The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-12-09


readily at from I'VE hundred TO eight hundred
dollars in gold. The town company had
commenced grading the main street to the
river, and were making an immense cut
through the rocks at the top OF the bluK It
remains unfinished TO this day, and shares are
now worth the value of the land for agrloul-
tural purposes, although modest little village
has grown mp back of the river, en- the height
oflsnd We put up at the chief aud only hotel
of the place, q large building which had Just
been erected. In lieu Of mortar the partitions
between the rooms were covered with white
cotton cloth. device which was quite common
in Kansas in those days
The evening after I arrived I had my first
view of the political contest that was then
agitating the Territory. The Free State men
had refused TO recognize the laws passed by the
bogus" Legislature elected by the Missouri
invaders. The consequence was that the coun-
try was left TO be regulated by the law Of local
public opinion and organization. In Quin-
daro, which was q unanimous FreeState
town, the law was that no whisky should be
sold. About night. fall noticed q sudden as
semblage OF men near the river. went down
to see what was up, When got there found
a young man standing on a dry goods box
and in a deep bass voice haranguing the crowd
He went on 10 state that, in the absence of
all lawful authority in the Territory, 1t de-
volved upon the people to protect themselves.
The people OF Quindaro had enacted that no
intoxicating liquors should be sold in their
midst; Notwithstanding this, the prisoner at
the bar (the bar was big stone) had been
guilty of opening q saloon and of selling
whisky, in defiance of the law they had
adopted. What would they do with him?
A court was extemporized, the case was tried
in about ten minutes, the offender found
guilty, and some slight penalty affixed, with
nf
repeated This was Kansas law under 'squatter
sovereignty"
The distance to Lawrence was forty miles;
the stage line was span of second-rae horses,
for the whole distance, and mud wagon; the
number of passengers eight, with an average OF
two big trunks each. We started with light
wagon, but gave that up before we had gone
mile and sent back for a heavier one. Finally
we were off, and a more delightful morning for
q ride never dawned. II was April, the sun
was genial, but not oppressive. the trees all
about us were bursting ntOleaf, the wild goose
berry bushes were In full bloom, the grass was
springing on the prairies, and the birds singing
in the trees. We soon left the timber and
struck the "IOng prairie rolls, green billows OF
sea which had turned to solid ground ere its
bosom had sunk to rest. The road was a sue
cession of long gradual ascents and descents
AS the load was heavy we soon established the
team, which looked none too promising for the
tourney before us. Thus we travelled on
till about three o'clock in the after
noon, when we struck the deep
wooded valley of Wolf Geek. We
had breakfasted early, and the lapse of time, as
well as the exercise of SO much walking, had
made us all ravenously hungry, but there was
no settlement on the whole route 1t was an
Indian reservation that we were passing over,
and uninhabited by them even until within a
few miles OF Lawrence. Happily, we here found
q camp of laborers who were building a bridge
over Wolf creek They had been to dinner, but
had left pot half full of baked beans and a
few biscuit. We bought the stock, made a ring
around the pot, one of our company produced
bottle of peppersauce from his trunk, and we
| made q feast off of those beans and biscuit such
as hunger alone could have prepared for us
The best bill of fare ever put before the guests
! of the Continental could not have been eaten
! with greater relish
We drove on and, as the afternoon declined,
! our poor team became more and more weary,
| until we were forced to walk all the time, down
! hill as we'll up. At last, little after sun
! down, one of the horses stopped, and would go
! no further. He was completely tired out. A
! council of war was held. We were still seven
miles from Lawrence and all OF the way
through the woods. There were no houses
|
| had no food or blankets for camping out. 1t
was determined to leave the driver with
! the team and the trunks, hoping that the
! horses would finally drag through, whIle
! the passengers would push on. on foot, for Law
! renee. One of our company knew the road
! we'll so that he could act as our guide l will
! cut my story short without waiting to describe
! our stopping and getting supper with old Sar-
! coxie, q Delaware Indian chief, and some
! Iaughable incidents connected Herewith, and
! simply say that, after a long and weary
walk we arrived on the banks of the Kaw,
opposite to Lawrence, at about midnight. 1t
! took us nearly an hour to rouse the ferrynan
! on the Lawrence side, so that he would come
! across and ferry US over At last we heard the
plash of his boat, and soon found ourselves
among friends in Lawrence at the end OF our
! journey.
was then at Jefferson C1ty-noW 1t is here, and
extends three hundred miles west with q
| branch road to LeaVenworth, and another line
leading south under construction Then the
telegraph lines reached only to BOonville now
| they have been extended across the continent
! to the Pacl6c and we are in instant communal
| cation with the whole country, Then the Kaw
! river was crossed by rope -ferry-noW q splen-
did bridge, costing forty thousand dollars, spans
the stream. Then Lawrence had one weekly
| paper, with mails twice a week-now she has
! daily mails east and west, and two large daily
] papers. Then Lawrence had about one thou
Sand inhabitants-now she has ten thousand
! with State university, public schools, churches
| and all the appliances of modern civilization,
| Such are some OF the changes of the last ten
years, as shown by journey to Lawrence In
1857 and one in 1867. 4. ID. L.
HARn -u.VNa ara sa0Nag paoaiU.