The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1905-04-01

the Atlantic coast or Of Kentuck'
and Tennessee. The hardships of thu
latter case spoken Of were a littll
more prolonged 1t took a littlt
more PRESIDENT faith, a little more o
the heart Of oak than your Oklahoma
boomer required. 1t is not at all sur.
prising thai heroes have sprung from
a stock where it was the ordinary
practice for a wife to sit on a stump
and hold a rife while the husband
dropped" his corn, where the rail
roads did not penetrate, where the
spring was barrlcaded In with the
horse lot and the vegetable garden,
and where providence was az enforced
virtue. And these things lasted for
a long time, long enough for envir.
onment and heredity to weave pioneer
virtues into the warp and wool of
several generations. Not so with the
twin territories. The railroads got
there In time to haul off the first
crop and to bring the steam pillow for
the second one. The miracle OF
Aladin's palace does not surpass the
story Of Oklahoma, 1t seems only
yesterday that a traveller on the
Santa Fe might see nothing living in
half a days ride but buzzards sailing
between The matchless blue above
and the matches green beneath,
where now splendid cities rise, con-
nected with steam and electric rail
ways, enlightened with their own
morning and evening papers, and
confused with the rumble Of com
merco ard t5e ~i?roor ~ trodn
l was speaking mostly Of Oklahoma,
when 10 reality the white man en-.
tered Indian Territory first. Bot then,
l don't think very highly Of the
white men who first went to the
Indian Territory. Roughly they may
be defined in two classes which some
times overlapped-the squaw man and
the outlaw. This classification is not
universal, but 1t is at least general.
or the squaw.man l have nothing to
say. 1t is indicate to discuss
family matters In the public prints.
But the outlaw is a public character
and is the fit subject for analysis and
classification. And l haven't aDy
prejudice against some classes Of out.
laws. David, the ideal and psalmist
OF Israel, was an outlaw, and the
French have never ceased to twit the
English for holding Robin HOOD az
their national hero. There were
virtues In Plzzarro, OOrtez, Captain
Kidd, Austin and even Houston, who
as much outclassed the Jesse Jameses,
Daltons and Blenders as the Jameses,
Daltons aid Blenders outclassed such
modern bandits and phllanthroplsts
as Rockefeller and Carnegie. But
there are outlaws and outlaws. II
takes the distempered imagination OF
a cigarette. smoking dime novel-read.
Ing degenerate to invest with any
halo OF glory the plain ordinary out
law, the mere refugee from justice,
the horsetheif with a prejudice
against the rope. And while L have
no very thorough information upon
this subject beyond the newspaper
reports Of court proceedings at TT.
Smith, | have always been under the
impression that the Indian Territory
sutlaw belongs to the most unlovely
class OF the whole genus. The latter
day Territorian a hardly fail to
voice the PRAYER that the background
OF this picture, along with that OF the
Indian predecessor, may fade out and
that history with its traditional
aversion to the whole truth may be.
gin with the recent industrial devel.
s.