Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1888-11-28
oKLAHOMA.

tlon or opening the Oklahoma country
and it is our opinion that if that SCUM
try is opened between now and next
May. so that settlers can go in with the
cUnseDt of the government, with the
assurance that they viii not have to
get out again, Barber county will fur
nish at least 500 ''boomers''-men who
are qualified as homesteaders.
These will generally be men who have
proved up presumption claims here,
mortgaged them and. having had poor
crops for three years in succession, they
are now ready to try new country. OF
course they viii give up all claim to
their land here and the mortgage
companies will foreclose their mort
cages and then will occur one of two
things: Either new men with some
capital will come in and buy these
claims or they will remain vacant for
some time.
If new men come in they will likely
be of great advantage to the county,
for they will certainly make improve
ments, buy stock and spread around
money. If the residents who remain
here attempt to buy the land, just for
the sake of owning it and being consid-
cred rich land owners, it will be an act
ual disadvantage to the county. Barber
county already has too many men who
are ''land poor" They do not properly
utilize the land they own and it keeps
them poor paying interest and taxes.
Those who are contented to remain
here and cultivate their land will find
IA ready market for every thing they can
raise III the way of meat, grain and veg
etables, in the Oklahoma country.
Every old citizen Will remember that
for years after Barber county was set
tied, that it hauled nearly everything
that was consumed-corn, hay, flour,
potatoes. vegetables, beef, pork, fruit,
and in fact everything. So it would be
with Oklahoma for several years. So
the industrious farmer who remained
here could do as the farmers of Sum
ner, Harper, Reno and Kingman coun-
ties did: get rich selling the produce of
their farms to their less fortunate neigh
bors.
Much has been said about the over
flow that would occuri if Oklahoma were
opened, it being contended that if Okla
homa proper, the entire Cherokee Strip
and No-Man's-Land, in all nearly
twelve millions of acres, were opened,
that every available quarter-Section
would be taken within thirty days, and
that there would be thousands of fam
lilies who could not then be accommo-
dated. These, the overflow, it is con-
tended, would necessarily have to find
homes in Kansas,
There may be something in this. If
there is, Barber county would probably
be one of the first counties to catch the
overflow. We have so much land on
which the sod has been broken-we
have so many streams of pure water
we have so many pretty groves of tim
Der that are always inviting, the coun-
ty is especially so when nature has put
on its garments of spring. Barber coun-
ty then would probably not lose much
i'll population, III the end.
And there is another reason for be
lieving that the opening of Oklahoma
would add to our population anu
wealth: That country will all go in
under modified homestead law. Not
only Will the settler be compelled to live
on the land three years, but he must
pay SIPS per acre for it and then he
cannot select his land III long strips so
as to take in water courses or timber:
but he must take it i'll square shape.
Now, the point is just here: That land
cannot be mortgaged until the govern
meht has Issued its patent to the set
tier. Many of the settlers will go there,
take claims and at the end of the first
six months. when the first payment on
the land is due, they will be disguised.
They will not have raised a crop-no
one ever does the first year-there will
be no way to raise money on their land,
and the time for final proof will appear
so far away in the mystic future that
pull back for the states" Kansas
will get its share of these people.
All of this is on the supposition that
Oklahoma will be opened. But it is
not opened yet, and we candidly do not
believe that it will be opened inside of
two years and perhaps much longer.
The United States senate is, at heart,
against the scheme. There are too
many men in the senate who are intsr-
ested in the cattle business. The SEN
ate may not kill the bill outright; but
it Will tack on amendments that will
have the same effect. Then the Chero-
kee nation must consent to sell the
strip and it does not now appear TO have
any such intention. The consent of
other tribes of Indians must be OBJ
tanned, and this is easier said than done.
The cattlemen have just perfected an
other lease for five years and they will
not give up that lease without a con-
test.
So, we say, Oklahoma is not opened
and we would advise every Barber cOun-
~ farmer who has had an eye on that
country, to go right along and prepare
for another crop. Piow early and plow
deep and you Will have plenty of time
after the bill has passed, before the pre-
) liminaries are arranged, to go down
there and get the pick of the claims.
Under the proposed act. it is actually a
disadvantage to go there before the
opening proclamation is issued, for the
, bill says no one shall be allowed totake
a claim there who has gone in before
the country is regularly opened.
So, everybody, keep your shirt on un-
til further notice.