The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-12-22

| face to face with him, was turned over and analysed by the pretty clerk. Then | she concluded with true grit to come out and meet him, taking the worst if neces- sary, but always considering that other men would be on hand to see fair play Again, in majority of instances, ton. 1 the woman who invaded the Oklahoma | frontier came with her husband and his 1 family. He has just lost fortune in mined to get a free home in the West. Some had had no fortunes to lose and l wished to secure one. They consulted their wives. Few spurned the proposi- | tion.
 Camping with the multitude along the borders was a most unpleasant task. | Cooking in the open, sleeping in covered wagons (prairie schoonersl, and enduring | all the distasteful manners of the drunk | en cowpuncher and homeseeker, was surely, enough to make them wish their I trip had never been undertaken. None ever turned their backs upon the golden l future, however. The prospect of quar- ter section of land, all their own, was | SC mething which appealed strongly To let it slip was not to be considered: And then came the race-the wild, mad rush for land. in which everybody sought 1 to outdo his neighbor by stealth or dar- ing, he cared not. Thousands crowded along the dead line. and at shot from
 
 l horseback. bicycles, trains and everything that would go. The ones who had fast mounts, when safely ahead of their com, petitors. stopped and set fire to the tall grass. The flames caused death to many. But the women fared about as well as the men.
 The husband, driving, depended upon the. wife to leap at the first call, set her stake on @ corner and hold firply to It while he unhitched and plowed line around his new home. Those who came alone depended upon their nerve to hold the claim upon which they stopped, and, in the thousands of contests which. fol- lowed as to who was the first settler. the woman in six cases out of eight came. out winner.
 Riding into the Cherokee outlet on top of a passenger coach, l saw two men and one woman arrive at the same corn CT almost simultaneously. They all plung- ed their stake into the ground. A few seconds of glaring at each other-tlme was everything. One man stopped, pull ed out his stake, and turned to face his male opponent. A moment more and the were of, racing for other claims. The woman sat down. We on the train who were yelling ourselves hoarse at the ln- cident could see her wiping away the tears, She was neither pretty nor stylish but she was woman.
 Months of hard work, loneliness. and suffering follows the woman's advent into border life. Then she finds that her ef-
 
 scholars is bearing fruit, minister has consented to visit the neighborhood once every two weeks, and a song book has found many readers. The first Sunday service on the border brings a motley crowd One may sit next to a killer of men. he who has done time for train robbery, or fugitive from justice come thither to conceal his identity and get fresh start.
 Evangelist Tours.
 Conversions of the evangelist who makes his circuit include some of the toughest communities on the frontier, and are always lasting. A man will come into a new country who has never been inside a church. but he will readily turn his attention to the service in a tent. He may be impressed with the words of the evangelist and turn his life into the mar row pathway. Some of our worst out laws have been reformed by those rrai rie sermons which, though coarse of com struction, are deep of meaning. .,
 The woman can be credited for 1t all. She first brings the minister to her com munitv by assuring him that she will get enough to pay his expenses and that he will not be i'll treated. For drunken cowpunchers are apt to make 1t hot for the preacher who they think Is trying to tame their community. If a woman of the settlement introduces him to the con gregation 1t sets things aright
 Some towns are harder to ciViliZe than others A new town in the Cherokee out let grew to 800 souls without woman l mean the woman WHOSe llle lS pure ana upright, for there are others who have forsaken all that Is good and they may be found everywhere. This town is now one of the most thriving and cultured communities of that territory. But a year elapsed before a woman dared ven ture in.
 One day, when the stage coach drew up, the wife of leading saloon-keeper alighted and Tom announced from behind the bar that night that she had come to stay. He set up the drinks to the crowd, but, they did not congratulate him Instead. they met in a gambling hall and decided to boycott his place un- til he had sent his wife away. When he learned it, of course with his heart set on the dollar. he told her to go. She went Not until that saloon-keeper was shot in a midnight brawl would they al- low his wife to return to him. When they saw how tenderlv she nursed him back to life. and with what gentleness she spoke to them. their hearts melted