The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-04-22

of the land hungry. The eighty
Miners have formed a State organiza-
ton, as proud and exclusive in its way
as the California Native Sons of the
Golden West, or the effete Eastern
organizations of sons anf daughters of
the Revolution. And, indeed, the
Oklahoman has reason to be proud,
for that tumultuous rush in which he
took part was something that will
probably never again be duplicated.
Already the people of Oklahoma City,
the municipal giant of the new State,
are planning for a great exhibition
and celebration, to be opened two
years from today, which will be the
twenty-fifth anniversary of "the OPEN
ing"
The feat Of the messenger of Mil
tiades, who carried the message of
duplicated many times by the home
seekers in that great race for Okla
homa lands. It was contest of brute
strength and endurance, in which the
race was to the swift and the spells
of battle to the strong. At noon on
Monday, April %, 1889, the starting
gun was fired and the great army that
had congregated rushed across the
border. Thousands of sooners, as they
were called, entered the territory be-
fore the legal opening, and many of
them managed to escape discovery by
the federal troops who patrolled the
country and settled on valuable pieces
of land. In later years the prisons
were filled with .'sooners'' convicted
of perjury, and comparatively few, in
all probability, have escaped punish
ment and retained the fruits of their
dishonesty.
Guthrie was the goal for thousands
of the entrants in That great Mara
thon, as it was thought that it would
be the metropolis and permanent capt.
tai of the Territory and future State.
For a number of years. indeed, it
maintained that supremacy, but has
now been left far in the rear by its
ambitious rival, Oklahoma city In
1910 Guthrie was the seventh city of
the State, in point of population. but
its citizens can at least point with
pride to a glorious history. At noon
on April 20, 1889, Guthrie consisted of
a shanty called by courtesy railway
station, another frame structure that
housed the land office, and a tent
used as the United States Marshaps
headquarters. Within a few hours
train after train had poured its pas
sengers onto the town site. and, so
FAR as population was concerned,
Guthrie could claim to be a city. Over
thousand sooners had Staked out
the most desirable lots, and there
were numerous fights between them
and more legitimate claimants. The
Territory was without law, but a pro-
visional government was soon formed
and officers chosen who melted out
summary justice to offenders. Res
taurants were the first business places
esta blished, but they were quickly
followed by gambling "hells,' and
within twenty-four hours every game
of chance known to westerners was
going full blast For the first three
days food was very high in price, but
soon an over supply was available,
and prices dropped with a slump
Those Oklahoma pioneers, taken as a
whole, were a rather rough lot,
when considered as the founders of
an ariStocracy. But what of that :?
OF the million or more people who
came over on the Mayflower, the ma
jority were servants or gentlemen who
had left their country for their coun-
trys good.