St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1889-06-15
The Oklahoma Boom Compared With
Louisiana.

The Oklahoma boom of all others is GER
tainly the most senseless of any of which
we have any knowledge.
Men have acted seemingly without any
reason or common sense Very few people
in the Southern States have paid any at
tention to it, but in many places In ire
North they have been wild with excite
ment Just think of thirty thousand peo-
pie crowding together on less than 2, 0OO,-
900 acres of land, and each one wanting a
homestead of 100 acres. A calculation
will show that less than IL, 900 of the
number can be accommodated, leaving
19 600 disappointed, many of whom will
be buried beneath the sod in the Territory.
Here in Louisiana we have ten times the
amount of public lands as are in Oklahoma,
many acres of which are as rich as can be
found in the United States, not subjected,
as these Western lands are, to drouth, and
situated in section of the most even eli
mate on the globe.
Here in Louisiana we are not subject to
the disagreeable billiards, the destructive
prairie fires, cyclones, drouths and other
calamities. We have the best water trans
portation of any State in the Union, and
the day is not far distant when every par
ish in the State will be crossed with rail
roads, Our shipping facilities will soon
be unsurpassed.-The american.
The Times Democrat says edtorially:
Prof. s. A. Knapp. of Lake Charles,
who has been one of the most earnest
friends and supporters of immigration,
and to whom much of the movement of
population which has recently come into
Southwestern Louisiana is due, thinks
that the Oklahoma "boom" ought to turn
more immigration in this direction. We
quite agree with him on this point, that
the Oklahoma craze offers Louisiana an
admirable opportunity to advertise its ad-
vantages and secure desirable settlers.
That affair has shown how many thous-
ands of persons there are in the United
States looking for new homes and cheaper
land. They were so anxious to get a
change and to begin life under more favor
able auspices that they tramped hundreds
of miles, suffered great deprivations and
exposure, in the hope of securing few
acres of land in the centre of wild terri
tory where they were surrounded by In
dams. This land is far removed from
civilization, suffers from drouths, and
there is not enough of it to provide one
tenth of the "boomers" with farms. What
are the surplus going to do? Where will
they move and find quarters? Here, in
Louisiana they can, Prof. Knapp shows,
get homesteads, of lands far better and
more fertile, with milder climate thsn
any in Oklahoma and with no danger OF
drouth The boomers are looking around
for new quarters and even threatening tc
move in on the Cherokee Strip and try tt
steal the Indians lands there-something
which the government will, of course, not
permit In the meanwhile, an immigra-
ton agent has gone from Louisiana to lay
before the boomers" who did not ge
land there, the advantages this State of
fers them. Here they can get everything
they want. Here there is no lack of land
no drouth, no severe winter; here, the.
will find themselves surrounded by civil
cation, and not subject to the rude, ex
posed life they are compelled to undergo il
the Indian Territory. If but few O
these pioneers are persuaded down here
and send back to their comrades an accoun
of this country, the latter will recognz
that Louisiana is truly the promised LAM
for settlers for which they are looking
and there will be as big a rush for it a
there was for Oklahoma few days ago.