Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1905-12-22
HOMECOMING
IN THE WEST.

William o. Watson, a well-known
lawyer, of Oklahoma City, gives the APP
pended illustration of one of the meth
DDS adopted to boom a town into exist
ence:
1T is nearly ten years, he says, since
the country hereabouts has been, what
you might call, on the BOOM but it has
been ten years since the professional
town boomers quit us. The last instance
of overnight booming remember was
the town of Lanowack. If you will go
about six miles east of Oklahoma City,
you will see a mail crane hanging be-
side the track, while, stretching on every
side as far as you can see, just plain prai-
rie. with hardly house in sight. This
Is Lanowack. The promoter, who had
been hanging around for some time, sud-
denly purchased quarter section of
land and tackled the name on it. He
was a boomer, one of the real sort who
could sell anything they got their
hands on.
"A blind man could see that there
was no town there, and nothing to
make town, but it was the promoters
business to sell just such impossible
ties, and the way he did it proved him
master of his art The Mr.. Col
Sellers who was doing the business
there decided that a certain German
settlement in northwest Kansas was
looking for just such city as he had
to offer, and he went up to visit them
He tarried a week, talked Lanowack
and painted rainbows for the moneyed
farmers who used to Hook der kaiser!'
Best country in the world and lots
of 1t, he told them; soil peculiarly fit
ted for raising cotton, corn, wheat,
oats, rye, hay. turnips, radishes, pars-
nips, children, Indians, and, in fact,
anything that a Christian gentleman
has a right to ask for on this lowly
footstool. Yes, and right in the
scnnitzels was Lanowack-high, dry
and healthful, the Arcania of the west.
4ne promoter knew his men and
his business. After he had slung on
the beautiful red paint, he backed up
his special train to the station. The
Germans filled their pockets with the
green goods and tumbed in. They
were not going down as settlers, but
merely as investors, who would reap
the harvest as soon as the people
rushed in from the east and built up
the town. as they were sure to do
They were getting in on the ground
floor. OF course they never suspected
that the promoter was in the cellar.
The train passed through Lanowack
in the night, and the investors tumbled
out at Oklahoma City. At break of
day the boomer had his brass band on
the street, and every saloon in town
was thrown open to the prospective
owners of LanOwack, the coming me-
tropOlis of the southwest. The Visi-
tors would be marched into one sd
loon while the band outside played
Die Wach am Rhein.' and then they
would move on to another.
by the time they were halfway
through the rounds, II was decided
that Lanowack was the best proposition
before the American people and the
promoter was voted the savior of the
German citizen. He stood q, well and
Immediately got the crowd on board
Jll1 lldlll, anu lLSs NIollCd l-lIlOM dOh
The engineer stopped at the mail
crane that was all of Lanowack that
existed at that time as to-day. But
the crowd was delightful. There was
the ground, just as the boomer had
said; there was the country stretching
round about The air was light and
healthful and the map which the FRO
cnraaH hafnrp thaD1 choxV a6
the location of the post Office the
courthouse and federal building Be
sides, there was the brass band and
the railroad, and the kegs in the bag
gage car, which had been brought
along, as Lanowack lacked a we'll at
the time and the water works had not
yet been installed.
THE lots were put up at auction,
and went like hot cakes, at prices
ranging from S25 to $100 according to
their proximity to the courthouse or
federal building or some other i'm
portant municipal edifice calculated to
attract traffic Business was good
, The promoter was sorry he had not
bought two quarter sections, as then
Lanowack would have been twice as
, large-on the map. After everything
had been sold, the train pulled back
into Oklahoma City, where .Aere were
more drinks, and everybody went to
bed richer by far than when he first
arrived in town.
The promoter cleaned up some
thing like $1,000 out Of the deal. after
paying for his train, band, beer and
other expenses. About year after
ward l met one of the Germans, and
rather sympathized with him for the
way he had been taken in, but 1t was
pity wasted.
Ivy" he said, we gets ter see der
coontry, We mas pig railroad rite, all