The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-04-06
UNCLE SAATs TERRITORIAL
 CAME

CAME
 That the American masses are na- tural born gamesters, that they love chance, and that a lottery is dear to their hearts has no better eXemplifica- tion on a large scale, than in the up- building of the new State of Oklahoma.
 Uncle Sam invented two new games called oklahoma" and Indian Terri tory" and ran them both.
 Oklahoma was first played in 1889 on a landscape of 100000 acres, divided into squares of 160 acres each, called farms, and at varying intervals were smaller rectangles called town sites, which were divided into thousands of small pieces called lots. The game con- sisted in starting from the boundary lines of this area, with 50,0OO other human beings, and attempting to be first to drive a pair of pegs in 16O- acre farm or in a small town lot. If you succeeded, and could keep the other fellow from extracting your pegs while your back was turned, you won.
 The game was so successful that towns of 10000 souls grew up in day and the lonely jack rabbit fled in gaunt- eyed fright until he dropped with ex- haustion at the sight of a dozen hu- man enemies on every square mile of territory, where before one might have travelled for weeks without seeing more than a leather breechen cowboy
 At intervals of every few years up to 1902 the Government made a new layout-one of more than 5,00O,000 acres. The rules of the game were modified from time to time, to prevent a certain type of man from stacking the cards, or unnecessarily committing murder. So stupendously popular was "Oklaho- ma" that Uncle Sam found over eight hundred thousand takers in a genera ton
 Indian Territory" was quite differ ent-if hardly less attractive-and con- sisted in getting the sixty-odd thousand Indians to give up their tribal holdings and take individual allotments, with the privilege of disposing of all their surplus lands except small home stead. Certain interesting restrictions were placed on the selling of the sur plus, but the game was exciting, for with short time leases, pull in the de- partment at washington, and options, one might find himself possessed of a fine farm any day! Greater zest was lent by the discovery that immense coal beds underlaid fertile farm lands, and then petroleum of high grade spurted from the same fields, and 1yo1,ro Jhla Eoi,id q c.>1, a It,,p, oYd l,hndn,, ed grahamite were found in veritable mines. If you got an Indian farm, next day you might find that you had an everlasting fortune in a mine just under the sod
 The game of Indian Territory" has also had some S0O,000 takers, So that, combined with "Oklahoma,' it is @afe to say that 100000 Americans-only two or three per cent are foreign born have taken part.
 In these remarkable games, primarily based on the human love of chance, the unified name of which might be called Empire Building" everyone seems tc have made winning: the Indian has millions to his credit drawing interest in the Government Treasury; the white man, who staked human flesh and blood and energy against wind -blowr waving grass land and hidden treas ures of coal and iron and oil and asphaltumn, has won ten thousand fold Uncle Sam, the game-keeper, has wor added prosperity and wealth. and the galaxy of states has won a sister stal of the first magnitude
 Undoubtedly it was the gaming spirit that appealed powerfully to the fancy of the American citizen. The idea that one could become possessed of 160 acres of land at SIPS per acre, or longtime payment, or of a town lot fol nothing-provided one was sufficiently strong of leg, lasting of wind, cunning of mind, or shrewd in maneuver- seemingly caused thousand more people to gather on the boundary lines than there was land for. With the booming of gun they legged it pell. mell, wildly and sometimes tragically for the interior in the hope of being fortunate enough to drive stake first as they lay, wind-blown and exhausted on the cushion of spring sward
 Because the game of opening these territories gave an opportunity to mer of small means, looking for home places, and demanded heroes who rev. elled in the strenuous and believed 1T themselves.-Apple Magazine.