Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-04-23
OFFICIALS ABUSE THEIR POWER.
Accused Of Using Their Offices TO N.
legally Grab Land I'm Oklahoma.


CHICAGO, April pa special to the Ntuns
from Gu,herie says: When the first train ar
rived here the town site had been selected for
us. II was on the east side of the track. and
already the wooden land office and one hundred
tents were standing, while twice many more
town lots were staked out. A rude post-ofice
was opened, a lunch tent was going at full
blast. and two meetings looking TO organization
had been held. Three or four hundred men
had done all this and they had been on the
scene two or three days. They pre-
and declared that they did not take
up their lots until u o'clock They had no
right, by the special laws under which Okla
homa was opened TO be in the territory at all
until noon yesterday.
On side track stood Santa Fe directors
car. In IT were Judge Guthrie. for whom the
town Is named: Judge Foster. the L. S mar
shal. and other officers of the Federal court at
Wichita. and some Topeka men They had
been there ostensibly upon government busi-
ness, but really to secure town lots which they
did in wholesale quantity. There were ave
hundred deputy marshals on hand and each
had n lot Not only ls this true. but the same
crowd. having Its eyes on fine piece of bot
tom land lying across the track from the town.
have been. in the most open mockery of ius-
tice, securing the brush for boomers that thew
might occupy it themselves. Whether the
Judges are parties 10 the schemes of their To-
peka guests, who are more or less directiy con-
nected with Santa Fe is, OF course, not known.
Laying Out the New City.
GUTHRIE, oKo.. April 2S.-In defiance of the
fact that no town was supposed 10 exist until
noon yesterday. the several hundred interlopers
held an organization meeting at 10 O'Clock II.
A Pierce, one OF the Topeka crowd. secured
the presidency, but when he tried TO foist has
plat upon the meeting he was beaten amid
the cries: Down the Topeka outfit" The rail-
way runs southwesterly past the town, and it
was proposed TO lay out the streets on direct
angles with the track. but plat with north and
south and east and west sections was adopted
This was proposed by Geo. H. Clayton. OF Ar
kansas, brother OF Congressman Powell Claw
ton and twin of the lately assassinated congress
sional candidate. Ii was decided that a town
lot shall be 80 by l4O feet and that the streets
shall be so feet wide. except two 100 feet inter-
secting avenues, which were named respec-
lively Nunford avenue, for Doc. Muniord Of
Kansas Clty, and Harrison avenue, for the
President.
FORTY CLAIMANTS FOR ONE SECTION.
Meanwhile the whole town-site was home-
steaded repeatedly. Forty applications under
this right of public domain were filed at the
land Office. and some very beautifully co.npli-
Gated lawsuits will follow. Ii looks only fair
that those who were there in advance of tie
authorized hour and who grabbed the land for
the corporation that backs them. should be dis
possessed. and the whole towll-site placed i'm
the fair and even reach of all Il is almost
certain, however, that for all its present pres
uge-for everything is going TO Guth-
rle-there can never be a town of any impor-
tance there. The surrounding country is ster-
lie, and with the exception OF small pieces OF
bottom land. can grow nothing but buffalo
grass and cactus. The adjacent stream Is
small and alkaline. and weil-water deep and
scarce. The temperature bounds from blight
ing cold 70 withering heat and there are long
periods of drought and irregular occasions of
floods and hurricanes
THOUSANDS OF UNsHELTERED MUST SUFFER-
As the sun went down. little tents and I'M
sheltered men dotted the region over an area
large enough for an eastern metropolis. There
is covering for about LOCO persons on a liberal
estimate, and the nights after the roasting
DAYS, are acutely chilly. Whether il rains or
not. great suffering must be endured by the
thousands of unsheltered
Arkansas City is filled up with great crowds
from northern trains that will descend upon
Guthrie In the morning. A break out of here
will be sure to be the event of the next few
days, as there are many thousands more here
than can be supplied with food and shelter,
Meanwhile the rush continues and the excite
ment is at very high pitch.