The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1901-09-08


! Georgia and New York traded ponies ano
swappcd yarns with Oklahoma. But the
names aled III the landomse might have
/ been taken from the charter Of James
tovvn ana from the log book OF the May
flower. The field Of cloth ducking is a
! school There the Texas man who snaps
his corn is learning from Kansas the wis
dom of husking and Smelling it; the Ar
/ kansas man who unhitches by skinning
! his horses out Of the harness without un-
| hitching the tugs leaving the harness
| over the doubletrees. is learning from the
1 Nebraskan to hang the harness on a peg
/ and save tangle. The Kansas man,
| whose nervous, syncopated sentences
| jump along on the high places Of protrud-
/ ingverbs and Jagged adjectives, is learn
/ ing the use Of conversation from the nom
! chaIant, easy-going, careful-speaking
/ Texan. and the grun, bluff, carless DakO-
/ tan is learning the amenities of life from
/ the punctilious gentleman from Alabama.
The next generation in the new country,
and all over Oklahoma. in fact, where
this blending of American types and NOR
/ ais and manners is in progress, will be a
wonderful one. 1t may have all that is
fine and brave in "DDxne" and all that is
strong and efficient in the Yanze.
If the crowd showed the contrast be-
tween the north and the south at Lawton
it showed more clearly the absorption Of
the west by the east. If there is any
frontier in America, it should be found at
Lawton. But the Lawtoncrowd revealed
the fact that the west is gone. The
gentleman with the fringed leather trous-
int he sol
light his cigar with a fve-dollar bill
and then back out with an ardent impulse
10 plant a crop for the coroner, was not
present at Lawton. Not a spur clinked
on the town site. The crowd was a shirt
waist crowd. Men wore cuffs and said
there instead OF thar" ate with their
forks and at night put on pajamas when
they went TO bed under the big tents that
were called hotels. A plug hat would have
called forth neither molestation nor I'M
pleasant comment. The Lawtou city book
store in a tent on Goo-Goo avenue did as
much business as two clerks could ham
die. The only two men who carried re-
volvers were the deputy sheriffs from Ca
madam county, under whose authority
the new country fell until nine o'clock OF
the morning OF the 9Th Of August. The
crowd passed quietly into local govern
ment, and the law and order which had
been preserved among 5000 b. the three
yOun gdepudes from EI Reno. resumed
It's mOnotonoUs course under a complete
set of county officers and court. But the
.. 900 people slipped 40 quietly from no
government save the instructive love Of
law in an American crowd TO organized
save the dozen county officers and their
proud friends knew of the transition.
OF course there was a vicious element
in I.awton-just as there is in every Amer
lean community. But the bad did not
control. Public sentiment held the gam
bier and CRATER in check before the court
came as firmly as the law held these peO-
pie when it was established. There We're
wheels of fortune. chuck-a-uck. poker
games. faro banks and shell games. But
the great mass of the people around the
games were spectators. They We're curl
ous-but not curious enough to try the
game And so business being poor for the
gamblers, one of them grabbed a man s
money. There was an alteration. The
crowd grew larger and more inhamed.
The gambler started TO run-a foolish
thing to do. The crowd took after him.
Tt caught him. In a frenzy literally
stripped him to the skin for his plumber.
Two deputies-the Canadian county, ok
lahoma men-came up The crowd was
roaring. The naked gambler chalk-faced
and trembling with terror. ran between
the horses that the deputies rode, as a
frightened child runs home for shelter.
I'M.
mob went after the other gamblers. AS
the crowd surgod down Grand avenue it
lost its animosity, and was merely de-
termined. cheerful, eXhUberant IL raj
lied by states. Come on, Texas" yelled
the Texans, help hang the gamblers
Come on. Kansas clean out the gam
blersi' was the Kansas cry. "Okahomai
Oklahoma. Come a runnin, oklahoma"
ives the slogan of the men from the terri
tory 1t did not intend to hang the gam
blers. 1T did not expect to fight 1t was
merely going TO close up all the gambling
places in town-and it closed them. That
was the day before the law came. That
night there was not wheel turning: not
a poker chip was stacked on the table.
Not a game was running. Every gam
bIer's tent was dark. And the only di-
version on Goo-Goo avenue that night
was big evangelical melting i'm the
Methodist tent. Next morning the gam
blers left Lawton. The American spirit
had spollen. There was a smile on its
face as # smoke but the smile showed
teeth
The scenes that accompanied the open
i,r ,+ 7 s4rt,r were ,7,,,1ioate5 in r,inis-
ture n the other two county seat towns
in me new country Hobart and Anadar-
D., --bs-, .r, ,,l,,- zso,o ,,,,,,1o - tho