The Sunday Oregonian., January 07, 1906, PART FOUR, Page 39, Image 39

THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN, PORTLAND, JANUARY jl, .1006...
31r
uaiet Plctmre:
of Lowfy Mother
and Their
BY
G. V. THOMAS,
of pictures mother and
ICTURD
child,
of a
The frame Is the four walls
thatched hut in the Punjab,
somewhere west of the mighty Indus. A
young mother, not a day over 15 years. Is
busily engaged in digging a small hole In
the earthen floor of her home. It Is cir
cular In form, and shortly, when she fin
ishes it, tenderly picks up her diminutive
baby, and places him upon the floor, with
his head in the hole, then is made the dis
covery that the shape of the hole Is just
that of the baby's head.
The baby left in this position the pre
scribed length of time, that the head may
eventually become flattened and the nock
extended, a thing much to be desired in
this corner of the world, the mother, who
has been hovering near while attending
to her simple household duties eagerly
snatches up the child and begins to apply
collyrium to his beadlike eyes with a
coarse needle. This she docs to make the
eyes grow broad and large "round as sau
cers." as we Would say.
Or, sitting, not lying down, she nuVscs
the hungry mite: she believes that only
when she Is In this posture can the little
fellow keep from flattening his oxcuse for
a nose until it comes to take that shape
permanently. Or the diminutive body is
tenderly but vigorously rubbed for a full
half hour, with a mixture of native flour
and oil, until the skin is softer than the
finest velvet and the pink tinge is present
everywhere, some of it having got some
how into the child-mother's four. -
But. perhaps, it is time for the baby's
medicine whether ailing or bursting with
health, he must take two doses a day for
the first 40 days that he is in this vale of
tears. Easy now down its goes, a mix
ture of drugs and two grains of cheese
andthe mother is smiling lovingly, in
spite of her anxiety, at 'the comical littlo
face that is screwed up right under her
own.
A STRIKING PICTURE BY
A HEARTHSTONE
CLOSE to the quaint fireplace In an
Ainu home In an Interior village in
Yczo Island is suspended from the roof a
wooden frame that looks like nothing
so much as the wooden runners of an
American boy's "belly-bouncer' joined to
gether with four stout rungs. A little
brown woman, with a grotesque mustache
tattooed on the upper lip of her Slavic
face, and wearing a dark-colored, flowing
kimono, enters the room, removing as she
enters the baby she has been carrying on
her back all the day that she has been
stolidly working in bcr garden arid at the
woodpile. She walks over to the thing
that looks like a belly-bouncer," minus
its top and puts the baby on it It is a
cradle! Then she sets about preparing
dinner for her lord and master, whose par
licular delight is getting away from work
of any sort.
The mother is arranging the dishes,
which have not been washed since she
started housekeeping, two years since,
when the youngster in the cradle sets up
a michty howling. But the mother keeps
nlacldly on at her task. Fifteen minutes
pass, and. the baby still shrieking at the
top of her voice, tnc motner siops ner
work long enougn to iook. as oniy a mom
cr can look, in the direction of the cradle,
and says softly to herseii:
"Babies are like talkative men and
Tromcn. they must have their say. Cry
on little one, it is good for thy lungs, a
Tiart of thy upbringing.
It is not until after dinner that the child
iK lifted down from her swinging nest. As
she nurses she kicks mightily and, lo, the
little legs are badly chafed. The mother
arms herself with a sharp knife, and.
after the blade has been tremulously
poised several times, she Quickly cuts the
If rhiiri Thn fran,o iB i,r four found on the clm-and then, periiaps. snc rw , . - s -L-
fat part of eacu leg ai me joint near uic
pelvis. Then she binds the wound with
leather-like layers of a fungus growth
found on the elm and then, perhaps, she
gives way to a paroxysm of weeping af-
ter the deed of love is all over. For it la '
a deed of love in the Ainu mother's eyes.
It is done for the good of the child; it is
not well for her to kick or be chafed: and
the Ainu mother has thus scarred her off
spring since her race began.
BAGANDA MOTHER AND
HER PICKANINNY
"I
T Is a boy," says the midwife to a
newly-made mother of the Ba
ganda tribe, living on the western
side of that great lake, Victoria Ny-
anza.
She wiio is in bed lifts hor big. dark
eyes happily.
"1 am glad my husband Is not the
chief," she breathes.
It is Baganda custom to strangle
the first-born of a chief It it happons
to be a boy. To let the child live
would surely lead to the father's death
first.
Soon there steps up to the mother
one of the husband's several relations
WESTERN OUTLAWS SETTLE DOWN
ti
w
HAT to do with the ex-Presi- ,
dents is no bigger problem to
politicians than what to do
with its retired outlaws Is to the Wot,"
said an Indian Territory official to a New
York Sun reporter. "In several notable
instances the courts have kindly solved
the problem, and the erstwhile bandits
arc living lives of seclusion and industry'
in tho Federal Penitentiary at Leaven
worth. "But what is to become of tho former
bad man who has finished "his term of
imprisonment, or against whom no Jury
will return a verdict, or. more difficult
still, who defies capture while apparently
courting it?
"Oklahoma and the Indian Territory
arc at present grappling with this deli
cate subject, but, the time is not far dis
tant when it will travel westward, as
have many of the outlaws whom it con
cerns, and will be met in Wyoming and
Dakota where these men have fled. Al
ready No Man's Land of Northern "Wyom
ing has become known as a refuge where
bandits, active or otherwise, are safe from
pursuit.
."Its first settlers were the overflow of
fugitive population from the Hole-in
the-Wall country of Wyoming. Thirty or
40 desperadoes- formed a colonizing party
that first moved to the valley. They
built houses and stocked their ranches
with cattle and horses acquired after
their own distinctive manner.
"They have been there for nearly two
years now, and their number is constantly
growing. The settlement is closely
watched by officers, but so long as the
desperadoes remain within their pelf
established limits they are practically
safe.
"There are several women in the valley,
including the wives of some of the out
laws. The existence of the wttlement is
a constant exasperation to the officers,
for if it could be successfully raided and
the bandits all captured the sum total
of rewards would establish a Sheriffs
posse comfortably for the rest of its
natural existence.
"But it is not the outlaws who have
gone but the outlaws who remain that
afford embarrassing problems. To be
sure, the Indian Territory is discreet and
seldom . asks questions, and an outlaw,
married and settled down, soberly farm
who have been in the house all the
evening.
"There Is no need to flog you."- is
the message that falls from the lips of
the aged man. "You huvc been good,
you have not oaten the tabu foods, and
so the child Is without blemish or dis
ease. And the child was born right
you have been faithful to your hus
band." A look of great relief springs Into
the poor woman's eyes, as she replies:
"I have always been and ever will be
faithful to my husband, and during- the
time I did not cat of salt, mineral or
vegetable: food baked in hot embers,
sugar cane, yams, bananas, spinach.
ing or ranching. Is as good as the next
man.
"But the Territory is not the untamed
country It was In the early daya. The
line must be drawn somewhere, and the
records of these one-time bad men arc
not so politely ignored. Indeed defended,
as they were In the old days. Fifteen
years ago Jim Younger, released from
his long term in the Minnesota Peniten
tiary, would not have found the world
cold and forbidding us to drive him
to suicide.
"Of all Indian TerrltIory.j famous bad
men the one who has most nearly solved
the question of what' to do with himself
under the new conditions Is Henry Starr,
a member of the famous Starr gang, that
at one time terrorized that country. Starr
is a relative of Belle Starr, probably the
most notorious woman outlaw of the
"West, who was at one time the wife of
Cole Younger, and whose bloody record
was at strange variance with the warmhearted,-
womanly impulses- that occa
sionally manifested themselves.
"After the death of Belle and her hus
band Henry was leader of the gang, and
young as he was; was even more daring
than hi predecessors. He was three
times tried for murder, and twice con
victed, with many trials for robbery
thrown In, and innumerable accusations
that were never wholly proved.
"So great was his daring that it was
admired evert by the officers who hunted
him. His last convictioit brought him a
sentence of 15 years for robbery, but
his sentence was commuted on account
of his bravery in quelling a riot in the
Fort Smith Jail, where he was confined.
Starr Quelled by Indian Wife.
"Starr returned to his old haunts ap
parently a changed man. and nothing In
his record in the two or three years that
liave since passed has altered his determi
nation to be on the square. He himself at
tributes his change of heart to his wife,
as pretty an 'Indian girl as there Is In the
territory and of one of the best families
of tho Cherokee Nation.
"She had been graduated from the
Cherokee Female Seminary, and was
teaching school In the neighborhood when,
from among her suitors, she chose the
handsome young ex-outlaw and with him
settled down on a farm near Tulsa, There
is a strain of Cherokee in Starr himself,
and the Dawes Commission has allotted
wild tomatoes. tli boan. 1 have done
right."
And then, when the boy is brought to
her and planed by her side, her Joy is
complete, for he knows that the mo
ment he was bom a spear was placed
In his chubby right hand and he will
grow up a great hunter after his
father.
A month later the baby falls sorlous
ly ill. His raoanings paint vividly in
his mother's mind the picture of a lit
tle mound, with thorns growing upon
it at four cross roads the grave of a
child who has died in Infancy. And as
the women pass by she toeholds each
fearfully throw a few blades of grass
on the grave, that the ghost of the
to both him and his wife valuable farm-
ing property, from which the one-time
fugitive will some day be a comfortably
rich man.
"The territory is proud of Starr and
the manly way in which he Is living down
his past. It Is proud, too. though in an
other way. of Ben Cravens, the outlaw
who set more officers at defiance in the
most Insultingly airy fashion than any
criminal who ever held a whole territory
in submission.
"After making a sensational escape
from the Kansas enltentlary by charg
ing the guard with a gun that he had
cut out of soft pine and covered with
tin foil. Cravens kept In comparative se
clusion in Southwest Oklahoma. Several
affairs in Missouri have been charged up
to him,-whether rightfully or wrongfully
no one knows but Cravens, and he won't
tell, and there arc a number of localities
In Oklahoma where he -is wanted by
offlcers.
"But every town in the territory Is a
veritable nest of his friends, who so com
pletely surround and safeguard him as to
secure his immunity from capture. Prob
ably no outlaw of recent times has so
many friends, loyal as only such friends
can be. ready to risk everything in the
world for his safety.
"In spite of the fact that there arc half
a dozen charges of murder and robbery
hanging over him. Craven's last exploit
before he left the territory Xaa to pay a
visit to some of h.'s friends in Governor
Ferguson's own town. At night, not car
ing to register at a hotel, he stretched
himself out on a pool table in a saloon
and slept the night through, well knowing
that he was completely surrounded by
friends who would promptly dispose of
any officer who attempted, to intrude on
hlro.
"Before" this Cravens traveled as a sale
man and carried a heavy line of staple
goods. He visited Guthrie, the capital,
every fortnight, and his friends proudly
relate that on one occasion he attended
an administration ball, and later dined
with a United States Marshal and several
members of the Territorial Council with
out his identity being suspected.
Cravens Is In Mexico.
"But all of tkese days of daring arc of
the -past now. and Cravens, teo, has
joined the ranks of the respectably mar
ried and settled.' Not 1b Oklahoma
child will not enter
born again.
But In the long night, when her
heart is well-nigh breaking, a faint
note in the child's wail so delicate
that only a savage mother's car could
detect It tells her that the turning for
the better has come, and when the pa
ternal grandfather appears at the end
of two months after birth to conduct
the ceremony cf sitting. the child up,
that important little personage is riot
ously healthy, fat of body and sleek of
skin from his daily bath in the juice
of a plantain leaf and subsequent vig
orous rubbing with butter.
It is curly in the morning that the
grandfather comes. With the mother
watchlpg his every-movement, he places
a bit of bark cloth near the door, and
on to It he lifts and sits his crowing
grandson. There the child experiences
the .sensation of sitting up for the first
time, the mother watching him be
times, while the family gathers" for a
small feast in honor of the auspicious
event.
In a surprisingly short while the
the officers would hardly stand for
that but in Mexico, where he has
figured as the hero of the most ro
mantic adventure of his strange career.
"Masquerading as the nephew of an
ex-Governor of Pennsylvania, with fash
ionable clothes, plenty of money and
suavity of manner, he won his way Into
some of the most exclusive drawing
rooms of the City of Mexico. He was a
favorite with the American colony,
though he never gained quite the position
there that he did in the Mexican set.
"A duughtor of a wealthy Mexican
mlneowner attracted him particularly,
and their courtship and marriage soon
followed. It is said that the charming
senora has already borne him an heir.
"His wife's family stands well with the
administration, and with ample means
and position to back him it is not likely
that Ben Cravens. Oklahoma's outlaw
king, will ever be brought back to the
scene of his lurid past.
Bob Ford In Colorado,
"Bob Ford, ex-trainrobber and assas
sin of Jesse James, was for ?. long time
one of the interesting figures at tho
camp at Creede. Colo. He is, a slender,
harmless-looking person, pale and ner
vous, with an uneasy, frightened manner.
From his saloon and gambling-house
Ford kept a keen lookout on the world.
" 'I have tried for years to get out of
the reach of the killers he said, 'but
every place I go I meet some fool with
an insane desire for notoriety, and The
manages to get me into a brawl. I have
gone Into the quietest and most obscure
little towns In the "West, but I have
hardly got settled before some Idiot bobs
up and spreads the news that Bob Ford's
in town. Then some fool tanks up on
1 for me. I have talked with lots of other
men with reputations as killers, and they
. all feel about it as I do. They would
give anything in the world if they could
rid themselves of their name and live
like other men."
"Another famous ex-outlaw trans
formed Into a quiet, harmless citizen is
Cole Younger. He avoids notoriety as
far as, possible, but wherever he goes
there Is a rush to get a glimpse of him.
"By the terms of his pardon he is pro
hibited from exhibiting himself, but he
lent his name to a Wild West show that
lias sot been, however, the startling suc
child shows a determination to crawl.
Does the mother sigh, half regretfully,
saying to herself as she does so, "I'm
afraid I'll have to put him in short
dresses, he's growing so fast"? The
picture is of a far different sort.
Laughing, the black mother grabs up
her child, places small bells about his
ankles and wrists, and those musical
ornaments are the only clothes that he
will wear until at about 3 years, he
begins to run around.
a picture of great
Self-denial
B
UT the picture, then?
The child has just been weaned the
Baganda mother, like many of her savage
sisters. Is slow in weaning her babies. In
the village, distant two days' journey by
train, lives her husband's sworn friend.
He now stands in the presence of the
mother, having come secretly In the night
to the house. There Is no need to ask
why he Is come. Tho mother, obedient to
Last of -the Starrs Is a Farmer Frank James a Quiet
Citizen in Missouri Bob Ford in Colorado.
cess that its backers hoped it would be.
The last that I heard of him he was
building a trolley line in Missouri, and
one of his principal backers, It js said. Is
a United States Senator.
Frank James In Missouri.
"Frank James, you know, was pardoned
from the Missouri penitentiary, and is liv
ing now. a quiet citizen, in a little Mis
souri town. He, too, took a whirl at the
Wild Wet business, and also on tho
stage for a short time.
"Jesse James son-. Jesse, Jr.. Is living
in Kansas City. He was tried once for
train robbery, but was acquitted, and has
pin co taken a turn at keeping a cigar
etore and later a pawnshop.
"One of the famous prisoners of the
Kansas penitentiary Is Emmet Dalton.
Probably no prisoner there has had more
frequent and earnest efforts made by
friends to get for htm a pardon.
"At the time of the Coffeyvllle raid,
the last picturesque bank robbery In Kan
pa?, two of the Daltons were killed and
Emmett was badly wounded. Emmet was
only IS then, and his friends say was
drawn Into the expedition without rea
lizing just what it was. When the plan
was made clear to him ho attempted to
back out. but his brothers and the older
men In the party forced him Into line.
"When the attack was made he was left
to guard the horses, and did not fire a
shot. The lategt plea for his pardon Is
based on the necessities of his mother,
who lives only four miles from King,
fisher. She Is very old and Is greatly in
need of her son for support.
"Not unlike his Is the case of Tom
Joneg, a prison mate of Dalton, whose
friends are equally active in their efforts
to secure a commutation of his fifty-year
sentence ten years of which he has
served. The son of a Texas preacher.
Jones is the only one of his family who
has not followed his father's profession.
"He was educated to be a minister, but.
naturally wild, he drifted Into the life of
a cowboy, first in Texas and then, in
"Western Oklahoma, In 1S33 he was at
tracted by the careers of the Dalton and
Doolin gangs, then in the height of their
success, and rode a long distance to join
them.
"Shortly afteprard. the gang had a des
perate fight with United States Deputy
Marshals. A number ot the officers were
killed, and Jones which 'Is sot hie real
the wilt of her husband and tribal tradi
tions, takes a Ions farewell look at: her
child, and the next moment he is gone
in the arms of the friend, slipping- quietly
out Into the night. And the mother? She
fights back the tears, demonstration of
any sort for she knows that It is best for
the child. She has now done what she
can to Insure his safety. Left at home o:
placed openly in the keeping of somf
friend or relative, her husband's chief, or
King, for grievance or debt, might seize
the hoy and sell him into slavery.
Or, there Is that picture of ordeal at the
ceremony of naming the child when h?
is " years old.
Four mothers, whose children have
been brought up together for the cere
mony, are the central figures. The rela
tives of the families gather round a
feast: the mothers, with plantain. girdles
about their chests, sit apart: the legiti
macy of their children Is still to be es
tablished. The children aro seated upon
mats placed near the door.
The feasting Is over. Before each mother
In turn, a member of the gathering places
a vessel containing a mixture of milk,
beer and water. "With a face tense with
expectancy, each' mother drops a peculiar
substance into the vessel. Praise be to the
Baganda gods, it floats In each case
the children are legitimate beyond the
shadow of a doubt. But if in any case
the substance had sunk, then a flogging
would have been the least part of the
punishment of the poor mother, model of
faithfulness to her husband though she
has been in all her acts and thoughts
from the day that he won her.
And now, with the mothers still sitting
apart, the paternal grandfather of each
child reads the names of the child's an
cestors on his paternal side. He places th
child upon the back of a strong slrl. a
relative the chubby little legs about her
waist, the little hands under hers and
gripping her shoulders. He pours some of
the mixture from the vessel upon the
child's head, then he goes over to when
the beaming mother is sitting with the
others.
Repeating to her the names of the
child's paternal ancestors, he slowly
raises a vessel containing a little food to
her mouth. She takes a bite and then,
with the happiest of glances In the direc
tion of her baby, sets to work with the
other women to prepare another feast t
be served after sunset.
At this feast she cats, too or is her
excited joyfulness too great to permit
her more than to touch her food?
The lights . of the feast burn low. thr
picture fades from view. But with the
first rays of the morning sun. It appear.
clear and sharp again. The mothers
standing by. the grandfathers give the
children their names those of ancestors,
but never of fathers. Then the comical
little heads are shaved, the ceremony
ended, the guests speedily depart, and th
last glimpse of the picture shows each
mother and child alone, the child pressed
close to its mother's bosom.
ESKIMO MOTHER AND
OBEDIENT CHILD
Seated cross-legged upon the sleeping
bench of a western Greenland "Winter
house of turf and stone, an Eskimo
mother Is busily engaged in chewing a
blrdskin that it may be made pliable for
fashioning into an outer coat for the lit
tle girl seated by hen side.
The mother .has just started on "th
dry skin, almost dripping with fat." Sh
"chews away at one spot until the fat
is sucked out and the" skin is soft and
white." She is slowly widening . th
chewing area, the skin is gradually golnc
father into her mouth, it has almost dis
appeared from view, when the child slip--down
from the bench and begins to amuse
herself with a lighted train-oil lamp, a
toy forbidden. The mother spits out tlnv
skin, swallows a mouthful of fat. then,
with a seraphic smile and the gentlest of
words, speaks soft and low to the child.
Immediately the seal-and-blrdskln clad
youngster leaves the lamp, smllinglv
scampers back to her mother's side. and.
unconscious mimic that she is, begins to
chew on a skin Just as the mother gets
the last of her skin Into her mouth. AnJ
a broad smile Illuminates the Arctic
mother's face as she beholds the ludic
rous efforts of her little daughter, who.
all too soon, will begin to chew skins in
earnest and live largely on the fat that
Is obtained from them.
(Copyright. IMS. by McClurc, Phillips
& Co.)
name, that never having been made pub
licwas accused of the murder of one of
them.
"At the time of the trial public feei
Ipg was strong against the gang, and
while It Is confidently asserted by Jones'
friends that the evidence was? not suffi
cient to convict him. he nevertheless got
fifty years. Jones' prison record has been
exemplary. He came to tho assistance of
the guards In preventing the escape of
Bill Rudolph, the Missouri outlaw and
bank robber, and his influence has always
been on the side of the authorities.
"During the entlro ten years he has
been a prison bookkeeper. His brother,
a minister of standing In Texas. Is active
In the effort to secure his pardon. The
aged father is still living, and his great
est hope Is to see his wayward son free."
A Floating Villa.
Toronto Mall.
A motor houseboat Is being built for
the Marquis de Dion, who, with this and
his cars, will now snap his fingers at
hotels and railways. The craft is to be
124 feet fore and aft, and about 16& feet
in the beam, with a very shallow draft.
The owner calls it a motor water villa,
arid will have It fitted up with a sitting
and sleeping-room combined, a dining sa
loon 20 feet by 15 feet, several spare bed
rooms, bathrooms, kitchen, tho captain's
apartment and the crew's quarters. Next
Summer he means to scour France by
river and canal, with a phalanx of motor
cars following by the road for use on land
at intervals. Later on he may send the
motor houseboat down south to Marseilles
by rivers and canals from Paris, then,
hugging the coast, along to Monaco,
.where he will join It. having motored by
the road, and will live in his water villa
during the Riviera season. The houseboat
will be capable of traveling seven or eight
miles an hour.
Astronomer Takes a Jaunt.
Indianapolis News.
Sir David GUI, who has been astronomer-royal
at the Cape since 1S79, Js re-
signing his post and returning to England.
Many notable astronomical problems have
been solved at the Cape observatory un
der Sir David Gill's direction, including
the determination of the minor planets
Victoria, Sappho and Iris..
vj.