subscribers, the meals to be served in properly constructed, self-heating receptacles,. the necessary dishes to be sent with the food, and, if desired, an assistant to arrange the table, or a waiter to serve the meal.

Lives With Bullet In Brain.

Jameß Callan, an Inmate of the Altoona (Pa.) hospital, la probably the

RADIAGRAPH SHOWING BULLET HOLE IN A LIVING MAN’S SKULL.

only man living and in apparently good health with a bullet in hia brain. He attempted salcide .August 14 and fired a 38-caliber bullet into his head. For a time he hovered between life and death, and no attempt was made to probe for the bullet. Then he began to rapidly recover. His mind became clear and his normal health returned. The physicians placed him under an X-ray machine and procured a photograph of the man’s skull, showing that the bullet was Imbedded in the middle of the brain. The photograph is reproduced above. Callan, according to a Philadelphia Bnquirer special, says the bullet causes him no inconvenience. He was discharged as cured last week.

Out of Woman’s Sphere.

Woman’s advent in the learned professions is a comparatively modern development in the United States. Sixty years ago no woman in this country, so far as known, had ever been regularly accredited as an authorized practitioner in law, medicine or theology. Indeed, it seemed 3 then rar more likely that women would be allowed to preach than vote. When Antoinette L. Brown imparted to her classmate, Lucy Stone, at Oberlin, her Intention to become an ordained minister, Lucy, who already aspired to become a voter, exclaimed, "You can never do it!" Yet Antoinette was ordained and ministered to an orthodox congregation some fifty years ago, while Lucy, after half a century of heroic effort, died a disfranchised citizen.' Of the three learned professions, medicine has proved the most generally available for women. There are now many thousand women physicians of every school practicing medicine successfully In America.

Indiana State News

It was announced at Richmond that the new owners of the Eeel River railroad, or the Logansport & Toledo, as it will hereafter be known, are making preparations to put it in first class condition. That part of the road lying between Logansport and Chili not having been on the route for the through traffic of the Wabash, was not maintained up to the standard of a through line. New 70-pound rails, cross-ties, bridges, and other materials are now being forwarded and the work will be begun at once. The entire road will not be taken Over by the Vandalla system until the flret of the year, but meanwhile the work of reconstructing the west end will be pushed so that about the time mentioned the road can be operated from Logansport in connection with the Logansport branch of the Vandalla. The locomotive and car equipment has been purchased and the division superintendent, engineer of maintenance of way, chief train dispatcher and their forces will remove at once from Terre Haute to Logansport. The chair of Gaelic has been re-es-tablished at Notre Dame. This was decided on by the faculty and the study of the language will begin next week. Dr. O'Malley has been secured to deliver nineteen series of lectures on the literature of the ancient Gaels. Brother Finan, C. S. C., a native of Kerry, where the purest Irish is spoken and an erudite Gaelic scholar, will be in charge of the course until the returnof H. Gallegher, who has been doing special work in Celtic literature at the Catholic university of Washington, Twenty-five years ago Notre Dame had a chair of Gaelic, but with the death of Brother Simeon, the professor of this tongue, the chair was suffered to relapse. With the present revlyal of the language at the university it Is expected that Notre Dame Bhall become the strongest exponent of the tongue and the literature of the Gaels In the West. The dead body of Samuel Conners, a young farmer, was found In Haw creek near Crawfordsville at a lonely point, where he had apparently been enticed and murdered. He had been missing since Tuesday. The board of managers of the national military home was In session at Marlon and heard the evidence in the case of Captain Jeremiah Kudlr, Peter Lock and Samuel Spires, members of the Marion home, who were charged with treasonable utterances regarding the assassination of President McKinley. They were found guilty, discharged from the home and their pensions revoked. The last bills In payment of the construction of the Indiana soldiers’ and sailors’ mdhument were allowed at Indianapolis by the board of regents. They amounted to about five thousand dollars. The monument Is now complete, all work having been accepted by the board. The corner stone of the shaft was laid in the summer of 1890. President Harrison and hls cabinet were present. It was the plan to have President McKinley and his cabinet present at the dedication. It is thought President Roosevelt and cabinet will be Invited. The dedication will take place next May. Major Davidson and three cadets made a second start from Hudson lake on their trip to Buffalo In an automobile gun carriage. Davidson started originally from Chicago and then abandoned the trip at Hudson. The first intention was to give up the trip entirely, but Major Davidson, after going back to school for a few days, returned with three of hls cadets for the purpose of resuming the Journey with one machine. The Rev. George Babcock, a Wesleyan Methodist preacher, bought a ticket in a raffle to dispose of a number of town lots and drew a lucky number. He had gone to Kokomo to have hls wife treated for blindness and the operation was successful. It was while Jubilant over the result of the operation that he invested in the raffle. He will move to Kokomo and build on his lots. William Molten was found guilty at Marion of manslaughter and given an indeterminate sentence of from two to fourteen years. During a quarrel last June, while at work in a truck patch. Molten struck John Smith, colored, on the head with a hoe. He died as a result of the injuries. Molten was formerly a resident of Fort Wingsburg, Ky„ and was at one time sheriff of Fort Wing county. J. H. Walk, an attorney of Dayton, but formerly of Eaton, Ohio, was married to Miss Theodate Moser at a church parsonage in Muncle and the couple were off for Dayton before the bride’s parents were aware of the marriage. Charles Addison, a merchant of Burlington, was married to Miss Sadie Addison of Pittsburg at Muncie. Their wedding was a surprise. Dr. William Cake of Duluth, Minn., was married to Miss Cora Gale Deal, daughter of Dr. Deal of Muncie, making a third wedding surprise in Muncie. The seventeenth annual meeting of the State Federation of Labor was convened ■' at the court house in Brazil. Two hundred delegates, representing all classes of labor organizations, were present. The meeting was presided over by State President W. P. Perkins of Indianapolis. Indictments alleging manslaughter have been returned at Lawrenceburg against Calvin Brown and Jacob Hoffman, growing out of the death of Jas. Brindley, while Holman Burton, 12 years old, is accused of being an accessory thereto.

Last Sunday night Attorney General W. L. Taylor of Indianapolis was registered at the St. George Hotel, Evansville. Late in the night a party of Kentuckians registered. One of them spied the name of the Attorney General, and, turning to the clerk, said: “I don't like to cause any trouble, but I guess I will be forced to. I see you are sheltering the fugitive from Kentucky, and I propose to take my friends here and kidnap him, and send him back to Kentucky to stand trial.’’ The men seemed much excited, and when the clerk assured them Mr. Taylor, who was up-stalrs, was not the man they wanted, they were loath to believe him, but were finally convinced. "A man who saw my name on the register took me for W. 8. Taylor,” said the Attorney General, “and I heard there was some talk of kidnapping me until the clerk made it clear I was hot the former Governor of Kentucky.’’ Summittvllle is meeting with misfortunes. Recently it was announced that the Flint GlassworkerW Union would not operate its factory at Summittville for another year at least. Now it Is reported that the Central glass factory, whose product is tableware, is to be removed by the National Glass Company—the tableware trust—to Ohio, and may be distributed through three of the trust factories in Ohio. The result of two factories being shut down or dismantled will cause a loss of considerable money to the town. Around the town, however, a number of good oil wells have been drilled and Summittvllle promises to become an oil center. The dwelling on the Decker-Ken-nedy farm, In Jefferson township, near Martinsville, occupied by Fletcher Freeman and family, burned. The fire spread so rapidly that none of the furniture nor valuables was saved, and the six children were rescued In their night clothes. There Is no clew to the origin of the fire. The family lost everything. Mrs. Ellen O'Neal, of Yountsvllle, one of the historic characters of the state, is dead. She assisted materially In breaking up the Knights of the Golden Circle during the civil war, and is one of the characters for Miss Caroline Krout’s novel, “Knights in Fustian." She was a native of Ohio, born In 1811. She was a wonderfully handsome woman and was the mother of eleven children. Mr. Charles Viele, one of Evansville's oldest and most prominent citizens, died at hls home. He was 83 years old.*fae came to this city 65 years ago, and was until several years ago, when he retired from active business, one of the leading business men of southern Indiana, being for many years engaged in the wholesale grocery business. Geo. W. Robinson of Carlisle, Ind., one of the best known stock shippers In Indiana, was killed instantly by a passenger train in the Vandalla yards at Terre Haute. With W. W. Bailey, also a veteran stockman of Paxton, he wbb watching the making up of a stock train and did not see the loose engine. Bailey also was seriously injured. Robinson was 46 years of age and had a wife and five children. Smith Jones, 13 years old, has been sentenced to prison for life in the Warrick circuit court. Lost July, in a fight with Herbert Hickerson of similar age, the last named was stabbed l to death. Charles Veils, Sr., the first wholesale merchant in Evansville, and & wealthy man, is dead. Henry Haskins and Councilman Benjamin F. Hatfield quarreled at Dublin over a sidewalk Improvement, Haskins taking the initiative, and this led to blows and stone throwing, in which Haskins was struck in the back. While despondent over business complications, Charles Lackey swallowed belladona with suicidal Intent, and was saved with difficulty. Mr. Lackey has been a prominent business man at Cambridge City for years. Cyrus and John Brock, recently suffocated in a well at Bourbon, were the sons of the late George Brock, who killed his wife and one child and then committed suicide. A daughter is the only member of the family now living. The little daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John King near Quaker Hill, placed two hatpins in her mouth while at play and in running she fell, driving the points into her throat. The Injury la reported fatal. A social event in Cutler was the marriage in the Presbyterian church of Superintendent L. F. Myer of the Flora schools, and Miss Bertha M. Bonebrake, of Cutler, the Rev. Mr. Prentice officiating. Patrick Neaphan, of Henderson, Ky., who followed his wife to Evansville and murdered her in cold blood, is now anxious to escape the consequences of his act, having employed three attorneys. Mrs. Minnie Stapleton found her husband, Robert Stapleton, in the act of accompanying May Bowen on an excursion to Toledo, and she put both to flight by clever use of her fits. However, they caught another train. Mrs. Ada Harrington, of Valparaiso, while visiting friends at Michigan City, attempted to examine a revolver, and it was discharged, the bullet crossing the hall into another room and seriously wounding Theresa Henry, of Laporte. While Miss Blanche Myer, daughter of John Myer, and Viola Davis were crossing a street in Shelbyviile, they were knocked down by a rapidly driven buggy in which were seated Conrad Wilder and the Misses Bertha Keith and. Clara Hardebeck. Miss Myer suh sered a broken arm and other severs injury.