The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1891-09-23
RUSHING BOOMERS.
The Mad Scramble to Become
Property Owners.
THREE PERSONS FOR EACH SECTION


and Sexes Racers on Horses,
Mules and Steers Join in the Con,
test-Young Women Boomers In
Cowboy Costume.
GUTHRIE, O. T.. Sept. 90. 1.-THE
land is yours" That is what every
timepiece on the border of the lands
opened to settlement yesterday pro-
claimed, when its hands pointed to the
hour of noon.
Simultaneous with the arrival of that
hour the home seekers gathered on the
border made headlong rush over thss
line into the coveted country and on tc
the quarter sections upon which theiI
eyes had been feilsting-some for days
and others for weeks and months.
The rush was mad one, and was
made so by the fact that the number of
home seekers greatly exceeded the mum.
Der of quarter sections available for set
tlement. First there, first served"
was the motto of every racer. There
was room in the new lands for about
5000 settlers, allowing 1850 acres for each.
There were on the borders waiting to
claim the available land fully $1,000
people, so that there were three persons
for each section.
1t was no wonder, then, that the rush
was mad one, for in this case ut least
the race was invariably to the swift.
Like scenes have never been witnessed
before, except when Oklahoma became
the peoples two years ago
A Motley Crowd.
The craze to become the owner of a
part of the new lands caused strange
colnmingiing of the various elements OF
society. There was the cowboy and
the effeminate counter clerk, the gamb-
Ter and the preacher, the bona fide set
tier and the speculator, the bootlegger
and the frontier missionary, the bust,
ness man and the tramp, the man who
had left his country for his countrys
good and the man who was an honor to
his locality, the man in his carriage and
the man in his prairie schooner, the
equestrian and the pedestrian, on the
border before the hour of noon, and all
intent on one object-the securing of a,
piece of land.
A half hours diligent work would
have sufficed to prepare the most elab,
orately equipped boomer for the race
into the new country. But preparations
were begun long before the hour OF
noon. Horses were hitched, wheels
were creased, saddle girths Were
cinched, and everything made snug a
early as 10 O'Clock, SO anxious was
every one to be in readiness to move at
the time appointed.
Wagons were shifted to new posi-
tions whence their owners thought they
could make more advantageous start,
for upon each slight advantage depended
possible the securing of the prize, and
upon each disadvantage depended the
failu to secure it.
on with a Rush.
When the noon hour did arrive all tht
pent up excitement found vent in thf
firing of revolvers and rifles, shouting
and singing and cracking of whips and
furious driving and running. The
horsemen, of course, had the advantage
over every other man in the race, and
most of the racers were horsemen. Th
man who had proceeded to the border il
a prairie schooner with his family lef
his schooner, family and one horse on thu
border and mounted the other and be
came horseman. Men who came her
with nothing but money purchased sad,
die horses, ponies, mules or any kind Of
an animal that would carry man
while Others rented them.
Some of the more desperate cowboy,
mounted steers, and the latter joining
in the stampede carried the riders to TIN
interior, while others were unceremoni
ously unhorsed, Or unsteered, not fa
from the border.
One of the unique sights was a com
pany of young ladies from Guthrie wht
had formed colonization company Il
proceed to the new lands and settle o,
adjoining claims. They were MOUNTED
on Texas ponies and were attired, a
near as might be, in cowboy costume
armed with reyolvers, and equippedfoi
camping out. They made the race in
body SO far as has been ascertained III
to the present time no serious conflict has
taken place between rival claimants, and
the country has been peacefully occu
pied.