nknown to them. Wagons were upset, horses thrown down, and all sorts of
accidents happened. One man, who had set his heart on locating on the
Canadian River near the Old Payne Colony, rode his horse in that
direction, and urged the beast on to further exertions, until it could
scarcely keep on its feet. Finally he reached one of the creeks running
into the river. The jaded animal just managed to drag its rider up the
steep bank of the creek, and it then fell dead. Its rider had no time
for regrets. He had still four or five miles to cover, and he commenced
to run as fast as his legs would carry him. His over-estimate of his
horse's powers of endurance, and his under-estimate of the distance to
be covered, lost him his coveted home; for when he arrived a large
colony had got in ahead of him from the western border, and there were
two or three claimants to every homestead.

In other cases there were neck and neck races for favored locations, and
sometimes it would have puzzled an experienced referee to have
determined which was really the winner of the race. Compromises were
occasionally agreed to, and although there was a good deal of bad temper
and recrimination, there was very little violence, and the men whose
patience had been sorely taxed, behaved themselves admirably, earning
the respect of the soldiers who were on guard to preserve order. The
excitement and uproar was kept up long after night-fall. In their
feverish anxiety to retain possession of the homes for which they had
waited and raced, hundreds of men stayed up all night to continue the
work of hut building, knowing that nothing would help them so much in
pressing their claims for a title as evidence of work on bona fide
improvements. They kept on day after day, and, late in the season as it
was, many of the newcomers raised a good crop that year.

The opening of other sections of the old Indian Territory, now included
in Oklahoma, took place two or three years later, when the scenes we
have briefly described were repeated. To-day, Oklahoma extends right up
to the southern Kansas line, and the Cherokee Strip, on whose rich blue
grass hundreds of thousands of cattle have been fattened, is now a
settled country, with at least four families to every square mile, and
with a number of thriving towns and even large cities. At the present
time the question of Statehood for the youngest of our Territories is
being actively debated. No one disputes the fact that th