The Coolidge examiner., 1931-07-24

number of young ladies who had
been wont to drop round at the Wig
wan office with notices Of this or
that meeting or social event to be
inserted in the columns of the
paper.
During the course of the bOunti-
full meal with which the Nenable
table was spread Yancey Cravat
had eaten almost nothing. Here
was an audience to his liking. Here
was tale to his taste. His story,
wild, unbelievable, yet true, was of
the opening of the Oklahoma cOun-
try; of a wilderness made pOpulOus
in an hour; Of cities numbering
thousands literally sprung up over
night, where the day before had
been only prairie, coyotes, rattle
snakes, red clay, scrub oak, and an
occasional hester hidden in the Sc
curity of a weedy draw.
Coat tails swishing, eyes flash
ing, arms waving, voice soaring.
Folks, there's never been any
thing like it since Creation. Crea-
ton! H! That took six days.
This was done in one. 1t was his
tory made in an hOur-and | helped
make it. Thousands and thousands
of people from all over this vast
commonwealth of ours" Che talked
like that travelled hundreds of
miles to get a bare piece of land
for nothing. But what land! Vir-
hn
rOamed it. Lands of lost gods,
and godlike men, They came like
a prOceSsiOn-a crazy procession
all the way to the border, covering
the ground as fast as they could,
by any means at hand-scrambling
over the ground, pushing and shov-
ing each other into the bitches to
get there first.
"They came from Texas, and Ar
kansas and Colorado and Missouri.
They came on foot, by Cd, all the
way from Iowa and Nebraska They
came in buggies and wagons and
on horseback and muleback. In
prairie schoOners and OK carts and
carriages. | met up with one old
hOmesteader by the rOadside-a
face dried and wrinkled as a nut
meg-who told me he had started
weeks and weeks before, and had
made the trip as best he could, on
foot or by rail and boat and wagon,
Just as kind-hearted people along the
way would pick him up. | wonder
if he ever got his piece of land in
that savage rush-poor old devil"
He paused a moment, perhaps in
retrospect, perhaps cunningly to
whet the appetites Of his listeners.
He wrung a breathless. "Oh. Yam
cey, go on! Go OnI" from Sabra.
well, the border at last, and il
was like a Fourth of July celebra-
tiOn on Judgment day. The militia
was lined up at the boundary. No
one was allowed to set foot on the
new land until noon next day, at
the firing Of the guns. Two million
acres of land were to be given
away for the grabbing. Noon was
April %, at noon. 1t takes genera
tions of people hundreds of years
to settle a new land. This was 60
ing to be made livable territory
over night-was made-like
miracle out of the Old Testament.
Compared to this, the Loaves and
the Fishes and the parting of the
Red sea were nothing - mere
tricks"
Pausing only a moment at the
sidebOard to toss off three fingers
of Spanish brandy, like burning
liquid amber, Yancey patted his lips
with his fine linen handkerchief.
I've tasted nothing like that In a
month, l can tell you. Raw corn
whisky fit to tear your throat out.
And as for the water! Red mud.
There wasn't a drink Of water to be
had in the town after the first
twenty-four hours. There we were,
thousands and thousands of us,
milling around the border like cat
tie, with the burning sun baking us
all day, nowhere to go for shade,
and the thick red dust clOgging
eyes and nose and mouth. No place
to wash, no place to sleep. nothing
to eat. Queer enough. they didn't
seem to mind. Didn't seem to no.
tice. They were feeding on kind
of crazy excitement. and there was
wild light in their eyes. If you
had a bit of food you divided It
with some one. | finally got cup
of water for a dollar, after stand
ing in line for three hours, and
then a woman Just behind me-"
"a womanw Cousin Arminta
Greenwood (of the Georgia Green
woods), And Sabra Cravat echoed
the words in a shocked whisper.
you wouldn't believe. would you,
that women would go it alone in a
fracas like that. But they did.
They were there with their hus-
bands some of them, but there were
women who made the Run alone"
What kind of women?" Felice
Vanable's tone was not one of in
Quiry but of condemnation.
"WOmen with iron in 'em. Wom-
en- who wanted land and a home
Pioneer women"
From Aunt Cassandra Venable's
end of the table there came word
that sounded like "Hussies ~
CTO BE CONTINUED)