Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 October 1901 — Lawton Is Booming. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Lawton Is Booming.

Lawton, Ok., is a town which grew In a night, and which is still growing. It was a flat, hopeless stretch of prairie one day, the next it was a village of tents. It sprang into being with the babble of men’s voices and in response to their restless greed. Two months ago it was the last corner left of the Indians’ hunting ground, a poor patch, but theirs nevertheless. Then it was converted into a number on a lottery ticket; then it became a camp of landseekers; now it is a county seat. Will it one day be the capital of the state of Oklahoma? Who can tell? The bunch grass was scraggy and brown about it; the sun was hot; there was dust and dreariness everywhere. The trains ran through it from the Atlantic to the Pacific coasts and travelers closed their eyes as they passed, wishing themselves well rid of such hopeless solitude. If anyone hadprophesied that the place would be a hustling town within a month, who would have beloved it? Who would or could have chosen such a place for a town site? It was so pitifully discouraging. Yet there stands a town, almost a city, with a flrst-class post office, a county building, and what not of public establishments. With two

miles of business streets, with 300 stores and offices, with 8§ saloons, what a prospect has Lawton before her! People who have witnessed such growths before in the building of the west Bhake their heads dubiously over Lawton. It may disappear, even as it came, they insist; such things have been known. The town may be alive to-day; it may be dead tomorrow; each day which passes is but so much unraveled from the tangle of its destiny. Merchants are satisfied that they have been prosperous for the day; they dare not anticipate the future, so uncertain is it. What the town stumbles upon must be accepted whether it is for better or worse. Lawton town site was bathing in the sunset when prosperity struck it. When the sun rose again Lawton was a town. Where the clatter of'crickets had re-echoed the day before, the shouts of men were to be heard. Homes were of white canvas, streets were weed grown, but the town of Lawton lived. A great army had settled down flpon the prairie and a new chapter in the development of the west was begun. With all the carelessness of an excited, hurrying people the

Lawtoniteß began to lay out their town. Stakes had already been set here and there by government surveyors, who had planned and named Lawton. The name was for the brave man who had fought and died in the Philippines, and, patterning after him, the town had been courageous of undertaking and prompt of action. It has sprung into a city, sturdy and full of promise. No time to pave its streets nor to house itself with brick and wood, yet Lawton has a schoolhouse, a first class post office, churches and many another of the institutions which follow the American people. Grand avenue is the longest and finest of the thoroughfares, paved with bunch grass and lighted with tallow candles. It is lined on each side with shacks and tents, each of wlblch bears an elaborate sign to indicate its usefulness. There is "The Owl Drug Btore,” "Mother’s Grocery Store," "The Bon Ton, Gent’s Furnishings,” and so on down the street. The wit and ingenuity of the citizens of Lawton have not been spared. Streets are named "Goo Goo street,” "Bluffers’- avenue," “Lucky Number boulevard," and so forth. The town is up to date in everything.—Busy Scenes in Lawton.

BUSY SCENES IN THE TOWN OF LAWTON.