The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1901-06-09
CROWD MAY
NOT PROVE
SOGREAT
At the Opening of the KiOwa-
COmanChe Country.
OPENING NO LONGERNOVEL
Attendance From Eastern
States TO be Small.

FL Reno, 0. T., June S.-Practically the
work Of allotng in the Kiowa, Comanche
and Apache reservations is complete. The
rolls must go into the government on
June 10. Agent Nessler who has had
charge Of The work wiz now take hold
OF the same business in the Wichita
country and push it. 1t is believed here
that the reservation viii be opened on
time. that is August 8.
There is much speculation here in re-
gard to the number Of people who viii
take part in the opening. There is con
stantly growing class who think that,
in point Of numbers. the opening is not
going to be the prodigious affair common
ly expected. The highest number esti-
mated by any one is 10000 people. Put
ting fifteen thousand into the towns
which win be started. this would leave
5000 people after homesteads and with
1900 quarter sections available this
would mean that every other man would
get claim in the drawing.
A considerable number one might say
largely a majority Of the old time boom
ers do not ike the idea Of a drawing.
They prefer the old style run. They pre-
fer it because they believe that the draw
ing viii attract many thousands who
would not come if they had TO make a
rough and tumble race; in other words
that the feeling of danger" in making
a run which prevails in the east would
keep down a Iarge attendance and give
them better show.
But from an present signs the an
nouucement of a drawing plan viii at
tract comparatively lew more home
6teaders than would come otherwise The
American citizens is nothing if not cour-
ageous and the stories of injusuces in the
runs, and its hardships, have in the past
kept very few people back.
Another feature, little reckoned upon, is
that less than an former openings. the
Kiowa and Comanche opening has been
meagrely advertised in the east The
metropolitan papers give scarcely any
notice to it at all. AT the original open
ings. the novelty Of the thing filed the
eastern papers with sketches Of the new
country. At the first opening Of Oklaho-
ma. the original tract, every big news
paper in the country had q staff cores
pendent present. including the Illustrated
weeklies who filled their columns for
months before hand. When the Cheyenne
and Arapahoe country came in. the adj
eertisement was poor and the run, in
point of the number taking part, was
nothing spectacular.
When the Strip came in. the country
was in the midst of the hardest OF hard
times. The event was thoroughly adver-
tised, and although Kansas above was
stricken with diversity ana poured her
thousands into the great tract of land.
the crush could have been much greater.
other openings We're so tame and at
tended by so few people. that they have
passed from memory. The least notable
Of AN was the Kickapoo opening. In
fact it was so Insignificant that some of
the newspaper men who exploited the
exciting episode-to-be. roasted the whole
affair good and hard in their papers the
morning after the opening, simply be-
cause it developed no sensational fea-
lures.
A big crowd VIII attend the Kiowa
opening in the opinion of many here.
but considering the size of the reserva-
tions to be opened. they do not believe
that the crush win equal in any degree
that of the original Oklahoma PROPOSE
ton or Of the Cherokee Strip. In both
these affairs the population Of Southern
Kansas was practically present. for those
who did not ran into the country to re-
side permanently were down in a body TO
see the fellows who did make a show. In
Cact at first an opening was sort of a
huge entertainment which people came
miles 10 see
Il is not necessary TO prove this to any
II those men who watched the north ana
south bound trains out Of Oklahoma on
the Santa Fe after April p 1859. Thous-
Rnds upon thousands train load after
train load went back TO Kansas and
Texas They had come only to see the
lun.
The same thing VIII be true of the Kio-
wa opening. The times are prosperous in
Kansas. the element of unemployed prac-
dcally nil. openings are no longer novel,
even when a man comes as a spectator.
he is NOT going to take a chance for a
,laim which If he should draw he would
nor want would not Zee able to negotiate.
IT to pay sl4 for the privilege. to say
nothing of robhing some one who does
Nant claim of his chance.
Large attendance from the far eastern
states where the railroad fare becomes
sa important item. is NOT expected kan
sass Nebraska. Missouri Texas and Ok
lahoma VIII furnish the crowd. us hither-