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Show Oil Awakens Dreary Old Town talking to their farmer friends aboat "signing up." The professional lease seeker might he mistaken for a millionaire horseman horse-man or a lieutenant of some Balkan arm;. Ills boots are high and laced, nnd from the top of these, In neat folds, are varicolored stockings. His shirt Is bright, and when It Is not open at the throat Byronesque It Is adorned with a cravat of latest vogue. Usually he wears a corduroy suit of blue, brown or gray. Folks of the countryside discuss with awe the fact that geologists poked about among the rocks and hills and finally assured oil men that If they would spend approximately $115,000 on a given spot they had a good gamble of hitting "pay." Farmers bring their families almost dally to Boise City to gather facts about the well. Perhaps the field extends to their farm? Anyway, their leases ought to be worth a ralte. Real estate prices are being Inflated; Inflat-ed; snies are rapid. A few weeks ago shacklike homes on a 20-foot lot could be bought for $200 without any bickering. bick-ering. Today one would be lucky to secure one at $1,500. Merchants have enlarged their stocks. One of them bullta lean-to at the rear. of. his store and offered "rooms to rent." Activity Is BWlnglng beyond the city limits. Oil men come by train, by motor car and by airplane. Oil In the well Is 2,000 feet deep and has a paraffin base, while the base of oil In the Borger (Texas) field, ISO miles away, Is asphalt. So the sleepy capital of No Man's Land finds Itself exceedingly prosperous and somewhat awed. the well. Casing and coal would have to come considerable distance, hauled In by truck or teai over the trails of ranchers through the flint hills. Calm Bafore Storm. To the east of Boise City there were Indications of the steadying hand of civilization. Farms were fenced, the old rancher trails were cut off; milch cows, chickens and hogs added to the revenue. Boise City Itself drowsed. Its 800 residents could not get much kick out of drought and rocky bills and baked earth. A little more than a year ago the railroad came and more attention was given to highways. The CO miles to a larger town Is now a drive of something some-thing like an hour. South Is Dalhart, Texas; southwest, Clayton, N. M. ; northeast, Elkhurt, Kan. ; east, Guy-mon, Guy-mon, Okla. Itevetly Boise Cljty-was' awed with sudden tidings that the Ramsey brothers had struck oil in their wildcat test ten miles out of town. The word was broadcast over the oil fields of Kansa9, Oklahoma and Texas. The little bamlet of No Man's Land was overrun with visitors. Prices soared overnight. An oil scout asked for the check for his supper. The proprietor called to the cashier that the bill was about 90 cents. "But I had only two fried eggs and coffee," the customer protested. -.- "Well, I'll let you have that for 75 cents," the proprietor retorted. Whereupon the oil scout instigated a movement to transfer headquarters for the new field to Elkhart, Knn., . 52 miles northeast, or to Dalhart, Texas, 60 miles south. Lodgings Are Scarce. Opportunity seekers are now finding it difficult to live comfortably In Boise' City. Lodgings are scarce, although Boise City has converted every facility fa-cility Into sleeping quarters. Garages and barns and attics and sheds are bringing their owners large returns by caring for the overflow from the hotel and two small rooming houses. To tho9e who do not mind pumping what water they want and reposing under Inadequate coverage, these accommodations accommo-dations are to be had for from $2 to $5 a night. Oil men sleep In their clothing to keep warm. On every corner hover lease speculators. specu-lators. Everything is "sewed up" In lie Immediate vicinity of the well, but reoiote leases ofttlmes bring good profits. Business men from nearby towrts are taking' a fling In the oil game, and Boise City residents are Arid Wastes Suddenly Leap in Value When Petroleum Is Located. Boise City, Okla. When oil is discovered dis-covered in an American community, curious transformations take place In rapid sequence. Changes are as emphatic em-phatic as going suddenly from defeat to victory, want to satisfaction, drowsiness drows-iness to activity, hope to realization, shacks to homes, overalls to riding breeches. Boise City, the sleepy hamlet in No Man's Land of Oklahoma, Oklaho-ma, Is the latest example of what the discovery of flowing black gold can do for a community. BMse City, bound territorially to Oklahoma, is a sort of poor relation of five states Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado," Texas and New Mexico. ' It Is within hailing distance of- each, but none of I hem ever sent delegations delega-tions In quest of Boise City's trade, because Boise City was poorer than a field mouse. The 300, more or less, happy souls of this once dreary capital of No Man's I,and plodded along trying to . get a living under discouraging conditions con-ditions from broom corn and wheat and cattle. Drenching rains were hailed as godsends. Merchants led their business away when depression appeared ; where there were no crops there. was no money. The place never had a reputation as a crop producer; usually it was drier than Old Tray's last year's bone. A Bandit Lair. In Wild West days the desolate mesus furnished horse (lileves and bandits with Impregnable fortresses. When gunfire seemed Imminent the outlaws would ascend the steep, arduous ar-duous trails to the summits of rocky hills. There they- would stand their ground, and since only one trail led to the summit, the pursuing posse of men found it Impossible to escape the shower of bullets from the top. As long as outlaws held their summit they were safe. They could dispatch death to halt the ascent of any one who took the trail to them. Where the mesas converge in" an effort for fertility, apple and perfh orchards relieve the monotonous pauo, rama. The cattle rancher still rules over the hills; farmers have optimistically optimis-tically sown patches of broom corn and kafflr. Last summer, when an oil rig pounded Into the earth there a herd of cattle mooed suspiciously at it. Now that the rig Is the cynosure of all eyes and hundreds of persons visit the well, these cattle have moved further Into the hills. All about Is wild country; coun-try; but this, of course, was of minor import to the geologists who located |