Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 December 1885 — OKLAHOMA TERRITORY. [ARTICLE]

OKLAHOMA TERRITORY.

Ex-Congressman Sidney Clarke's Comprehensive Measure to open Up a Fart ot the Indian Nation. Ex-Congressman Sidney Clarke, of Kansas, has prepared a bill to be presented to Congress organizing the new Territory of Oklahoma. The boundaries include the country within the present limits of Indian Territory known as Oklahoma, and the publio land strip north of the Pan-Handle of Texas. The bill provides for all the necessary machinery for the executive, legislative, and judicial functions of a complete Territorial Government. The Indian tribes who had absolute titles by patent from the United States are exempted from the operations of the bill. The unoccupied Oklahoma land and the public land strip are declared to be a part of the public domain and opened to settlement under the homestead law, embracing about 7,000,000 aores. Another section of the bill disposes of the unoccupied portion of the Cherokee Strip west of 96 degrees of longitude to actual settlers only in tracts not to exceed 160 acres, at $1.25 per acre, the proceeds to be placed to the credit of the Cherokees, less the cost of sale and the appropriations already made for the payment of said land. For the purpose of securing the assignment of homesteads in severalty to the Indians of the various tribes, their education and civilization, the reduction of the reservations, and the sale and settlement of the surplus lands, and the final adjustments of all questions relating to Indians, a commission is authorized to be appointed by the President, composed of three civilians and two military officers. Full authority is given to thexnmmission, under the direction of the President, to enter into such negotiations with the Indians as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of the act. - ■ '' - IN Indianapolis Samuel Steinberger and wife were subjected to coal gas by the fall of a stove-pipe. A* the Hebrew law forbade him to touch or kindle fire on the Sabbath, he made no attempt to remedy the trouble. He lost his life, and his wife lies in'* dangerous condition. The handsomest woman in Italy is said to be nearly seven feet tall. She probably seems handsome to mortals of ordinary length. It is a case where distance lends enchantment to the view. Mrs. Diantha Jones, of Batavia, Mich., is in her 100th year, and has never needed spectacles.