People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1893-09-22
"ME AND ELI.
They Make the Race for Land and
Come Back Languid.

have been sick before. We've been |
sick since. Only a few days ago Eli |
remarked that it not only made him I
tired, but deathly sick to see Harry |
Hahn and Angie Anxious spooniDg |
over the front gate. | agreed with |
him, but the race made us Sicker and |
Harry and Angie snicker. People |
who snicker sometimes get sick too, |
and If Harry and Angie are not in
that fix just now Me and Eli are no
horse doctors. 1t was our lot TO get
left. Angie has three lots left, so
she tells Harry, but it is only to pull
the wool over Harry's eyes, and it
takes precious little wool to make that
callOw youth stone blind. But as we
are all fools alike when in love, there
has never been a law passed to pre-
vent Harry and Angie continuing
their course until they also go to the
strip.
We started for a farm on Sugar
Spoon and got left on Salt Fork. We
might have been there sooner. The
other three men on the same claim
were. In fact, they had been sOOners
for several days. A sooner is a man.
So is the fellow who gets left. The
sooner would rather have the land
than take his chances of getting it
by going in with the crowd, so he
went and got the land the night be-
fore, so he could get to the land Office
sooner. He said he would sooner do
it that way and the soldiers said they
would sooner have two dollars than
take him back to the line and no
sooner said than the soldier had his
two dollars and the sooner the pick
Of the claims. HOkeSmith ought to
be hung Immediately, if not sooner,
and especially the sooner.
Well, the crowd started off with
Jump and a jerk. Presently they
strung out and The clatter of the
horses hOOfS rhymed as smoothly as
Hahn'S poetry. The first claim we
saw that was not taken was a dead
horse. We passed on and the next
one was another niger. Then we
came to creek and that was taken.
We could see where the creek had
been, but the water was not there.
BY this time we were very dry. So
was the creek. We inquired of man
who was holding down a fine claim
with lumber wagon and COW tied
behind, who had got on the claim in
forty minutes, "where we were at"
He said on Dry creek. We accepted
this as gospel truth, but doubt the
forty minute story, unless he was one
of the number who had been "seen"
by soldier the night before. The
COW was dry too. So is Hahn's
poetry.
We dashed on, but couldn't find
anything loose except our teeth and
a school section now and then. Pres
emily we met parties who were driv-
ing at a rapid rate, who said they
had come in from the south side and
were running for claims on the Kan
Sas border. 1t had not occurred to
Me and Eli that the closer to or farth-
er in Kansas we got the better we
were of, so we concluded TO come
back and take claim adjoining
them. A glance at the map showed
that we had gone about forty miles
and when we got back to Stink creek
our pony couldn't run forty miles an
hour to save his life.
Here we came up to a rutabaga
Dutchman, five miles from water and
forty miles from saur kraut. He re-
lated his tale Of woe about as follows:
Il get me on vine CLAIM up der bot
tom; bretty quick pig, rough feller
he gone up und he say vat you doin'
on my glaim?' / say, me on me own
CLAIM; und he say, you get you off,
| say no, | do not get me of. Den he
take a pig gun und he say Il know
how to get you off; now you gid /
was scared more NIT his bad looks
than his gun und l git of. no want
to be shOOted away vrOm my wife. l
would not be shOoted away vrom mine
wife for der whole Strib; so l take dis
CLAIM und / guess l is as gOOt off; he
vas pad man."
Then we started Kansasward in
company with about ten thousand
Others and found the claim we really
wanted still there, but taken" On
arriving home we took dose for that
tired feeling" drove our stake in the
middle Of the garden where the blue
eyed ducks and Muscoyy potatoes will
grow without irrigation and our
dreams will be void of irritation.
Didn't want a farm nohow and If we
ever do there are plenty to be had in
Sunny Kansas, where the sunhower
blooms and bows as you pass, and