Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1889-05-02
CHAOS REiGNS.

Tho Apples of Gold in the Land o1s
Promise Turn to Ashes at the APP
stead OF Faen< or Praise, lamentations
and Curses FIJI the Air Chaos R~igns
and nultitudes are Returning to Civll--
zatIou.
ARKANSAS CRY, Ark, April 26-Chaos
reigns not only in Oklahoma but in the
entire tributary country. The railroad
is Frustrated, and communications arc en-
tirefy cut off. The Western Union, with
its crush of train dispatching, would not
touch a message of any other character
in the Territory, though the earth swal--
lowed town site. Guthrie's back seems
broken, and there is furious stampede to
get out. People there are wild from tho
deprivations that lack of shelter, water
and food impose upon them. To these
distresses are added the misfortunes OF
tempest, heat and the absence of means
of fight 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-bound passenger trains shortly due
had been heard from. An hour of waiting
passed when train of twenty cattle
cars crept up from the south. The cars
We're 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. 1t was useless to attempt to enforce,
the laws restrictive of railroad travel
The people were fleeing practically for
their lives. They had added to long PEI
RODS of privation the suffering of seven
teen hours without food or protection
from the cold. No train had passed them,.
and none in sight behind. They had left
a bowling mob in Guthrie, baffied in its
efforts to join in the flight. The useless
ness of proceeding to Guthrie was APP
parent, and the correspondent secured a.
footing for one foot, and returned to this
point with the laggard train.
Some experiences are pitiful. A terri
BILE storm Tuesday night raised the
miseries of Guthrie almost to a horror.
A violent wind arose as the sun sank, and
filled the air with sitting red afkali dust
that strews the plains. A deluge of rain
followed, aud 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
execrated without stint for the theft of
the land, and the railroad is denounced
for its 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 who 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 ef-~
fort to preserve OR dispose of them. The
soulful bound passenger train arrived
after time crowded with pilgrims for
Guthrie, and few could be dissuaded by
the lamentations of the fugitives. 1t is.
impossible to predict what the next few
days will develop at Guthrie.
General Merritt's report of the numbers
in Oklahoma is incomprehensible. The
estimate here is that fully $1,000 people
are now in Guthrie and more than $4,000
i'll the Territory. Nearly twice as many
as he allows for the whole Territory left,
this place alone and are still pouring in