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.The piece, Greenough explained, endeavored to convey the idea ofthe triumph of the whites over the savage tribes, at the same timethat it illustrates the dangers of peopling the country. 16 So whileMurder of Jane McCrea had crystallized Americans worst fears, Res-cue and Nahl s Massacre of the Oatman Family after it inverted thepower structure, and allayed them.17In early 1857, Stratton and his family moved to Santa Clara, Califor-nia, fifty miles south of San Francisco, where he joined the VisitingCommittee of Methodist-affiliated University of the Pacific and fa-thered a second son, named Edward.Flush with the payout frombook sales, Olive and Lorenzo followed him that summer to attendthe three-year-old preparatory school at the university, along withStratton s ten-year-old son, Albert.With forty-four other women inthe Female Collegiate Institute, Olive studied painting, embroidery,music, history, poetry, and religion, as well as hair work, includ-ing weaving into intricate floral patterns locks of the hair of one srelatives and friends. 18 The university, which emphasized self-reli-ance in intellect as well as in morals, was ahead of its time in admit-ting women at the college level, but male and female students weretaught separately, and women were allowed visits from men only atthe suggestion of a parent or guardian.They were also forbiddenfrom going out alone without a relative or teacher.Less than twoyears earlier, Olive had been wandering around shirtless and bare-foot in the Arizona desert, sleeping in the sand, and foraging forfood; the supervised freedom of campus life must have chafed bycomparison.19She and Lorenzo finished one term and started another in Janu-154 Captive Audiences Image masked.Please refer to the print version of the book to view this image.fig.22.Olive Oatman in San José, probably 1857.Courtesy of History San José. ary of 1858, but by then the ever-resourceful Stratton had hatchedan idea that both curtailed their education and sealed Olive s celeb-rity: they would take the book to New York.Inspired, he said, bywestern readers who encouraged him to sell it in other parts of thecountry, Stratton arranged for a third edition to be published byCarlton and Porter, the Methodist Book Concern s New York pub-lishing house.A friend of Olive s quipped, The purpose was to im-prove the fortunes of the minister, if not of the Oatmans as well. 20Thomas Carlton, who had recently turned the flagging publishinghouse around, was better known for boosting profits than spread-ing the gospel, and he saw the commercial potential of the Oatmanstory.He would publish twenty-six thousand copies of the thirdedition.The Oatmans docked in late March then rode for the first time ona steam-powered train to stay with their great uncle, Moses Sperry,in Chili, a town near Rochester, where they stayed for two months.Both the Rochester American and the New York Times announced theirarrival in Chili.Stratton took his family to settle in Albany and be-gan an intense publicity campaign for the book, starting by arrang-ing for a brief notice in the Methodist Quarterly Review.In early April Lorenzo wrote to the Abbotts in Illinois, tellingthem about the move, the train ride ( we took the cars ), and thebook (out in three weeks):Olive is here with me.As soon as our book is out for sale weintend to travel out west.So you may look for us fore long with-out fail.I should like very much to go out [to Illinois] ime-diatly but I think it is best to make a start with our book in thiscounty first & it will require some time and as we intend to makea business of it we shall hav to attend to it an get it in sirculationhere then go west.It seems now there is a very good prospectof once more seeing the olde stomping ground and I believ thatit will look to me like good olde home.I think that I shall enjoy156 Captive Audiences very well when we get there looking over the olde place where wehave spent many happy hours yet there will be a gloomy shadehover[ing] over the thought for those that were there will not bewith us now.A chang has taken place.Fate with is mighty handhas wealded its sway and its colde chilling blast has the vitles ofhappenings in my heart and happy hours of days gone by seemslike sweet visions of a dream.21Spurred, perhaps, by their recent classes, their publishing suc-cess, or Stratton s influence, each Oatman included a bit of poetryfor their aunt and uncle.Lorenzo (borrowing Stratton s signatureword, throbbing ) wrote:Since early youth my waywardPath has been ore shadowedWith chiling blastsBut hope still twines roundMy throbing heart that brighterSunclad hours may on my lot be cast.Olive chimed in:I cannot! How can Iexpress to you here;of the sorrow and griefThat still linger near;It seams to have moldedand fashioned my heart,and casts a dark cloudOre my bright hopes of youth.Sperry, a well-known farmer and probate judge in MonroeCounty, New York, introduced the Oatmans to his two brothersCaptive Audiences 157 fig.23.Promotional photo of Olive taken in Rochester, NewYork, ca.1858.The hash marks in her dress mimic the tattoopattern on her chin and hint at the traditional Mohave armtattoos she also wore, but never showed in public.In otherphotos from this session, Olive s tattoos appear to be concealedby powder or makeup.Courtesy of the Arizona HistoricalSociety, Tucson.ahs no.1927. and took Olive to see the Bloomfield Congregational Church, whereher grandparents, Joy and Mary Ann Sperry, had been married, aswell as to the site of her mother s birth.Afterward, the mention ofOlive s visit to her mother s birthplace elicited tears and sobs, Sperrywrote in a letter to Asa Abbott. We all feel interested in the wellfare[sic] of Olive.She is an interesting girl and with proper educationwill make her way through the world with [a] mark. 22 A relative ofSperry s offered to take her in and pay for her schooling at an acad-emy in East Bloomfield, an idea Sperry endorsed.In anticipation ofthe book s East Coast publication, Sperry took Olive to Rochesterto have her photo taken professionally.The surviving photos fromthe session show Olive wearing a dress with hash marks on the hemand sleeve that mimic the tattoo marks on her chin, standing withher hand on an upholstered chair, in various poses, including somein which her tattoo appears to be concealed by makeup.Olive and Lorenzo traveled back to Manhattan to promote thebook, which went on sale in April for a dollar a copy.With fifty-nineadded pages, the third edition was the slickest yet: it was printed onbetter paper; the engravings were recut; three new illustrations wereadded, including a portrait of Lorenzo; and the red cloth cover fea-tured elegant gilt detail a new indulgence for the Book Concern.Stratton s new preface announced that the added pages were chieflyof the peculiar traditions and superstitions of the tribes, but theymore accurately reflected the superstitions whirling around in hisown mind.23 The conclusion of the third edition crescendos in a ti-rade against Native Americans, including the delusional claims thatthe Indian system of government was one of absolute monarchy, that Indian women regularly approached Olive to tell her they livedin constant fear, and that Indian men sometimes threatened to golive with the whites. They are human, but live like brutes, Strattonrants. They seem totally destitute of all those noble and generoustraits of life which distinguish and honor civilized people
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