Show R fwu T 0 by bv edna ferber F aber bad civo given to america rt 1 stories tori g many boot maium and 4 4 ferson a lit pie plus sketches have million millions of at reader readers inar in her more ambitious product production lon so big 1118 be b t to america a is a e th t alon on that ti IS to day naked ranked an a a class it of 0 our literature and now b bag turned to th the historical ro to eds ferber m manes n e and gives chiv to u C cl marron 1 and alte to this she 11 liln brings all 11 of the almor and of the th treat 1 thweat you will abrill at t the th description of the tb great ruh rush of lad land kr crow across tb the border line alln between and oklahoma ot of april 33 1339 YOU 0 will ia T ten coy crt as land seeker ff as a dl tor as pioneer you will lev love his and nd capable wits w and br her ability ie 10 carry en an when tancy yancey falla all alth yancey the she the th oklahoma run into this aldr wilder n nose of rattlesnakes Ind indian lains bad mon be b took her tour four yar year old son on thy the saw th the wilderness loto into which they bad rushed with thou then sands and 0 of others mad populous po pulou in an hour and nd cities catl numbering number thou landi sands of springing op up over night there I 1 never been anything like it line since creation aid said wit Creat creation lont 11 hl 1 alii said tincey yancey that too all days cimarron Ci mirron is I 1 destined to b be ranked among tb the greatest era crea tet test of american historical romances ind and as a rrell it I 1 is a story you are koine 1 to p pro procisco clet cisto nor than any other you have reail read for a lone long ions time FOREWORD 1 ONLY 0 the more fantastic and tin probable eventa events contained in this book are true there to i no attempt to set down a liter history of oklahoma all the character the town and many 0 of the nap hap I 1 nines contained ned herein are inuss na y put but through reading cit the I 1 nt tit available records record documents and hl hit torlea including the okia okla bom homa state historic ill library col coll lection and through many talks with iron men and women who ho have lived in oklahoma since the day of the opening something of the spir it the color the movement the life of stat it at incredible ner edible com non balth hai ha I 1 hope been caught certainly the run the sunday merv ice la in the gambling eam bling tent the death of isaiah and rf ef arlla arita red feather reather the catching of the can of altro glycerin many of the aloot lne af if frays most descriptive co all of the oil phase and the osage in titan mater lil complete these thesa are based on amuat happenings in many cases material entirely true was desra discarded riled as unfit for use he be cause it was eo so melodramatic to absurd as to be too strange for the realm f fiction there Is 13 no city of ouge a okia okla it Is a composite of perhaps fire five existent oklahoma cities the hid Is 13 not meant to be the notorious billy the md kid of an earlier day there was mas no tancey yancey Cravat he Is a blen of a number of dashing OIa olahoma homa figures of a past and present day there Is no sabra cravat but she he exists in a it score of abrl bright ht eyed white haired in tensely interesting women of itty sixty five or thereabouts who id me many strange aings as we talked and rocked on an oklahoma Okla boma front ora porch tree tite khaled now anything cau have happened in oklahoma Okla buma I 1 radically everything baa bas EDNA CHAPTER I 1 ALL arinner LL the Te v enables nables sat at sunday dinner all those handsome han deome inbred V enable faces were turned enthralled toward yancey cravat who was talking the combined ef feet was albort 1 blin blinding ling is as of in candescence bu but I 1 lancey cravat was wits not bedazzled A iua sun sur rounded by lesi r planets he cave gave gujt it a rad lanci lanc so go powerful as to dim the lumi us circle about hirr the Vena liles dining strangely tra neely resembled me roe of tho them fertile and dramatic I 1 ally groups portrayed lolling unconventionally at meat men in the less spiritual pirl of those biblical can canvass vaAs that glow richly down at one from the great gallery walls of europe though their garb was wax sober enough being cha of the alme 1889 and the place Kans kansak asIt it jet let conveyed an impression ion as of purple and scarlet robes enveloping gradle gracile shoulders th thia this branch of 0 the he venable fan fain lly fly tree had been transplanted from mississippi to kama kansas more than two decades d des before bat but the slid ild viett had falle I 1 to set met her bourgeois bourgeis ataop tamp upon them straitened though it waa wag here there still obtained in that household bo by one some genealogical alog lesl miracle many of those charming ways wilys remotely re motel or oriental lentil tt U at ware of the he south whence they had sprung unwilling In LO willing emigres emi gres war lewis tenable enable and his hi wife felice had bad brought their dear co cue toma toms with them into eill at as well we A the t superb ma mahogany h oval which agany a at they now sat and the war ia allyer 1 rare zare elegance to the IN ichita karsas board As the family eat sat at its noonday meal it ras as plain that while two d decades 0 of living ng in the tb middle west had done little to quicken the or hasten the movements of L awls enable aej in I 1 his wife felice atey ey still at they elated to 1 goodness this eighteenth letter of 0 the alphabet would tor for ver be gh to tr aiu tin it hail had mile made a difference la in the younger f 0 up and down the long ions table they ranged sons and dauab tem lere sons in to law and in law grandchildren remoter kin such As visiting elects and nephews and cousin offshoots offe hoota or of this far ar flung family As A the more northern bred member members of the company ex claimed at the ID tale they cow now were hearing you noted that their vowels were shorter eh orter their diction more clipped the turn of the he head the lift of the hand less leisurely in all those face faces there was as a lesem blance one to the other perhaps the listening look which all of 0 them now wore bened to accentuate this OIL y lot cey cravat was talking he ile bad had been talking tor for the better pan of an hour this very morning be had returned from the oklahoma country the newly opened indian territory where he had bad made the R un I 1 that hat marked the settling of 0 thi this rast vast tract of virgin land known colloquially as a the nation now as he talked the face faces of the other others had bad the rapt look of 0 those who 11 ten to a saga angs the men leaned forward their band bands clasped rather loosely between their knee knees or on the cloth before them their plate plates pushed away their chaira chains shoved back now and then the sudden white ridge of a hard set muscle showed along the line of a masculine ja y their eyes were those theme of men who follow a game in which they wool I 1 fain take part sometime sometimes a woman a hand reached out possessively and was laid on the arm or the hand of the man seated beside her 1 I am here the hand hands pressure said your place Is with me pon dont t listen to him like that don t believe him I 1 am your wife I 1 am safety I 1 am security I 1 am comfort I 1 am habit I 1 am conven tion don dent t listen like that don deal t look like that but the man would shake off the hand not roughly but with absent minded resentment of all that circlet of faces tam linked by the enchantment of the tale now being unfolded unfold eil before them there stood out lambent as a flame the face of sabra camat as she he sat there at sit table her child clin in her lap bhough she like her mother telice venable was definitely of at the olive skinned type her face seemed luminously whits as she listened to it tie e amazing incredible and slightly culo is 13 story non nos being nn unfolded folded by be he band it was plad too hat that in er as la in her mother hie the strain train of the plo feeric french marcas her ances tors was strong her tier abundant hair was as black an ani I 1 her eyes and the strong brows arc arched bed with a swooping curve like the twin scimitars that hung above a the ore fim place in the company room there was something more new figland than southern in to the directness of her glance the quick turn of her head the briskness of her speech and manner twenty one now mar ried at sixteen mother of a four year old boy and still in love with her picturesque giant of a husband there was about sabra cravat a bloom a glow sometimes seen at that exquisite and transitory time in a it romana romaus life when her chemi cal emotional and physical makeup attains its highest point and fiesta lewis venable in his armchair a at t tie head of the table was pell bound curiously enough even the boy dm clot had listened or seemed to listen as he hest hes st s t in his mott motters er a lap perhaps it was the car curiously bously must cal eal qualities of the story tier I 1 voice that lulled him sabra ven able ables dl suitors had bad said when she married yancey cravat a stronger mysterious out of texa texas and the cimarron that it was his voice that had bewitched her they were in a measure right for though yancey cravat was verbose frequently even windy and though much that he slid was dry enough in actual content he had those priceless gifts of the born orator 9 vibrant or ard d flexible voice areat real sweetness aad and charm of manner a hypnotic eye and te the power of making each listener feel that what was being mald wa wit intended tor hl his A ear alone something of 0 for the he charlatan was in him much of the actor a dash of 0 the fanatic no room seemed big enough for his gigantic fran frane e no chair but dwindled beneath the breadth of his shoulders dem lie ile actually to loom more than his hi it six filet two ila black locks he sore overlong so that tha t they curled a little about his neck in the manner of booth ills Us cheeks and forehead were in places deerly pitted as with the pox pol kocien owen perversely e enough dough found that attractive ili his couth full and sensual had still an express expression len of great sweet nills ness eyelashes were and curling like a beautiful W a and when he raised lii ish heavy head to look at yon you beneath the long black locks and the dark lashes yoa you saw with something of bewilderment that his eyes were a deep and nn an fathomable fatha fathom ablo ocean gray bow ow in the course of his story and under the excitement of it he left the table and sprang te to bis his fet striding about and as he strode ills step was light and grateful for a nan man of bit hi powerful frame ills 1111 costume was a apriece nibert ibert of one black broad cloth who aboe flirts swooped and spread aitu the vigor of bis big move A tull a pleated white shirt soft and of exquisite material a black trine string tie trouser ers tucked into the cay gay boot top and always a white felt hat broad brimmed and rolling on be limply simply blubbered shakespeare the old testament the odyssey the iliad ul speech was pattered spattered with bits bit of latin end bad with occasional spanish phrases pu rates relic of 0 t i a texas days lie flattered yon you with his floe one eye eyes be he you with his voice 1 be mesmerized you with bis his bands bandl lie ile drank a quart of wealty a day WAS almost never drunk but on rare occasion occasions when the liquor fumea fumes bested him he would select elect lect a hapless victim and whipping oat out the pair of mother o pearl handled sly shooter shooters be always wore at hi his belt would force him to dance by shooting at bis his feet ft pleasing fancy brought with him from texas and the cimarron afterward sobered be was alwa always I 1 died MIA with shame wine wink be quoted quoted sadly Is a mocker strong drink is pe well it 1 4 7 yancey cravat raging yancey cravat could have bed been la to fact was wits though most of america dever knew it the greatest criminal lawyer of his day it wag was said that be hypnotized a jury with his eyes and bis his hands and his voice ills its law practice yielded um lim nothing or less than that for belne being sentimental and melodramatic he usually found himself out of pocket following his brilliant and successful defense of some dodge e city dance dan hall girl girt or roistering cowboy whose six shooter had been pointed the wrong nay way ills past before bis his coming to wan wax clouded with myths and find surmises gossip aid said alls slander ilander whispered that humor romantic unsavory fantastic shift ing log and changing like clouds on a mountain peak floated about the head of tancey yancey cravat they say may he has indian blood in him they say he be has an indian wife some where and a lot of papooses cherokee they say he used to be known as cimarron cravat hence his son sons s name corrupted to they say his real name la Is cimarron seven of the choctaw indian family of sevens be was raised in a tepee a hid lind been bis his bedroom a blanket hid hl robe it was known he bad had been I 1 ne ile of the early boomers bomers who fol tot lowed the banner of the picturesque and splendidly mad daila pa id payne in the first wild dash of that adren into indian territory he ile had dwelt others whispered in that sinister minister strip talty four miles wide and almost two hundred milea miles long called nomans no mans land ay as early as 1854 and later known as the cimarron a spanish weld meaning wild or unruly here in this strange empire without laws and without a government a paradise for horse thieves murder era ers desperadoes it was rumored he had spent at least a year and tor for good reason they said the evidences of his indian blood were plain look at his skin his tair mr his manner of walking and aty did lie be protest in bis his newspaper against the government governments s treatment of those dirty thieving lazy good for nothing wards of a beneficent coun country tryl I 1 As for his newspaper its very name was a scandal the and just below fils all the bews aws any sc scandal adal not libelous belous LJ published once a week if 11 convenient wichita professing s scorn sorn orn of the wigwam read it perused his maiden malden editorial entitled shall the blue blood of the decayed decoyed south co po on sin the ked blood of the great middle veir estl and saw him two months later carry off in triumph as hi big bride sabra V enable daughter of that same decay decal sabra venable Ve nabI at sixteen might have had ar pick of the red blooded lads of kensas all tr it i way from salina to 1 ingeld not to mention more legitimate suitors of bloe blue bloomed stok op up from the south muth as dabney venable enable himself dibras cousin who resembled at ont on lafayette and old lewis even to the premature silver of his hair half the lerith of tie fine slightly decadent head and the black stock st at sight eight of which wichita gasped adi aben from among all these ell 11 bibles babra had ch men the roman tic but mysterious cravat lebits mothers of marriageable daughter felt themselves themi elres tes revenged of the venable sir aira strangely enough eno tigh the tb marriageable daughter daughters seemed more resentful than ever and ahrie WM was a noticeable ailing failing on off to a the dumber number of young a ladles indies who bad beta been wont to drop round at tha N ig 1 warn office with notices of this thi or 01 that meeting or social evert to tx inserted la in the columns of tha th paper during the course of the bounel ful fu I 1 in meal e a I 1 with which the tenable enable was spread lancey yancey grant cravat h had a d e a te 12 almost nothing here tiers was an audience to his liking here was a tile tf ie to his taste ills IM tory story wild unbelievable yet true akas as of 0 the of the oklahoma oun coun try of a wilderness made populous in an |