St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-09-20
A RACE FOR HOMES,
The Excitement at Guthrie Is
Growing in Intensity
Hourly.
Wouid-Be Negro Settlers in
Danger From Reds and
Whites.
Land Hunters Will Find Diff
Guilty in Locating Good
Claims.
Garcia, the Mexican Revolu-
zionist, Summarily Shot
and Hanged.

GUTHRIE, o. T., Sept. 19.-The eX-
element grows hourly greater among
the people who will make the race for
homes in the Indian lands, which will
be opened to settlement next Tuesday.
There are several causes for excite
ment, chief among them being the large
numbers of negroes who have gathered
by hundreds at Langston, the Okla
homa negro colony. They are we'll
armed, and intend to move Ell masse
upon the CimarrOn valley, the best, per-
haps, of all the new lands, and settle
there 10 the exclusion of all other set
slers. Many white settlers, among
them being numbers of desperate and
INSCRIPTIONS cowboys, object to the
negroes plans and will take desperate
chances to preempt choice claims in the
very face of the negro hosts.
The most desperate say they will OPP
pose by force the wholesale settlement
of the negroes in the valley. The
cooler heads, however, know that the
race will be to the swift, no matter
what his color. If the negroes get
there first the land is theirs. If the
whites outrun the negroes the latter
must look elsewhere for claims. The
excitement caused by the
Hostility OF the Cowboys
tothe negroes has been of such long,
standing now that it is believed it will
have nearly died out when the hour for
the rush occurs. Langstone is several
miles from here, and is without tele-
graphic facilities, so that no official
news has been received from there since
the force of deputy marshals went there
yesterday to prevent the threatened
disturbances.
Another cause for excitement is the
hatred of the Indians for the negro
The Sacs and Fox claim that their lands
were sold to the government under a
distinct agreement that they were TO be
opened to white settlement" They
know that they themselves cannot
prevent the negroes from settling on
the lands, but they hint in UNI
mistakable terms that they will make
it very uncomfortable for the ''black
man" if he settles among them.
The Cimarron valley includes a portion
of their lands. and between the hostile
Indian ana the desperate cowboy the
negro is having an exciting time of it.
Still another cause for. excitement is
The uncertainty as to ust what lands
may be claimed by the ordinary settler.
The settler may be the most deserving
and most desirable sort of a person.; he
may make
A Successful Race
for a certain section of land and
may claim it, but when he goes to the
land office to file his claim he NAV find
that he has claimed an Indians allot-
ment or an old soldiers presumption.
The Indian allotmentS are not Staked
out, and of course the old soldiers, who
ARE given the privilege of selection
Il IEarr ooh,
simply by filing on an ordinary
declaratory statement, have not
marked out in the lands those sections
which they declare they will settle
upon. The claimant, therefore. has no
means of knowing just what section he
may claim except from the list pub
lished by the secretary of the interior
These lists contain descriptions difficult
Of being deciphered by the ordinary
reader.
The ordinary claimants, therefore,
must take their chances in selecting
their piece of ground of selecting that
which an Indian may have claimed
under allotment, or which may have
been covered by an old soldiers declara-
tory statements. These declaratory
Statements are very numerous.
The land office here is besieged by
veterans or their representatives. They
have formed long line, which stretches
from the door of the Office distance of
three or four squares. In the line are
Several Old Soldiers
and many spectators who have pur-
chased for small sums the declaratory
statements of old soldiers and who sell
them to the highest bidder. Others
have taken places in the line simply to
sell them to some less fortunate per-
son. Before the arrival of the morning
trains to-day the city was almost de-
serted. Every one who intended to
claim a homestead in the new
lands had gone yesterday afternoon
of the new lands to find favorable
starting place for Tuesdays races. The
arrivals by to-day's trains, however,
soon filled the town again with people
who had waited till nearly the last
minute before getting on the ground.
They tarried only long enough to pur
chase an outfit, and were soon Oh their
way to the borders. Every train now
brings hundreds Of people. and there is
much confusion and excitement.
Out on the border there is little eX-
element. 1t is restless expectancy
there. The people are camped in
prairie SchoOners, tents and brush huts
for the most part, but many have no
covering but blanket, with the SOD for
D6us Inc UOIu6r crowds are good
Datured, and but few disturbances are
reported. Unless trouble results at
Landston between the negroes and cow
boys, it Is expected the settlement of
the new lands will be made peacefully,
Constituting the Law.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 19.-The secre-
fairy of the interior tonight issued the
following instructions to registers and
N ceivers of the land offices at Guthrie
&hd Oklahoma City, sending also copy
to Gov. Steele, of Oklahoma territory:
you are instructed that the words white
settlement occurring in the Sac and Fox
agreement, and recited as such in the proc
lamation of the president of the 18th inst, do
not mean and are not to be construed to
mean to prohibit settlement IN that country
by others than white men,; but to mean that
any persons duly qualified under the laws of
the United States, without regard to color,
may make such settlement. There has been
no question about this and must be none
now.
Neither the constitution, ratifying acts
authorizing homestead settlements without
distinction to all qualified under existing
laws nor the agreement itself will permit an
exclusive distinction in favor of whites only
These Indians sold all their interest. right
title and claim 10 the United States and the
captlous and unconstitutional construction
cannot now be asserted
You will receive filings from all duly
qualified persons without distinction Of