When the print is so faded that it cannot be read <.....> will be used . All transcription will be as found in the paper, misspellings and all

Page 2, column 4

Dawson Items.
Special correspondence to The Democrat.
      Coal business is dull at present.
      John McBride has gone to Neosho, Wichita and intermediate points on business this week.
      Dawson has a new barber shop, Henry Gibson is knight of the razor.
      S. V. Abercrombie made a business trip to Sapulpa Monday.
      Sidney McBride, one of Mingo's rustling farmers, was in town Tuesday.
      J. W. Corwin manipulates his new typewriter like an experienced office man.
      Alex X. Lewis returned from Vinita on Saturday.
      Sebastian Reise is on the sick list this week.
      Wm. Smith has taken a large shipping contract from John McBride.
      Some of our enterprising farmers are taking advantage of the fine weather and are breaking land for spring planting.

Ladies shoes in all sizes at J M Hall & Co.

Page 2, column 5

A FATEFUL HOME ON BIRD CREEK.
The Scene of Death and Disaster for Two Years.
ANOTHER NEGRO FATALLY SHOT.
Mysterious Chain of Crimes Committed at the Rowe Home
- An Unfortunate Locality.
      On last Thursday evening John Rowe, colored, shot and wounded George Clark, another negro, at Rowe's home on Bird creek. The two men had some misunderstanding about some money Rowe owed Clark. It is said that Clark flourished a razor and threatened to kill Rowe, when the latter fired a load of heavy shot at a distance of ten feet, the charge taking effect in Clark's right shoulder. Some wadding and several pieces of bone were removed, leaving a hole in the shoulder two inches in diameter.
      On the 20th of last March Clark participated in an all-round fight at Elgin, Kas., in which he received injuries that caused the amputation of his left arm above the elbow. His body is covered with old scars.
      The shooting of George Clark occurred at the former home of Lewis Wright, colored, who was shot and killed on February 20th, 1898, by Lewis Scott also colored, over a dispute about a claim. Wright was chopping wood about a mile and half from his home on land claimed by Scott, when he was shot from ambush. His body was found next day. Evidence pointed to the guilt of Scott, who after some delay, was tried and acquitted upon some technicality. On the 25th of last may, Rowe's mother, an aged negress, died in the same house.

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Page 3, column 2

Renters Have Gone.
      There are a great many vacant farms in the country south of Coffeyville. A disposition in some quarters to "fire" the renters led to an emigration of considerable magnitude, many of the latter class preferring to get out rather than go to the expense and trouble of entering the courts and defending any equities they might have in the places they occupied.

A Job For Springer.
      It is reported that Judge Springer has been retained as counsel by the city of Chicago in the drainage ditch affair which is to be fought in the halls of congress and the courts of St. Louis.

Page 3, column 3

A MILLION DOLLARS IN LAND AND MONEY.
New Court Decision Will Save Choctaws and Chickasaws a Fortune.
FRAUDS AND ERRORS DISCOVERED.
Over a Hundred and Thirty Names
Have Been Stricken From the Rolls.
      An Ardmore dispatch says: - In 1898 a large number of claimants were admitted to citizenship in the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations by Judge Hosea Townsend, of the Southern district, in the cases which had been appealed from the Dawes Commission.
      A year ago P. P. Hopkins, representing the Dawes Commission, made a report in which a large number of errors, discrepancies and frauds, in the judgement of the court, were pointed out. Judge Townsend reopened many of the cases last March, with the result that Mr. Hopkins' report was fully sustained, and enough people excluded from the court judgements to save the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations more than $1,000,000 in land and money.
      These cases which continued last March were called for final hearing today before Judge Townsend. The Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations were represented by their attorney. About 130 persons were stricken off the Dawes Commission rolls.

 Page 3, column 4

Medical Fees.
      The Cherokee Medical Association met at Sallisaw last week and adopted the following fee bill to govern the practice of medicine in the country.
      Prescriptions, from 50c to $2; Day visits, city, $1.50; night visits, city, $2.50; day visits, country, per mile extra, 75c; night visits, country, extra, $2.00; day visits, less than one mile outside the city limits, $2; detention, per hour $1; consultations, $10; obstetrics, $10-$50; fractures, $10 to $50; dislocations, $5 to $25; vaccination, 50c. - R. T. Kellram, President; S. B. Jones, Secretary.

New a City.
      South McAlester is now a full fledged city of the firstclass, duly presented with its magna charta by Judge Clayton and so declared.

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 Page 4, column 5

Burned to Death.
      A special from Bartlesville, I. T., brings the harrowing information that an aged insane Indian woman named Mrs. Patyak was burned to death on Hominy creek, twenty-five miles west of that place. She lived with her son, and latter when to Pawhuska and left her alone. During his absence it is suppose <...> set fire to the hut in which <...> lived. When he returned <...> found the hut reduced to ashes and his mother burned to death.

 Page 5, column 1

 The report of Inspector Zeveley on the investigation of the administration of W. J. Pollock, agent of the Osage Indian agency, is still before Secretary Hitchcock. While the report makes an unfavorable showing for Pollock, it is understood that no charges showing maladministration of a criminal character have been sustained. The conclusion of the special inspector tend to show Pollock's lack of proper qualifications for the place rather than any direct and willful violation of law. It is not improbable tht Secretary Hitchcock may not consider the evidence against Pollock as sufficent to justify his removal.

Sedan Lance: - R. W. Black and Eugene Hayes, of Elgin came into Sedan Wednesday on the Missouri Pacific from the west and drove to Elgin that evening. R. W. Black is the head of the R. W. Black Mercantile Co., at Elgin, and Eugene Hayes is in the commission business there. Mr. Hays says there are about 120,000 cattle being "roughed" through in the Osage country this winter. The largest holder of cattle, he says, is John Clair, who has something like 12,800 heard. He says the cattle are doing well so far this winter and that the stock interests are in fine shape; that the feeling of security is good among the cattlemen and the men who hold the cattle paper. He says there will be considerably more cattle to go on the market from the Osage country this year than ever was known on account of more cattle being wintered there. He thinks the prospects are good for cattlemen.

Word was received here this week that the Secretary of the Interior had decided that the children of white fathers, who were dropped from the rolls several years ago, were entitled to back annuities. ... In 1888 a law as passed in congress to the effect that children born of white fathers and Indian mothers should not be entitled to any of the tribal annuities, but should be citizens of the United States. ... enforcement occurred in December, 1894. In June 1897, a law was passed placing them on the rolls again.

Page 5, columns 3 & 4

The Insurance Question.
      Claremore Courier: - The insurance question is quite a problem in the Territory, and the persons who pay the high premiums are not he only one who are figuring. The entire receipts of all companies doing business in the Territory for the year of 1899 were less than $100,000. To say they lost money is putting it mildly. One company lost 5,000 per cent of what they took in. The year of 1900 starts in with no brighter outlook than the previous year. The first week in January records three fires in which the loss aggregates more than $50,000, fully half what was paid the previous year in premiums. Ardmore, Tulsa and Nowata have been the suffers so far. What the year will be, December 31, 1900, alone can tell.

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