Valentine Democrat

THE FINAL ACT IS NEAR
Many Thousands Are in El Reno to Witness the Great Land Lottery.
EXPECTANCY AMONG HOMESEEKERS
Everyone Confident of Being a Shareholder of the Lucky Few--Not as Exciting as a "Run"--Applicants Have But One Chance in Thirteen to Get a Prize
EL RENO, Okl., July 29.--All is expectancy tonight among the thousands of homeseekers here over the grand lottery that begins tomorrow morning. There are 13,000 claims to be distributed, and so each of the 165,865 persons who have registered during the last thirteen days has about one chance in thirteen of winning. It is a long shot, but every one apparently feels confident of being numbered among the lucky, and in consequence the best of good nature prevails.
While the scene lacks the great excitement of the "run" which has heretofore been a part of other land openings in this part of the country, the last act in the throwing open to settlement of the Kiowa-Comanche reservations will not be without life and animation. The drawing will take place in the center of the city and will be witnessed by thousands of people. It will be accomplished on a large platform in the open air, around which the sloping hillsides form a natural amphitheater.
A commission appointed last week by Secretary Hitchcock and composed of W. A. Richards, assistant commissioner of the general land office, and who has had charge of the registration, D. P. Dyer of St. Louis, former United States district attorney, and Frank Dale, ex-chief justice of Oklahoma, will have the drawing in charge.
The actual drawing will be both novel and extremely interesting. On the platform will be two oblong box wheels, each fifteen feet in length, one to hold the names of the applicants for homesteads in the El Reno district, and the other for those of the Lawton district. Into these wheels will be placed envelopes containing names of all the registered applicants.
The envelopes will have first been brought to the platform in packages consecutively numbered. A corresponding series of numbers upon slips will be placed in another receptacle, from which they will be drawn out at random. The package of envelopes bearing the first number drawn will be the first to be placed in the drawing box and well distributed, when another number will be drawn and another package of envelopes distributed, and this course will be continued until all of the envelopes have been placed in the box wheels, after which the wheels will be revolved for a sufficient length of time to insure a thorough mixing of the envelopes.
In each wheel there are five apertures from which the envelopes will finally be drawn. Ten men for each aperture will perform the actual drawing. The order in which they will begin at each wheel will be determined by lot.
The first envelope drawn will be No. 1, which will be at once opened and the identification slip which it contains will be given a corresponding number, and the name and residence which appear upon the slip will be publicly announced. This course will be pursued, numbering each envelope and its contents consecutively, until twenty-five numbers have been drawn from one box, when an equal number will be drawn from the other box in a similar manner. This course will be pursued until 500 names have been drawn from each box, when, if the committee deem it best to do so, arrangements will be made for drawing simultaneously from each box.
After the names have been drawn and announced they will be recorded and a notice prepared to be made to the one whose name is drawn. The drawing will proceed in this manner until every envelope in both boxes has been drawn out.