The Kansas herald of freedom., 1858-06-12
From Tie Eassas CITY Journal
Kansas Territory-our first Trip-The Country
Incidents, etc.

Although we have been three years IN
Kansas City, we made orr first visit to
the Territory on Friday of last week,
aud although it may be an old thing, yet
as our impressions are fresh, we cannot
forego giving them to our readers. We
| left q. four O'Clock in the morning BIZ
Richardson's Express line, and by the
time the sun was above the green slopes
of the prairies we were in, to US, an
| unexplored country. The route up tae
| south side of the Kansas presents land
scape of such peculiar features, that no
description short of the painters pencil
can do it justice. We have, in our time,
seen great deal of country-mountain,
forest and prairie-but our eyes never
| before rested on so beautiful a land as
this, as far west as Lawrence-the extent
which our visit embraced. 1t is a mis-
homer to call it ''new country,"-for
| those vast undulating meadows, glowing
| with the richly colored flowers indigenous
TO the prairie, the beautiful groves of ma
tive trees skirting the depressions, and
relieving the abrupt lines of the horizon,
present landscape more beautiful than
the oldest civilization, with its cultivated
fields, parks and woodlands. The view
at once awakens in the imagination the
romance of Oriental lands and palm trees,
groves OF orange, pomegranate and is. and
the aroma of spices, become almost pal
tpable to the senses. Then the vast herds
of cattle and mules, feeding far and near,
the white tents and wagon-coysrs of the
emigrant and the far-traveled trains of the
Santa Fe traders, with the dusky Mexican
teamsters, requires but a small stretch of
the Imagination to transform them into
the caravans of Bagdad and the Moslem
merchants of the East, in their traverse of
the pastoral lands of Palestine and the
plains of Arabia. But while it is pleasant
thus to transform them into that poetic
character, it is much more gratifying to an
American to know that they are part Of
that resistless army Of conqueTors known
as American Emigration, and that the
generous soil upon which they are en-
camped, will soon TEEN with the rich pro-
ducts of agriculture, and be vocal with the
hum of industry and progress.
We saw on our route many fields of
wheat and oats, which promise yield far
in advance of the best lands in the North
West and everywhere, dotting the prai-
ries in all directions, is to be seen the rich
black soil turned over, and receiving the
corn for the seasons crop. We were sur
} prised at the number, while passing
through the Shawnee lands, when we re-
fected that it was but few weeks since
ithey were opened to settlement by the
white man. 1t will not be three years
until two. thirds of these lands will be
under cultivation, and large and thrifty
agricultural population be seeking mar
ket at our doors. The present season will
demonstrate one fact of paramount import
ance to all of us-that the lands of Kan
sas are better adapted to wheat-growing
than the best lands of the Middle and
North West States of the Union. Last
year the crops of wheat were limited in
number, but the yield was so large that
many settlers have turned their attention
almost exclusively to wheat, and the num-
Der of acres sown is much larger than we
had anticipated. The prospects are such
as to warrant us in saying that the lards
of Kansas have been demonstrated to be
the best wheat lands of the continent
When this fact is understood, the immense
emigration which, for many years, has
been pouring into the North West, will be
} turned in this direction, and a powerful
and populous State viii grow up as if by
magic-for the best class Of emigrants, the
wheat-raisers of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indi-
ana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, will
not emigrate to a country where wheat is
not the staple.
Friday afternoon we were at Lawrence,
celebrated in the history of the last few
years, more than any other locality, save
Sebastopol. 1t is beau tifully situated upon
an elevated prairie, washed by the quiet
waters of the Kansas on one side, and
flanked by an eminence which the people
call Mt. Oread-a name rather more mu-
steal than appropriate, in our estimation.
We must add here, by way of parenthesis,
that we cannot but execrate the taste
which exhibits itself in old historic names,
and the names of men, rather than the
rich, sonorous, and significant appellations
of the aboriginal races of our continent.
From this mount" the eye takes in a
landscape of unsurpassed beauty IL no.
where within the countries known to trav-
elers can it be surpassed-lovely beyond
imagination, and transcending description.
We took our lodgings at the Morrow
House, kept by the Eldridge Brothers,
formerly of the American Hotel in this
city, which is kept in the very best style
consonant with the capacity of the build
ing. The Eldridge Brothers have an
enviable reputation throughout the West
as hotel keepers, and we know OF none
more deserving. But the hotel is the ore
now rapidly approaching completion, call
ed the Eldridge House, which is, in ali
respects, the most elegant structure We
have seen in the West-equal to the
Planters, the Virginia, or Barnum's, of st.
Louis. 1t is four stories high, built of
brick, and fitted up with all the improve
ments known to modern hotels. We were
astonished to see such house on the far
western prairies, and could not but be i'm
pressed with the energy and courage that
was requisite to its conception and con-
struction. The Eldridge Brothers have,
in addition, the heaviest stage lines in the
West, stocked with entirely new coaches,
of superior build, and the best horses
Their lines diyerge from Lawrence in all
directions, to Lecompton, Tecumseh and
Topeka; to Leavenworth, to Wyandott
and Kansas City. They are the heaviest
operators in the Territory, and have done
more to build up the country than any
other men in it.
At night we attended grand ball given
in the dining hall of the new hotel, where
we met full representation of the people
of Lawrence and surrounding country
Here we felt, for the first time, that we
were in new society, differing from ours
in everything but the beauty of thsladies
and the courtesy extended to strangers.
New England manners, New England
customs, New England idioms, New Eng
land ideas, New England peculiarities,
/ NJ. Kx,nlorI Na..r Enola.,d