Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1901-07-24
EdI9orial correspondents.
EL. RENO. Ok. july is. Iq(

O1lo W fcu1Dd. hlOHa ana ISOmma0Clo
Indian reservations is in full blast.
To-day the number registered at Ell
Reno alone was nearly ten thousand.
Yesterday more than eight thousand
were registered. The total regiStra-
tion up to date at this Office is about
$1,000. with five more days to register.
The Phillipsburg crowd left Tues
day morning and ran down tosMcFar-
land. Thence we changed cars and
came the remainder of the distance
on two trains, the crowd having grown
so large by additions at every station
that two full trains were so heavily
loaded as to compel large numbers to
stand' sit upon the steps, etc. The
trains lost time continually and in
stead of arriving at Ell Reno at IL D.
M, as they were scheduled, they ar
rived here, in the early morning, one
about five O'Clock and the other about
seven. The PhillipSburg boys in the
crowd are S. S. Fisher, Newton and
Robert Bracken, G. H. Tucker, c. w.
Mccormick; J. F. Cole, Grant Taylor,
Joe Gebhart Phil Albaugh, I. c. Nc
dowell, Frank Murphy, Frank Bower
Mr.. Mcclure and the writer.
From other points in-the county
there came several more, among whom
we noticed Eli Cox, Jake and George
Hoover and three or four others whose
names we failed to get.
Ross Mccormick joined the crowd
at Alma, and we found already here
John o. Lowe, o. W. Bickford and
ChaS. Don Carlos. w. G. Don Carlos,
of Colby, went down on the same train
also.
On arriving here we proceeded to
get breakfast and found contrary to
our expectations that hotel and res
taurant rates are reasonable, although
the immense crowds make the service
rather poor. Abundant provision is
made to handle the crowd, therefore
no one goes hungry or lacks cot to
sleep upon.
The streets are lined with little
booths containing notaries public,
which WORTHLESS ply their trade with
the ZeSt of the street fakir. Some
employ runners to meet all the trains
and head the stream of humanity
their way. Others offer map of the.
new county as a premium, and one
magistrate gave away a
pair of sleeve holders with each set of
papers made out. Twenty-Five cents
is the regulation price charged by
these notarieS for acknowledging the
although we heard of
few who held up an occasional "ten-
derfoot" for fifty cents. The terms
"tenderfoot" and ''old-timer" are on
ly relative after all for our crowd had
not been here more than half day
until we were all registered, then we
had seen all the sights and were no
longer tenderfeet, but old-timers COM
petent to give all sorts of advice to
those who came six hours later than
we.
Ell Reno is thriving, growing little
city of about eight thousand people.
1t has a large number of very respect
able brick business blocks and several
more in process of erection. It lies
on the south side of the North Cana
dian River, whose beautiful and very
fertile valley spreads out for miles
east and west of the city making it's
location very beautiful and furnishing
a rich territory tributary TO the city.
The wheat crop was excellent here.
averaging, they say, over thirty BUSH
els to the acre. Although it has been
very dry here of late, the condition of
corn is much better than that of any
Kansas corn we saw on the trip. Very
few farms in the Canadian valley
could be bought for less than S., 1000.
Besides its own population the city
now has here all the time from Il, 900
to $1,000 people who came seeking a
farm in the new territory soon to be
opened. These make a good sized city
of themselves and throng the streets
of this city like a Ringing circus or
an old-time Alliance rally would crowd
the streets of PhilllpSburg. A great
many of those who register go down
and look over the lands, but major
ity think return to their homes and
expect in the event of their drawing a
lucky number to select their land by
guess and map. The Phillipsburg
boys divided about evenly in choice of
districts, about half of them register
in the Ell Reno district and the
other half in the Lawton district.
One of the funny things about the
registration is to see undreds-thous-
ands 1 presume with large canteens
(made by soldering two large dish
pans together} strapped across their
shoulders, filed with water which
they brought from home. They had
read of a water famine here, and also
expected to stand in line for two or
three days, SO they came prepared for
the worst, Another SURPRISING thing