SEEK OIL LAND
UNDER RED RIVER
Wichita Indians Now Set Up An
cient Title to River
Channel.
HISTORY INVOLVED IN SUIT
Question Engrosses Attention of Law
yers, Oil Men, Land Owners and
Federal anil State Officials—Gives
History of Wichita Claim.
Austin, Tex,— Seldom lias a case
been lilt'd in American courts in whi li
hi Kory has been involved to I lie ex
tent that it is in tin; question of the
ownership of the channel or the Rod
river, beneath the bed of which are
valuable oil deposits.
This question lias been engrossing
the attention of lawyers, oil men. land
owners and federal and state officials.
The state of Texas claims ownership
m the lii'il of tiie river to the center
of tiie channel, while the federal gov
ernment and the s-tate of Oklahoma
oppose the claim of Texas under tiie
terms of the treaty of Spain In 181ft,
ny which the northern boundary of (lie
Spanish dominions in Texas was desig
nated as the south bant of tiie lied
■river.
The federal authorities hold that
tiie ownership of the Red river bed
areas in dispute belong to the Indian
tidies which owned Hie adjacent res
ervations. and the state of Oklahoma
maintains that, as a meandering
at ream, (lie bed of (lie Red river is
Slate proper)> ami should be leased
for the benefit of the state school fun'.'
Another Claimant.
Joseph It. Thobtirn. - 'ere!ary of tiie
'Oklahoma Historic- I m iety, lias ad
vanced tiie s'lgg. si ion that there is
still at.other claimant to the owner
il|:” i.f the oil bearing area of the
'"la one! of the Red river, namely, the
iciiita Indians. Mr. Thulium in the
course o; an extended statement says:
' “Older than any of (lie claims of
■ownership which arc now being
pressed for the possession of the oil
bearing areas of the channel of tiie
Rod river -older that! any claim of
-the State of Texas by rights derived
from Mexico or Spain, and older than
any claim of the State of Oklahoma
or of tin* United States which may
have been derived from France
through the purchase of Louisiana -
is Ihe right of the aboriginal owners
of tiie land on both sides of the river,
and these are the people of the Wich
ita tribe of Indians.
"The ancestors of the Wichita Tn
xlians have lived in Oklahoma and ad
jacent states for a thousand years, and
for approximately live hundred years
past they have occupied tiie country
on both sides of tiie Red river in that
part, of its course where it traverses
tiie Burkhurncit oil fields. In using
the word ‘occupied’ in this connection.
BOYS REGISTER FOR MILITARY TRAINING
11’ousiUifls of school ltovs of New York arc rotpsteriiij; for participation
In ilie compulsory iruimu;; required under the Sluter law. Most of the tej
islet di:; is beiny; done at the armories
I do so advisedly, for these people i
have always been sedentary in their
habits, living in fixed villages and de
pending largely upon the cultivation
of the soil for Iheir subsistence.
“The rights of the Wichita Indians
to the ownership of these lands has
never boon extinguished by purchase,
exchange or otherwise, though state,
and federal governments have seem
ingly proceeded on tin.; theory that no
swell right ever existed. From the time
of its foundation the federal govern
ment has always paid due regard, at
least in form, to the extinguishment
of title* to lands which were claimed
by the several Indian tribes under i.b
originnl occupancy. The one exception
to tills* lias been that of the Wichita
Indians, who lived in (he upper 11■ 1
river country, between the Canadian
and Brazos rivers.
Indians Cede Land.
“In 1818 certain chiefs and warriors
of (be Quapnw tribe of Indians, in
council at St. Louis with William
Clark and Auguste Chouteau, as com
missioners representing tin* govern
ment of the United States, entered in
to a treaty by the terms of which they (
SINGER SUFFERS
TRIALS TN ITALY
pSL
i
Miss McVane 'V s Victim of
Many Persecutions Dur
ing the War.
SCOFFED AT IN STREET
American Ambassador Puts Wheels iri
Motion and Her Blackmailer Is
Sent to Prison—Puccini Planned
an Opera for Her.
New York.—"If there was lack of
artistic temperament in the original
composition of Miss Dorothea Alastair j
McVane, her experiences as a profes
sional singer in Italy would have
made good the defect, for she so im
pressed the great Puccini that, at his ;
instance, she made her operatic debut
as Mimi, in his "La ISoheme," carry
ing through the part with success
when she was in tiie first stages of
typhoid fever; she fell under official
suspicion as a spy in Taranto, where
there is an Italian naval station; she
underwent a siege of blackmail that
resulted in sending two oppressors to
prison, and site became the betrothed
of a young noble, who was killed in the
war.
In addition, her progress toward a
career was hampered by the stern op
position of her father, Silas Marcus
McVane, formerly professor of history
and international law in Harvard, re
tiring as emeritus professor. After
ward the family became so proud of
the young singer that they established
a home in Home, where Professor Mo
Vane died at about the beginning of
the war.
Scoffed and Hissed.
In connection with the spy and
blackmail episodes it seems that Miss
MoV'nne unwittingly snapped her cam
era whim the lens was pointed in the
direction of masked batteries. Soon
she became the object of scoffing in
the street, she was hissed at tlie op
era. she found herself unable to get
letters to her friends or to hear from
them. She became so nervous and dis
pirited that she wished to go away,
regardless of her operatic contract,
and was threatened with arrest if site
tried to go. When, at last, men an
noyed her with threats of publishing
the spy story and thus ruining her
career unless she paid money to them,
she contrived to got word to the
American ambassador in Home, who
put the wheels in motion for a black
mail trial, whereby Miss McVane was
cleared and tlie men were punished.
She was led to adopt singing as a |
profession on the advice of artists and i
otlters who beard her voice in Paris, 1
where she had gone merely to perfect
1 her French. When her French instruc
. tors sent her to Milan, with letters to
the composer Puccini, she knew the j
leading roles in 20 operas. It was re
ported that I’uecini intended to write
an opera for her, but the war ab
sorbed him in oilier affairs.
Miss McVane is something of n
psychic. Tlie story is that I lot it she
and her titled lover believed firmly in
the survival of personality after death
and the ability of the disembodied
spirit to communicate with tile living;
and that they exchanged vows that the
one dying lirst would visit the surviv
or on earth. Kver since the lover died
she is said to have been expecting such
a visit.
Miss McYane's sisters are Miss
Kditii McVane. managing writer and
novelist, and the Baroness Dodoman
do Phiey, whose husband is a French
cavalry officer. The McVane home in
Home was long a favorite meeting
place for social, literary and artistic
celebrities.
Lightning’s Pranks.
Marrietta, Pa.—During a heavy elec
trical storm a holt struck the residence
of t’harles S. Spangler and knocked
out a beam in the middle of his garret
i without tearing a hole in the roof.
The outside was considerably damaged,
j Fire ensued, hut the downpour of
| rain extinguished it. \t tile home >rf
I H. Henninga tile house was struck
land the kitchen “upset” without
causing a fire.
coded all of tho lands In Oklahoma and
Texas between tho Arkansas and Can
adian rivers on the north and the Red
river on the south to the government.
The fact that the Quapaw Indians
lived lr eastern Arkansas, that they
seldom went as far west as the eastern
boundary of Oklahoma and that they
never by occupancy dr otherwise exer
cised any form of ownership or juris
diction over any of the lands within
200 miles of the region where the
Wichitas were living, do not seem to
have entered into the consideration
at all, if, indeed, tho government com
missioners had any knowledge of thc
oxistence of the Wichitas at that time.
Vet, with ibis Quapaw transaction ns
a basis, the government of the United
States executed a giant of those lands
to tlie people later. More than thirty
years later the Wichita people first
learned that their country had been
sold by the Quapaw and then granted
to the Choctaws.
“If the government of tho United
Stall's ever means to do tire square
and honornhie thing by the Wichita j
Indians it will never have a better
chance than it lias at the present time.
Their hinds are gone—sold to strung- :
ers without recompense to them and
without their consent—but they S’tlll
have an equitable claim f«» the owner
ship of the lied lliver channel oil prop
erties, and simple justice demands
that they be given a chance to estab
lish it.”
KILLS CAT: TROUBLE RESULTS
Policeman Shot Woman at Same Time
ard Cour4 Gives Her $1,150
Verdict.
Minneapolis. A rat which more
than :t year ago perched on the hack
f. nee at Mrs. Carrie Miller’s home,
caused litigation which h;is been In
Ihe courts ever since and which re
sulted in a verdict oi $1.1.'>t) in favor
of Mrs. Mi Her,
The cat was alleged to he an in
valid its peculiar actions had caused
neigh'.>ors to summon the police and
Serjit. William I’. Mealey was d ■>
patcl <• i from the North Side preeinet
station to shoot tlie animal.
He took a shotgun and fired while
the cat was perched on the Miller
fence. Me filled the eat. hut stray
shots hit Mrs. Miller, whom Men ley
could not see on account of the fence,
inflicting painful though not sort mi*
wounds. Suit was brought against
Meidey and the Hartford Accident and
indemnity Co., his bondsmen.
NOW TREAT SOLDIERS
Rcve! in Baths Once for Miliion
sire Huns.
Red Cross Refits Salnburg Watering
Place fer Rheumatic
Ro manians.
liucharest.—The famous '■ult baths
(if Snlsburg, where the millionaires of
! Austria Hungary and the italkan
! states used to spend their summers,
now are curing rheumatie Roumanian
soldiers.
Stripped of all their luxurious fur
nishings during the war. the SaKhtirg
haths have just been refitted with the
aid of the American Red Cross for use
as a military hospital for chronic rheu
matism resulting from trench war
fare. Five hundred soldiers are there,
recovering from rheumatism and slm
ilar diseases contracted while under
going llie hardships of war.
In times of peace thousands of tour
ists visited Salsburg, high up in the!
Transylvanian Alps, southwest of!
Kronstadt. Many came for the daz
zling social life. With its magnificent j
hotels and gay casino. It was perhaps
tile chief showplace of eastern Europe.
When tlic ticru.ans pushed the Uoti
maniuiis out of this district early in
the war (icneral Mttckehsen and his
stair took possession of tin' town nud
staged Insurious revelry there. When
tite Carmans left they looted the place,
stripped the hotels of tapestries, fur
niture nud brass fittings. Even the
equipment for the medicinal haths was
wrecked.
I’mler the direction of Maj. Ceorge
('. Treadwell of Albany. N. V., and
several American physicians. the
liaths were relitted sufficiently to cure
for the soldiers.
Neither Brussels sprouts nor Brut,
sets carpets hail from the city whencs
they take their name.
KING ALBERT AT THE TOMB OF LINCOLN
.\v- Albert, kit
]>;iy tribute ti>
:■ !! Belgian*. passed through IIUu.ils «»»» his way to Washington. he ■ '"J’l"’'1 Springfield f°
i , iitory of Abraham Lincoln, lie is shown reading an address in front of Lincolns tomb.
FIRST MINISTER FROM POLAND TO AMERICA ARRIVES
Prince Oasimir Lubomirski, tirsi Polish minister to the United States. with his family, photographed on their
nrrivu!;in New York.
MARSHAL FQCH WELCOMED IN HIS HOME
A glorious welcome home w;ih tendered Marshal Focli upon his triumphant
return to Tnrbes, his birthplace. The photograph shows the great louder on
the stops of his home listening to a speech of welcome delivered by one of the
townsfolk.
PEACE USE FOR WAR GAG MASK
fr-^wSY’hoto fey 'W.SSrPSf&R
item Newgpaftcr Uniot.
There are many Industries where men work in the Immediate vicinity of
deadly gases, such as sulphuric acid nilric, and hydrochloric acids, and the
gas mask, slightly modified from its army design, Is feted an efficient pre
ventive agni.is! injury from th*se fumes Our photograph shovs workman
■pairing n break In an ammonia refrigerating plant, the mask protecting
i’m from (Its noxious fumes.
BACK FROM WORK IN RUSSIA
l.'iMil. A. M. t’liforth. I . S. illi 1)tII■
i nllii' lic to Russia, with his nine inontl
■ ild Imliy. Alexander, photographed m
Ills arrival on tin* Amorim. Ho tint
: i)on<*<| to Ik* in Ilu-sla when war \v»i>
deehired ttiul Ik* stayed there for thro*
years. During that time he married :t
Russian girl.
FRANCE TRAVELS ROUGH ROAD
will be LoriQ Before the Nation Has
Recovered From the Effects of
the Great War.
The eusiial (il.server sees no want in
France. There is no shortage in the
hotels, the restaui ants or the shops.
:tut the masses have little. France
made a pretense of fixing prices. Init
lid nothing to make price fixing effec
tive. In England a starvation schert
de existed in the host Jmtels and res
aurunts during the war. No one was
11 lowed to have mtielt more than his
share, regardless of the size of his
pocket hook. France e on abandoned
her meatless days because there was
plenty of meat. There was plenty he
■ause no one couid afford to buy it.
During the war people struggled
ahead, upheld by patriotism and Imps.
Now there seems no hope and no w;nn
llus. The cost of living has contin
ued to mount, flutter was $•_> a pound
ill Paris last winter and eggs the same
price per dozen. Meat ranged around
a dollar a pound, while vegetables
were on a similar level. And there
has been no increas ,in Income in most
cases in any way proportionate to the
increase in expenses. The hotel, res.
taurant and shopkeepers, who nowji
seem to he reaping a golden harvest,
lost heavily tor four years, and it will
1> a long time before they are even.
Much of France’s invested wealth was
In Russia : lost of her industries lay
In the now dev,'.stilted regions* of the
North. To the great majority there
seems no chance of heating hack.—
Walter Kellog Towers in World Out
1 lock.