Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-04-24
FEARFUL SUFFERING.
Freezing Nights, scorching Days, and No
Shelter.

CHICAGO, April 23d.-The Daily Ne,es'
special from Guthrie, Oklahoma. via Ar
| kansas City, says: Guthrie is plunged IN
| seemingly inextricable confusion. The
differences of the rival factions which de-
sire to control the town have baffled the
efforts OF half dozen public meetings TO
settle them. The excitement is at very
| high pitch, and confidence is beginning to
waver.
| The suffering of $4,000 unsheltered and
| unprovisioned people is something that
could be endured only amid such furore.
The scenes of night and day are unex-
ampled. Thousands are fleeing the town
and country and thousands more are pour
| ing in. There is feeling of wild uncer-
tainty and apprehension that amounts to
distraction. There is no food, no water,
| no cover from the bitter cold nights and
| the sweltering heat of the day. The rail-
road is gorged with business and is tenn
porarily imperative.
The townsite is changed every hour by
| rival parties, as each secures temporary
dominance. No buildings have been
started, and but a few more tents have
been reared. Nobody knows where the
| streets are, and everyone just now is yield
! ing everything 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. The freight
and passenger train met, and both engines
| went into the ditch. No one was hurt, but
| the track is blockaded for hours.
| Such a sight at Guthrie upon which the
sun rose this morning probably was never
before witnessed in the world A majority
of the $4,000 people lay blanketless upon
the ground, either guarding their claims or
slumbering where they had fallen of
| fatigue. On the depot platform they lay
as close as corded wood, and in few tents
| they crowded in huddled masses. As MANY
as could took the meager shelter afforded,
but these quickly came to the limit of their
| capacity beyond which neither tears nor
bribes could prevail.
Among the thousands stretched upon the
ground, many of them were 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. The sun fairly leaps
out of the prairie and within two hours
I, the cold had been supplanted with Sahara
| heat. The wind rose, but without a cool
| ing effect. 1t blew hot sirrocco that
scorched the flesh and filled the air with
binding alkali dust. To complete the gen.
eral misfortnnes the only large tent, accom-
modating $50 people, fell under the stress
of the furnace blast. 1t could not be re-
paired, and other tents could scarcely be
| mounted.
The climate provoked an Unsuitable thirst
and water was the first supply 70 fail.
There is little stream hard bv, but the
water is too strongly alkaline to drink The
railroad tank that takes its supply by a
gravity pipe from a distance, afforded the
| only possible drinkable water, and it is
brackish. 1t was attacked by thousands of
people until the railway officials called on
the military to protect it, under the pre-
tense that they needed the water to operate
| the road. The tank-man, however, sold
water at five cents pint thereafter, as did
the locomotive engineers, from the tanks of
their engines. The railroad company seems
| to be completely protrated, and does Eot
Pneumonia and sun-stroke 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 big city out of doors, and
without supplies. Only one train left over
the crippled road, and it was crowded be-
yond the additional space Of mouse on
the floor or sparrow on the root. Those
who could not get on cheered defiantly as
the train pulled out, and another, iust as
crowded. pulled in from the north.
The Daily Ne'0s correspondent secured a
footing on the pilot of the locomotive to
reach Arkansas City. nearly eighty miles
north, with this dispatch. Along the
route, during the long hours of the laggard
ride, scores of boomers wagons could be
seen forging northward across the Chero.
kee strip. They are strapped and des-
perate, and the Government must Weld
this line region now, uselessly sequestered,
or cause great trouble.
Good humor is splendidly maintained in
the face of these hardships. One boomer
hailed from the train as to whether he was
northward bound shouted back, II am 60
ing back to my wife's people" Everybody
of whom inquiries were made on the train
declared he was disappointed in the coun-
try and would not put up with the suffer-
ing for the scant chance ST gam.