Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-04-15

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&2R3ETAS seeking new territory
%~NX\N and making war or
HE4MN somebody to acquire
NNhS it. 1t must be thai
WM some Of the blood Of
@ Cush still percolatei
the veins Of the Amer
lean people. In NJ
other way can one &C
count for the SCI. IS enacted at the opening Of
Oklahoma, the Cheyenne and Arapahoe reser.
vations, the Sisseton lands in Dakota and the
present massing of the ''boomers" on the edge
Of the Cherokee strip.
OF the opening Of Oklahoma territory the As
sociated Press said: 1T was 11:57 a. M. Blu
three minutes remained. Men stood one foo
almost on the line, with their bodies bent for
ward as Splinter awaits signal. Twelve
O'Clock came. Up went Col. Barnard's right
hand. The buge pealed forth the news thai
the new Oklahoma reservation was open to set
tiers by the government. wild scene fol-
lowed. The long line of human beings crossed
the reservation like fash. It was a mad race
OF man against animal Through the long line
mounted on feet-footed broncos, and
riding as il for their lives. They
were soon mere specks on the plain. A
young woman dashed by on bronco
and by her side rode Sioux. Where they came
from no one knew. They were late, but going
at railroad speed. Wagons loaded with house
hold plumber foundered wildly across the
rough country and were soon left far in the
rear. Wagon loads Of provisions got stuck in
the ravines, and cutting the traces the crazy
drivers mounted the animals and whooping and
yelling went on to join the general onslaught.
In the mad excitement guns were fred wildly
In tho air, men shouted, women sang and the
terrified children added their shrieks to the
general pandemonium.
WAITING FOB THE CHEROKEE OUTLET
And now word comes that 1000 families are
gathered on the border Of the Cherokee outlet,
waiting for it to be opened. when the grand
rush will be repeated. There are millions upon
millions of acres in Kansas or Nebraska in
either OF the Dakotas, in Minnesota, Montana
or Colorado just as gently rolling, quite as
softly carpeted with grass. with prettier
streams OF water and more Of them, all of it
just as cheap as the land in the Cherokee out
let. yet men have passed these by and have
been camping for months on the border of the
strip, subjecting themselves and their fami-
lies to privations of every kind for the sake Of
being one Of the first to enter upon what has
been SO long una.tainable territory. But
pioneer blood cannot flow freely where honors
are easy. 1t needs tho iron OF deprivation,
contest, combat.
Okiahoma had not been open for settlement
six months before the people were importuned
to send food and clothing to the starving freezing
settlers Of the sterile territory, while thousands
left their claims" there and went ION west or
back ION earth" Six months from the time
the Cherokee strip il opened the philanthropic
people will be called upon to do the donation
act again. 1t 10 one Of the concomitants of an
Opening" Just as a collection is of a sermon
or a woman OF an Easter bonnet
These invaders Of new reservations are desic-
BOD, -
dents, humorous and tragic, picturesque and
pathetic, which cluster about the aggregation
OF humanity on the borders would fill a book
as big as the Bible. The married boomer" is
a prominent figure in the landscape. His prairie
schooner. usually rickety wagon with patched
and torn canvas top. filed with heteroge neous
collection Of household belongings, wife and
half a dozen towsled children. ali drawn by
sway-back. knock-kneed. sprained horses or
mules, with y boneyard COW and q Sinking cur
or two, comprise the whole of his earthly be-
longings.
THE AVERAGE BOOMER.
he has probably raised cotton in "Carliny,"
corn in "Ellinoy" and brood OF always hun
CRY children in Missouri or Arkansas or Texas,
or maybe all three states, here contributed to
the census. He is generally down on his luck
1t was always too cold for his cotton and too
wet for his corn. The weevil and chInch bugs
and rust always found his wheat first His
fruit trees winter killed. His hogs died of
cholera. His cattle got lumpy jaw. His horses
got the CHAMBERS. Everything fails but his
wife's temper. Everything dies but his children.
Swamp fever in the south. chills In Illinois and
misery in his bones in Missouri kept him NOV
ing;
irretrievably shiftiess, he is always the alert
for new opening, ever hoping that he will
strike It rich at last. But his hopes are never
realized. Energetic enough to be in at the
start, he lacks staying qualities and is dis
tanced IN the grand stand rush.
His wife, poor tired shadow of the creature
called woman, attends automatically to the
wants of the clamorouS children clinging to her
skirts, and goes on living because it seems to be
less trouble than to die.
'It's wearin' sort Of life." she sometimes
confesscs, and one feels that it is the despair
ing cry OF soul worn thin. yet nun,bed into
semi-lnsensibility by the utter hopeiessness of
its environments. But then spose it might
be worse, she adds. The Children amt none
Of EN- never died." and you know the "why'
OF her continued existence. Bleak and blank
as her life has been, stunted and dwarfed as
are her hopes and ambitions, the mother in
her Is not killed But what place in the econ
omy Of nature can the children Of such parents
take: Exhausted nature brings them into the
world tired weaklings The heritage of home
and the natural joys Of childhood denied them
the beast OF the field and the bird Of the air
better clothed and fed than they, education
luxury beyond their grasp, moral training On
unknown quantity, they become drift.
That forever
W-est.es with the tides OF fate
From the wrecks Of hopes tar scattered
Tempest sheltered
Floating waste and desolate."
DIFFERENT KINDS OF BooMEEs.
All the boomers" have not families. There
are young men who file and make payment
hoping to speculate and mako big money
before a second payment comes due There
are real estate men and town site men whose
business is dealing in town sites on paper and
boom" literature for gulling eastern ''tender-
feet" Lawyers who reap fortune in the first
months Of an opening off Of the inevitable
litigation that follows, Hotel men are there hv