Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1901-08-30
MISCELLANY.
DAM.


yearned impatiently for the day when
the signal shot would open to them the
gates of the promised land. The boy
was %, his heart was set on owning
his own farm" and day by day. as
boomers and sooners swarmed into the
waiting city of tents, shanties and car
avans, his chances of gaining the land
he had chosen for his own grew per-
ceptibly simmer.
He noted the groups of desperate
men, mounted on swift horses, armed
to the teeth, lurking along the margin
of the free lands. There were hun
dreds of them. There were other
bands, equally determined and equally
reckless, who came to the border in
light, strong wagons, drawn by two or
four galloping mules, ready to race
with the swiftest and hold their prizes
even at the point of the rifle. With
such Dan felt he had small chance to
reach and maintain the quarter sec
ton upon which he and his father had
resolved to build their new home.
Their horse was old and slow, their
poor wagon was literally falling to
pieces in the long drought, and,
scheme as he might, Dan could think
of nothing better than to follow his
fathers advice and ride with him in
the old wagon with the forlorn hope
of getting a foothold after the feeter
boomers had been satisfied.
The eager Dan had begged his
father to let him make the race on
foot. 1t was full four miles to the
edge of their chosen section, but the
youth was sure he could easily dis
lance the old pillow horse.
20 "a no,
said the old man, land they'd kill you
like rabbit before they'd let you hold
that claim in peace. It's one of the
best in the township and I'd rather
lose the whole territory than lose you,
boy"
AS the last day of waiting came and
went Dan was in an intermittent fever
of anxiety and despair. He mingled
among the most lawless men of that
struggling army, which stretched
south and west for miles that night
completing preparations for the des-
perate race of the morrow. 1t was
past midnight when he came back to
the wagon and woke his father.
Dad he began, hesitatingly; "Pm
going to ask you favor"
mo, Dan" drowsed the old man.
thrusting his head out under the flaps
of the wagon cover, 81 know you want
to make the run on foot. l won't have
it. YOU
But l don't" whispered Dan, com
ing closer. Il just want you to let me
go it alone. l promise you / won't
walk or go on foot. I'll ride. I've got
a new scheme"
What is it?" as the youth hest
tated.'
81 won't tell you" (doggedly).
"Why, DAM"
Because you wouldn't let me do it
if you knew. Come, dad, don't say no.
because-because-"
Because why?"
well, if you say no. dang if don't
do it anyhow"
Dams father was silent for a mo-
ment and then said:
What about me?"
"You must drive in alone. Take
your time. Don't worry about me.
You know where our section is. Well,
when you get there I'll be in posses
sion. Leave it to me, there's a good
old daddy"
"Gol darn your hide, DAN" whim-
pered the old fellow, 81 believe you
can do it, But don't take no desperate
>
heart is all sewed up in you, Dan"
SO it was agreed. Dan waited till
his father was asleep, took his Win
chester down, filled his pockets with
cartridges and Slipped away into the
darkened city of tents and caravans.
Those who witnessed the frightful
scenes enacted on that day dozen
years ago, when Oklahoma was thrown
open to the boomers, agree that
the wild ferocity of the race, the mon
strous devilitry of the desperadoes who
racing ahead of oncoming squadrons
of settlers, set fire to the long, dry
grass, the despair and exhaustion of
those on foot, the plight of helpless
women and children trampled by men
and horses, the horrors, the insanity
the pity of it all have never been ade-
quately described.
One of the foremost vehicles in that
mad race was light mountain wagon
drawn by four fast galloping gray
mules. Two men fully armed sat on
the single seat, urging the beasts to
top flight; two others sat upon the
long sheet-iron feed box that stretched
along the bed of the wagon. They
were tour desperate men, and as their
flying vehicle bounded across the prai
RE they even dared to fire their rifles
at the horses of rivals who clattered
abreast or surpassed them, now and
and then killing a horse and laughing
as the battered rider rolled over and
over in the dusty grass.
But some of the flying horsemen
who escaped the bullets of these reck-
less wagoners cOntrived revenge more
effective and more far-reaching than
haphazard bullets. The wagon had
raced for nearly three miles when the
driver suddenly noticed far ahead, di-
rectly in the path of their progress,
perhaps a mile away, wreath of blue,
breeZe-driven and flecked with red, a
cloud that rolled toward them, first
along the ground, then mounting and
wavering upward like a tidal wave of
smoke and fire.
THE prairies on fire!" shouted the
driver, suddenly checking his mules.
They could smell hot smoke now. 1t
was rolling swiftly towards them,
great half-circle, two miles wide. AL
ready panic had seized every soul in
the path OF that fire. Men, women ana
boys forgot their desperate greed and
struggled wildly to reach a swamp or
green thicket where stunted willows
or patches of lush grass limited at
Coma cIandar medication from tha