William Hepworth Dixon, White Conquest: Volume 1

[298] for game. Reduced in numbers, the Caddoes have moved into the Washita region, leaving their ancient hunting-fields to the coyotes and wolves. In theory the district lies in Choctaw country, but the Choctaws never occupied this valley, and the coming in of railway men, with teams and tools, induced the nearer families to move their lodges farther back. Caddo, abandoned to the iron horse and liberated slave, became a town. A Negro has no legal right to squat in Caddo, but squatting is the game of folks who stand outside the ordinary law. Others, besides unemancipated slaves, show a taste for squatting. Have we not here the “ Oklahoma Star,” edited by a man who is neither Choctaw, Negro, nor Zambo, but a free rover of the waste, a literary Rob Roy?

Barring accidents, the “Star” comes out once a week. On asking for last week's issue we learn that no paper appeared last Friday morning, “owing to the illness of our printer.” Some experience of the press having taught me that press faults are always due to the printer, I enquire no further, but on turning to the current sheet my eyes rest on a paragraph which explains the matter. Granville