The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1892-04-20


The United States in the marvellous growth
of the great cities Of the West has furnished
an economic phenomenon to the world that
continues 70 excite its wonder and its admira-
ton. Never before IN the history of mankind
did a community possessing the enormous
wealth and the vast population OF Chicago
arise in so short time. 10 find its counter
part we must turn 10 those stories of Oriental
imagination in which the magician Dy a single
stroke of the wand establishes upon the solid
plain a town which has previously had an
existence that was far less subsfnntial than
mist and cloud.
Remarkable as has been the spectacle OF
mighty city springing in few years from me
marshes of the southern borders of Lake Mich
igan and projecting the shadow of its power
to the remotest of the civilized nations it has
not been as astonishing as the spectacle pre-
sented by the territory Of former ludian re-
servation only few months after it has been
thrown open to settlement by the whites.
The suddenness as well as the extent of the
transformation are wholly without example
and without precedent.
few years ago the region Of Oklahoma
was the hunting ground OF the Indian tribes
who held it under the protection of the Gov
eminent. The buffalo had disappeared. but
various kinds OF wild game still roamed over
those beautiful plains which rolled to
the horizon like a park which had been
reserved for the pleasure OF race upon
which heaven had long been comforting its
richest gifts Nature in her loveiest and most
attractive aspects was TO be seen in whichever
direction the eye might turn. but there was no
trace Of a civilized people. There were no
towns. no villages. no waving corn-felds, no
abundant haryests of wheat, no gardens, no
homes. unless the wigwams of the Indians
could DO brought within the scope Of that
designation. The inhabitants were barbara
ans; the land with all its charming scenery
and fertile soil was practically desert
year after this broad stretch of country
had been occupied by the whites change
had taken place. which it is difficult to
realize could have occurred in a period so
brief. The land was divided into small farms.
on each farm there was a substantial resi-
dence and in each residence there was
sturdy family bent upon using 10 the most
advantage the homestead. which they had ac-
quired. Fields of corn and wheat wero to sbe
seen on all sides There were towns here and
there; there were public roads and public
improvements Of every kind. The whole
machinery Of local government was as orderly
and as firm as if it had been in existence for
fifty years. stranger arriving in those COM
munites without having any knowledge of its
history would have observed many .ndica-
tions Of crude development, but he would
have received with incredibly the informa-
ton that Oklahoma had been in the hands Of
those who had occupied Its soil barely twelve
months.
The history of the reservation thrown open
to settlement yesterday will be the same as
that of Oklahoma. Monday there was not a
white man or woman in possession of a sin
gle foot of its sod 1t was. as Oklahoma was
at one time. beautiful wilderness given over
to the Indian the antelope and the prairie
dog Twenty-four hours afterwards. that is,
to-day. there are thirty thousand white peo-
pie established on its soil. Three weeks
hence there will be thousands of completed
homes, and tens of thousands Of ploughed
fields. When six months have rolled around
and brought in the season of harvest, there
will be hundreds of thousands. even millions
of bushels of grain. and cattle will be seen
where formerly only the coyote and the ante
lope were observed.
This rapid conversion of a savage country
into country where all the arts of civilization
have been carried to perfection is one of the
greatest and most sublime triumphs of
America, spectacle suggestive of the most
benign chapters in the annals of mankind.
Astounding. as it does. in peace and plenty
which seem to have been derived directly
from heaven itself SO quickly have they been
acquired.