The Indian Dispossessed
were consumed in registering the multitude of applicants. Hamlets of a few hundred became temporary cities of ten thousand. Gambling breeds gambling, and professional gamblers from all parts of the country catered to the absorbing passion of the day. "Never in the palmy days of Deadwood was gambling more rife," writes one correspondent; "just about every game ever invented, with the single exception of policy, can be found in one or more of the public resorts." The carnival of crookedness led to open defiance of the authorities, but the better element among the boomers, after a pitched battle with the crooks, finally succeeded in checking the lawlessness. The casualties of both sides covering the whole summer campaign in the Rosebud country were between twenty and forty, including both killed and wounded. Twice during the excitement formal demand was made on the Governor for State troops, but the Governor seems to have wisely concluded to let the motley crowd "fight it out."
After the registration came the drawing.
There were twenty-four hundred homesteads in the entire Rosebud tract. Of these, a thousand were prizes well above the four-dollar mark.
For a chance to draw these one thousand prizes, 106,296 individuals had registered their applications. The game stood one hundred to one against the players.
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