The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-10-31
IN THE CHEROKEE STRIP.
The Experience Of Drummer In
the Rush for Land.
He Found He Had Made Great Mis-
take and Was Glad to Get Out OF
~ tho Country Alive-Trials OF Other
Would-Be SoOners.

l " Ould-Be SOObcESs
No less than eight travelling men
were seduced into making run to the
Cherokee strip in search of quarter sec
| tons or town lots and the number
which returned disappointed and dis
gusted was exactly SIX. As was one
of the number and hence am telling
tale on myself, says writer il the
St Louis Globe-Democrat. cannot be
| accused of malice, unless it be against
mankind in general and the interior
| department in particular. | paid
twenty dollars for turn to register.
and have ever since looked upon the
man who made the sale as remark
ably smart individual. l obtained a
certificate and at twelve o'clock com
menced to ride bright looking horse
into the strip. / might have got
| good claim if / could have controlled
the horse. But I couldn't. The ami
NAL simply did his best to beat every
/ thing else in sight, taking the fastest
horse for peacemaker aud following
with pra;seworthy assiduity. ] have
been under the impression that could
ride, and if sticking on horses back
means good riding | have nothing to
be ashamed of, for certainly did not
| fall off. Otherwise / was d complete
| failure as rider, for the horse went at
his own gait, turned when he wanted
| to and treated my desires with
contempt which was supreme. 1t
was nearly three o'clock before
he got SO tired out that l was
able to stop him. and by shat time he
had got me into one Of the worst sec
tions IN the strip. where the ground
did not begin to be worth the amount
| the government asked for it. Whether
those who obtained the claims got in
on balloons or whether they sneaked
in over night am not prepared to say,
but every claim with pretense of herb
age or water on it was occupied, and
one man had a house half built. 1t did
not take me long to make up my mind
that the sooner / could get back into
Kansas the better, but had no idea of
the enormous distance / had travelled
until l had got well into the journey
on an exhausted horse which needed
both food and water badly. l had to
camp out all night, and finally got into
town on Sunday morning heartily
ashamed of myself, and with enough
dust on me to have started small
vegetable garden. My only consolation
was that hundreds of others were
equally unfortunate, and l believe
there was more grumbling and cussing
to the square inch all day Sunday in
this town than anyone present could
possibly realize. W., who travels for
ST. 10 dry goods house, did not turn up
till just after supper on Sunday even
ing. Exactly what happened to him
no one will know until he regains his
temper At present he will give no in
formation whatever, and all that is
known is that he went into the strip
on horseback and came back as an
extra passenger in prairie schooner
or ex-boomers wagon. A Chicago man
who went in with us on horseback
from here got hopelessly lost, and
finally found himself at Kiowa, where
he sold the quadruped and took the
cars back here. Another man of the
travelling fraternity, who has always
boosted that he never got left, joined
q TOWNSHIP colony a few days before
the opening and went in with them.
Half a dozen sOOnerS were quarreling
over the quarter section they had
designed to make the metropolis of the
Indian territory when they arrived at
it, and all they could do was to drive
back. Our brother in affection gives
a most humorous account of his cX-
perience. Three of the number made
the run on horseback. the balance fol-
lowing in wagons. When they met at
the coveted spot and compared notes
they decided to camp out for the
night and come back at their leisure,
as they had enough food and drink on
hand to give indigestion, if not govt. to
the entire party. A remarkable diff
Guilty then beset them. Every inch of
ground of the vicinity was claimed,
and no one would allow them to camp,
fearing lest it was trick for the pur-
pose of securing evidence in project
ed contest. Finally their resting place
was selected on the edge of one of the
countless branches of the Arkansas
iANSls anu 0lLCk IL hSai odPPti oid
a good wash in the river an attempt
was made to sleep. The darkness
brought with it thousands of mosqui-
toes and millions of insignificant
creeping things which stung worse
than could be imagined, and camp was
broken before nine o'clock. After
that two or three more attempts were
made to secure decent resting place,
and finally it was decided to keep
moving as the best opportunity for
comfort. Several miles were covered
during the night. and in the morning
the heartbreaking discovery was made |
that they were going south instead of
north. They retraced their steps and |!
finally got back into town in very !
dilapidated and dirty condition and |
with an immense amount OF conceit !
knocked out of them. We propose to
resume our ordinary avocations as soon |
as We are rested up.
South American Amazon.
Among the persons who have had !
great influence in the revolution in |
10 I'D 81 SC N---e