| Show LAND BARONS OUT WEST landlord who ar Bec kleca rr good the divine injunction in the sweat of thy face shall thou eat bread has no relevancy to the citizens of the five civilized tribes here are a people who like the lilies of the fields toil not neither do they spin furnishing an example of class favoritism under the law peculiar and interesting to study says harpers the landlords have no care but the gathering of rents and a general supervision of the home place they are as a class freehanded free handed reckless good livers and with a strong tendency to dissipation most of them live up to their incomes and few acquire large bank accounts your typical landlords home ia the rambling white plantation great house of antebellum ante bellum days with wide galleries big chimneys and usually in a bad state of repair an air of untidiness and neglect pervades the yard to which is added a lack of taste inside when you enter still there is something about the surroundings the orchard smoke house negroes pigs and poultry which denotes solid old fash boned comfort and arcadian content frequently yon meet the lord of one of these mansions a squaw man whose family claim no indian blood yet he benjoya by virtue of a former matrimonial alliance all the landed rights of an indian it is really surprising the number of this class that are divorced from indian wives or have become widowers and remarried in their own race they constitute the lanfest I 1 landholders and are very jealous of their tribal rights when threatened by boomers as they term the opponents 1 of land monopoly and unequal privileges and what of the indian the full blood whom this reat and munificent government of ours has in its wisdom regarded as a ward and heir to a princely heritage as a recompense for anglo saxon rapine you will find him where the stillness of the forest is as yet unbroken he is there in his miserable little hut recluse from the great mad world he so distrusts and fears living a poor hand to mouth existence and rarely emerging to visit the haunts of his tormentors tor mentors A scanty patch of corn a few poultry and mast fed hogs with what game and fish fall prey to his skill go to supply his meager larder and furnish employment for his squaw and himself once in a great while there is a per capita payment and a pittance fails to his share after the professional of the tribe have made the disbursement to their satisfaction and paid their attorneys tor fees it is a rare thing to find full blood in the indian territory who is living comfortably on as much as a quarter section of land under cultivation there are some but they are striking exceptions |
