The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-09-29

pectant multitude of poor people who's
wealth was the labor of their hands
from March until the ensuing Septem
Der, left a legacy of misery and priva
|: ton, which with the disease and wan
| OF the next winter has also passed int,
history.
There have been five such opening
in all in a period of six years, with tn,
present territory of Oklahoma carved
out of the old Indian territory, compris
ing the larger and northerly half ,anC
an area equal to that Of the state Of
Maine.
THE boundary lines Of the territory
are not well adapted for the boundary
lines Of a state. They are zig gag, ir.
regular. originally boundaries of tribes
and simply intended as hunting bound
aries. suitable for semi-nomadic peo-
ple,and making a great many needless
( miles of boundaries.
Again the whole original Indian ter
ritory must be taken TO make symmet-
rical resources for one great state.
The northeastern portion raises most
admirable crops of wheat, corn, oats,
and cotton, the western, somewhat dry
! er, though not dry enough for irriga-
ton, is thoroughly adapted to grazing.
and to raising in the best manner both
cattle and swine. The southern is q
well provided mineral region, contain
ing enough coal of admirable quality
to supply the entire United States, if
need be, for a century TO come. To the
extreme west and south there are beau
tiful hills and lakes in the FIT. Sill re-
gion.
What little fruit has been raised in
the past by the Indians is wonder
Every fruit year is full and good year
and it is a matter of establishment to
agriculturalists that all the fruit should
be OF SO fine fiavor,an that even the
apples, little inferior looking natural
fruit. raised so far south. should keep
with the crude Indian methods well in
to the ensuing spring, equal to the ap-
pies Of Maine and Michigan, in flavor
and keeping qualities.
The grapes of Oklah have a re-
markabl quality of self-cla rifica ton
Mr.. Fairchild, brought up in a grape
district, practical winemaker, has
made white and red wines, which alb
solUtely clear themselves OF all sedi-
ment in from six to eight months.
''As yet with the means at the COM
mand of the fruit growers, they are I'M
able to supply the local demand for
wines. These Oklahoma grapes flour
ish on the broken ground unfit for 9TH
er purposes.
Ills year tlc nlltdl crop, having by
reason of the drouth, entirely failed,
the farmers replanted their land to
cotton and corn, and both are yielding
splendid crops and have saved the far
mers from poverty.
That part Of the Indian territory
not yet Oklahoma, is still held in vari-
Gus parcels by several Indian tribes.
Their relations and laws are such as
have never been known in this country
or by any civilized or semi-civilized
people. They are anomaly on the face
of the earth.
For example, no man may perform
any act, legal or personal, hold, &C
quire or transmit property, have any
legal existence, or live, even, except as
an Indian or as a slave.
1.-The process of becoming an Indian
is simple. He has to only marry an
Indian woman, a member of one of the
tribes. He then becomes legally and
generally personally competent to lie
and steal, and to acquire of others that
which was never intended to be his
own.
These white men who have gone in
there have sold out to syndicates valu-
able holdings of the tribe proper. The
tribes are governed by an Indian court
In every respect. Should
the territory already ceded to the white
men become a state alone, and the
tribal territory be left to these men I'M
der the Indian laws, or even important
of these laws, which will
be hardly suggested much less carried
out by them, we shall have a large
tract Of country still left in which
modified barbarism will reign, and a
from which to draw off GRIM
inals and desperadoes of every descrip-