No Man's Land.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 263, 12 May 1888, Page 6

No Man's Land.

Tiir st,rip ot American tenitorv known a--Xo Man- Land ' is 169 mile- Ion*; h\ 3^P, miles vide. Tliuio aic 10,000 people In ing on if. ft- contains a niimhei 01 % illaLfC-- with schools and stoics. J(, habelonged to the United States toi thht\(ight ycai-> and yet. dining all tiiat, time has been neglected, being without fedei.il or teiritorial law. This- ship ol counJiy ito have the mo-L lei tile soil and a ehniate free homthto\treniesot heat or cold. L> nehl.iw udo Mipieinc. Oflcudeis are cjiu" lit ' and piomptly on eomiction. Om<> i who has leeentlv been in No Man's Land says -.—For all the-e yea is it has remained 'no man's land, 1 in (act ; lor, though it belongs- to the Government and i- public land, it lias ncvei beei\ made .subject to j entiy, nor has the United States oven evei j extended its laws o\er this tomloiy. | There i^ no olliccr who can aire.-t a man for | ciimc committed in this teriifcoi}, no couit which could fcry him if he were convicted. On the 30th of Ahuch, 1886, it, -n.ifc attached to the internal revenue collection district of Kansas lor the collection of the special tax on the sale of tobacco and liquors. Some of the dealers in the strip poy this tax, others do not. There is no authority that can punish the latter. The (!o\ eminent has established post-othecs and po.-tal routes in the btiip, but if a postm.tster should embezzle the fund's or should the irails be robbed within the limits ot this tcnitory there is no court befote whom theoflcndcr could be brought for trial. The merchants do a strictly cash business, as, of courno no debts contracted there can be collected. No title can be obtained to lots or lands in all this country because of the neglect of Congress. The people in tins strip occupy an anomalous position. They are within the Government, but not of it. They arc compelled to fall back upon nature's laws and take care of themselves They do this occasionally with vigour. Hard characters are given short notice to get out, and the notice is seldom disobeyed. It is proposed to incorporate No Man's Land, with Oklahoma, into a Territory, give it a territorial Government, and extend the protection of law over it ; and it is believed that No Man's. Land will, after all, get into the Union as a State .sooner than Dakota, with its 600,000 people, which has been a Territory nearly thirty years. A witty lady says: — "If you want to find out a man's real disposition, take him when he's wet and hungry. If he is amiable then, dry him and fill him up, and you have an angel.