The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-04-24

wheels was taken into the car, elected an hon.
orary member of the press association and fur
nlshed with refreshments out of bottle, which
he drank with rush and amidst enthusiastic
applause. He gave his name as Harvey
Saddler, and said he was born in England but
had been In this country for nine years, and
had come all the way from Seattle, w. T., to
get good foothold in Oklahoma. He was
elected as the representative of the London
TINES, and also as the mascot of the new city
OF Guthrie, and, to make the bargain sure, 1t
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 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 way the line
reached about five minutes after Il O'Clock.
Before the late dead-line was reached and
passed, however, the great transformation
scene had begun and was plainly visible to the
watchers from the train. First came in view
the white-topped wagons gathered together in
groups on the level prairie or In the little val
leys which diversity the face OF the country. 1t
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 har-
ness TO be rode across the border By the hard
riders, who were to locate the claims. A little
further on, and this conclusion was proven TO
be the correct one, for the entire lace OF the
country as far as the best feld-glass could
carry the sight, was overrun with horsemen.
galloplng TO the southwark. Their heetest
horses had evidently been picked for work, and
they were carrying their riders rapidly to the
longed-fOr goal.
The ride of Paul Revere dwindles into OBJ
security beside the feat Of hOrsemanship per.
formed in Oklahoma to-day Rides of fifteen
short space OF time by old boomers familiar
with the country and who knew where deslra-
bic lands were located. The day was cloudless
and far away on the horizon, both TO the east
and the west, clouds OF dust could be seen as
cending from the hoofs of hundreds of horses,
rushing toward different destinations in most
cases, but some of them toward the same. One
race for goal could be easily distinguished;
the riders were apparently evenly mounted;
they were neck and neck for mile or two
along the trial as far as they could be seen,
and their eager and intense looks and merciless
slashings were sufficient evidence of the prize
they were running after. One saddled, but
riderless horse was seen galloplng along the
trail, ominous sign of some accident 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 be seen, after the train
reached the summit ola high ridge,
a wagon caravan fully two miles
most speed Of its horses. These caravans were
plainly out-distanced by the horseback riders,
and, after several miles of the territory had
been traversed, 1t was seen that the best riders
were winning the best prizes. One hOmsteader,
who had secured magnificent quarter section
OF rolling land, had dug hole two or three
feet deep at that corner of il where the
veyOrs section mark was located, and where
he had driven his stakes, not looking upon
these evidences OF possession sufficient
confirm his title, he seized Winchester as the
train ran by and fired out all Its contents and
then emptied his revolver, yelling like a cow
boy Comanche Indian all the time. Not
only the yells, but the shots were responded to
from the train, and volley went up into the
air from the entire length of the section, which
proved eonclusively how we'll the party
armed in expectancy of what might happen
few miles the other side of the line.
The train stopped at a military post. The
white tents of the soldiers and the officers
tents, surrounded by the national colors, were
maintain order. The troop ID of the Fifth regi-
ment of cavalry OF the army, was quartered
there, and the officers said that at the sound of
the bugle there at high noon there had been
movement among the boomers camped along
the border, which had extended across the
tire frontier line, ana that the riding had been
fast and furious ever since, some of the pros
pectOrs running to Guthrie to file their entries
and others going to locate on the land and
cure prior right TO possession by actual Occu-
pancy.
The scene was one of the most stirring and
picturesque ever witnessed. The smoke OF a
myriad of camp-hres, lighted TO cook the first
meal in oklahoma began to ascend in all direc-
ton, and before the first train OF land-specu-
lators rushed TO the future great city of Guthrie
the farmer had already become the possessor of
a great deal of the land. and more than one fur
row of virgin soil out OF the land which had
never before been tickled by the pillow, was
turned over TO the sun, which has made the day
glorious as well as memorable.
Ii was twenty minutes after L. o'clock when
the first section of the great Atchison train
reached the line, and its progress from that
point on was not rapid enough for the rapid
men who wanted TO get there in a hurry. before
all the cream was skinned off the milk
Nevertheless, il lacked a few minutes of o'clock
when the train stopped in front of the Guthrie
depot a handsome and substantial edihce,
which has been greatly libeled by the numer-
Gus newspaper artists, who have drawn on their
imagination for its picture, since this excite
ment began. Before the train came TO a
ready there; IN fact, the town was
already well populated. Tents were numerous
on the eastern slope and stakes were sticking
up out Of the ground like poles in bean
patch Men could be seen racing in the direc-
tiOn OF the valuable holdings, and the scene
was as busy and animated a one as it is posi-
bic 70 imagine. The profanity among the Ar
kansas City Wichita and Kansas City specu-
latOrs was both loud and deep. IL there has
been a prospect Of shooting at any time to-day,
il was when these men found themselves baf-
fled at the game of freeze-Out, but they were
compelled 10 swallow their wrath, for, accord
ing 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 laws enforcement.
There was nothing TO do but to take what was
left, and il was in the scramble to get that that
the most ludicrous scene OF the day was pre-
scented. 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
body, but in attachments. The land office was
not their point of destination, though il stands
at the corner of the section, and is therefore,
the present center of the town. But il was to
secure the lots nearest TO il that the rush was
made, there was but little left near it. Stakes
had already been driven almost TO the limit of
the half section of $40 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 appro-
priated nearly everything in sight. 1t was but
few minutes until the line was reached and
the back action movement of taking mp the
lots, which nobody wanted before, began.
They were not long on the market after the ebb
of the tide set in, and when the second and
third sections of the Atchison train arrived
and found everything cornered the air was
blue for miles around the metropolis. There
was nothing 70 do, however, as every lot was
protected by rifles and revolvers, and if the
shooting began there was no telling were it