The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893-09-12
READY FOR THE RACE
A Great Throng Of Boomers
Around the Cherokee Strip.
RecusTRY BOOTHS sEsleoED.
water Sells By the GLASS and Food and
shelter Are seans-BIgEer Crowd
Thsa st oklahoma's Opening.

caIpwrrr. Kan, Sept. IL. - Twelve
thousand people are here awaiting the
opening OF the Cherokee outlet. About
i.5oo succeeded in getting certificates to-
day. and fully 10000 more are yet 20 be
registered 0fficer ketchum has teie-
graphec Washington City for permission
to open two more booths The crowd are
patient and good-humored. and give up
their places in the lire to women with
out grumbling. The shippers are
ak numbered as they fail in line.
so rheY can leave without losing their
places. A portion who have no blooded
horses with which TO make the run are
becoming excited. and many will probably
try TO enter the strip before the opening
hour. One man will make the race with
. mule and common bobsled. claiming
the runners will glide over the grass with
greater ease than wheels.
Arkansas CRY. Sept. lL-Nine clerks
from Washington City today began regis
terlng the % 900 home-seekers who are in
this vicinity. During the first hour less
than 100 certificates were issued, but as the
clerks became more familiar with their du-
ties they worked more rapidly. The
record for the day was i.6s9. At this
rate ID will be impossible for all TO
register before Saturday. when the
strip Will be opened, unless the force of
clerks is increased. Owing to the dust
that fills the air and lack OF water those
in line experience much discomfort and
suffering. Water sells at 10 cents cupiul
and y cents a canteen. The interior de-
partment is bitterly condemned for iocat-
ing the booths on the strip away from
water and shelter.
John b. Cameron, Kansas City real
estate man, who had been waiting since 3
o'clock Saturday, received the first certifi-
cate. Then lot of women who had not
stood in line, but to whom the men gall
lantiy gave away, were registered. Nora
Wiley, IA years old, got through the
crowd with two cups of coffee. which she
gave TO the clerks. saying: II am an or
phan and therefore the head of a family,
and want to register for a town lot. !"
The men displaced at first looked bIankiy
at her. then cheered. The clerk gave her
certificate, which she triumphantiy
waved aloft.
The last two days has seen great in
fiux of boomers. Every road leading here
is filled with an unbroken procession of
wagons and every train that comes in Is
crowded. The crowd now present exceeds
that at the Oklahoma rush. Saturday and
Sunday there was a serious bread famine.
1t is almost impossible to get
anything TO eat at the hotels or
restaurants About thirty wheelmen came
in from Kansas City and st. Joseph today.
The bicycle organization numbers over 100
men who will make the run. The county
attorney has sent out deputy sheriffs to
drive away three-card monte men and
other sharpers who were swindling the
boomers.
WAsHIsGTos CRY. Sept. Il.-Secretary
Smith issued an order this afternoon that
no railroad train be permitted to enter the
Cherokee strip for six hours before the
opening next Saturday. For three hours
after the opening trains will be allowed to
enter under regulations, chief of which
are that they shall be for general use and
not chartered to favored passengers; shall
stop every five miles and not run faster
than fifteen miles an hour.