El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-05-23
FACTS ABOUT OKLAHOMA
That Will Surprise Some People

That Will Surprise Some People
Saturday, April %, was Oklahoma's
tenth birthday. April p, 1889, fifteen
thousand Americans of all sorts and
conditions raced one another across
the prairie, s,aked on. their lots ana
started the city of Guthrie. The bulk
of them arrived il the early afternoon.
In the evening they held mass meet
ing in which, ia /, said, more than two
thirds of the states of this union had
mayor and adorned. Next day they
fitted themselves odt with "a court oil
arbitration, to pass upon all cases OF
disputed title. Its decisions command
ed loyal acQuiescence AMI obedience al
the time and have since been confirm
ed In a great majority of instances by
the regular territorial courts.
Oklahoma had visitor on its tenth
birthday-Curtis of the "Chicago Rec
ordn He filed his notebook las usual)
with all kinds of interesting memo
rands, and the public, says the Hart
ford Courant, ia nov getting the be-
nefit of them. Governor Barnes tells
him that he believes the next census
will show territorial population OF
325, 900 at least-95 per cent. Amer
lean born. The first crush" has ceas-
ed, some of the unstable aud specula-
tive settlers have sold out and cleared
out, but the inflow of new settlers Is
steady and nowadays they are bring
ing capital with them. The soil WAS
ready for the pillow when the pillow ar
rived; the farmers have now got the
hang of it and are diversifying their
crops; wheat and cotton grow SIDE oy
side; Oklahoma fruits-melOns parti-
cularly-are ''the best in the world
it Is bound 10 be great dairy
country; it has minerals, oil and ma
tural gas. The taxable property a.
ready aggregates $40. 623, 816; the ter
ritorial debt is S4S, OOO and represents
new SCHOOL, ouses. Governor Barnes
says furtber:-
We have s454, 574 invested in that
sort of real estate; we have 1879
schools; we have 90,5S5 boys and girls
atter ding them: we spent last year
500, 900 for teachers salaries, S4S, 900
for new buildings and furniture, S32,-
600 for rents, repairs and other Incl
dental expenses; 1000 for books and
apparatus for our school libraries, and
a total of 1892, 900 in round numbers
for educational purposes. l do not
know of an eastern state that did AS
much in proportion to its population.
We have about I3 900 partially civll-z-
ed Indians, and PERHAPS % 900 colored
people, who are practically uneducat-
ed, but L doubt il there is q white man,
woman or child in the territory Dove
the age of five years who cannot read
and write.
From the governor and from other
sources Curtis gets q lot of statistics.
For instance, Oklahoma, in its eleventh
year, has church for every 400 in habi-
tants and Sundsy-schOcl for every
311-over 700 churches ana over 1000
Sunday schools in all. 1t has daily
newspaper for every $4,000, a weekly
newspaper for every 5000, regular
publication" of some sort for every p
300. Four months ago its farmers had
AZ 62s horses, 6, 407 mules, 81 OLA cows,
257 sos oxen, % 982 sheep. 80, 091 hogs;
estimated total value of this livestock,
IS, FOL .673 The total number of COZ
victs n tbs territory at present is loo
q convict for every 2, 150 Inhabitants.
That's better showing than Ohio
makes. or Kansas. There sre no poor
houses or poorfarms in Oklahoma as
yet. 10 penitentiary, not may perma-
nent courthouses. Indeed, the people
haven't yet got around to the building
of a capitol. They have been very
busy people these ten years past.
Curtis asked Editor Elmer Brown of
the Oklahoma Times-JOurnal' to tell
him W b at, in his view, are the terrific
ry's strong points. AS Brown reckons
them up, these are an exceptionally
healshful climate, weather never too
hot and never too cold. no sunstrokes,
no malaria, soil yielding all sorts of
crops, an admirable school system. and
an intelligent, law-abiding, sober, re-
ligious population. "We have never
had wild and lawless period like the
rest of the new states and territories"
says Brown. I'VE have no tough
towns
That remark about the sobriety of
the territorial folk naturally led Curtis
to ask B own about OklahOma's me-
thod Of dealing with the liquor prob
lem. He learned that the territory Is
not peopled nor dominated by prohibit
tionists. But we make liquor-dealers
pay high license, $780," said the
Oklahoma City ed:tor, land they have
to obtain the consent of the property
owners for q considerable distance
around them before they can obtain q
license. The system is very much the
same as in Illinois. Many of our towns
have no saloons at ALL"