The Searchlight (Guthrie, Okla.), No. 460, Ed. 1 Friday, February 15, 1907 Page: 3 of 16
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J. M
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as over Iho other counties of the
state.
In 1885 the United States and Texas
made a second unsuccessful attempt
to settle the controversy- through com-
missioners; and this failure was fol-
lowed by a provision In the organic
act of the Territory of Oklahoma, ap-
proved May 2, 1890, excluding Greer
coutnty from its boundaries until the
same might bo adjudged to bo no part
of the state of Texas, and authorizing
a suiit, which was brought in the su-1
preme court of the United States to
determine the question.
In 1897 the supreme court of the
state of Texas rendered judgment can-
celling a number of patents to lands
In the county on the ground that the
act of 1879 reserved them from the
location of the certificates heretofore
mentioned and appropriated them for
the use of the public schools and to
pay the public debt, which in effect
destroyed all claims of title through
Texas; and in the same year Presi-
dent Cleveland issued a proclamation
asserting the claim of the United
States to the county and warning all
persons attempting to acquire title to
any of the lands hefe; but possessory
rights were recognized to be in the
peaceful possessions of the courts.'
The county was the subject of a num-
ber of proclamations and executive
messages.
Some of the settlers had come here
believ/ing that Texas owned the coun-!
ty and others believing that the Uni-
ted States did; and the amount of
land taken by each generally indi-
cated the source from which he ex-
pected to ultimately acquire title.
After years of work by council on
the resepective sides in hunting for
and taking evidence, (including not
only examination of foreign archives
but additional explorations of the riv-
ers in question. The supreme court:
of the United States, on March 1G,!
189C, decided the controversy against ■
1 exas, the notification, being received
at Mangum on the following day
while district court was in session and
engaged in trying the case of D. M.
usborne and Company vs. S. C Van-
lee/.
Although the effects of the decision
was to transfer the county from the
defacto jurisdiction of Texas to the de
jure jurisdiction of Oklahoma, the
county was without government until;
by virtue of an act of congress ap-
proved May .4, 1896, the officers of
Greer county, Texas, assumed corre-
sponding positions as officers of Greer
county, Oklahoma; and the same act
validated the proceedings of the court
and officers of Greer county, Texas,
and otherwise provided for the tran-
sition to the new jurisdiction.
Immediately after the decision of
March 16, 1896, many of the settlers
believed they would be put out and
that the land would be treated as In-
dian lands; but everybody got busy
petitioning congress for relief and
sending district Judge G. A. Brown to
Washington to lobby for the same.
By act of January 18, 1897, the
lands of the county were opened to
homesteaders free; and there was a
clamse giving the settlers of March 16
1896, a preference right to take free a
homestead and to purchase at $1.00
per acre not to exceed 160 acres of
additional land of which they were!
possessed, etc.
The struggles of tho settlers against|
the misfortunes of crop failures in
1892, 1893, 1894, and 1895, due to the
lack of knowledge of the soil and eli-!
mate in relation to the various crops !
that might have been grown success-
fully, was a memorable one; but in
late years the people have been find-
ing and developing the resources of
the country and making for them-
selves good homes and agreeable en-1
vironments.
WALTER FERGUSON.
to be strongly relied upon to show the
effect upon Thaw of the stories re-
lated to him by Evelyn Nesbit Thaw.
The counsel today declared the alleg-
ed provisions of the will made public
last night were inaccurate.
Must Be Obscene.
(Dy Associated Press.)
Ottawa. Feb. 9.—Tho postmaster
general threatens to throw out of tho
mails all papers that publish theThaw
trial.
Object to Testimony.
(By Associated Press.)
Chattanooga, Tenn.. Feb. 9.—A call
was published today for a mass meet- ;
ing of women tomorrow to protest
against the publication of the detailed
testimony in the Thaw case.
>\
THAW TRIAL INCIDENTS.
New York, Feb. 9.—It is expected
that Attorney Delmas will make a vig-
orous effort on Monday to introduce
Thaws' will in evidence. It is believed
Pen Picture of Delmas, Who Hopes to
Free Thaw.
New York, Feb. 9.—Mr. Delmas of
California, the man upon whom it is
and not always applauding public,
to save his life, looks as much like the
great Napoleon today as he did some
fifteen years ago—the first time I saw
him, in California, says Winfred Black
in writing of the Thaw trial for the
New York American.
. The first time I ever looked at Mr. j
Delmas I saw him over the heads of
a courtroom full of women and trial
hangers-on. He was the attorney on
one side of one of the most celebrated
will cases ever tried in a state famous
for its will cases.
A rich man had died somewhere up
in the state and, dying, had left huge
sacks of jingling sold somewhere out j
of the lid of his coffin.
A woman, the wife of his dead broth
er, arose and claimed half of the es- *
tate on the ground that the dead mil-
lionaire was the father of her child,
and that he had made a will in favor
of that child and of her.
The widow of the millionaire denied
the claim of the woman who boldly I
announced herself to be the dead
man's light o'love, and the two women
went to court ajid tore each other to
pieces in the full gaze of the curious
and not always aplauding public.
Both women were handsome, bo'h
were clever and both were at that in-
; teresting age when the past casts a
| glance of romance over the plainest j
i face and where the future is not yet 1
1 close enough to be terrifying.
Frisco Was All There.
The widow of the dead millionaire
was tall, calm, slender and Madonna-
like. The light o'love was tall, rosy
and had a pair of eyes full of the joy ;
of living. All San Francisco fought at
| the door of that court room for en-
trance to tho t'rial.
The light of love was represented
by a man named Johnson. He was a
lawyer, known to the whole coast as
a man of amazing eloquence. Mr.
Delmas represented tho Madonna-
faced widow.
The case dragged and dragged. One
witness contradicted today what an-
other had said yesterday. And tomor-
row came three who toid yet a differ-
ent story. There were writing experts
and medical experts and legal experts
on the stand, beside a perfect cloud of
plain people.
At last the whole tedious business
drew near the close and Mr. Johnson
made the address for his client. He
made a magnificent speech, reasonable
and well considered, but at the end of
it he caught up the child who was one
of the contestants in the case and held
him up to the jury, tangled curls, blue
eyes, frightened flashed frca and all
"And if you gentlemen do not gi/e
my client justice," said Mr. Johnson,
"I call here and now upon the God of
the woman and the fatlieress to give
this innocent child his rights in the es-
tate of his acknowledged father!" |
Some of the jurors cried, some of,
them sneered and some of them'
laughed aloud, but every one of them1
was moved out of the lethargy into
which the long weeks of tireless liti-
gation had thrown them.
Mr. Delmas rose on the heels of a
fit of hysteria which threatened to
convulse the entire court room. He
spoke as calmly as if he were order
ing his breakfast. His straight-for-
ward and handsome face was a3 be-
reaved of any trace of emotion as Is
the carven face of an angel on an an- ■
cient and forgoten tomb. The sting-
ing logic of his argument bit like vitri- j
ol into every mind that marked and
understood him.
He tore the evidence with which Mr.
Johnson had fortified his client's case
to pieces, bit by bit, shred by shred, 1
and atom by atom. He did it with a
cold ironv that was somehow over- !
w.relmingly convincing.
'This won't never do," whispered a
listening lawyer to me. "This will
never do. Delmas' logic is all right,
but 'Johnson has the jury into hys- !
terics. Ilefl get the^ase unless some-
one throws a bucke^pf cold, water into
that jury box beforMfail judge delivers
his charge."
When the evidencft' iiad been abso-
lutely swept out of the case as a floor
is swept before the energetic broom of
a conscientious housemaid, Mr. Del- 1
mas turned suddenly to the convinced j
union jury. He leaned forward and
fixed the attorney for the other side 1
with his piercing black eyes and said,
with a sudden access of fury:
"To what God does mv iearned
friend, Mr. Johnson, appeal for iustice
in this case? To the God who thund-
ered from Sinai, 'Thou shalt not com- |
mit adultry,?"
The jurv caugli* Ps breath, the
bucket of cold waiter had done its
work, and Mr. Delmas' client walked
out of the court room a triumphant
woman.
I wonder if in the handling of that
case there was anything like prophecy
as to what Delmas, the man from Cali-
fornia, will do when he rises to snatch
Harry Thaw from the electric chair
A PEN PICTURE
(By Homer Davenport.)
New York, Feb. 9.—I have been to a
good many trials where the penalty
was death—trials that involved men
from Captain Dreyfus down to the
lowest murderer. I have heard pas-
sages of evidence in some of those
trials that moved one's emotions.
But I have never seen a courthouse
so universally affected as was the
courtroom when Florence Evelyn Nes-
bit Thaw told of her tragedy of Madi-
| son Square garden tower, not of the
I tragedy of the roof garden, but of the
colder blooded plot in the tower,
where she, a little girl in short
dresses, of 16 years, was enticed by a
sly, grinning man; not a fool that
stumbled onto his pray, but a well
bred, cultured, talented man.
I thought as Evelyn Nesbit Thaw
took the stand, with her veil liftedi
how beautiful such a girl could be if
she had been properly protected at
home. Her hair was as carelessly un-
kempt as a school girl's who had
| romped across some field in a heavy
dew going to a country school. She
didn't look more than 17, and her
! voice was as sweet as a voice could
be. Her eyes quickened and her speech
| trembled a little as she told of seeing
| her husband shoot Stanford White.
And the judge even leaned heavily on
| his left elbow to catch her words
when, at the request of Dr. Delmas,
she repeated the story she had told
| Harry Thaw is Paris—the reasons she
' gave when she refused his first offer
of marriage.
If I am correct in my impressions,
Evelyn Nesbit was a chorus girl and a
dancer. She never had speaking parts,
and the story she told sounded like a
true story. I doubt if any girl could
have memorized such a story, so
straightforward and with such a ring
of sincerity did she speak. It was a
pity to waste such a sermon on such
| an audience. If its dramatic ghast-
| liness could have been heard by all 10-
, year-old girls of the world it would
save many an innnocent life. For a
man to sit and listen to the story of
such an elaborate trap hv such a craf-
ty person as Stanford White was
| enough to make him realize that af-
ter all mankind is the lowest animal
1 owing to his ability to deceive.
When this pale little girl told of tho
beautiful swings where Stanford
White swung them till their daintv
young feet pierced a largo Japanese
umbralla, hung from the ceiling, you
could almost imagine this fine bene-
volent man, who had taken so much
fatherly Interest in young girls' decay
ing teeth, fixing up a tower where
they could come and enjoy their dolls
and play keep house as a kind heart-
ed gentleman whose delight was to
amuse and educate the young. If such
had been the case, what a beautiful
monument the tower of Madison
Square garden would be to point out
to visitors to the city.
. "There is where Stanford White en-,
tertained little children as lie would it'
they were his own daughters; where
he had swings and children's dinners
and entertainments."
But that was not true. Insead, this
poorly advised little girl's story will
be believed by every one who hearn
it, and when you have heard it and
then look at that tower, you will shud-
der. You will almost believe that
Stanford White built it for the pur-
pose for which he used It. and little
wonder that his crime overtook him
in the very building he had planned.
I had given my seat by the report-
ers' table to another writer and was
back among some strong, mature men.
W'hen this frail girl told her story
these men shuddered and grew pale.
I saw tears glistening in Judge Fitz-
gerald's eyes that he didirf wipe away.
Distinguished women writers that I
have seen in almost every great crimi-
nal trial in recent years were almost
crying aloud.
Mr. Jerome was as pale and nervous
as was Harry Thaw the first day of
the trial. Never was such a moment
in a courtroom. Bailiffs tried not to
show emotion, but did. and while
every eye was wet. a stern, white
haired, well groomed man, sitting next
to me, leaned over and, with a tremb-
ling whisper said:
"I believe that story is true!"
THE PASSING OF THE PASS.
One of the best proofs .if the power
of the railroad pass in influencing leg-
islation has been shown by tho action
of the state legislatures of more than
a dozen states and the general ten-
dency all over the country to call for
' a square deal from the railroads.
Looking at the pass system of se-
ducing legislators and officers, the
marvel is that the people of this coun-
| try stood for such a bold system of
bribery for so long a time, without
complaint, or at least without taking
any decided action.
If the amounts of cash represented
by the benefits of a railroad pass had
| been handed over to a state legisla-
ture, tho whole country would have
held up its hands in horror. They
i took no notice of the pernicious influ-
ence of tho pass, until very recently.
With the passing of the pass system
and prohibition of rebates, a new era
of railroading is coming, indeed, is
already here. It will not injure legiti-
mate railroading. It will hit watered
stocks, stock gambling, and exton-
tionate rates, but it will only make
more room for the honest builder and
owner of railroads.
The people of this country are not
fools. They know that railroads are a
Publis necessity. They know that, in
order to have them, railroads must be
kept on a profitable basis, considering
the actual investment.
The people are not fools. It is no
'use for railroad magnates or manipu-
lators to plead for a dividend or in-
terest based on common stock, pre-
ferred stock and bonds amounting to
$91,000 dollars per mile on these level
western prairies. The people are not
idiots, why expect them to stand for
such stock jobbing (projects? The
marvel is that they have stood for it
so long.
HAD EATEN ONIONS.
Here is one that is being told on a
Perry woman: She went into a jewel-
ry store to buy a ring. The clerk ask-
ed, "Eighteen karats?" "Naw," she re-
p lied, "been 'atin' onions."
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The Searchlight (Guthrie, Okla.), No. 460, Ed. 1 Friday, February 15, 1907, newspaper, February 15, 1907; Guthrie, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc286210/m1/3/: accessed March 29, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.