Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 April 1889 — OKLAHOMA IS SETTLED. [ARTICLE]

OKLAHOMA IS SETTLED.

Scotland is to be granted home rule in the shape of county government. Ireland can not have the came blessing, beqiaseofthecryagainstthe "disintegration of the empire” Yet there are ninety-nix Irish Home Rulers in the British Parliament, and not one Scotch Home Ruler. Lord Salisbury’s policy seems to be to give what is not asked for, and to withrhold what is. Ths opposition to the proposed expenditure of $100,000,000 to strengthen; the British navy went all to pieces on the final vote, and work is to be commenced on the new ships. It will take seven years to build tbe new fleet, and if the other great naval powers will kindly wait till 1896, and do no building in the interval, the British navy may perhaps be as invincible by that, time as the Lords of the Admirality predict. Idaho is ambitious of speedily following Dakota, Montana and Washington into Statehood. The Governor has issued a call for a Constitutional Convention to beheld next July, and much interest is felt in the agitation. In many respects Idaho’s claims are very strong, but at present Mormon influerice is too strong within its Dormers to make its chances very good. The rapid immigration of men who have no sympathy for Mormonism, and who will appose its spread in every legitimate manner, will, however, probably overcome the obstacle in the course of a few years, if not months. Thk last weekly report of the Central Traffic Association shows that the Grand Trunk Railway carried nearly 34 per cent of tbe entire grain and provision freights from Chicago, while no American road carried over 16 per cent. This means, manifestly, that the Grand Trank, being a Canadian institution, is enabled to get far more than its due share of the tr ade by cutting through rates, whereas the American roads are forbidden to adopt such a method of protecting and promoting their interests. In other words, the interstate commerce law, as at present construed and applied, operates to the direct advantage of the Canadian over the American lines in our own carrying trade.

A Buffalo Judge is reported as refusing to give a man naturalization papers on the ground that he was a common drunkard and wife beater. The decision may or may not be constitutional; it is at least righteous. A good deal more than usual is being said about the limitation of suffrage to a basis of intelligence and character. There certainly can be no reason, in justice or policy, forgiving the ballot to a habitual drunkard and vagabond. A man incapable of decent decision concerning his private affairs is worthless as a judge of public affairs, and if Jhe casts his influence in his household in favor of rioting why should hrs be trusted to decide on matters of/social order and law? Evidently the Buffalo Judge knows what kind of voters we need>and in his case the voters knew ' what sort of Judge was needed. But unlimited suffrage has not so good a record elsewhe/e.

The tendency to call all men infidels who disagree with the speaker's creed is by no means yet exhausted. It is a short way of destroying, or trying to destroy, a man’s character and to prevent liberty of opinion and soundness of judgment. But the popular resentment against this sort of denunciation is growing. One of the Eastern Bishops recently declared that all France had gone over to infidelity. This wholesale charge has waked up some sharp replies from both orthodox and liberal preachers as wpll as from the press. One noted preacher bluntly replies that the changes of opinion within the churches are as great as these without; and that much of the creeds are practically outgrown. Howeagr this may be, it is no longer tolerable for any man to hurl epithets at free men for free thinking. There was never so little infidelity in the world as to-day. Infidelity rightly defined is lack of faithfulners to the truth.

Atair sample of John Bright’s simplicity and strength of oratory can be found in this portion of his argument against the recognition of the Southern Confederacy in 1863; “I want to know whether you feel as I feel upon this question. When I can get down to my home from this House, I findhalf a dozen little children playing upon my hearth. How many members are there who can say with me that the most innocent, the most pure, the most holy joy which in their past yean they have felt, or in their future yean they have hoped for, has not arisen from contact and association with our precious children! Well, then, if that be so, if, when the hand of death takes one of those flowers from our dwelling our heart is overwhelmed with sorrow and our household is covered with gloom, what would it be if our children were brought up to this infernal system—lso,9oo of them every year brought into the world in these slave states, among these ‘gentlemen,’ among this ‘chivalry,’ among these mer. tha> we can make our friends!” '•.

THK TRIALS, STRUGGLES AND SACRIFICES OT THE BOOMF.RS PAR- . TIALLY REWARDED. Scene* tn and About Arkansn* City Before and During thy Departure of Trains—On the Way-Wondrous Transformat’n Scene that began with the Sounding of a Bugle——Wagon Boonie ■ Leave Their Yekiclee,Mount Their Fleetest Horse* and Fly/or a Homestead—Th sl&il way Boomers, are Frozen Out at Guthrie,Nearly Every Foot' of the 320 Acres Having Been Staked Off byMen Already on theSpot-A Wilderness ” Coaverted into a Municipality in Three Hours and 10,000 Voters Select a Mayor and City Council—Full Details. Oklahoma is open, wide open. The long looked-for 22d of April has come and and a country was settled in a day. The trials, struggles and sacrifices of years are partially rewarded, but the events of the day made those of the days, weeks and months to follow and will prove how far the supply is below the demand, and necessitate further concessions to avert disorder, bloodshed and other conditions but little short of anarchy. The history of this one day will forever be memorable in frontier annals and will leave behind a heritage of litigation which wrii be fruit to land sharksand claim attorneys, but be destructive to the claims of poor and honest settlers. The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad began running its sectional trains out of Kansas City Sunday 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 full before the border line was reached; could they have been coupled, they would have niAdu. a - Train miles in -length.—Thecrowds were composed of speculators, adventurers, sight-seers, thieves, gamblers and a sprinkle of the demimonde. The farming element was hot 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 have its representatives there who filled all the seats, occupied all the standing room in the aislss and filled up the spaces between tbe 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 country 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 the rush and hurry and roar of the boomer campaign. There was but little sightseeing indulged in, as the crowd did not care to look at anything until it got to Oklahoma. At Arkansas City there were over seventy-five coaches side-tracked in the yards awaiting the rush. All of these were lowered into the yards at some distance below tbe depot. The crowd began gathering 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 crowds were rushing toward the centerof action from all parts of the city. The hotels emptied their hundreds into the streets, the hot-houses contributed hundreds more out of the hospitable homes of tbe city, nearly all of which have entertained guests during the past week. Some long strings of men carrying grips, bundles, knapsacks and parcels of eveiy possible and impossible description. Hundreds of boomers and rustlers, in their impatience to get abroad, rushed down en masse to the yards and attempted to force an entrance into the cars, all of which 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

i-trong guard of railroad men was detailedto protect the company's property, and they bad a contract of unusual dimensions on their bands. Tbe crowd was ppnic stricken. After waiting so many eventful days and nights for the hour of action to come, men were seised with a sudden fear that they would be left in tbe lurch, and that fear served to make them like a drove of stampeded cattle. There was a vain attempt at good humor in the struggle, which concealed the grim purpose behind, aud there was no quarter shown in tbe 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 sidetrack loaded with a boomer, his horse, wagon and a cow, wife ana children and all his little household effects. Ha was a merry fellow and guyed the crowd unmercifully for not going through, as he expressed' it, without change of cars, tn 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.” The first section made up consisted of nine coaches, the newspaper coach and one calaboose. It pulled out at 8 47, railroad time. This was tbe first train that ever ran out of Kansas loaded with settlers foe Oklahoma, and even, those who were disappointed in getting aboard of it joined in a wild, enthusiastic cheer which rent tbe Kansas air as the first step toward the realisation o', hopes and dreams of years cod the reward tor the sacrifices of the peat was taken. It was 9.40 when the sign which marks the Stateline and the dividing line from the Cherokee strip was reached. It was 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 a government is yet to be created and established. Still the Cherokee country lay between them and tbe rsjnbow land.: There were no Indians lo be seen until after Willow Springs was passed, when a wagon load of bucks of the Poncha tribe passed un the trail who responded to the shouts and cheers of those on board the train with sullen looksand gesticulations of defiance,as not evidently pleased at the coming ol Jbe pale-face. Along the Pawnee trail

the train also passed caravan’s of boomers’ wagons, many.going south, but some returning toward Kansas. Between Willow Springs and the Ponca agency somebody in the newspaper car discovered a naan riding on ' the trucks beneath the coach. Immediately an effort was made to open up ne- I go ti at ions with him, but they resulted I unsuccessfully till the train stopped at at Ponca, when the adventurous boomeron 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. Ha gave his name as Harvey Saddler, and skid he was born in England but had been ih this country for nine years, and had come all the way from Seattle, W. T., to get a goof foothold in Oktahama. He was elected as therepresentativeofthe London Times, and also as the Mascot of the pew city of Guthrie, and, to make the bargain sure, it was agreed he should have-one of the best lots 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 get in quicker by rail. There being no room inside, they climbed to the top of the coaches, and the entire train from one end to the other was lined with them. In this the line was leached about five minutes' after 12 o’clock. ' Before the late dead line was reached and passed, however, the great transformation scene naa begun and was plainly visible to the watchers from the train. F*rstcame in view the white topped wagons 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 hard riders, who were to locate the claims. A little turther ou r and thie conclusion was proven to be the correct one, for the entire face of the countiy, as far as the best field glass could carry the sight,was overrun with horsemen, galloping to the southward. Their fleetest horses had evidently been picked for the work, and they were carrying their riders rapidly to the longed-for goal. The. ride of Paul Revere dwindles into obscurity beside the feats of horsemanship performed in Oklahoma Monday. Rides of fifteen or twenty miles were made in an incredibly short space 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 to 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 them toward the same. One face' for a goal could be easily distinguished; they were neck and neck fur a mile or two along the trail as far as they could be seen, and their eager and intense looks and merciless slashings, were sufficient evidence of the prize that they were running after. One saddled but riderless horse wa-» seen galloping along the trail, an ominous sign of Bome 'acci--dent or fatality which had befallen the rider. Some men were in charge of two horses and were evidently riding relays toward the goal. Out of the dust which arose toward the east could bfe seen, after the train reached the summit of a'high ridge, a wagon caravan fully two miles in length,, and which was being sped to tbe utmost speed of its horses. These caravans were plainly out-diatanoed by the horseback riders, and, after several miles of the territory bad been traversed, it was seen that the best riders w ?re winning tbe best prizes. One homsteader, who had saeuved a riragnifiearit quarter section of rolling 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 driven hie 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 nis revolver, yelling like a cowboy or a Comanche Indian all tbe time. Not only the yells, but the shots were responded to trom the train, and a volley went up into the air from

the entire length of the section, which proved conclusively how well the party was armed in expectancy of wnat might happen a few miles the other side of the line. The train stopped at a military post. The white tents of the soldiers and tbe officers’ tents, surrounded by the national colors, were a gratifying evidence of a power sufficient to maintain order. The troop D of the Fifth regiment of cavalry of the army, was quartered there, and tbe officers said that at the sound of the bugle there at h gh noon there had been a movem mt among the boomers camped along the border, which had extended across tbe entire frontier line, and that 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 print right to possesion by actual occupancy. The scans was ons oi th a most stirring and picturesque ever witnessed. The smoke oi a myriad of camo tires, lighted to cook tbe first meal in Oklahoma, began to ascend in all directions, and before the first train of land-speculators rushed to tbe tutute great city ol Guthrie, the farmer had already become tbe possessor ol a great deal of tbe land, and mote than one farrow ol virgin soil out oi tbe land which had never be to re been tickled by the plow, was turned over to tbe sun, which has made the day glorious as well as memorable. It was twenty minutes after 12 o'clock when the first section ol the great Atchismi Xiiiui its progress from that ooinvon was nsl rapid enough for the rapid men who wanted to get there in a burry, before all the cream was skimmed Ofi the milk.' Nevertheless, it lacked a few minutes ot 1 o’clock when the train stopped in front of the Guthrie depot, a baudaome ana substantial edifice, which has been greatly libeled by the numerous newspaperartists, who have drawn on their imagination for its picture, since this ' excitement began. Before tbe train came to a stop it was seen that somebody I was already {here; in fact, the town was already well populated. Tents were I numerous on the eastern slope and stakes I were sticking up out of the ground liko ■ poles in a bean paten Men could bo Ween racing in the direction of tbe valuI able holdings, and the scene was as busy and animate! a ono as it is possible to imagine. The profanity amodg the Arkansas City, Wichita and Kansas City speculators was both load and deep. If there has been a prospect of shooting at I any time to-day, it was when these men

found themselves baffled at the game of freezeont, but tbey were compelled to swatiow their wrath, for, according to all the technicalities in the law, the men in possession were the rightful owners, and the men who had been left out were the ones who had been most persistent in their demand for the law’s There was nothing to do but to take what was left, and it was in the scram? hie 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 made an army which charged the land office at the top of the knoll, not in a body but in detachments. The land office whs not their point of destination, though it stands at the corner of the section, and is, therefore, the present center -of the town. But it was to secure tbe lots nearest to it that the rush was made; there was but little near lt - Rtakpaharl al ready been driven almoist to the limit of the half section of 320 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 ia sight. It was but a few minutes until the line was reached, and the back action movement of taking up the Jots, which nobody wanted before, began. They were not long on the market after the ebb of the tide set in, and when the second arid third sections of the Atchison train a rived and found everything cornered the air was blue for miles around the metropolis. There was nothing to do, however, as every lot was protected by rifles and revolvers, and if the shooting began there was no telling where it would 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 handa* The first .Bale was made by a man named R. C. Runnels of Mulvan, Kan., who so<d a fine twenty-five foot front lot near the land office for $5 to an old doctor, a resident of one of the Indian reservations adjoining Oklahoma. The purchaser refused SSO for the lot five minutes later. Several transfers were made 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 Tull-rigged city with a double-deck boom can be put in running motion. Guthrie already has its Main-st,, its Harrison-st., its Guthrie ave., and its Oklahoma ave., and this morning it was a wilderness the antelope sported and the jackrabbit flapped his ears in the sun. To morrow afternoon at 4 o’clock the first municipal election will occtir. The election notice appeared to-day in the Oklahoma Herald, a daily paper published at Gifthrie on the first day ot 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. Reice of Illifiois, William Cou-’tautine of Springfield. O , and T. L. Sunjuer of Arkansas. A dark horse is T. Volney Haggatt of Huron, Dak. The bank of Oklahoma opened for business at Guthrie to-day with a capital stocks of $50,000. M. W. Levy, the Wichita banker, is president; C. W. Robinson, the bank of Winfield, and the Hon. Horace Speed of Indianapolis, directors.

The new city is flooded with business cards of ail descriptions, representing every line of trade and business', evt+y profession and every occupation nrtUgiuabie. A mass of mail is expected to reach the Guthrie postoffice every dav. It is now being run by a postal clerk detailed for that purpose, but ;dr Flynn of Kiowa. Kkn., lately appointed postmaster, will take charge in a day or two. Tne scene which resulted in die practical cornering of town lots Monday originated, as has been frequently indicated in this correspondence, with the' Atchison, Topeka & 4anta Fe railroad, probably in combination with the syndicate who have been hard at work in ArKansas Cay for aweek or more..pask-A-s.. stated before, numbers of- men have been going into the territory a-, deputy marshals and others under permits as railroad employes. Tlie marshals were simply com missioned and not sworn in and the railroads wiry not burdened with official orders They all did their work to-day, and did it well. Officials in the Guthrie latiffi office say that men seemed to spring out of the earth as noon approached, and that .it did not; take fiiteen minutes to occupy half the town site. Tne land officials have not been greatly rushed to-day. The first , homestead entry at the Guthrie office was ah old soldier claiutait nini-il Johnson, a Kansan. Tne land office at Kingfisher w.u not opened r i Jav, but advice, from there by stage to Guthrie reported an orderly coloniz/ugo ihe town, which is to t.-ra, rival of Guthrie iu the territory. Every; mhg w-tk 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 heen l«id out as a town site. It is evident that Oklabama is to be opened peaceably, aud without bloodshed. The crisis was passed tp day. The great number of her citizens are law-abiding, ami those whoare not will be suppressed by the strong hand of frontier justice, aided by military authority under command of Gen. Merritt, who has established his headquarters at Oklahama City. There are now about five hundred tioops ia the territory, and they will be kept here until order Is assured. 6CEXKS AT GUTHRIE. When the train arrived\at Guthrie from Arkansas City the embryo streets and lots ot 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 mtn leaped from the cat, windows, slipped from the roofs of the coaches and poured out ot the doors iin streams. In a minute the elope leading up from the station was black with men rnshin- beadlbng, eager for the town lots. In two minutes not one of tbe men who bad filled the train was ' left in speaking distance of tharailway. IBy the time this crowd had reached the top slope near tbe land-office, mea 1 who ba! b/en running parallel lines for streets and driving in stakes for town lota, were well on their way along the level strip of land east Of the land-office. Tbe crowd then caught the moving line of streets and lota and rushed east- < ward at a tremendous rate. The men

who brought along a muslin sign, bearing the words ‘‘Bank of Guthrie,” were compelled to take up s lot one mile back of Hie station. The next train arriving from Arkansas City brought 1,000 home seekers about fifteen minutes later. The men in this train poured across the prairie like,an army charging the wing of the enemy. They spread out north and south with axes and spades arid" stakes and began with wonderful energy the location of town lots arid 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 aftefnoon the crowd had overflowed all bounds. On the east the streets and town lots had been extended fully two toiles, on the north a mile and and a half and on the south* nearly a mile. No attempt has been made to lay out a town on the west side? of the track. This west land has been ~all7fiTecronlor homesteSdA ' " ~~ Almost with the first rush of home seekers from the cars the home seeker.A who had started across the Oklahoma north line at noon in wagons and on Horseback began to pour into the new. city, their horses 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 office was besieged by an eager and determined crowd of men,waiting to file claims upon homesteads. As the afternoon wore on this 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 claims were forced into line two abreast. Dealers in 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 rifles which had freen placed there fry 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.