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At precisely twelve noon on September 16, 1893 a cannon’s boom unleashed the largest land rush America ever saw. Carried by all kinds of transportation—horses, wagons, trains, bicycles or on foot—an estimated
100,000 raced to claim plots of land in an area of land in northern Oklahoma Territory2 known as the Cherokee
Strip. There had been a number of previous land rushes in the Territory—but this was the big one.
In 1828 Congress designated the land that would become Oklahoma as Indian Territory. White settlers
were required to leave, and a number of tribes from the East and South were forcibly moved into the area from their ancestral lands. Chief among these were the Five Civilized Tribes—the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole—who allied themselves with the South during the Civil War. Following the war, the U.S. government looked upon these tribes as defeated enemies. This animosity combined with increasing pressure to open up the Indian Territory to white settlement prompted the first land rush in 1885, a second followed in 1889.
1893年9月16日的正午12点,一声炮响轰起了美国有史以来规模最大的土地哄抢热。估计约有十万人使用各种各样的交通工具——马匹、马车、火车、自行车,还有走着的——涌入俄克拉何马准州北部的彻罗基地带,争抢那里的土地。这里以前曾发生过几次土地哄抢事件——但这次是规模最大的一次。
1828年,国会决定把后来成为俄克拉何马州的这片土地指定为印第安准州。白人定居者被迫迁走,东部和南部的一些(印第安)部落从他们世代居住的土地上被强行迁到这里。其中五大开化的部族包括:彻罗基族、乔克托族、奇卡索族、克里克族和西米诺尔族。(美国)内战期间他们曾经与南方联手,内战之后,美国政府视他们为战败的敌人。这种敌意加之向白人定居者开放印第安准州的压力越来越大,终于导致了1885年第一次土地哄抢的爆发,之后1889年再次发生。
By the time of the Oklahoma land rush of 1893, America was in the grip of the worst economic
depression it had ever experienced. This was one of the factors that swelled the number of expectant landseekers that day. Many would be disappointed. There were only 42,000 parcels of land available—far too few to satisfy the hopes of all those who raced for land that day. Additionally, many of the “Boomers”—those who had waited for the cannon’s boom before rushing into the land claim—found that a number of the choice plots had already been claimed by “Sooners” who had snuck into the land claim area before the race began. The impact of the land rush was immediate, transforming the land almost overnight.
Choosing to ride their bicycles, Seth Humphrey and his brother joined the mad rush that day—not to race for land, but just for fun. We join his story in the moments just before the starting guns unleash a mad dash for land:
“At last the eventful morning broke, a day exactly like all the rest, hot and dry, a south wind rising with the sun dead ahead, and a hard proposition for
bicyclists.3 We had stayed overnight in the little hotel of a town within a mile of the border, several of us in one room; but at least we two of the bicycle corps4 did not have to mix up with the jam of horses about the place. And we had another decided advantage in not having horses to look after in a hot prairie wilderness where there was not a well, scarcely a stream not gone to a dry bed, and only an occasional water tank on the one railroad running south to Texas. This water would be of service only to the comparative few who could locate nearby.
1893年俄克拉何马土地哄抢发生的时候,美国已经陷入了一场最为严重的经济危机之中。这个原因使得当时满怀憧憬的土地寻求者数量增加了不少。很多人也许会失望,因为只有42, 000块土地,远远不能满足那些竞相赶来抢夺土地的人们的愿望。另外,许多“听炮者”——那些等到炮响才冲进去争抢土地的人——发现一些可选择土地已经被那些“抢先者”们占领了,他们在赛跑开始之前就已经偷偷溜了进去。土地哄抢的影响立竿见影,几乎一夜之间就改变了这片土地。
塞思·汉弗莱和他的弟弟选择骑自行车参加了这场疯狂的比赛——不是为了抢到土地,而仅仅是为了好玩。在这场疯狂的土地大赛跑起跑枪声打响之前,我们且听听这兄弟俩的回忆:
“这个重要的日子终于来临了,和往日没什么两样,又热又燥,南风敌不过顶头的毒日头,这对骑自行车的人来说可不是什么好天气。我们在距离土地边界不到一英里的一个小镇旅馆过的夜,好几个人挤在一间房子里;但是至少我们两个骑自行车的队伍不用和旅馆周围拥挤的马群睡在一起。我们还有另外一个明显的优势就是我们不用伺候马。在这片燥热的荒野大草原,没有井,小溪也几乎干得露出了河床,只有通往南边得克萨斯州的唯一一条铁路偶尔会运些水箱来。这些水仅供住在附近的相对少数人们使用。
... A quarter to twelve. The line stiffened and became more quiet with the tension of waiting. Out in front a hundred yards5 and twice as far apart were soldiers, resting easily on their rifles, contemplating the line. I
casually wondered how they would manage to dodge the onrush; perhaps they were wondering that too. The
engine, a few hundred feet away, coughed gently at the starting line; its tender6 and the tops of its ten cattle cars trailing back into the state of Kansas, were alive with
men. Inside the cars the boomers were packed standing, their arms sticking out where horns ought to be...
Five minutes. Three minutes. The soldiers now stood with rifles pointing upward, waiting for the first sound of firing to come along their line from the east. A cannon at its eastern end was to give the first signal; this the rifles
were to take up7 and carry on as fast as sound could
travel the length of the Cherokee Strip.
All set!
At one minute before twelve o’clock my brother and I, noticing that the soldier out in front was squinting
upward along his rifle barrel and intent on the coming
signal, slipped out fifty feet in front of the line, along the railroad embankment. It was the best possible place from which to view the start. It has been estimated that there were somewhere around one hundred thousand men in line on the Kansas border. Within the two-mile range of vision that we had from our point of vantage there were at least five thousand and probably nearly eight.
……11点45分。由于等待的紧张,起跑线上的人群变得僵硬而越发安静了。前面一百码远的地方和那里再往前两百码的地方站满了士兵,悠闲地靠在他们的来复枪上,注视着起跑线上的人群。我时不时地会想这些士兵怎样才能避开奔跑的人群;也许他们也正在思考这个问题。几百英尺以外有个火车头,在起跑线上低声作响;后面的煤水车和十节运牛车厢一直延伸到堪萨斯州界内,车里挤满了人。这些赶往新兴地安家的人密麻麻地站着,胳膊伸出窗外,以往伸出去的可是牛角……
还有五分钟……三分钟……士兵们将枪指向天空,等待着队列东边传来的第一声响。一门加农炮摆在士兵队列的东侧,由它来发出第一声号令;紧接着枪声响起,响彻彻罗基地带的每寸土地。
各就各位!
差一分钟不到12点的时候,我和我弟弟注意到前面的士兵斜眼向上瞄着他的枪管,待命而发,于是我们沿着铁路路堤溜到了起跑线前50英尺的地方。这里可能是观看起跑的最佳位置了。据估计堪萨斯州的边界上大约有十万人在排队等候。在我们所在位置点视野所及的两英里范围内,至少有五千人,或许将近八千。
站在前面看,这条起跑线可真是叹为观止。我们之前是站在人群内部或者后面看。后面站得乱七八糟,毫无秩序;前面倒还整齐,一个挨一个,排列得密密麻麻。看上去还真有那么个阵仗。我觉得我已经感受了那种场面的宏大感,但是站在前面的那一刻才让我感到眼前六千人即将开赛所带来的无比震撼。
排在前列的是一排密密麻麻的马匹大队;有骑马的,也有坐在马后面的轻便双轮马车、平板马车、推车、四轮马车上的,但是放眼望去,只有长达两英里上下攒动的马头、闪亮的胸部和闲不住的马前蹄。
我们站着看得身体发麻,来复枪噼啪作响,排队的人群在一声巨响中如破竹般炸开。几英里长的马队共同举蹄一跃,声如雷鸣,马身上的肌肉也在颤抖,这是众神恩赐的一刻,这种机会再也不会来临。下一刻我们已置身于拥挤碰撞的车辆之中,它们嗖嗖地从我们身边经过,就像是在逃难。
起跑者中最好笑的当数那个拉着十节车厢的火车头。我们站的位置在它前方50英尺处,比赛开始时,我看着它就像是这场比赛最荒唐可笑的参赛者。火车头不停地鸣着笛,费劲地前行。可是,当然了,不管它怎么使劲,也没有那些马跑得快。
火车上人们却是个个兴奋得发狂,尤其是他们挤在火车里,除了弄点动静出来,没有别的方式发泄他们的情绪。伴随着火车最初的鸣笛,车顶上传出了左轮手枪的枪声,至少有些枪是那些被关在车里的人放的。一阵枪炮齐鸣之中,火车头也超过了我们,真是让人兴奋不已。我突然间意识到,我的破枪也在和别人的一起作响……
A little before midnight, we woke to a distant clatter of hoofs, shouting, and shooting. ‘Number—section—township—range—. Keep off and get off!’Then crack! crack! went the rifles, after each call, from the pretty country we had been admiring at sundown...
After a hearty breakfast we pumped up our sorry tires and packed up to start south for the town sites. Ever since daybreak boomers had been
straggling northward, bound for Kansas and all points east. One young fellow who stopped for a moment while we were eating breakfast was a fair sample of this crowd... He had staked a claim13 in our nice little valley, along with a half dozen others on the same tract; and of course, as in such cases all over the Strip, nobody under heaven could know who had arrived first. But for him the delicate
question had been settled by the gay horsemen in the pitch darkness of the night before. By the time
they were through with him14 he felt assured that he must have arrived about a week late.
‘I wouldn’t live here next to such neighbors, anyway,’ he told us with considerable heat15. In the daylight his feelings had turned to indignation, but he was still trembling a little.” S
午夜之前,我们醒来听到远处一阵马蹄声、叫喊声和枪声。‘编号——地段——镇名——范围——。走开,出去。’接着每喊一次,就有来复枪子的噼啪声从日落十分我们还在欣赏其美景的乡间传来。
一顿丰盛的早餐之后,我们给不争气的轮胎打气,然后出发往南去镇上。自天亮以来,那些赶往新兴之地安家的人就一直零零散散地往北朝堪萨斯州及其东部的地区走。我们吃早饭的时候停留片刻的一个年轻小伙子就是这群人中的一个典型。……在我们这片优美的小溪谷里,他原本已经声明占有了一块土地,和其他六个人共同拥有这片土地。当然,这个地带都是这么回事,天底下没人知道谁是第一个到达的。但是对于他来说,一群兴奋的骑马人已经在昨天晚上漆黑的夜里解决了这个棘手的问题。当他们最终跟他‘了断’的时候,他确信自己一定是晚到了一个星期。
‘不管怎样,我不会住在这儿,和这样的人做邻居。’他愤怒地告诉我们。在白天,他感到很义愤,但是还有点儿发抖呢。” S
100,000 raced to claim plots of land in an area of land in northern Oklahoma Territory2 known as the Cherokee
Strip. There had been a number of previous land rushes in the Territory—but this was the big one.
In 1828 Congress designated the land that would become Oklahoma as Indian Territory. White settlers
were required to leave, and a number of tribes from the East and South were forcibly moved into the area from their ancestral lands. Chief among these were the Five Civilized Tribes—the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole—who allied themselves with the South during the Civil War. Following the war, the U.S. government looked upon these tribes as defeated enemies. This animosity combined with increasing pressure to open up the Indian Territory to white settlement prompted the first land rush in 1885, a second followed in 1889.
1893年9月16日的正午12点,一声炮响轰起了美国有史以来规模最大的土地哄抢热。估计约有十万人使用各种各样的交通工具——马匹、马车、火车、自行车,还有走着的——涌入俄克拉何马准州北部的彻罗基地带,争抢那里的土地。这里以前曾发生过几次土地哄抢事件——但这次是规模最大的一次。
1828年,国会决定把后来成为俄克拉何马州的这片土地指定为印第安准州。白人定居者被迫迁走,东部和南部的一些(印第安)部落从他们世代居住的土地上被强行迁到这里。其中五大开化的部族包括:彻罗基族、乔克托族、奇卡索族、克里克族和西米诺尔族。(美国)内战期间他们曾经与南方联手,内战之后,美国政府视他们为战败的敌人。这种敌意加之向白人定居者开放印第安准州的压力越来越大,终于导致了1885年第一次土地哄抢的爆发,之后1889年再次发生。
By the time of the Oklahoma land rush of 1893, America was in the grip of the worst economic
depression it had ever experienced. This was one of the factors that swelled the number of expectant landseekers that day. Many would be disappointed. There were only 42,000 parcels of land available—far too few to satisfy the hopes of all those who raced for land that day. Additionally, many of the “Boomers”—those who had waited for the cannon’s boom before rushing into the land claim—found that a number of the choice plots had already been claimed by “Sooners” who had snuck into the land claim area before the race began. The impact of the land rush was immediate, transforming the land almost overnight.
Choosing to ride their bicycles, Seth Humphrey and his brother joined the mad rush that day—not to race for land, but just for fun. We join his story in the moments just before the starting guns unleash a mad dash for land:
“At last the eventful morning broke, a day exactly like all the rest, hot and dry, a south wind rising with the sun dead ahead, and a hard proposition for
bicyclists.3 We had stayed overnight in the little hotel of a town within a mile of the border, several of us in one room; but at least we two of the bicycle corps4 did not have to mix up with the jam of horses about the place. And we had another decided advantage in not having horses to look after in a hot prairie wilderness where there was not a well, scarcely a stream not gone to a dry bed, and only an occasional water tank on the one railroad running south to Texas. This water would be of service only to the comparative few who could locate nearby.
1893年俄克拉何马土地哄抢发生的时候,美国已经陷入了一场最为严重的经济危机之中。这个原因使得当时满怀憧憬的土地寻求者数量增加了不少。很多人也许会失望,因为只有42, 000块土地,远远不能满足那些竞相赶来抢夺土地的人们的愿望。另外,许多“听炮者”——那些等到炮响才冲进去争抢土地的人——发现一些可选择土地已经被那些“抢先者”们占领了,他们在赛跑开始之前就已经偷偷溜了进去。土地哄抢的影响立竿见影,几乎一夜之间就改变了这片土地。
塞思·汉弗莱和他的弟弟选择骑自行车参加了这场疯狂的比赛——不是为了抢到土地,而仅仅是为了好玩。在这场疯狂的土地大赛跑起跑枪声打响之前,我们且听听这兄弟俩的回忆:
“这个重要的日子终于来临了,和往日没什么两样,又热又燥,南风敌不过顶头的毒日头,这对骑自行车的人来说可不是什么好天气。我们在距离土地边界不到一英里的一个小镇旅馆过的夜,好几个人挤在一间房子里;但是至少我们两个骑自行车的队伍不用和旅馆周围拥挤的马群睡在一起。我们还有另外一个明显的优势就是我们不用伺候马。在这片燥热的荒野大草原,没有井,小溪也几乎干得露出了河床,只有通往南边得克萨斯州的唯一一条铁路偶尔会运些水箱来。这些水仅供住在附近的相对少数人们使用。
... A quarter to twelve. The line stiffened and became more quiet with the tension of waiting. Out in front a hundred yards5 and twice as far apart were soldiers, resting easily on their rifles, contemplating the line. I
casually wondered how they would manage to dodge the onrush; perhaps they were wondering that too. The
engine, a few hundred feet away, coughed gently at the starting line; its tender6 and the tops of its ten cattle cars trailing back into the state of Kansas, were alive with
men. Inside the cars the boomers were packed standing, their arms sticking out where horns ought to be...
Five minutes. Three minutes. The soldiers now stood with rifles pointing upward, waiting for the first sound of firing to come along their line from the east. A cannon at its eastern end was to give the first signal; this the rifles
were to take up7 and carry on as fast as sound could
travel the length of the Cherokee Strip.
All set!
At one minute before twelve o’clock my brother and I, noticing that the soldier out in front was squinting
upward along his rifle barrel and intent on the coming
signal, slipped out fifty feet in front of the line, along the railroad embankment. It was the best possible place from which to view the start. It has been estimated that there were somewhere around one hundred thousand men in line on the Kansas border. Within the two-mile range of vision that we had from our point of vantage there were at least five thousand and probably nearly eight.
……11点45分。由于等待的紧张,起跑线上的人群变得僵硬而越发安静了。前面一百码远的地方和那里再往前两百码的地方站满了士兵,悠闲地靠在他们的来复枪上,注视着起跑线上的人群。我时不时地会想这些士兵怎样才能避开奔跑的人群;也许他们也正在思考这个问题。几百英尺以外有个火车头,在起跑线上低声作响;后面的煤水车和十节运牛车厢一直延伸到堪萨斯州界内,车里挤满了人。这些赶往新兴地安家的人密麻麻地站着,胳膊伸出窗外,以往伸出去的可是牛角……
还有五分钟……三分钟……士兵们将枪指向天空,等待着队列东边传来的第一声响。一门加农炮摆在士兵队列的东侧,由它来发出第一声号令;紧接着枪声响起,响彻彻罗基地带的每寸土地。
各就各位!
差一分钟不到12点的时候,我和我弟弟注意到前面的士兵斜眼向上瞄着他的枪管,待命而发,于是我们沿着铁路路堤溜到了起跑线前50英尺的地方。这里可能是观看起跑的最佳位置了。据估计堪萨斯州的边界上大约有十万人在排队等候。在我们所在位置点视野所及的两英里范围内,至少有五千人,或许将近八千。
站在前面看,这条起跑线可真是叹为观止。我们之前是站在人群内部或者后面看。后面站得乱七八糟,毫无秩序;前面倒还整齐,一个挨一个,排列得密密麻麻。看上去还真有那么个阵仗。我觉得我已经感受了那种场面的宏大感,但是站在前面的那一刻才让我感到眼前六千人即将开赛所带来的无比震撼。
排在前列的是一排密密麻麻的马匹大队;有骑马的,也有坐在马后面的轻便双轮马车、平板马车、推车、四轮马车上的,但是放眼望去,只有长达两英里上下攒动的马头、闪亮的胸部和闲不住的马前蹄。
我们站着看得身体发麻,来复枪噼啪作响,排队的人群在一声巨响中如破竹般炸开。几英里长的马队共同举蹄一跃,声如雷鸣,马身上的肌肉也在颤抖,这是众神恩赐的一刻,这种机会再也不会来临。下一刻我们已置身于拥挤碰撞的车辆之中,它们嗖嗖地从我们身边经过,就像是在逃难。
起跑者中最好笑的当数那个拉着十节车厢的火车头。我们站的位置在它前方50英尺处,比赛开始时,我看着它就像是这场比赛最荒唐可笑的参赛者。火车头不停地鸣着笛,费劲地前行。可是,当然了,不管它怎么使劲,也没有那些马跑得快。
火车上人们却是个个兴奋得发狂,尤其是他们挤在火车里,除了弄点动静出来,没有别的方式发泄他们的情绪。伴随着火车最初的鸣笛,车顶上传出了左轮手枪的枪声,至少有些枪是那些被关在车里的人放的。一阵枪炮齐鸣之中,火车头也超过了我们,真是让人兴奋不已。我突然间意识到,我的破枪也在和别人的一起作响……
A little before midnight, we woke to a distant clatter of hoofs, shouting, and shooting. ‘Number—section—township—range—. Keep off and get off!’Then crack! crack! went the rifles, after each call, from the pretty country we had been admiring at sundown...
After a hearty breakfast we pumped up our sorry tires and packed up to start south for the town sites. Ever since daybreak boomers had been
straggling northward, bound for Kansas and all points east. One young fellow who stopped for a moment while we were eating breakfast was a fair sample of this crowd... He had staked a claim13 in our nice little valley, along with a half dozen others on the same tract; and of course, as in such cases all over the Strip, nobody under heaven could know who had arrived first. But for him the delicate
question had been settled by the gay horsemen in the pitch darkness of the night before. By the time
they were through with him14 he felt assured that he must have arrived about a week late.
‘I wouldn’t live here next to such neighbors, anyway,’ he told us with considerable heat15. In the daylight his feelings had turned to indignation, but he was still trembling a little.” S
午夜之前,我们醒来听到远处一阵马蹄声、叫喊声和枪声。‘编号——地段——镇名——范围——。走开,出去。’接着每喊一次,就有来复枪子的噼啪声从日落十分我们还在欣赏其美景的乡间传来。
一顿丰盛的早餐之后,我们给不争气的轮胎打气,然后出发往南去镇上。自天亮以来,那些赶往新兴之地安家的人就一直零零散散地往北朝堪萨斯州及其东部的地区走。我们吃早饭的时候停留片刻的一个年轻小伙子就是这群人中的一个典型。……在我们这片优美的小溪谷里,他原本已经声明占有了一块土地,和其他六个人共同拥有这片土地。当然,这个地带都是这么回事,天底下没人知道谁是第一个到达的。但是对于他来说,一群兴奋的骑马人已经在昨天晚上漆黑的夜里解决了这个棘手的问题。当他们最终跟他‘了断’的时候,他确信自己一定是晚到了一个星期。
‘不管怎样,我不会住在这儿,和这样的人做邻居。’他愤怒地告诉我们。在白天,他感到很义愤,但是还有点儿发抖呢。” S