Morning journal and courier., 1889-04-13
Saturday, April 13, 1889.
THE PROMISED LAND.

At noon, April g, Oklahoma will be open to settlers, and the indications are that a very lively time will occur. There is room ! for only about il 1000 homestesds ot 160 acres each in the entire territory, and the "boom- CTS" have had their places located for some time. They are, as rule, of that desperate class of men who have made frontier life a synonym for pistol practice and untimely deaths By reasonable estimates, made by officers of the army and by the Land office, there are about 75, 900 other people that are making all the preparations for invading the promised land. 1t is evident, therefore, that there is not enough land to go around.
 The material for about five hundred resi- dence and business houses is being prepared in Chicago. The lumber is 50 arranged that buildings may be constructed with it in short order. The houses will range in value from $100 to $1,500. The S100 houses will have one room each 10 by 16 feet, and can be put up in three-quarters of an hour. The $1 ,5OO structures, intended for business places, are to be two-storied, 24 by 50 feet, and can be put in position in three hours. The boomers all along the border are forming into small colonies of twenty-five to fifty persons, and are devising schemes to outwit their neigh bors and get into the heart of Oklahoma by the appointed time. There is feeling that there will be general forward movement into the territory on the night of April 29. Boomers who have been on hand all winter have picked out their land, and they are sus- picious and afraid of the newcomers. They don't propose to have the land they fought and bled for jumped by recent arrivals. They have pickets in hiding in the Oklahoma woods who are keeping them posted. A panicky feeling prevails all around, and threats of very sanguinary character are being made by old boomers. They claim that they developed the agitation that led to the opening of the territory, and that now land sharks are trying to get possession of their property. The Kansas State line for hundreds of miles is dotted with "prairie schooners."
 Chicago will contribute five hundred per sons to the army which will invade Oklaho- ma. special train will leave Chicago April 20, and the intention is to reach the border of Oklahoma before 12 o'clock April %. At that hour the train will start for Guthrie
 
 nineteen miles distant. The railroad com- pany promises to have the tracks pstrolled and the bridges carefully guarded. 'We have endeayored to keep the people fully informed as to the actual situation," said the Chicago agent of the colony. 'I have told them that there will be three applicants for every quar- ter section of land in the Oklahoma country. There is bound to be trouble with the Okla- homa boomers, many of whom have crops in the ground. They prepared to defend what they consider to be their rights, and would not advise anyone to pre- empt their land. There are farms for 10, 900 people, but no one knows how many are after them. Many of those who are to go from Chicago do not intend to claim land. Some are going there to invest money. suppose that fully one-half of the Chicago people who will go are tradesmen or mechanics"