The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1902-10-12
j. H. RAF
WRITES ABOUT
NEW COUNTRY
Graphic Description of the
Struggle for Homes,
AWFUL HEAT AND DUST
How People Looked for the
Clouds TO Come.
AWFUL HEAT AND DUST

John H. Raftery Of Chicago. in a very
clever an5, on the whole-when taken
whole-a very complimentary article on
Oklahoma, INDUCES in this descriptive
touch which is very well worth reading:
THE STORY OF A STORM WHICH
WAS THE BAPTISM OF AN
EMPIRE.
Last summer 100000 acres, a promised
land in the far southwest. were given to
5000 men and women who had never
stepped upon its short, brown sod. It
was in August, 1901, that two armies Of
men and women, one southwark, from El
Reno, and one westward from Fort Sill.
spread fanwise across the dusty prairies
of Oklahoma like giant swarms Of honey
seeking bees. They carried no weapons
but the utensils Of industry, no pledges
of the future but the scrap Of paper
which made them freeholders Of an In
dian domain.
The hot sun poured an ocean Of brazen
sunlight on them; the blue sky arched
them as fixed and cloudless as a dome of
steel; the yellow dust rose up from the
undulous, endless prairie like the chrome
vapors that rise from the floor of gold
en- sea in the morning. The hot winds
blew the sand into their faces till their
nostr1ls choked and their garments chafed
with tse slime Of muddy sweat. In the
lowlands and ravines they found sinuous
meandering thickets of cottonwood, viii
lows and underbrush, but the riverbeds
which they marked were but reaches OF
binding white sand that upwhirled and
swept before the breeze in mocking ed
dies
II had been a season OF rainless days
which preceded their coming, but they
saw that the earth was rich. even in its
fsnished desolation, and they said to
each other: wait till it rains" Then
they sat down upon the dusty wastes.
spread their tents. tethered their cattle
upon the cracking sod and-waited. Some
Of them bought lots in the fxer town
sites and cut down the weazen cornstalks
which the Indians had left to cucumber
the business corners" Of the new city.
They started ''emporiums" in dismal lit
tie tents through which the restless
showers of dust sifted and settled; they
dug wells and sold water by the pint;
they planned. prophesied. bartered and
hoped But Il QlO not rain
In the outlying hills the farmers toiled
in new-made burrows that blew away al
most as they made them. A dog gallop-
ing across the hill. raised a little cloud
rs his padded feet smote the fiour-like
earth. The horses toiied themselves into
q filth of slime and the breeze powdered
them with sprays of tawny sand. The
men, women and children. their heads
grizzied as with premature age, strug-
gled, gasping, through the burrows, and
in the hit. sitting ridges dropped the
seed from which must spring their hope
of the future in the new home" Baths
had become almost a forgotten luxury,
for wells were costly and the scattered
pools in the ribed-beds were few and far
between. So through the autumn these
argonauts of "A new empire worked. made
almost hopeless pledges TO IMPLYING Ma
ture. stifed during the breathless days,
dreamed over the life they had left in
the lush valleys of the east and north at
night and-hoped.
Autumn drifted into the chiller atmos-
phere OF winter. but yet no rain fell. The
wind. with screeching fury. dashed sand
and pebbles into the shifting air. howled
across the bleak hills and moaned like
banshees in the river-timbers But the
sky was always steely blue and the sun
and moon sconed in cloudless satire upon
the pitiful work OF man. Twice light
snow fell. but it uprose in drifting fogs
before the early sun and vanished like
wreaths Of mist at noon. leaving not a
cloud Of promise in its path. Then came
the balmy days Of spring when the wind
IN mercy or in WEAKNESS died away and
for a week there was hint of some
thing tenderer than even sunshine in the
air
on towards tho west at evening loemed
a shadowy veil like the forecast Of be-
nign and unknown spirit. The breeze
that stole whispering from the Washita
had the perfume OF dews and melted