The times., 1899-10-29
IN TEE new OKLAHOMA
Changes Brought ABOUT During the
Past Two Years.
The Population Growing Rich From
Abundant Agricultural Products
Imported Good Cotton Country
Little of the Picturesque Remains.

All the Oklahoma towns situated within
thirty eight miles of the Kansas border are
locally known as Strip towns. because
they lie within the boundaries of the old
Cherokee Strip, which separated old Okla
homa from Kansas. The Strip was pur-
chased by the Government from the Chero-
kee Nation, and was thrown open to the oc
cupancy of homestead settlers at noon on
September II, 1898 Within twenty-four
hours every quarter-section valuable for
! farming bore the claim stakes OF an actual
settler. Towns sprang up here and there
with marvellous Tapidity, and the whole
vast plain throbbed with human life. The
newcomers improyised what sort Of shelter
they could, many living in tents, others
bringing wagonloads of boards to erect
rude shanties. and still others building
huts of sods or scooping dugouts in the hill
sides.
The people were all poor. for, if they had
been well off they would have remained
in their old homes, and their only hope for
the future was that the land would yield
good crops 1t did not disappoint them.
Good crops have been raised year after year,
until now these adventurous pioneers 1.-Two
in comfortable houses, built Of lumber
brought by rail from Texas or Minnesota:
drive TO town in their own carriages, pos
sess well-improyed farms, and, as rule,
have little money in the bank. Nowhere
else in all the far West has there been such
a rapid accumulation of wealth from agri-
culture, and the result is well-satished
community, that is constantly improving Its
conditions and is already in the enjoyment
of all the essential comforts of life. 1t
there are no crop failures from drought,
Oklahoma Will soon become the richest
farming territory in the Union. From its
geographical situation one would say that
drought would be due here as often as once
in five or six years, but this limit has al
ready been passed and as the territory has
so many other exceptional features it may
escape the chief scourge Of Kansas, Ne
braska and the two Dakotas.
The principal Strip towns are New
kirk and Perry, on the Santa Fe Road, and
Pond Greek and Enid on the Rock Island,
and the largest of them is Enid, which
claims a population of 5000. 1t makes
a great showing of business in multi
tude of little stores one or two stories
high, some of them new structures Of
brick, and many the cheap wooden shanties
of the first merchants. 1t has two daily
newspapers, neither of which contains any
news except the local happenings and
gossip. Ii has also half a dozen hotels
in none of which can a traveller get
comfortable room or a good meal, but it is
full OF rushing, ambitious people.
The settlers in the Cherokee Strip are
greatly interested in what is called the
free-home question. In opening the Strip
Congress did not put the lands upon the
same footing as other public lands. 1t ap-
piled to them the homestead law, with its
requirement of five years occupancy be-
fore title is given to the settler, but as the
Government had bought the lands from the
III 10
reimburse the Treasury by paying for their
home farms from 1925 to $3.50 per acre at
the end of the five years, the amount vary
ing with the various amounts that the Gov
ernment had paid the Indian tribes Before
the five years had expired an enthusiastic
movement was organized in the Strip to
persuade Congress to remit the payments
from the settlers and place the lands upon
the same footing as other public land. This
movement very naturally claimed the sup
port OF the Territorial delegate in Con-
gress, who once succeeded in getting a bill
through the House which failed in the
Senate. The amount Of money involved is
about $16. .000 0O0 There is no opposition
to this free-home movement in the TerTi-
tory, and all the politicians are very ear
nest in it's advocacy.
I hear none OF the complaints in Okla
homa about lack of money to do business
and South the banks all have deposits
largely in excess of their capital. and their
discount rate has declined from 2 per cent
a month 10 l per cent a month. Farm mort
cages now bear 10 per cent as a rule. The
banks do not pay interest on deposits except
on large sums left on deposit for at least a
year, and il such cases the rate is only .
per cent per aunum. Lenders now seek
| borrowers, and the old custom of exacting
| d commission in addition to a high rate OF
! interest has gone with other conditions OF
new settlement
The politics Of Oklahoma were brought in
| from Kansas. That State has always
abounded in politicians, and hundreds Of
| them who saw no prospect Of getting Of
! fee in their old homes fiocked over the line
| into the neighboriHg territory with the
! great rush to the Cherokee Strip. Among
! them were many Populists, who secured fol
! their peculiar notions an immediate cur
| rency here. They fused with the Democrats
| in 1886, and defeated for reelection the
! popular Republican delegate in Congress.
| Dennis Flynn MIR. Flynn waited two years
| and made the race again in 1898 winning
| by a majority of nearly 10000 The Popu-
| lists and Democrats combined can figure
| out majority in the Territory, but Popu-
| lism viii surely share the fate fl has met
| in Kansas and Will rapidly disintegrate as a
| political force.
Oklahoma is a pretty good cotton coun-
try, lying, as ii does in the same latitude
! as Tennessee but there was not as much
| cotton raised this year as last from the
fact that the farmers had experienced great
| difficulty in getting the crop picked In
fact, many fields We're not picked at all,
and the farmers who thus lost their cotton
crops for the want Of labor in the picking
season went back to wheat and corn this
| year. Wheat is bound to be the staple
| market crop. The regular yield is from
| fifteen to twenty-five bushels per acre.
and the brown lands OF the Strip" as well
| as the red lands of "Old Oklahoma" seem
| equally well adapted to this cereal The
town of Kingfsher claims now TO be the
greatest primary wheat market in the
United States, buying and shipping over
one million bushels per year. Kingfsher
lies in the red clay belt but Kay county,
which is in the brown soil region of the
| Cherokee Strip, produced more wheat last
year than any other county in the entire
country, so that the question whether the
brown prairie loan or the red clay soil
is better adapted for wheat is still an
open one.
The claim Of excellence as a stock coun-