Wichita eagle., 1889-04-24
SINCE NOAH LEFT TIE ARK,

OKLAHOMA CITY, April 81, 1889.
To the Editor OF the Eagle
As the single track on the Santa Fe is
overcrowded with train orders in the
rush there is poor show for 'press" in
the crush of commercial messages the
next few days. Coming down from Ar.
kansas City today bound for Darlington,
on a train with eleven coaches, we
passed on an average of one train fol
every half mile of road. Ten or more
stock specials were coming northward
loaded with the poorest and weakest
cattle we have ever seen on cars. Nearly
every car had three or four cattle down,
one or more being dead and tramped fiat,
others showing signs of life with ribs
broken in in great hollows or having
nearly every scrap of hair scraped off of
their poor carcasses. The road was lined
in many places with dead thrown from
these cars. They were too weak to re-
gain their feet when they got down in
the cars and were easily trampled to
death.
There was about five car loads of
baggage at Arkansas city to be moved
today Sunday and tomorrow. The
trains today were loaded with townsite
men who were uneasily travelling up
and down over the forbidden
ground, taking advantage of the few
minutes stop at each station to get few
pointers on the vital moves to be made
at noon tomorrow. Travel tomorrow
will be exceedingly slow and there will
probably be many to jump from slowly
moving trains. Everybody will not be
able to get in, as, even today there were
from three to five trains to manipulate
past one another at each little station
and every foot of sidetrack was occu-
pied. The crowd is simply too immense
to move in one day or even two. The
land offices will scarcely be able to do
much for several days. 1t will take a
whole quarter section to give room for
the postmasters TO distribute the first
mails received. 1t may take week to
get at some Of the portable houses and
stocks of goods on the ocean of cars
either sidetracked or in transit. In spite
of the fact that the Santa Fe is advertis-
ing ample stage connections with
Reno and Kingfisher, we find
for fact that there are
but three paltry stages provided at Guth-
RE, while at this point oklahoma City
there are no extra stages to be provided
and nothing but the regular mail coach
which leaves in the dead of the night.
1t looks much as if it was premeditated
by all hands that a quarantine should eX-
ist over the Santa Fe passengers who
wish to rush through and over to the
west side. Boomer wagons were strung
from the state line clear to the Oklahoma
line and. in fact, some beyond even that.
A bloated horse beside the trail had just
the faintest resemblance to the Pixies
Peak trail. Now it is very evident that
either the passengers or freight must
stand back for day or two in the move
by rail, and enterprising men will spend
many weary hour chafing at unavoid-
able delay.
The EAGLE is bound to be the official
organ of the entire Oklahoma move
ment. Its full press service, its strong
editorial page, its extra facility in gath
ering and enterprise in printing such a
large quantity of reliable Oklahoma
news, places the old bird where she can
not be dispensed with There will be
numbers of good newspapers started in
this country, but they cannot afford to
take press reports in the limited area
now thrown open for settlement
Tomorrow circus will be the great
est event since Noah left the ark G..