The Springdale news., 1889-05-03
CHAOS REIGNs.

rho Apples of Gold In the Iand oi
 fromise Turn to Ashes at the Alp.
 proach of the Sang uine Boomer. and In.
 stead of Paens of Praise, Lamentations
 and Curses Fill the Air Chaos R-igns
 and MuItitudes are Returning to Ciyili-
 zatIoD.
 ARKANSAS CITY, Ark. April 26.-Chaos reigns not only i'll Oklahoma but in the entire tributary country. The railroad is prostrated, and communications are en- tirely cut off. The Western Union, with its crush of train dispatching, would not touch message of any other character in the Territory, though the earth swal- lowed a town site. Guthrie's back seems broken, and there is furious stampede to get out. People there are wild from the deprivations that lack ca shelter, water and food impose upon mem. To these distresses are added the misfortunes of tempest, heat and the absence of means of flight. When your correspondent reached Willow Springs from the Dia- mond Bar ranch he learned from the dis patches that neither the north nor the south-bou passenger trains shortly due had been heard from. An hour Of waiting passed when a train of twenty cattle cars crept up from the south. The cars were locked, but upon the roofs, the buffers, amid the coal on the tender, on the pilot and gangway of the locomotive, and packed in and upon the caboose was a dense and miserable throng of men. The train from Guthrie had started with its strange load at six o'clock in the even- ing. It was useless to attempt to enforce the laws restrictive of railroad travel. The people were fleeing practically for their lives. They had adled to long pa- riOds of privatiOn the suffering of severn teen hours without food or protection from the cold. No train had passed them, and none in sight behind. They had left bowling mob in Guthrie, bafficd in it's efforts to join in the flight. The useless ness of proceeding to Guthrie was ap- parent, and the cores spondent secured footing for one foot, and returned to this point with the laggard train.
 Some experiences are pitiful. 4 terri ble storm Tuesday night raised the miseries of Guthrie almost to a horror. violent wind arose as the sun sank, and filled the air with stihing red alkali dust that strews the plains A deluge of rain followed, and throughout the night beat upon the thousands of shelterless. The railroad is utterly incompetent in the emergency, and is delivering baggage and express too slowly to be of use to the unprotected The fugitives cheer with joy as they alight here, and rush to the hydrants and eating houses. Curses are heaped upon the region and the Govern ment. Marshals Needles and Jones are cXeCrated without stint for the theft of the land, and the railroad is denounced for it's feeble service. Guthrie is without form. The original streets have disap- peared, and new sections are be- ing plowed every hour Values have fallen to practically nothing, and confidence is at a low ebb. Those wl,o are not going home announce their intentions of moving upon the Cherokee Strip, and report that hundreds of boomers in wagons have already done so. Scores of men surrounded their claims to lots in Guthrie without an eff fort to preserve or dispose of them. The south bound passenger train arrived after time crowded with pilgrims for Guthrie, and few could be dissuaded by the lamentations of tile tugitiyes. It is impossible 10 predict what the next few days will develop at Guthrie.
 General Merritt's report If the numbers m Oklahoma is iucOmprehcnslble. The estimate here is that fully 15 900 people are now in Guthrie and more than 50,000 in the Territory. Nearly twice as many aS hc allows for the whole Territory left this place alone and are still pouring in.