Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-09-18
SOONERS IN FIRST.
Sequel of the Rush for Cherokee
Strip Lands.
WEARY BOOMERS ON BACK TRACK.

~.
| Their Labor and Money Gone for Nothing
| Thousand of Them Pass Through Kan
sas City-Perry Town of 10, 900 Inhab-
itants-One Rider Killed by a Soldier
List Of Those who Were Hurt in the
Rush for Trains.
KANSAS CITY, Sept 1s.-Over 1000 ex-
boomers passed through Kansas City en-
| route to their homes in all parts of the
! country from the Cherokee strip. A more
| tired and disgusted lot of men was never
seen together They had gone to the
| opening unprepared for such tremen-
| dous rush as occurred and were mainly
| those who had depended on the trains to
| take them into the strip; but the trains
were out-distanced by the horsemen and
wheelmen and they got to the heart of the
promised land only to find every claim
| pre-empted and every town lot gone
The first great contingent of these dis
| appointed men arrived on a special Santa
Fe train too late for eastern connection.
They at once took possession of the wait
ing rooms at the Union station and turned
them into barracks, where they slept on
the hald floors. Several women were in
the company, one with q babe which was
desperately ill, but all seemed too tired to
note anything that went on about them.
Many Of the 'nen were from Illinois, Iowa
and Indiana, but there seemed a sprink-
ling from all the states. They told pitiful
stories of waiting in the line for days for a
certificate and then going in on packed
trains only to,find everything gobbled
Features of the Great Rush.
But the Cherokee Strip is open, and
those disappointed ones were too much
| taken mp with their own disappointment
to be able to tell the story of the rush. To-
day, where for centuries untold the Indi-
an and the wild beast has had complete
dominios. the campfires of the settlers are
sending the smoke Of Caucasian civiliZa-
tion skyward 1t is estimated that the IT,
tai number that made the rush was 95, OO0
And such a rash as it wasl The Oklahoma
race was mot in it" with that which at
noon Saturday swept across the line of the
Cherokee Strip
The Volley That Said $50"
As the hands of the clock pointed to
noon a xolley of rifle fire ran along the
border from end to end, and before its echo
had died away cloud of dust was all that
remained of the throngs which started
into the promised land from Arkansas
City, Orlando, and the other points of de-
parture. As the cracks of the rifles were
heard the widest yell Imaginable broke
out from the invaaing g host Phe regulation
prohibiting the taking of arms into the
territory was q nullity. Before the puffs
OF white smoke which shot upward into
the air, announcing that he supreme hour
had come, had been blown away by the
west wind there was geam and glitter
of steel above the heads of hundreds of
riders in the line y roar as of artillery
came from GOO pistols, discharged almost
instantaneously, followed by smoky pail
which almost Covered from sight the mov-
ing ranks, and4hen chaos.
Faith, Furtitude or Whisky Needed.
The scene was calculated to strike ter
ror into the heart of any boomer not well
fortified with faith, fortitude or whisky.
II was doubtless prearranGed TO have that
effect, for Cattle King Jim Hewing had
small army of cowboys running for claims
to be taken i'll adjoining quarter sections,
enough to constitute township, and
transferred to him after proof at the land
office. Others o. the cattle barons were
similarly supplied with fast horses and
reckless riders, for these were the last of
the great grazing grounds outside Of the
Usage and Otoe reservations, where sew
eral thousand head of cattle are now
quartered. There is no place for the
stockmen to GO
Men Reckless With Waiting.
But there We're more reckless riders in
the column. There We're men there made
desperate by months and years of weary
waiting and watching. There were men
there who had lain in dugouts during the
vain and drought who shivered under the
icy tempest of the north and the sting
ing bite of desert winds. There were
others whose families had endured long
privations and suffering in the anxious
waiting for a home and before whose over
wrought imagination the appealing faces
OF wife and children were ever present in
this mad chase Like Richard at Bos-
worth their lives were cast upon a stake
and they We're ready to stand the hazard