The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1859-07-14
AN OVERLAND JOURNEY
Notes on Kansas.
MANHATTAN, May "a, 1850.

MANHATTAN, May "a, 1889.
l left Leavenworth in the Fort Riley
stage at 6 a. u. on Tuesday, day in ad
vance of the pixies Peak Express.
which crosses the U. S. Military Road a
this point, 10 order to gain time to visit
Topeka and Manhattan. and sum up III J
impressions OF Kansas for The TRIBUNE
Our road from Leavenworth lay over the
heavy hill westward which Lesvenworth
must soon cut down or it will cut heI
down msterially. passing through the rich
valley Of Salt Creek aud over divide
into that Of the Stranger, which We ford
ed at Eastop, a village of thirty to fifty
houses, famous for Border Rufiian outra-
pes in 1856. The bluffs of the Stranger
are here one to two hundred feet high,
generally timbered with Oak, &c, aud so
covered With limestone boulders that
scarcely more than half the ground is Wis
lille. These boulders arc generally or
long aud irregularly fat, making the best
of stoue- wall l am infcrmed that nine
rdos of capital wall is regarded as tut a
fair weeks work for good wall builder,
working by himself. We pass out Of the
valley just beyond Easton, rising 20 the
slightly rolling prairie, and henceforth
for forty miles to Topeka our way lies
through gently heaving sea Of grass,
with tintcr generally visible slOug the
water-courses on eitherside. Ocoasiouall 3,
however, We descend from the crest ofthe
prairie into barely percertitle hollow
aud DOW nothing but grass aud sky are
visible, the two meeting at the horizon on
every sile. do not like this region
quite so well as the more rolling country
south of Olathe and Praire City, across
Bull Greek and the Marais de CygDes, but
it is very fertile, fairly wooded, and suf-
fieiently irregular in surface to carry off
the water and leave few or no marshes or
sloughs except in the road, where the fre.
quent crossing of unbridged water cour-
SEES is attended BY jolt and jerk which
render doEe dangerous and at the same
time scarcely possible. In riding over
such roads, all the pleasure must be drank
in through the eyes alone.
We stopped for diuDer at the crossing
of Grasshopper Creek, at the Village Of
Osawkee, once the seat of jefferson Coun
ty and Land Office, both now removed.
Gras.bopper Falls, believe. next obtain
ed the coveted distinction of being shire
town; but aDotber popular vote removed
it thence to Osksloosa. on the very line
Of the Delaware Reserve, which still cov-
ers good part of Jefferson as well as of
Lesvenworth and Wyandot Counties
Osawkee, now probably four years old,
is therefore iD state Of dilspid dation and
decay, like good many Kansas cities
which figure largely on the map Its
business having left it, its great hotel wa.
very mystcriously burned, and | presume
the insurance on it was duly paid. We
dined here at very moiest but comfort
able tavern, kept by kind and worthy
Pennsylvania Dutcbuau, who recognized
me from our meeting at the Wing Ma
tiopal Convention at Harrisburg, nearly
twenty years ago. Bearing south of west
from Osawkee, we crossed Rock and Mud
dy Creeks (ueither of them more rocky
nor muddy than the other) and were o.
bliged by the lack of bridge (now being
rcpsired) over Halliday Greek. to keep on
west TO petty village called lpdianola,
whence we turned sharp angle through
the msguifeeutly fertile and admirably
timbered bottom of the Kaw or Kansas
to the Topeka ferry, which We reached a
little after sundown, but we're delayed
By a great contractor train which had
been all day crossing, and was likely TO be
good part of the morrow, so that We did
not get across and into Topeka till nearly
dark. | noticed with sorrow that the oxen
which draw these great supply wagons
are often treated very cruelty, not merely
10 respect to the beating and Whaling,
which every human brute delights in be-
slowing on every live thing over which
he domineers, but with regard to food and
drink. Here were cattle that had stood
in the yoke all that hot, dry day with
nothing to eat or drink, and, when they
came down to the river mad with thirst,
they were all but knocked down for trying
to drink. was assured that oxen are
sometimes kept 10 the yoke, without food
or drink, for two days, while making one
Of these river crossings. There can be
no excuse for this. Those which have
long to wait ought to be taken off and
driven nile or more If necessary to