ely broken up. The example set was followed by several
others, and for some years a conflict, not particularly creditable to
the Government, went on. No law was discovered to punish the boomers and
thus put a final end to the invasions. All that could be done was to
drive the families out as fast as they went in, a course of action far
more calculated to excite disorder than to quell it. Sometimes the
soldiers displayed a great deal of forbearance, and even went out of
their way to help the women and children and reduce their sufferings to
the smallest possible point. Again, they were sometimes unduly harsh,
and more than one infant lost its life from the exposure the evictions
brought about. The soldiers by no means relished the work given them,
and many of them complained bitterly that it was no part of their duty
to fight women and babies. Still they were compelled to obey orders and
ask no questions.

While the original colonists, or boomers, gained little or nothing for
themselves by the hardships they insisted on encountering, they really
brought about the opening for settlement of Oklahoma. About the year
1885 it began to be generally understood that the necessary proclamation
would be issued, and from all parts of the country home-hunters began to
set out on a journey, varying in length from a few hundreds to several
thousand miles. The Kansas border towns on the south were made the
headquarters for the home-seekers, and as they arrived at different
points they were astonished to find that others had got there before
them. In the neighborhood of Arkansas City, particularly, there were
large settlements of boomers, who from time to time made efforts to
enter the promised land in advance of the proclamation, only to be
turned back by the soldiers who were guarding every trail. The majority
of the newcomers thought it better to obey the law, and these settled
down, with their wagons for their homes, and sought work with which to
maintain their families until the proclamation was issued and the
country opened to them.

It was a long and dreary wait. The children were sent to school, the men
obtained such employment as was possible, and life went on peacefully in
some of the most peculiar settlements ever seen in this country. Finally
the Springer Bill was passed and the speedy opening of at least a
portion of Oklahoma assured. The news was telegraphed to the four winds
of heaven, and where there had been one boomer