The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-04-24
INA BOOM WESTERN TOWN.
A Description Of the Scenes at the
First Rush Across the Border.

| SLOou IN Line at the Lana once.
! Some Curious Notices Posted There.
/ First Sunday and the Scenes at the
Preaching of the Boom Ministers.
Isabel w. Ball in Washington Star.
Cush is presumed to be the paternal
| progenitor of the Tartars, restless, row
! ing, nomadic people, always seeking new
territory and making war on somebody to
acquire it. 1t must be that some of the
| blood Of Cush still percolates in the veins
OF the American people. In no other way
can one account for the scenes enacted at
the opening of Oklahoma, the Cheyenne
| and Arapahoe reservations, the Sisseton
land in Dakota and the present massing
of the 'boomers" on the edge of the
! Cherokee strip.
All the boomers have not families.
| There are young men who file and makea
| payment, hoping to speculate and make
big money before a second payment
comes due. There are real estate men
/ ana town site men whose business is
! dealing in town sites on paper and boom
! literature for quilting eastern tender
! feet Lawyers who reap a fortune in
! the first months of an opening OF the in
! eVltable litigation that follows. Hotel
] y
| the hundred, and doctors, who find ample
| employment for surgical knowledge.
! Carpenters are there with the frames
| of dozens of houses all ready to set up
! There are blacksmiths tinsmiths electri-
! ClanS-every trade, calling and profession
! Is represented in that great rush over the
! border. The boomers and real estate men
| are after the land for purposes of Specu-
latlon, the tradesmen and professionals
are after the which, in the excitement
! and general hullabalOo is thrown about
! lavishly by men who, three months later,
may be forced to leave the country on
! foot and penniless
! In filing upon land at the Oklahoma
| openings first come first served" was the
rule of the land Office. AS fast as the
wOuld-be filers arrived they took their
! place IN line. Sometimes 1000 people
| stood in this line for three and four days
IN heat and cold, rain and wind, waiting
! their turn at the commissioners window
| They dare not leave the line to eat or
! sleep, for they would lose their places and
| have to go to the foot unless they saw fit
! to hire somebody at a fabulous sum to
stand in their place for a time. Some
| times men paid $40 for such a substitute,
| who served but an hour or two Men
! learned TO "sleep standing"
THE LINE AT THE LAND OFFICE.
Men, women and children piled brisk
! trade peddling cold lunch along the line
! Kiln-dried sandwiches were counted
! cheap at so cents each and a cup of coffee
| cost the same. A small piece Of pie cost
% cents and a cup of water was hardly
! obtainable at 10 cents Men who wore
| out at the long vigil sold their places in
! line for from 81 900 for fifth place down to
! s25 for the Tooth place or higher. Young
women were numerous in the line
| Chivalry was conspicuous by its absence
and they had to wait their turn.
One young woman stood in line three
! days and finally got her filing. She went
| to the land, a desirable piece near Guth-
RE, and found that two men had
| "squattedn on it. a few yards apart
where they flung fierce defiance at each
| other. When she demonstrated with
| them and displayed her papers they got
! desperate with wrath and drew their
| guns The young woman was shot in the
! arm and one of the men killed The
other went to the penitentiary and the
girl got the claim. mrs Pa
Sleeping accommodations in boom"
town are of the primitive sort An "up
and down. plank shed with canvas roof
and shelves or hunks in tiers along the
side, upon which are cotton ticks stuffed
with prairie hay, are quite luxurious if
you have your own blankets. If you have
not and the mercury gets cold you will
] IibbdDlA prefer SibJlU0 up. A WHISKY
! barrel outside the door, from which YOU
lift the water with tin wash basin,
! with beer keg for a wdshstand, repre-
| resent the lavatOry accommodations.
And if you have provided yourself with
towels before starting upon this Don
! QuiXOtic adventure you are all heeled,"
as the boomer puts it. Otherwise a news
paper or your pocket handkerchief must
make up the deficiency.
AS for Patincr il is a good deal Of q chance
game. The restaurants and short order
| houses boom - with everything else, and
their capacity is tested three times over.
! They run night and day The bill of fare
is usually limited. "Steak, coffee, pota-
toes baked beans and beer" the menu
reads, and cart wheel" the boom"
cost The steak might have antedated
Adam and the coffee tastes as though the
| berry had gone through on stills The
| baked beans would give Boston man the
fits, while the beer is a reminiscence.
THE HUB OF THE TOWN.
The land Office is the hub of the town
the center of gravity. In the first rush,
when 10000 or 5000 people squat on the
town site, there are 1000 things wanted
which nobody knows where to get The
| land Office becomes a bureau of informa-
ton. Lacking a newspaper, the outer
walls of the land Office are made to
answer bnS purpose ana Jne people resort
to the primitive method of putting up writ
| ten notices. Men get lost from their fami-
lies, children wander away. Gamblers
go broke Mules, wagons and house
hold truck are stolen. Many people have
things to sell and hundreds of others wish
TO purchase In long columns these no
tees, placed under their proper heading
as in a newspaper, are tackled on the
walls, The for SALE column tells the
ups and downs of boom" life in ludcrous
fashion. Following are some notices
copied verbatim from the walls Of land
offices in Oklahoma during the week of
opening:
For sail-Too karat dmund stud :;
cheap to much stud boss poker reeson for
selling Call at Murphys Phase"
For -Silver-mounted Mexican sad
| die. Can't feed tell | raise the wind If
you want TO help a hungry man call at
Hanks Soup House"
For sale-corner lot, boss location; my
| ammunition has about give out, and I'd
rather sell than die in my tracks. Lot l,
block 4.
There were dozens of "for sales" of
cows, horses, harness. farming utensils,
pistols, shOtguns, rifles, watches, rings,
etc, and in the wanted to buy" Just as
many were asking for those articles, ex-
cept, perhaps, the jewelry, that was all