The Smoky Hill and Republican union. [volume] (Junction City, Kan.) 1861-1864, 1863-08-08
Junction City, Kansas,

Western Kansas is arousing from the leth-
argy in which it has been plunged since le6",
and is taking on new life. Her farmers are
full of hope; her business men wear smiling
faces; spectators arc on the alert; and all
things speak of the bright prospect which Is
before her. Our prairies look greener, our
streams larger, our trees taller, and our rich
soil turns from the ploughshare richer than
ever Homesteads are taken, farms are bought,
town lots are changing hands. Our cattle in
crease, focks Of sheep are creeping in, and
grain ricks stand in every field. Yes, we are
prospering; we have struggled through the
ordeal Of a new country, and we are coming
out triumphant. Our faint hearts have left us,
croakers have skunk into obscurity, and the
sighers for the fesh-pots have turned their
backs on u.s. and we are bounding ahead. The
energy and determination which made Ohio,
Illinois, and Indiana, and placed them in the
front rank of our glorious sisterhood, has been
left us, and are pushing forward to raise US to
the highest step of prosperity.
All new States have had their season of
drawbacks and discouragement. For many
years Illinois was doubted by thousands who
sought her vast prairies to find homes; crops
failed, there was no market when anything
was raised and multitudes left her undevel-
oped riches, discouraged and disheartened.
But the persevering worked on; experiments
settled the nature of her staple crops; markets
were opened, railroads built, and her career of
prosperity has been unprecedented. So with
-
rits, have come among us, and the same dis
contentedness which brought them here has
taken them away, filled with bug-bear stories
of drouth and inadaptation of our soil and eli
mate for settlement. But enough, however, of
persevering men have remained to demonstrate
our capabilities and prove our resources; and
to-day they are filed with hope.
Emigration is like great tide that Gibbs and
flows periodically. And the great current of
emigration, which has been slackened for the
past few years, will soon commence its flow,
and why will not the mighty stream set to-
wards Kansas? NoSther State offers superior
inducements to the settler. We have the
,healthiest climate in the world-even now, at
this season of the year, we know not single
case of sickness in all the extended reach of
our acquaintance. Our granaries are full to
overiowing, making the subsistence of the
emgrant for the first year a cheap and easy
matter. Millions Of acres of the finest land
on the continent lie open to the Homestead
claimant without price. The great Continental
Railway, which is destined to connect the At
lantic and the Pacific, WILL within twelve
month, pierce these broad acres, affording an
expeditions and ready outlet to the markets of
the East for all our products There is no doubt
about this last fact-the work on the Union
Pacific Railway is being pushed forward with
vigor, and ere another harvest the snort of the
iron-horse will be heard at Fort Riley, and
long trains of cars will be bearing our cattle
and grain to the markets of the world.