The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1889-06-14
AFTER FoRTY-FIvE DAYS.

AFTER FoRTY-FIvE DAYS.
A good many volumes about Okla
homa as it appeared April 22nd, and
for few days thereafter, have beer
printed and eagerly read; few words
about it as it now appears may be o.
interest.
There is little need to describe te
Kansas people the country as 1t ap'
pears to passenger on the train
Most of them have seen it, and such as
have not can call ON their memory, II
they were in Kansas twenty yearsago
or on their i'm agination if they were
not, to picture the waving seas of green
grass stretching out unbroken to the
horizon, with here add there winding
strips of darker green marking the
direction Of some water course. 1t lie
the primeval prairie, which one who
was born upon it sees always with the
keenest enjoyment, feeling as il he had
again come back to the place where
where there was room to
breathe. Here and there upon
this prairie. after the Cherokee strip is
crossed, some signs of occupancy may
be Observed shanty or tent or a
dug-out or covered wagon or a
mound of dirt or stake with some
body's name on it. Occasionally too
some ploughed ground may be seen,
but there was not nearly SO much of
this as I had expected and I remem-
Der only one place where there were
signs that anything had been planted.
1t is evident that by far the greater
majority of those who took claims on
the 22nd of April have awaited them
selves of the months leave of absence
granted by the law to spend the sum.
mer where they can earn something,
expecting doubtless to return to their
claims in time to prepare them for a
crop next season.
There are several little stations
where few stores have been put up,
but there are only two towns along the
railroad worth speaking of, Guthrie
and Oklahoma City. The former COW
ers 1000 acres and its boom seems to be
marching OH in spite of red sand and
conflicting city governments and
mobs. did not stop there, however,
and as there is but poor view Of the
town from the railroad station, I am
not qualified to pass judgment on it.
Oklahoma City is much more favor.
ably located, In its relation to the rail.
road, for it lies along the track for two
miles, on the same level 80 that the
passenger may see at once the long
rows of business and dwelling houses,
the graded streets and the crowds that
throng all the thoroughfares. The
town lies on the west side of the rail
road and is two miles loug-north and
sDuth-by one half mile wide. And
these limits define it exactly. Within
them it is all town, for the conditions
ofits settlement require some sort of
improvement on every lot, while be.
yond them it is all country. The
town doesn't ravel out, with struggling
houses on the..outskirts, half in town
and half in the country, as is the case
in the States. fit were walled in its
boundaries could not be more clearly
defined. The north line of the town.
site runs along the crest of ridge
which slopes down gradually for q
half mile or SO before it reaches the level
of the business portion of the town.
When this level is reached, however,
there is no more variety for the rest OF
the site is as even as a bsrn floor.
There are four business streets extend
ing the half mile from the railroad to
the western limit, and these are grad
ed and built up almost solidly on both
sides. All the houses are wood, OF
course, and most of them are the mer.
est shanties; but there are q consider
able number Of substantial two-story
buildings among them. Tents may
still be seen here and there but they
are not nearly so numerous as 1 had
anticipated. Aside from its newness
the town has few of the frontier char
acteristics. One runs across stray
Indian occasionally, and almost any
time of the day one may hear in Ger.
tain neighborhoods the monotonous
chant of the keno "caller" or the click
of the faro chips floating out from the
wide-open gambling dens; but you
can't get up anything very "wild and
woolly" without whisky, and there is
10 whisky in Oklahoma. The town is
phenomenally quiet andorderly. Hav-
ing no law but the will of the people,
here is yet no lawlessness.
There are now probably 5000 men
in Oklahoma City, representing a pop
pulation-when the families arrive
Of some 5000 or 900. How are all
these people going to live? They will
live off each other for the most part
for year or two. A large proportion
of the business men located there are
men of fair means who expect to make
the place their home and who will paw
out large sums of money in the way OF
public and private improvements. II
is expected too that two or three new
railroads will build into the town