438 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
June 24 
NOTES FROM THE INDIAN TERRITORY. 
The Choctaw Nation comprises all that 
part of the Territory lying in the south¬ 
eastern corner, between the Red River 
on thf* south and the Arkansas and Cana¬ 
dian Rivers on the north, and extending 
west from the State of Arkansas 150 
miles to the 100th meridian, where it bor¬ 
ders on the Chickasaw Nation. It con¬ 
tains 14,400,000 acres, and 4,352,000 are 
occupied by the Indians and their renters 
for agricultural purposes. This leaves 
over 10,000,000 acres of unoccupied lands, 
the nation being divided into 17 counties, 
each having from 300 to 400 farms, these 
having from a few acres up to several 
thousand in each farm The line corners 
are designated by blazed trees or stakes 
driven in the ground, and some farms 
are separated by lanes or line fences. 
Barbed wire is used on some of the large 
far ns, but oak timber is generally split 
into eight-foot rails, which make a very 
substantial fence. 
Nearly half the surface is composed of 
rolling prairie, which affords excellent 
grass for stock Grass grows luxuriantly 
in the timber, and there are immense 
cane-brakes in the bottoms. Various 
kinds of timber are found along the 
streams and on the mountains, several 
ranges of which extend across the cen¬ 
tal portion. It is in these mountains 
that most of the full-bloods live, who get 
their livelihood mostly from the proceeds 
of their stock. 
The Government first brought the 
Choctaws to the Territory in 1835 from 
Mississippi, followed by a second arrival 
a short time prior to the Civil War. The 
country was then nothing but a wilder¬ 
ness. At first the people moved about 
from place to place in small bands or 
families, clearing and cultivating patches 
of land here and there along the streams. 
After the war broke out they were per¬ 
suaded to secede against the General 
Government, and many of them were 
pressed into the Confederate service. 
Some of the more wealthy owned slaves, 
who were, of course, emancipated. Ac¬ 
cording to the treaty of 1866, the freed- 
men have the right to 40 acres of land, 
and all the stock they want, but have 
no right to any share in the annuities 
from the government, but they are en¬ 
titled to equal protection under the In¬ 
dian and United States laws. After the 
war closed the tribe became more civil¬ 
ized and self-supporting. They took 
more interest in cultivating the soU and 
raising stock. But their progress has 
been slow and tedious. Their natural 
fondness for hunting and fishing is much 
in the way of forming habits of industry 
and economy. While they have been re¬ 
garded as happy, contented and prosper¬ 
ous, their white neighbors across the 
border have always been welcome to 
come and assist in building up and de¬ 
veloping their country, and many white 
families are found living within the lim¬ 
its of the Nation. The red man is grad¬ 
ually passing away. The white man is 
fast taking his place. 
The Choctaws have increased only 200 
in the last 10 years. Not many are left 
who landed here nearly 60 years ago. 
At the last census their population was 
about 15,000, which includes kindred by 
blood, intermarriage, and adopted ne¬ 
groes. The white people outnumber the 
Indians three to one. 
Tushk^homma, the capital, is a small 
town situated near the center of the 
Nation, in the foot-hills of the moun¬ 
tains. The Choctaw Council meets here 
in November each year, and continues 
in session a month or six weeks, and is 
under the control of the chief or gov¬ 
ernor, who is elected every year. The 
Council consists of a House and a Senate, 
20 members each, who make laws for 
their people as the work is done in the 
State legislatures. Courts of justice are 
established throughout the Nation, and 
violators of the law are duly punished. 
This Nation is traversed by three rail¬ 
roads. Atoka, McAllister, Whitefield, 
Lehigh, Cameron, Talihina, Red Oak and 
Hartshorn are thriving towns. Immense 
quantities of coal are mined and shipped 
along the railroads. Lumbering is ex¬ 
tensively carried on in the central part 
on the mountains where pine is abun¬ 
dant. The climate is warm and genial, 
mild and pleasant, but is inclined to 
drought. The soil is for the most part 
sandy loam, with red clay subsoil, and is 
very fertile. In the southern part it 
changes to a mulatto or black waxy 
land, and is adapted to cotton, while 
corn, sorghum, potatoes, melons and 
vegetables do well throughout the 
Nation. In some places wheat and oats 
are successfully grown. The rivers 
abound with fish which are caught at 
any time of the year. The small streams 
go dry during the summer. There is 
plenty of game, such as foxes, squirrels, 
raccoons, opossums, rabbits, quails and 
turkeys; while in the mountains are 
found bears, deer, wolves and panthers. 
Beavers, otters and minks are found 
a’ong the streams. 
Some of the Indians are well educated 
and men of culture. The words used by 
them are peculiarly soft and pleasing to 
the ear. Their method of singing is pe¬ 
culiar, and not a few of their songs are 
original. The old native tongue is fast 
dying out, and is taught only in a few 
neighborhoods. There are several high 
schools and academies that are well sus¬ 
tained and patronized by the most influ¬ 
ential families, while some of their sons 
and daughters are sent to neighboring 
States and receive a collegiate education. 
There is a popular sentiment prevailing 
among those in power that they would 
do better under a different form of gov¬ 
ernment. They desire to see their lands 
alloted in severalty, the country section- 
ized, and then assume the rights of citi¬ 
zenship under the United States laws. A 
great many people think the time is not 
far off when this will be done. If a Choc¬ 
taw likes to work, nothing pleases him 
better than to be the owner of a fine herd 
of cattle and ponies. Cows and calves 
run together. When milk is wanted in 
the family, a cow with a young calf is 
driven to the corral, where the women 
do the milking. The calf sucks while the 
cow is being milked, and, consequently, 
gets the most of the supply. After a few 
weeks the cow ceases to be attentive to 
her calf, and both are turned out on the 
range, and a fresh cow is substituted. 
Stock are fed but little during the win¬ 
ter, but are left to rustle for themselves 
till spring. Ponies receive no grain feed 
except when at work. Hogs do well on 
the range. Sows with young pigs are fed 
corn till the pigs are a month old. The 
Choctaws are emulating the example of 
their white neighbors by putting up 
substantial buildings, improving more 
land, making better fences, setting out 
fruit trees ; and more churches, better 
schools and good roads are commanding 
their attention. Ten years hence people 
who are living here now will hardly 
know the country owing to the many 
future changes. R. robbins. 
woman may be a man’s equal, and even 
his superior, if she gives equal time and 
thought to any business, as far as her 
brains go, and as for the muscle part, 
that is the part he hires. A Vermonter. 
A Cat Motor. — A writer in Harper’s 
Weekly goes up head with the following 
electrical story: 
I had a large cork and bung factory in 
Milwaukee, Wis., and I needed power to 
ran my machinery. You know, of course, 
that there is an immense amount of 
stored-up electricity in a cat. The prob¬ 
lem for inventors has been to invent a 
way to extract it profitably. In the rear 
of mv factory I constructed a one-story 
circular building, some 60 feet in diam¬ 
eter. On the floor of this I coiled a glass 
pioe six inches in diameter. The first 
coil ran around the outside of the rocm, 
the coils gradually growing smaller, till 
the last, in the center, was no larger 
than this table. It gave me something 
like a mile of pipe. The top and sides 
of this pipe were lined with rather stiff 
hair brushes, the bristles being a little 
more than an inch in length. 
At that time Milwaukee was overrun 
with cats. It was impossible to sleep 
nights. I put a notice in the paper that 
I would pay 10 cents a dozen for prime 
cats, delivered at my factory. I got 60 
dozen the first day, and stored them in 
the basement of the power-house. The 
motor operated thus: Placing in the 
outer end of glass pipe an imitation rat, 
made of rubber and propelled by a small 
interior storage battery, I would then 
adjust a cat immediately behind it. The 
ruober rat would start off at a terrific 
rate—it was made to go through the 
mile of tubing in from two to three min¬ 
utes—and the cat, of course, followed 
furiously, thinking to catch the supposed 
animal throughout the entire distance. 
Gentlemen, it was exciting to watch a 
healthy, active cat whip about those 
spirals, with the mechanical rat about a 
foot ahead, and going like a cannon-ball. 
The cat’s back and sides rubbed against 
the brushes, and her electricity was thus 
extracted. With a storage battery, and 
by sending a cat through every five min¬ 
utes, I generated enough electricity to 
operate my entire plant, light my fac¬ 
tory, and sell power to run neighboring 
passenger elevators and small machinery. 
It also took the yowl out of cats, and 
gradually the city became quiet. At the 
end of a week a cat could be caught and 
used again. 
Bronchitis.— The usual symptoms of this disease 
are Cough, Soreness of the Lungs or Throat, Hoarse¬ 
ness, Difficulty of Breathing, Hectic Fever, a spitting 
of phlegm or matter, and sometimes blood, it is an 
inflammation of the flne skin lining the inside of the 
whole of the wind tubes or air vessels which run 
through every part of the Lungs. Jayne’s Expecto¬ 
rant immediately suppresses the Cough, Pain, In¬ 
flammation, Fever, and Difficulty of Breathing: pro¬ 
duces a free and easy expectoration, and effects a 
speedy cure.— Adv. 
SAVE MONEY 
rnn.mrmnTm, 8150 Top Buggy . 875.00 
8100Top Buggy.852.50 
885 Top Buggy.... .840.00 
885 Spring Wagon...843.50 
810 Single Harness....85.25 
828 Team Harness...814.50 
816 Texas Saddle.89.25 
ALL GOODS FULLY WARRANT. 
ED and shipped anywhere to any¬ 
one at WHOLESALE prices, with privilege to examine^ 
We are headquarters for Buggies, Carts, Phaetons, Ex- 
. ..coo, etc. 8end at once tot 
tree catalogue. CASH BUYERS' UNION, , 
168 VV. Van Burenjgt* B 56. Chicago. 11*. 
press Wagons, Harness, Sad 
AM mi 11| A MACHINERY and SUPPLIES 
UAMYIIVU D. G. Trench Co., Chicago, Ill., and 
Farnham, N. Y Mention this paver. 
TO AX Y BOY OK UlKh 
under 18 years of ape who will work for 
us after school. NO MONEY NEEDED, 
nd this adv. to A. CURTIS & CO. 
FREE 
ODDS AND ENDS. 
That Hired Man. —I am sorry Carrie 
T. Meigs put the name of Vermont after 
her diatribe against the hired man. I 
protest that she does not present a fair 
example of Vermont farmers or their 
hired men. My father hired from two to 
twenty men, according to the year and 
season. My husband (one of the fore¬ 
men) often has had from two to six, and 
always I have delivered orders and seen 
to the pay, if the occasion made it seem 
desirable, and I have never had any “con¬ 
trary” men or “cussedness.” In this 
part of the State a man is called narrow¬ 
minded who thinks a woman, because she 
is a woman, must stay in the house, and, 
of course, if a man the same as tells his 
hired man that his wife knows nothing, 
and then tells his wife to “boss,” he may 
expert breakers ahead, for no one wants 
a fool for a “ bose,” I maintain that a 
THE NURSERY BOOK. 
By L. H. Bailey, assisted by several of the most 
skillful propagators in the world. In fact, it is a 
careful compendium of the best practice in all 
countries. It contains 107 illustrations, showing 
methods, processes and appliances. How to propa¬ 
gate over 2,000 varieties of shrubs, trees and her¬ 
baceous or soft-stemmed plants; the process for 
each being fully described. All this and much more 
is fully told in The Nursery Book. 
Over 300 pages, i 6 mo. Price, cloth, $ 1 . Pocket 
style, paper, narrow margins, 50 cents. 
THE RURAL PUBLISHING CO., 
Cor. Chambers and Pearl Sts., New York. 
Waltham and Elgin Watches. 
At greatly reduced prices for Rural New- 
Yorker subscribers only. 
Those who have received Waltham or 
Elgin watches from The Rural New- 
Yorker have been perfectly satisfied. 
The arrangement under which they are 
purchased is in the interest of our sub¬ 
scribers. The usual big profits are alto¬ 
gether eliminated. These offers are open 
only to Rural subscribers. 
If your subscription is already paid in 
advance and you want a watch, your 
II 
time may be extended or new subscrip¬ 
tions secured; or the watch alone may 
be bought by subscribers only at the 
prices named. 
* * * All are sent prepaid and insured, 
by registered mail. 
Every watch is guaranteed to be an 
accurate timekeeper. Money refunded if 
watch is not satisfactory and is returned 
within three days after receipt. Please 
write your opinion of the watches re¬ 
ceived. 
Offer No 164.—Waltham or Elgin, men’s size, with 
seven jewels, compensation balance and safety 
pinion, stem winding and setting apparatus and all 
the latest Improvements. The case Is solid nickel 
silver, open face, and the crystal Is made of heavy 
plate-glass. The usual price of this watch is $8.50 to 
$12.50. We send It to subscribers by registered mall 
for $5.50; with three new subscriptions. $8. 
Offer No. 168.—A Waltham or Elgin 15-jeweled 
watch, containing all the great patents, such as com¬ 
pensation balance, safety pinion, stem winding and 
pendant setting apparatus. Breguet hair spring 
hardened and tempered In form, patent regulator, 
etc., fitted into a heavy nickel silver case, open face, 
like that mentioned In offer No. 164. The works alone 
In this watch usually sell at from $12 to $15. We send 
it by mall to any subscriber for $10; with three new 
subscriptions $12. 
Offer No 169.—This Is a 15-year guarantee gold- 
tilled watch case, containing a 15-jeweled movement 
and all Improvements mentioned under Offer No. 167. 
The case is beautifully engraved and Is made by 
placing two plates of solid gold over a plate of tine 
composition metal. This Is an open-face watch, and 
we cannot recommend It too highly. Sent to any 
subscriber by registered mall for only $15.55; with a 
club of five new subscriptions $19.25. 
Offer No. 170.—Same watch as No. 169, but hunting 
case. Sent by registered mall to any subscriber for 
$18.50; with three new subscriptions *21. 
No. 4. C.—For those who want the best and are will¬ 
ing to trust our judgment, we have selected a watch 
which combines richness with perfect finish. It can¬ 
not be surpassed as a timekeeper. It Is full jeweled, 
the jewels being set In solid gold. It has the finest 
and simplest patent regulator known, as well as a 
patent safety pinion, compensation balance and 
Logan’s celebrated Breguet halr-sprlng, which is 
bent to the required form and then hardened and 
tempered. It is thoroughly adjusted so that It will 
keep accurate time whether hot or cold. It Is made 
by the American Waltham Watch Company, and 
called “ P. 8. Bartlett.” Hundreds of people have 
paid as high as $125 for this watch, and the usual re¬ 
tail price Is now from $85 to $105. We offer It In a 14k 
gold, two ounces to 2 14 ounces (40 to 45 dwt.) case, 
hunting or open face, handsomely finished. Price, 
$43.50 ; with a five years’ subscription, or five new 
subscriptions, $47.50. 
People who want this magnificent watch In a 
cheaper case can have It In gold-filled case, guaran¬ 
teed for 15 years, for $22 In hunting case, and for 
$19.50 In open face ; for $19.50 in three ounce coin 
silver, hunting or open face ; for $12.75 in nickel 
sliver, open-face case ; a year’s ^subscription In¬ 
cluded with each one. 
No. 15.—A beautiful 11-Jewel movement, full nickel, 
In a handsomely engraved hunting case made of 14k 
U. 8 . Assay solid gold, usual retail price from $50 to 
$75. One of the prettiest watches for a lady that we 
have ever seen. Price $25 net; with five new sub¬ 
scriptions, $28.50 
THE RURAL PUBLISHING COMPANY 
Cor. Chambers and Pearl Sts., N. Y. 
