The Vinita daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1902-1913, 1912-11-18
OLD LANO MARKS
TO Be REMOVED

idly increasing passenger business IN
Muskogee, the Katy is going to close
down its hotel here. News item in
a Muskogee newspaper
Brush that tear from your eye,
Colonel Tom Needles, even though
you were way back in Illinois when
you read that bit of news. The passing
of the Katy" hotel is far more than
a dollars and cents transaction. 1t
sweeps the heartstrings of many an
old timer. Skyscrapers may come
and skyscrapers may go, but none OF
them will ever grip the old boys and
the young boys as did the Katy
When that hostelry was built, Indian
territory was a bowling wilderness.
Clarence Douglass carried a tomahawk
in his belt and ate his meat raw.
Homer Spaulding wore his hair in
a braid---like Queenie-and painted
his face. J. George Wright suffered
with dyspepsia, due to. the strange
bills of fare he encountered in those
days in Muskogee Charley Haskell
had not arrived, and Pleasant Por-
ter wore moccasins. The only loafing
places were street corners, or under
the trees along the Arkansas river.
Muskogee was unciyilized, wild and
woolly.
The building of the Katy had a
beneficient, ciyilizing effect though
out Indian territory 1t introduced the
habit of bathing inside room, in
stead of in the creek, and taught the
natives the delights of ordering
chuck" from a printed bill of fare.
Gradually, the "sofky' jar disappeared
fro mthe home Of peasant as well as
arstocrat and porterhouse streak and
angel food were no longer strange to
the paIates of the gentlemen who
wore six-shooters and high.heeled
boots at social functions. About that
time the spike-tailed coat appeared in
Indian territory, probably for the first
time at the "Katy."
AS civilizing influence, however
the Katy" was most effective by rea-
son of its bringing together men of
iall classes to smoke and talk on its
wide verandas or In its little grassy
parks when the hot days came to an
end and the cool breeze came tanning
northward from the south. By COM
mon agreement everybody stacked
arms at thi shour. There was no
nearby brush or jungles into which
one nigh escape if shooting began,
so it was declared bad form to appear
at these evening gatherings in hos.
, tile mood and weighed down with blue
steel. The Katy" undoubtedly had
much to do with making it unpopular
to tote" guns at Muskogee.
Dear old Katy" what delightful
memories hover round you 1t was
worth while to be merely listener
when such champions as Colonel Tom
Needles and Judge Thomas, filled with
the amiableness Of having dined well,
began drawing the long bow What
romances, what tragedies, what come
dies were unfolded day after day and
year after year How smoothly and
pleasurably the world spun round in
those days. None of us had the fever
and the fret of these later times, be-
set as we are by the initiative and
referendum, the recall of judges the
high cost of living and fear of the
deadly microbe in the things We drink
and eat. am quite confident that
Colonel Bill Zeyely, singIe-handed and
undismayed would have tackled any
microbe with his bare teeth and never
once thought of sending for the doc
tor. The Grand river dam, even then,
was splendid dream, soon to make
millionaires of every man, woman and
child in Muskogee. Colonel Holden at
Fort Gibson was in his prime, and
making fresh historical discoveries
every day.
2 The little grassy lawn ON the south
side of the Katy was a rich, perennial
pasture with grazing for everybody
from as far north as Vinita and from
as far south as Red river-young, un-
sophisticated meyericks; old stub
horn fighters; long, rangy yellow
backs with their hides full of cactus
spines, with here and there thor
oughbred, always in fear of boophil-
lis aanulatus, etc. The Katy supplied
free water, aud the range was good.
The boys drifted in from every trail,
and threw intogether for a good time.
This was the appointed place, tho
rendezvous, as it we're, for all manner
of conspiracies Of love and war Many
noble game of poker had its very
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