A Land Rush in America.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 5023, 3 June 1889, Page 3

A Land Rush in America.

MI3EEY IN OKLAHOMA. Brief particulars hare been published of the opening up of the Oklahoma Territory in America, and the rush to peg out “ claims ” immediately on the signal being given that the land was formally open to be taken up. The following telegrams received in Chicago from the district give a graphic picture of this remarkable manifestation of earth hangar and its consequences : A Daily Netos special from Guthrie, Oklahoma, via Arkansas City says Guthrie is plunged in inextricable confusion. The differences of the rival factions which arc trying to control the town have baffled t o efforts of half a dozen public meetings to atdl them. The excitement is at a very high pitch, and confidence is beginning to waver. The suffering of 15,000 unsheltered and unprovisioned people is something that could bo endured only amid such furore. Thousands are fl. eing the town and country and thousands are pouring in. There is no food, no water, no shelter from the bitter cold of the nights and the withering heat of the day. The railroad is gorged with business and is temporarily inoperative. The town site is changed every hour by rival parties, as eachjsecures temporary dominance. No buildings have been started. Nobody knows where the streets are, and everybody is just now yielding all things else for the clamor for food, drink and shelter or means of light. To complete this tremendous excitement a disastrous wreck occurred just south of town during the forenoon. A freight and passenger train collided, and both engines went into the ditch. No one was hurt, but the track was blockaded for hours.

Such a sight as that upon which the sun rose this morning was probably never before witnessed. The majority of the 15,000 people lay bianketless upon the ground, cither guarding their claims or slumbering where they hod fallen in their fatigue. From the depot platform they lay as close us corded wood, and in the few tents they were crowded and huddled in masses. As many as could, took the meagre shelter afforded, but there quickly came a limit to the capacity, beyond which neither tears nor bribes could prevail. Among the thousands stretched upon the ground were many of respectable quality. Those who could not sleep—and they were legion—in the stinging cold, crouched in groups, swearing or weeping as suited their spirit. Within two hours after sunrise the c6ld had been supplanted by Sahara heat. The wind rose, but without cooling effect. It blew a hot sirocco, that scorched the flesh and filled the air with blinding alkali dust. To complete the general misfortunes, the only large tent, accommodating 150 people, fell under the stress of the wind. It could not be repaired, and other tents could scarcely bo mounted.

The climate provoked an insatiable thirst, and water was the first supply to fail. There is a little stream hard by, but the water is too strongly alkaline to drink. The railroad tank, that takes its supply by a gravity pipe from a distance, affords the only possible drinkable water and it is brackish. It was attacked by thousands of people until the railway officials called the military to protect it, under the pretence that they needed the water to operate the road. The tank man, however,'sold water at five cents a pint there, after, as did the locomotive engineers from the tanka of their engines. The railroad seems to bo completely prostrated, and does not deliver the baggage of the suffering throng. Pneumonia and sunstroke are beginning to claim their victims, but the sick have neither refuge nor sympathy. The whole scene in its countless varied and painful details is indescribable. Here stands a big city out of doors, and without supplies. Only one train left over the crippled road, and it was crowded beyond additional space on floor or roof. As the train pulled out another just as crowded, pulled in from the north. The Daily News correspondent secured a footing on the pilot of the locomotive, and managed to reach Arkansas City, nearly eighty miles north, 1 with this despatch. Along the route during the long hours of the ride scores of boomers’ waggons could bo seen forging northward across the Cherokee strip, retracing the hard journey they had just completed. Hundreds, and probably thousands of them, will halt on the strip and try to force a settlement. They are desperate. Everybody of whom enquiries were made on the train declared that he was disappointed in the country, and would not put up with the suffering for the scant chance of gain. Men who have pegged out claims defend them with the rifle and several men have been shot and killed in defending claims or trying too oust earlier selectors.

A meeting of Oklahoma boomers disappointed of securing claims was held in the Opera House, Arkansas City, Kansas. Speeches were made denouncing the manner in which Oklahoma was settled. It was freely declared that largo bodies of men passed as United States Marshals in order to get into the country, and selected the best claims, and that this was unfair to law-abiding citizens. They came to secpvehome?, and as they could not get them in Oklahoma they were going to have them in Cherokee strip. About 500 men in Arkansas City to-night have pledged themselves to go to-morrow to Cherokee and stako claims, and hold them let the consequences be what they may.