The Wichita Daily Eagle

FLYNN ADDRESSES AN IMMENSE
GONCOURSE AT ARAPAHOE.
Republicans and Democrats and Populists
All Hold Meetings in an Oklahoma City
on the Same Day and Flynn and Free
Homes Get the Bulk of the Crowd and
Enthuse Them to a High Pitch-Church
Where He Speaks is Filled With His
Admirers, With the Usual Overflow at
Doors and Windows,

Arapahoe, G county, O. T., Sept. 15.-
Flynn's greatest meeting in the Chey-
enne and Arapahoe country took place
here today.
After a long tour of the
western part of Oklahoma he rounded
up here, the first big town off the rail-
road west of El Reno, and was given a
memorable reception. The Democrats
and Populists had also selected this day
for a barbecue and the city was the
most picturesque corner in the whole
western world for the time. The streets
were crowded with a motley mixture of
Indians in bright-hued blankets, in skins
and beads: with cowboys in white hats
and high-heeled boots and spurs; Okla-
homa gallants in their best clothes and
Oklahoma maidens in their finest plum-
age.
Men of all political shades of be-
lief, of all degrees of prosperity from
the dug-out to the big farmers' prairie
palace; cotton-pickers and corn-husk-
ers, making the streets spirited in action
and lively in color. In one arbor danc-
ing went on to the shrill stimulation of
the fiddle and the bow, while in another
quarter the Populists held forth, pounc-
ing relentlessly on an unprotected goy-

ernment. Part of the people remained
on the streets in the afternoon, part
went to figure in the seductive waltz,
some listened to the Populist recital of
unavenged wrongs, but the greater
crowd gathered at the Flynn meeting.
This was held in the Congregational
church.
At 2 o'clock H. E. Van Trees, the first
police judge of Wichita who once while
doing valiant service for the govern-
ment in Kansas, had his legs frozen off,
led a line of Flynn men up the main
street of the city. Every man had a
red Flynn badge, the demand for which
was so strong that the local stock of
ribbon of that color was exhausted. The
line marched to the church.
Mr. Flynn was given a rousing recep-
tion after his introduction by the Rev.
Upchurch. As he went on with his
stirring address the crowds drifted away
from the other attractions in the city
and drifted down to the church until
the crowd extended out of the windows
and doors and several feet back. Al-
though the day was warm, no one gave
way, and the large crowd within and
the overflow without listened with in-
terest and applauded with vigor through
out.
The same direct, clear and honest
statements which have set the western
country afire for Flynn won again here
today.
Men in the audience who are
known as avowed Populists and Demo-
crats, after the meeting, put on Flynn
badges boldly and declared themselves
non-partisan on the congressional tick-
et.
The Flynn meeting grew in size
and enthusiasm from the first to the
last and before he had concluded the
greatest crowd in his canvass of the
western country had assembled. Even
the rock-ribbed Democrats of the coun-
ty who had refused to go to his meet-
ing at first, drifted over and joined in the
ringing applause which greeted his
spirited utterances.
For a week Flynn has been addressing
the boys who wore the gray: today the
boys who wore the blue were in his
audience, and the enthusiasm of the two
sides compared showed that neither
side let the other outdo it in honor of
their hard-working boy in congress.