Indiana State Sentinel, Volume 35, Number 11, Indianapolis, Marion County, 24 April 1889 — Page 2

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THE INDIANA STATE SENTINEL. WEDNESDAY. APRIL 24, 1SS2.

JS THE PROMISED LAND.

k COUNTRY POPULATED IN A DAY. Thousand! Upon Thousands of Boomers Bash Across tho Idne at tho Appointed Hoar Only to Find That tho Land Shark Bad Proceeded Them. St. Lorrs, April 22. The Ittpvbltfi ipecial from Arkansas City, Kaa., says: Oklahoma is open. The trials, struggles and sacrifices of years are partially rewarded, bat the events of to-day made those of the days, weeks and Eionthi to follow and will proTe how far the apply ia below the demand, and necessitate farther concessions to avert disorder, bloodshed and other conditions bat little short of anarchy. The .history of this one day will fore Ter be memorable in frontier annals and will leave behind a heritage of litigation which will be fruit to land sharks and claim attorneys but be destructive to the claims of poor and honest settlers. The Atchison, Topeka fc Santa Fe railroad began running its sectional trains oat of Kansas Citj last night and picking up cars at almost every station along the route. Hundreds of people were waiting at every depot and at the cars, all of which were fall before the border line was reached; could they have been coupled, they would hare made a train miles in length. The crowds were composed of speculators, adventurers, sight-seers, thieves, gambiers and a sprinkle of the demi-monde. The farming element was not largely represented, as all of the homesteaders have gone on before. There were men in the cars from every city and important point in the country, and there was not a state or territory in the country which did not hare its representatives there who filled all the seats, occupied all the standinar room in the aisles and filled up the spaces between the coaches, hanging on the iron banisters and girders with a grip born of despair and determination. The newspaper coach was the first out of Arkansas City; it contained representatives of all the leading newspapers in the connfry who were compelled to yield room and comfort for the good of the cause. The conductors were vigilant in the collection of fares, but it is certain that a great many deadheads went through to the promised land in tfie rush and hurry and roar of the boomer campaign. There was but little eight-seeing indulged in, as the crowd did not care to look at anything until it sot to Oklahoma, like the emigrant at Castle Garden who refused to pick up a silver dollar because he expected to find gold in the street. At Arkansas City there were over seventyfive coaches side-tracked in the yards awaiting the rush. All of these were lowered into the yards at some distance below the depot The crowd began .Catherine on the platform two hours before daylight, and long before the first faint of the dawn of the fateful day the city was awake and stirring. The streets presented a live, picturesque appearance. After the sun rose crowd were rushing toward the center of action from all parts of the city. The hotels emptied their hundreds into the streets, the cot-houses contributed hundreds more out of the hospitable homes of the city, nearly all of which have entertained guests during the pat week. Some long strings of men carrying irrips, bundles, knapsacks and parcels of every possible and impossible description. Hundreds of boomers and rustlers in their impatience to get aboard, rushed down en masse to the yards and attempted to force an entrance into the cars, all of w hieb, were securely locked. The excitement may be judged from the fact that a large number of coach windows were broken out by people who were anxious to secure seats. A strong guard of railroad men was detailed to protect the company's property, and they had a contract of unusual dimensions on their hands. The crowd was panic-stricken. After waiting so many eventful days and nights for the hour of action to come, men were seized with a sudden fear that they would be left in the lurch, and that fear served to make them like a drove of stampeded cattle. There was a rain attempt at pood humor in the struggle, which concealed the grim purpose behind, and there was no quarter shown in the rush for place. It was a wild-west crowd, headed toward a new field of enterprise and development, and no one who has never seen such a thing in action can have the remotest conception of it. An amusing, and at the same time pathetic, incident of the early morning was a cattle train lying on a sidetrac k loaded with a boomer, hi horse, wagon and a cow, wife and children and !1 his little household effects. He was a merry fellow and guyed the crowd unmercifully for rot going through, as he expressed it, without change of cars, to avoid the rush. "I travel in my own special coach," said he, "like Jay Gould or Vanderbilt." "You'll get there too late," yelled somebody in the crowd. "Never mind," replied the boomer, "I'll get there all the same." It had leaked out during the wakeful hours of the night that the press special coach would be a part of the fi pit train to move out. The railroad managriient had succeeded well in keeping this fact a secret. No one but reprefentatives of the press were informed of the fart or knew the location of the coach and the time of it departure, but it is impossible to keep such information from people who will sit up all night to rind out the shortest and easiest way of getting into the promised land. The result was that when the newspaper coach was barked up at a point below the depot the entire crowd charged upon it. The newspaper men were ranged in a solid phalanx, but bad to fieht for access to the rear platform of the car. There were rustlers there who had been fighting along the border for years and who had a death grip on the iron railing and expressed a determination to go into that car. Tiiey were not easily disposed of, but after them came a swarm of men with bogus credential, presuming to represent every "great newspaper in the United Mates. Nearly every correspondent was called upon to discredit two of these assumed journalists and scores of others failed of identification or recognition and had to fall back with more of precipitency than cool order. Fvery car brought np the line was greeted with a tremendous cheer, and as the coaches which were to be attached to the newswaper special were brought out of the siding, there was a simultaneous rush of two or three thousand men toward them. They were filled to overflowing in less than half a minute and a countless throng struggled for a place on the steps. It was in vain for the oiicials to say that the trains would run in sections, fifteen minutes apart. Every man there wanted to be fifteen minutes ahead of every body and not fifteen minutes behind anybody. The first section made up consisted of nine coaches, the newspaper coach and one caboose. It pulled out at 9:17, railroad time, drawn by engine No.2f5o, in charge of Cap tu. II. Cooper, who has been on the Santa Fe line for eleven years, and is one of the oldest and most trusted engineers in its employ. Trainmaster Foulkes was in charge of the entire train. This was the first train that ever ran out of Kansas loaded with settlers for Oklahoma, and even those who were disappointed in getting aboard of it joined in a wild, enthusiastio cheer which rent the Kansas air as the first step toward the realization of hopes and dreams of years and the reward for the sacrifices or the past was taken. The train ran slowly as there was great danger of miplaced rails and switches, or obstructions of various kinds placed there by those gone before, and who wanted a corner on the best lands in sight It was 9:40 when the sign which marks the state line and the dividing line from the Cherokee strip was reached. It wss greeted with a cheer which rolled from the newspaper car in front to the rustler's caboose behind. It marked the departure from the state government toward a country where government is yet to be created and established. StiJl the Cherokee country lay between them and the rainbow lanL There were no Indians to be seen until after Willow springs was passed, when a wagon load of bucks of the I'oncha tribe passed up the trail who responded to the shouts and cheers of those on board the train with sullen looks and gesticulations of defiance, as not evidently pleased at the coming of the pale-face. Along the I'awnee trail the train also passed eara-'sins of boomers' wagons, many going south, bat some returning ward Kansas. Between Willow Springs and the Fonea agency somebody in the newspaper car discovered a maa ridiig on the trucks beneath the

coach. Immediately an effort was made to opsn up negotiations with him, but they resulted unsuccessfully until the train stopped at Ponea, when the adventurous boomer on wheels was taken into the car, elected an honorary member of the press association and furnished with refreshments out of a bottle, which he drank with a rush and amidst enthusiastic applause. He gave his name as Harvey Saddler, and said he was born in England but had been in this country for nine years, and had come all the way from Seattle, W. T., to get a good foothold in Oklahoma. He was elected as the representative of the London Timet, and also äs the mascot of the new city of Guthrie, and, to make the bargain sure, it was agreed he should have one of the best lota in the heart of the city. At the last station outside of the Oklahoma strip there was a great crowd of boomers who had forsaken their teams and hoped to tret in quicker by rail. There being no room inside. iiey climbed to the top of the coaches, and the entire train, from one end to the other, was lined with them. In this war the line was reached about five minutes after 12 o'clock. Before the late dead-line was reached and passed, however, the great transformation scene had begun and was plainly visible to the watchers from the train. First came in view the white-topped wa?om gathered together in groups on the level prairie or in the little valleys which diversify the face of the country. It was at once noticeable that the teams were not to be seen in any of these camps, and it was plain that they had been taken out of the harness to be rode across the border by the hardriders, who were to locate the claims. A little further on, and this conclusion was proven to be the correct one, for the entire face of the country, as far as the best field-glass could carry the sight, was overrun with horsemen. Ealloping to the southward. Their fleetest orses had evidently been picked for work, and they were carrying their riders rapidly to the longed-for goal. The ride of Paul He vers dwindles jnto obscurity beside the feat of horsemanship performed in Oklahoma to-day. Hides of fifteen r twenty miles were made in an incredibly Short paoe Of time by old boomers familiar with the country and who knew where desirable lands were located. The day was cloudless, and far away on the horizon, both to the east and the west, clouds of dust could be seen ascending from the hoofs of hundreds of horses, rushing toward different destinations in most cases, but some of thera toward the same. One race for a goal could be easily distinguished; the riders were apparently evenly mounted ; they were neck and neck for a mile or two along the trial as far as they could be seen, and their eager and intense looks and merciless sltudiines were sufficient evidence of the prize they were running after. One saddled, but riderless horse was seen galloping alon the trail, an ominous sign of some accident or fatality which had befallen the rider. Home men wtre in charge of two horses and were evidently riding relays toward the goal. Out of the dust which arose toward the Cast could be seen, after the train reached the summit ofa high, ride, a waion caravan fully two inilts In length, and which was being sped to the utmost speed of its horces. These caravans were plainly out-distanced by th horseback riders, soil, after several miles of the territory had been traversed, it was seen that the best riders were winning the best prizes. One homsteader, w ho had secured a magnificent quarter section of rollinc land, had dug a hole two or three feet deep at that corner of it where the surveyor's section mark was located, and where he had driveu his stakes, not looking upon these evidences of possession as sufficient to confirm his title, he seized a Winchester as the train ran by and fired out ail its contents and then emptied his revolver, yelli ng like a cowboy or a Comanche Indian all the time. Not only the yells, but the shots were responded to from the train, and a volley went up into tho air from the entire length of the section, which proved conclusively how well the party was armed in expectancy of what might happen a few mi!e3 the other side of the line. The train stopped at a military post. The white tents of the soldiers and the officers' teuts, surrounded by the national colors, were a gratifying evidence of a power sufficient to maintain order. The troop l of the Fifth regiment of cavalry of the army, was quartered there, and the officers said that at the sound of the bugle there at high noon there had been a movement among the boomers camped along the border, which had extended across the entire frontier line, and thnt the riding had been fast and furious ever since, some of the prospectors running to Guthrie to file their entries and others going to locate on the land and secure a prior right to possession by actual occupancy. The scene was one of the most stirring and picturesque ever witnessed. The smoke of a myriad of camp-fires, lighted to cook the first meal in Oklahoma, beiran to ascend in all direction, and before the first train of land-speculators rushed to the future great city of Ciuthrie, the farmer had already become the possessor of a great deal of the laud, and more than one furrow of virgin soil out of the land which bad never before been tickled by the plow, was tnrned over to the sun, which has made the day glorious as well as memorable. It was twenty minutes after 12 o'clock when the first section of the great Atchison train reached the line, and its progress from that point on was not rapid enough for the rapid men who wanted to get therein a hurry, before all the cream was skimmed oft' the milk. Neverthless, it lacked a few minutes of l o'clock when the train stopped in front of the Guthrie depot, a handsome and substantial edifice, which has been greatly libeled by the numerous newspaper artists,who have drawn on their imagination for its picture, since th:s excitement began. Before the train came to a stop it was seen that somebody was already there; in fact, the town was already well populated. Tents were numerous ou the eastern slope and stakes were sticking up out of the ground like poles in a bean patch. Men could be seen racing in the direction of the valuable holdings, and the scene was as busy and animated a one as it is possible to imagine. The profanity among the Arkansas City, Wichita and Kansas City speculators was both loud and deep. It there has been a prospect of shooting at any time to-day, it was wheu these men found themselves baitled at the game of freeze-out, but they wtre compelled to swallow their wrath, for, according to all the technicalities in the law, the men in possession were the rightful owners, and the men who had beeu left out were the ones who had been most persistent in their demand for the law's enforcement. There was nothing to do but to tike what was left, and it was in the scramble to get that that the most ludicrous scene of the day was presented. Falling over each other in the effort to get out of the cars, every variety of men along the frontier mvie an army which charged the land ofiice at the top of the knoll, not in a body, but in detachments. The land office was not their point of destination, though it stands at the corner of the section, and is, therefore, the present ceuter of the town. Hut it was to secure the lots nearest to it that the rush was made; there was but little left near it, Stakes had already been driven almost to the limit of the half section of 32U acres allowed for a town site. As the law now stands, there was but a small margin, and this was being rapidly wiped out by the same men who had already appropriated nearly everything in sight. It was but a few minutes nntil the line was reached, and the back action movement of taking np the lots, which nobody wsnted before, began. They were not long on the market al ter the ebb of the tide set in, and when the second and third sections of the Atchison train arrived and found everything cornered the air was blue for miles around the metropolis. There wis nothing to do, however, as every lot was protected by rifles and revolvers, and if the shooting began there was no telling were it wor.ld stop. The only recourse left to the disappointed men was to buy out such holders of lots as were willing to sell or run the risk of taking outside the legal limit. Both courses were adopted. A good number of Guthrie city lots changed hands. The first sale was made by a man named R. C. Runnel of Malvan, Kan., who sold a fine twenty-five foot frout lot near the land ofiice for $5 to an old doctor, a resident of one of the Indian reservations ad.ioining Oklahoma. The purchaser refused for the lot fire minutes later. Several transfers were make to-day and others who were determined to locate here, drove stakes outside the town line. This is preparatory to the purchase of the homesteader's rights and an extension of the city limits. No one who has never seen a western town take form and shape can comprehend how quickly a full-riffged city with a double-deck boom can be put in running motion. Guthrie already has its Main-st, its llarrisonut, its Guthrieave. and its Oklahoma-ave., and this morning it was a wilderness the antelope sported and the jack-rabbit Happed his ears in the sun. To-morrow afternoon at 4 o'clock the first municipal election will occur. The election notice appeared to-day in the Oklahoma JJsrall, a daily paper published at Guthrie on the first day of its existence. A council will be elected at the same time. Nearly ten thousand voters were polled, as there are about that many men in Guthrie with the intention of becoming citizens. The leading candidates for mayor are Adjt-Gen. Keice of Illinois, William Contan line of (Springfield, O., and T. L. Sumner

of Arkansas. A dark horse is T. Volney Haggatt of Huron. Dak. The bank of Oklahoma opened for business at Guthrie to-dar with a capital stock of $50,000. M. W. Levy, the Wichita banker, is president; C. W. Robinson, the banker of Winfield, and the Hon. Horace Speed of Indianapolis, directors. The new city is flooded with business cards of all descriptions, representing every line of trade and business, every profession and every occupation imaginable. A mass of mail is expected to reach the Guthrie postoffice every day. It is now being run by a postal clerk detailed for that purpose, but air. Flynn of Kiowa, Kas., lately-appointed postmaster, will take charge in a day or two. The scene which resulted in the practical cornering of town lots to-day originated, as has been frequently indicated in this correspondence, with the Atchison, Topeka fc Santa Fa railroad, probably in combination with the syndicate Who have been hard at work in Arkansas City for a week or more past As stated before, numbers of men have been going into the territory as deputy marshals and othen under permits as railroad emyloyes. The marshals were simply commissioned and not sworn in and the railroads were not burdened with official orders. They all did their work to-day, and did it well. Officials in the Guthrie land office say that men seemed to spring out of the earth as noon approached, and that it did not take fifteen minutes to occupy half the town site. The land office officials have not been greatly rushed to-day. The first homestead entry at the Guthrie office was an old soldier claimant named Johnson, a Kansasan. The land office at Kingfisher was not opened to-day, but advices from there by stage to Guthrie reported an orderly colonizing of the town, which is to be a rival of Guthrie in the territory. Kverything was reported quiet along the Canadian. Purcell is a deserted village, and now a little station on the Atchison road, about eight miles north of it, has been laid out as a town site. It is evident that Oklahoma is to be opened peaceably, and without bloodshed. The crisis was passed to-day. The great number of her citizens are law-abiding, and those who are not will be suppressed by the itrons hand of frontier justice, aided br military authority under command of Gen. Merritt, who has established bis headquarters at Oklahoma City. There are now about five hundred troops in the territory, and they will be kept here until order ia assured. A TREMENDOUS DISAPPOINTMENT

Is What tb w Territory Threatens To Be Scenes On the Itorder. CniCAGO, April 22. The Daily Ncr$ special from Guthrie, Oklahoma, says: "The object of ten years of agitation is attained and Oklahoma is occupied. Guthrie, which was a name on the map, a little red fetution-houe by the railroad track, is to-day a booming city of iö.OOO inhabitants. Its structures are canvas and its popuhi ion almost exclusively male, but there is an interest and excitement here thnt is wanting in many a more substantial city. It can now be ?en that the openinsr of Oklahoma was conducted under circumstances that made it impossible for the law-abidintr settler to secure an even chance with speculators and sharpers and the investigation that must be granted to the home-seekers will disgrace the federal method employed and dishonor home officials. the correspondent for the Daily JWw'followed the march of the 10,(K)0 from the Arkansas and Walnut valley camps, down the Ponca trail and across the Cherokee strips. This was by five times the largest throng that entered at any one point and was composed of the best material that entered the territory. They obeyed the law in magnificent form, and that obedience was given at the cost of their lawful rights. While they halted on the line nntil noon to-day hundreds of Arkansas crackers, Mississippians, Texans and nejn-oes from the southern border had been for hours on the march. That fact, with the additional one that Guthrie was handed over to a syndicate of government officers and railroad men, is sufficient to start an inquiry. The next few days will fully develop the situation and bring in news from the scattered parts of the territory. To complete the grievance, the country threatens to be a tremendous disappointment. The only heavy check encountered in the descent from the north was at the Salt Fork of the Arkansus river. The stream was swollen far beyond its normal volume. Two outfits were lost in attempting to make the ford. The railway bridge was planked by the troops and the schooners and trains parsed in this novel manner. It was reported that a wooded country lav before, but an hour's march cleared the river-side timber and we were on plains again. The land although green and treeless, became more rolling than the splendid prairie north of the fork and the soil was not quite so good. We were promised by every government employe and Texas ranchman, who alone share the strip with the Indians, that the country would deteriorate southward. They viewed the passing tide of immigration with wonder and amusement. The promise seemed to be fully borne out this morning when, with the boomers' army, we reached the line. The troil then ran at the side of the railroad track and the bouudary was marked by a long picket line of cavalry. It lacked but a half hour of noon when the daily Aw man reached the border and passed through the thousands of boomers held in check. A red, white and blue guidon was planted at a point erenly away on either hand. We a traced beyond this point to the quarters of Lieut- Waite, commanding, and were In Oklahoma at Lift. The prospect confronted was a most cheerless one to have ridden so far and hard to see. The landscape is duplicated on the great American desert. It was a plain, broken only by buttes, gullies, and in the immediate foreground by a railway embankment. The surface thus scanned revealed a soil as red as brick dust, ami in spots almost vermillion. The whole region could be a huge paint quarry, and the unliprht upon this bitrlily-colored ground reflected upon the fisrures of men and teams with strange ell'ect There was no vegetation save the cant and scattered bunchgrass, and with it all the heat wan tropical. Such a shabby introduction to the promised land weighed heavily upon the pilgrims, but though many thought with regret of the glorious fairy fields of the Cherokee strip through which they had passed, all were firm to advance. Indeed we have seen but one man turn bark, and he was going home to nurse a rifle shot wound through the neck, the resnlt of an accident. Those who had seen the plunge over the Kansas border had regarded that as a life-long 6ight, but had not anticipated the repetition of that scene on a greater scale. Whereas, on the lirst occasion the boomers were crowded in a single column down a muddy roadway, they now spread out along a line a half mile long. The ground rose gently before them for about five hundred yards, then dipped and rose again higher. It was evident that there was going to be a rush and a race. The mounted men crowded up to the front; the drivers of strong teams gathered their reins snugly in hand, while those with jaded stock of which there was, also, too much looked sadly on or moved hopelessly back to avoid the impending rush. There was a tense strain of excitement upon all, and upon none more, it is certain, than those who were observers. All had previously set watches with the lieutenant's, and noted the last moments in silence, that but echoed, as it were, the hush upon the boomers. The lieutenant stood in the open space at some distance behind his men. As the hands overlapped at 12 o'clock the officers made a sign, the bugles sounded on both flanks, the cavalry rolled back, closed up, and then swung away like a huge gate, with the pin resting on the railroad. Thrill cheers rose from the boomers, their whip lash resounded, the horsemen among them shot forward impetuously, the teams tugged at the rattling harness and the whole motley crowd swept forward with gathering motion. In a contest so wholly one of speed the race was to the swift, and the broud line began to straggle, the galloping horsemen disappearing over the first crest ere the teams in harness had half covered the ascent or the astonished oxen had responded to the goad. One man on the far right, who had run bis horse like a deer in the lead of a hot chase, leaned to the ground on the top of the ridge and beiran driving stakes. This was certainly the first homestead legally taken up in Oklahoma, lie was wished a welcome to his claim, and the rest went tearinsr on. We were prepared here to send back our horses and baggage and take the train due on this line at noon. It came a few minutes late, and it was difficult to determine what manner of moving object approached. The locomotive was covered with men, and the roofs of the coaches held nearly as many as the interior. We flagged the train and secured roof space. We dashed over the twenty-one miles to Guthrie in thirty minutes and halted there, the first train to arrive since the opening. The town site had, however, been selected for ns. It was set on the exit side of the track, and already the wooden land office and 100 tents were standing, while twice as many more town lota were staked oat. A rude postoffice was opened, a lunch tent was going at full blast, and two meetings looking to organization had been hold.

Three or four hundred men had done all this and they had been on the scene two or three days. They pretend to have complied with the law and declare that they did not take up their lots until 12 o'clock. They had no right, by the special laws under which Oklahama was opened, to be iu the territory at all until noon to-day. On a side track stood a Santa Fe director's car. In it were Judge Guthrie, for whom the town is named; Judge Foster, the U. M. marshal, and other otneers of tho federal court at Wichita and some Topeka men. They had been there ostensibly upon government business, but in reality to secure town lots, which they did in wholesale quantities. There were Ö0J deputy marshals on hand and each had a lot. Not only is this true, but the same crowd having 'its eyes on a fine piece of bottom laud lying across the track from the town, have been, in the most open mockery of justice, scouring the brush for boomers that they might occupy it themselves. Whether the judges are a party to these schemes or their Topeka guests, who are more or less connected with the ?anta Fe system, is of course not known. SCENES AT GUTHRIE. A Populous Town Springs Up in the Wilderness as if by .Magic. Arkansas City, April 2J. Fifteen thousand home-seekers are camped on the grassy upland of Guthrie, the pioneer city of Oklahoma. Their camp-fires gleam in the darkness, and their tents loom athwart the sky like an army in bivouac. Guthrie, heretofore an insignificant station in a wild und uninhabited country remote from civilization, has more than a population of ir,000. All this was gained in an afternoon. In no country save America and no part of that country save the great We6t could such a thing be possible. When the first train arrived at Guthrie from Arkansas City theerabrjo streets and lots of the new city had already been laid out by enterprising citizens who had been early on the scene. Hardly had the cars slowed down at the station when eager men leaped from the car windows, slipped from the roofs of the coaches and poured put of the doors in streams. In a minute the slope leading tip from the station was black with men rushing headlong, eager for the town lots. In two minutes not one of the men who had filled the train was left in speaking distance of the railway. By the time this crowd had reached the top slope near the land-office, men who had been running parallel lines for streets and driving in stakes for town lots, were well on their w ay along the level ntrip of land east of the land-office. The crowd then caught the moving line of streets and lots and rushed eastward at a tremendous rate. The men who brought along a muslin sign, bearing the words "Itauk of Guthrie," were compelled to take up a lot one mile back of the station. The next train arriving from Arkansas City brought 1,000 home-seekers about fifteen minutes later. Themen in this train poured across the prairie like an crmy charging the winir of the enemy. They spread out north and south with axes and spades and stakes and began with wonderful energy the location of town lots and streets. The third, fourth, fifth and sixth trains from Arkansas City swelled the number to as many thousand. When the seventh and eighth trains came in later in the afternoon the crowd had overflowed all bounds. On the east the streets and town lots had been extended fully two miles, on the north a mile and a half and on the south nearly a mile. Xo attempt had been made to lay out a town on the west side of the trac k. This west laud had been all filed on for homesteads. Almost with the first rush of home seekers from the cars the home seekers who had started across the Oklahoma north line at noon in wagons and on horseback began to pour into the new city. Their horses were reeking wet from the hot and furious drive. They took possession of such town lots in the future Oklahoma metropolis as they could lay claim to. Meanwhile the land ofiice was besieged by an eager and determined crowd of men, waiting to file claims upon homesteads. As the afternoon wore on tins crowd grew larger until at closing time it reached in a regular line far down the street toward the railroad station. Business in the land office went rather slowly. The register and receiver did the best they could. "but the pressure upon them was tremendous. The men who were waiting to file clainii were forced into line two abreast Dealers ia real estate began business before 2 o'clock in the afternoon. One enterprising dealer had as a background for the safe transaction of business a stock of ritles which had been placed there by the government troops on duty at the land office. Near by was the tent of U. S. Marshal Needles. The tent was surmounted by a large American flag. Lisbon Not Opened. Kansas City, April 22. The Timet learns, via Ft. Reno, that the Kingfisher landoffice was not opened to-day, as the buildings and other preparations for business were not completed. RACING AT MEMPHIS. Opening Day of the w Jockey Club's An nual Spring Meeting. MEMPHIS, April 22. This was the opening day of the annual spring meeting of the new Memphis jockey club. The wee.therwas charming with a light, breeze blowing from the northwest. The attendance numhered about two thousand, the grand stand and club house being thronged with the ladies. The track was in splendid condition, but a little dusty. Kirt Kar Iur, for all ftets ; tlircc-qunrters of a mile; tHrMeawav, tirst; t'nite, second; Aristl, third. Time, 1: Iß. Seooud Haee Purse, for threo-year-old fillies; seven-eiehths nf a mile: Mailin, first; Angelus, second: May W, third. Time, l:3i Third lUce -Athletic c!nh stake, for to-yesr-old filliej; one-haif mile: Kiry Queen, first; Miss Belle, second; Millie WillismM. third. Time, 5oy4. Fourth llaoe Purse, for tUree-vear-oHs and upward: five-eighths ot a mile: Litbcrt, first; Mute, secnnl; CIsra Moore, third. Time, I :Q:. Filth Raco r?elliu; purse, for 11 ago; one mile: Kee-Vee-Na, first; lien Uarrison, teoond ; Dutchess May, third. Time, 1:4. Charged XVUU Attempting Bribery. Louisville, Ky., April 22. John P. McGrsth, one of the county raajrltrates hire, wa to-day sent to jail for tweutr-fotir hours for approaching a juror Ith intimation of brltxTV. lie denied the charge, and his account of his Interlew with the juror, an old friend, wa not shaken by cross-quentioning. The only evidence against him was the testimony of the juror. The Amendment Defeated. BonTON, Mass, April 22. Iteturns from nearly all the towns and cities outside of Boston ahow that tbe firo posed amendment to tbe cnnttitatioii, prohibitag the manufacturesni isle of lntoiicating liquors, has beca dclsuutd by from ,0u0 to 10,0'JU majority.

31 u rat iiaistead's health is improving. The Samoan conference will open April 29. The condition of Louis Kossuth has improved. Eighteen inches of snow fell April IS at Veta Tass, CoL The street car strike in Minneapolis and St. Paul is still on. The freedom of Edinbarg has been conferred upon Mr. Parnell. No news of the missing steamer Denmark has been received. The American boiler manufacturers' union has been organized. Famine exists at several places in Hungary. Hundreds are dying. The crown prince of Sweden has become the father of a third son. Joseph Pulitzer of the Kew York World has returned from France. The business portion of Muir, Mich., burned Monday. Loss, f 34,000. The mayor of Colambua.O .. has ordered the gamblers to leave town. William Gould, a New York speculator in oil, suicided Wednesday. Frank X. Fete has been arrested at Canton, 0., on a charge ot incest. Priniroae day was celebrated in England with unusual enthusiasm. John W. Irwin, a prominent citizen of Hamilton, O., died Wednesday. It ia said that there are twenty-five cases of small-pox at Nanticoke, Pa. J. A. Enander, recently appointed U. S. minister to Denmark, is very ilL Emperor William has abandoned his proposed trip to Constantinople. Fire at New York Friday night destroyed property valued at $.$,o5o,0(X. At South Pittsburg, Tenn.. Thunday, Joe Tatum accidently shot his sister. The Bell telephone com pan v wants to increase its capital stock Jl0,0u0,000. A cholera epidemic ia raging in the Pbillipine islands aud 1,000 persons have died. Louu Ulbach, the well-known French writer who has been ill some time, is dead. W. M. Kelso, the Sabina (O.) missing stock dealer, has turned up at Indianapolis. Two boys were drowned while boating in a mill-pond at Rock ville, Ind., Thursday. The Merritt anti-trust bill has passed the lower branch of the Illinois legislature. A number of Russian officers were arrested Friday for plotting against the czar's life. Twelve hundred and thirty emigrants sailed from Queenstown Thursday for America. George Black has been arrested at Portland, Me., OT a charge of poisoning his father. Six thousand emigrants left Liverpool Wednesday, mostly for the United ytates. The jury in the Iagli.-di murder case at Indianapolis returned a verdict of "not guilty." A receiver has been appointed for the Broad KippJe natural gas company at Indianapolis. At Kankakee, 111., Charles Funk fatally shot bis wife because she refused to live w ith him. Sylvester Grubb, who murdered bis sweetheart, was hanged at Vincennes, Ind., Friday. An unknown man suicided by throwing himself under a train at Louisville, Ky.. Thursday. President Carnot Thursday opened the exhibition of revolutionary relics in the Louvre. West Depere, Wis., was almost swept out of existence by fire Saturday. Total loss, $225,000. Edward E. Little of Cass county, Michigan, celebrated bis one hundredth birthday Tuesday. Jack McCauley was knocked out in fifteen rounds by Joe Bowers in San Francisco Thursday. A new lightning-rod swindle is being successfully worked on the farmers of Auglaise county, 6. Five Mormon missionaries were severely whipped and driven from Dale county, Alabama. Warrants have been issued in Paris for the arrest of sixty members of the Boulangist party. R. Cavagna, a widely-known business man of Cincinnati, died Wednesday night, aged ninety. The Paris police have searched Gen. Boulanger's residence and seised a number of papers. Mrs. Samuel Pygle suicided by shooting, Sunday, at Independence, Mo. Domestic trouble. In a wreck of a mixed trnin on the Central Iowa road, two men were killed and two fatally injured. One hundred miners struck at Coal Bluff, Ind., because two of their number were discharged. The 114th anniversary of the battle of Lexingtou was celebrated at Lexington, Mass., April 13. Four persons were drowned rear Carthage, Mo., while trying to ford a swollen creek last Saturday. Col. John F. Jackson, a former Cincinnatian, has been appointed U. S. sub-treasurer at ban Francisco. Sir Julien Pannceforte, the newly appointed Pritish minister to Wahington, has arrived in New York. Two murderers were hanged at Ft. Smith, Ark., Friday. Both mounted the gallows Smokings cigars. The Standard oil company has closed the deal whereby they secure control of the Lima (O.) oil field. Al Fromwell, traveling salesman for C. C. Jacobs A; Co. of Cincinnati has been missing. for six weeks. William II. Punhar was arrested Thursday at Laporte, Ind., for obtaining money uuder faUe pretenses. Over two thousand postmasters were appointed in three weeks by First Assistant P. M.Gen. Clarkson. A terrific w ind and rain storm in southern Kansas hns done great damage to fruit and growing crops. A five-year-old child fell from the dome of the state houe at Columbus Friday, and was fatally injured. The southern California Athletic clnb offers Sullivan and Kilrain a purse of $10,000 to fight in Los Angeles. The governor of Missouri has respited John Matthews and William Walker, convicted liald-Knobbers. The governor of Missouri has respited John Matthews and William Walker, condemned Bald-Knobbers. Sidney Watters, who married Malvina Renners, the actress, suicided with morphine at Chicago Thursday. Proprietors of drugstores at Montieello, 111., were last week fined 200 and cost each for selling liquor illegally. Manufacturers of butchers' supplies held a meeting at Chicago April 17, for the purpose of organizing a trust. The annual meeting of the whisky trust waa held in Peoria, 111., Wednesday and all of the old officers re-elected. The Poulangists in Brussels will remain quiet during the exhibition in Paris if the government will do likewise. Bill Kyan, the Missouri train robber and associate of Jesse James, has been released from the penitentiary. Southern stove manufacturers met at Chattanooga, Tenn., laxt week and raised the price of cheap cooking stoves. Col. Fred D. Grant, minister to Austria, and Albert G. Porter, minister to Italy, sailed from New York Wednesday. A falling tree wrecked a house and killed mother and three children in Braxton county, West Virginia, recently. Lieutenant Frederick Martens, a former officer of the German army, committed suicide at Cleveland, O., Friday. The will of John D. Jennings, which disposes of an estate valued at nearly 3,000,OUO, has been probated at Chicago. Edward 8. Iiacey of Michigan has been appointed comptroller of the currency, vice William L.Trenholm, resigned. The senate of the Rhode Island legislature has concurred in the passage of a bill establishing a naval reserve in that state. A colored murderer named Rice, who is wanted m Alabama tor killing two men, baa been arrested near Guthrie, Ky. Braxton Bragg committed suicide last Wednesday near Wheeling. W. Va., because his neighbors talked about him. The French civil tribunal has ordered the liquidator of the Panama canal company to compensate discharged employes. As a train of fourteen loaded cars on the Duluth A Iron Range railroad, Saturday, was descending a heavy grade, the air brakes refused to work and the train reached a velocity of 110 miles an hour. It finally .left th traci;

THE CRUSTY OLD MAN. " I wonder Grimes has any friends. His manner gTows ?o surly; Ko matter where vro chance to meet. Or whether late or early. 'Tis Just the same: be cannot stay, And barely answers a 'irood day.' NOW this U a M3 CaSC of misconception. It i not Grimes' disposition svhlch h at fault, bnt his liver. FIc can't appoiir jolly when he feels miserable. If be would take Dr. Pierex-'R Golden Medical Discovery, tbe prent liver, stomach and bowel regulator, lie would SOOU be the same happy fellow as of old-arceable to himelf and the world generally. Dr. Pierce's Golden Medical Discovery acts powerfully upon the Liver, and through that great bljo(l-purifyinc organ, cleanses the system of nil blood-taints and impurities, from whatever cause arising. It is equally efficacious in acting upon the Kidneys, and other excretory organs, cle:iu?in and strengthening them and healing their diseases. As an appetizing, restorative tonic, it promotes (ligesdiori lind nutrition, thereby building up both ller-h and strength. The only medicine of its class, guaranteed to benelit or cure in all diseases for which it is recommended, or the money paid for it will be promptly refunded. Copyright, issa, by World's Dispensary Medical Association, Proprietors.

leee

an incurable case of Catarrh in tho Head, liy urug-sisw, öü cent.

demolishing the engine and all the cars. The engineer and two other men were seriously injured. For the first time in fifteen years Augusta, Ky., is to have open bar-rooms, licenses havin? been granted to two saloon-keepers. Memorial services commemorating the twenty-fourth anniversary of Lincoln's death were held at Springfield, 111., Monday. F. O. Loom is and H. G.Loomis were arrested at Chicago, Thursday, on a charge of conspiracy to obtain money under false pretenses. Philip Sauter, charged with killing a dairyman named Giniver, at Columbu, O., has been indicted for murder in the firt degree. A pension voucher for $14,01 will soon be if sued at Columbus, O., to a blind soldier named Philip Flood, who resides at Elyria, O. Postmaster Pearson of New York died Saturday from hemorrhage, caused by cancer of the stomach. If e was forty-five years of age. Two farmers, named Dean and Weeks, quarreled about an axe, near Fisherburg. Ind., and the former was fatally wounded by the latter. William Gould, a Xew York oil speculator, committed suicide last week on account of reverses in his ventures. He was sixty years old. A stranger, Riving his name as William Teiner and his home as Louisville, made two attempts to commit suicide at Madison, Ind., Friday. Samuel Brannen ha? been sentenced to six months' imprisonment and fined $-Ji0for murderously assaulting the marshal of Greentown, Ind. The pmpo-ed insurance system for the employes of the Pennsylvania railroad company's linea west of rittslurg will go into eßect in Jnly. The physicians of the king of Holland state that if the king continues to improve as he is now doing he will soon be able to resume his power. During a fire in Dcnsy's hotel, a cheap boarding house at Detroit, Mich., two men were smothered to death and several seriously burned. Mr. Ilugessen, the Gladstonian candidate, has been elected to fill the parliamentary seat made vacant by the resignation of CoL llugheHaliett. Wesley Stowe and Mrs. Delia Martin have been arrested for adultery at South Uend, Ind.. on a requisition issued by the governor of Michigan. At Attica, Ind.. Saturday night, Simon TTontz shot and killed his wife and then killed himself. The deed i suppoted to have been caused by jealousy. At Marine City, Mich., Matilda Williams, aged fourteen, poisoned her father and mother because they refused to let her join a cowboy combination. The 40,000 barrels of oil that flowed out of the Standard oil company's bunted tank at Lima, O., Saturday, ran into the river and is now burning. In a wreck on the Pittsburg & Lake Erie railroad, near Cornanolis, Pa.. Mail Agent Blackmore and a number of passengers sustained slight injuries. The Boulangist leaders in Brussels have decided to remain quiet during the exhibition, provided the French government adopts a similar course. A package containing $15,000 in gold disappeared mysteriously, last Thursday, from the ofiice of tbe Northern Pacific Express company at Brainerd, Minn. Boulanger was notified by the Belgian government that if he did not leave he would be expelled. He replied that he would leave for London Wednesday. --' A new trial has been refused William Benson, who murdered Capt. Jacob Mottweiler near New Albany, Ind., and he has been sentenced to be hanged Aug. 16. The roll of those holding certificates of election to the lower house of congress has been made up by the clerk. It contains 1 Gl republicans and 1GI democrats. Bud Kenoud, a well-known sporting man of New Orleans, has offered Dempsey and Mitchell a purse of j,000 as an iuducement for them to fight in that city. Claus Spreckels is quoted as saying that he will never join the sugar trust He says that he will use his California refinery to fight it west of the Missouri river. Tbe supreme court of Michigan has decided that beer brought into the state is part of the roperty of the state, and subject to the tax evied on all local manufacturers. During a violent wind at Indianapolis Friday a house, in which three workmen were engaged, was blown down. One of them was killed and the others were seriously injured. Grace Smallwood was sentenced at Waohington Saturday to be hanged Oct. 11 for the murder of her illegitimate child at its birth, by tying a shoe string around its neck. Thomas F. Svanion, doing business as the New England piano company, with offices in Boston and New York, and factory at Uoxbury, Mass., has failed. Liabilities, $2AO00. Fifty persons claim to be heirs to an estate valued at $17,000,000, and known as the "Hannah Hillraan estate," which is located in St. Clair county, Illinois, opposite St. Louis. At West Fraras, Mas-s., last Thursday, a wealthy citir.cn named King, seventy-eight years of age, was killed while in led, by his son, who set lire to the house and committed suicide. The situation in the street-car strikes at St. Paul and Minneapolis remains unchanged. Monday the lower branch of the Minnesota legislature passed a bill repealing an ordinance Children Cry for.

offered bv proprietors of Dr. Cage's

Catarrh Remedy tor giving the St Faul street railway company the exclusive privileges of ten ftrect?. At Westframs. Mass., Thursday. Edgar King phot and killed his aged fsther and then blew his own brains out He was a dissolute fellow and his father bad refused to give him money. Fraucis Corrican, of Weir Village. Mass., tried to poison his neighbor's dog last week with a piece of bread, spread with arsenic Iiis three-year-oid daughter ate a portion of it and died. Two men, convicted of violating the Arkansas election laws last November, have been sentenced. One goes to the peuitentiary for five years, and the other mnst pay a tine of Mrs. Mary Clifford, aged sixty, was arreted at Waterville, Me., Saturday, on a warrant charging hr with the murder of a woman on whom she is accused of having committed aa abortion. F. It Bossier and Alonzo Ackley were arrested at Coninna, Mich., Friday, on a charge of swindling the Cincinnati Union life insurano company out of several thousand dollars on a crooked loan transaction. The oommi? sioner of internal revenue has decided that under the recent act of congress and the president's proclamation, in relation to Oklahoma, wholesale and retail liquor dealers may begin busiuess there. A dispatch fmm Vicksbnrg. Miss., says that Mr. John S. Peters of Adrian, Mich., has purchased for the American timher company of Michigan l.Vt.OOO acres of the finest cypress and hardwood timber land in that section. At Butler, Ta., James FHdi struck his wife, who went to a bureau drawer and got a revolver, tolling him that if be hit her again the would shoot him. lie then htruck her in the face, and übe fired, inflicting a fatal wound. Felice Viart, aged, seventy-two, a professional beggar, died at New Orleans last week in an old shanty, where she had lived for over twenty years in abject poverty. After hor death the coroner found concealed in the shanty. The lion. W. II. Calkin, a former representative ifi congress from Indiana, has ben appointed associate justice of the supreme conrt of Washington Territory. He moved to 'l acoma several months ago, and will make his home there. The German government has issued a Samoan "white book" in which Prince B:smarck censures Consul Knappe's conduct throughout the troubles and declares that Germany has nothing to do with the internal affairs ot -anioa. Latest reports from Hayti say that Legitime has captured the fortress of Dessalines alter a terrible battle, which cost Hyppolite's army forty-four dead, i;- wounded and 103 prisoners." This is regarded as the decisive battle in favor of Legitime. .uit has Wen brought against the Mutual Preserve Fund life insurance association of New York to recover $100,000 on a policy issued on the life of Henry E. Lincoln, which the company retuses to pay on the ground that Lincoln committed suicide. At the close of tbe week, the leading produce markets were without auimation, but there was less weakness apparent Provisions were well sustained, irrain steady, flour eay, cotton higher, whisky lower, groceries firm, dairy products steadv. and general merchandise slow but steady. The money market remained easy, but there was some little increase in the volume of business. Government bonds ruled firm, but quiet The New York banks gained largely in reserve during the week just closed. THE CONNECTICUT MUTUAL. The Investigating Committee, to Itemalm tu Hartford Another Month. Judge Walker stated to a reporter yesterday that he had received a letter from the members of the Connecticut Mutual investigating committee w hich is now examining the accounts of the company at Hartford, that they would hardly complete their work before a month, but that the work was progressing nicely. Judge Walker also said that he had had a talk with the insurance commissioner of Connecticut, who told him he was going to probe the affairs of the Connecticut Mutual to the bottom. The commissioner enid that his reputation was at stske in the matter, and that no tone would be left unturned to show to the world the exact condition of the Connecticut Mutual'! aliairs. The commissioner has eraployed an expert actuary. 'hJ is making up the ier cent, of all the policies held by the company. The commissioner will visit every citv in the I'nited States wherein property is owned by the Connecticut Mutual, and will himself see that no fictitious valnes are traced upon the same. He will visit Indianapolis in a month or so. Judge Walker said, in conclusion, that be was much impressed with the integrity of the commissioner, and felt free to say that h' was an honest man in every respect and one that would hide or conceal nothing of importance to the public. His Family Murdered. CiiABLOTTr-, C, April Ci V. P. Wood, a farmer of Madion county, was called sway from home ou MonJay and returned Friday to in I his home In ahes. An invcMication ored that his house hri'l heen robbed and Lis family, cor-ltini of his wife, three Kins and two dsuqhters. had h4-n murdered. Tli-ir lon' were found anx'iig the ashes. The ascs and cluhs and two howie kniTes, all stained with Hood, with which the munier were cominitteJ, sicre Ijiind in tbe yard. Pitcher's Castoria,