Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1869-11-26

ceIYIng what lt might be when May
shall come to dress it in garniture of
emerald besprent with flowers.
Lands which of the same quality In
any of the older States would be con
sidered cheap at $50 or SO per acre,
may yet be had in this neigh borhoOd
for 81 to Sc per acre, with FIVE years
credit. Several Columbus gentlemen
have purchased tracts lying in the
southern part of this county. Num-
bers of Ohio men have also made in
vestments in Lyon county, the next
one south, of which Emporia, the
county seat, is assuming importance as
one of the coming towns of Southern
Kansas. Here two railroads will short
ly meet, one coming south from Tope-
ka and the other from Junction City.
/ am informed that Messrs. KeltoB,
Bancroft & Co., of your city, have
opened here a branch of their estab-
| lishment under the management of
! Robert MeCarter, an esteemed young
| Delawarian, who became connected
with the firm in Columbus, and is now
worthy and accepted Kansan.
Going back to Topeka ought to
mention before leaving it that the new
State Capitol building is now in course
of erection there on handsome enclo-
sure of about twenty acres. The site
commands fine and quite a wide view
over the adjacent country. One wing
including Offices for State officials and
chambers for each branch of the Leg
islature, will be ready for occupation
the coming winter. The single wing,
though elegant in its external and in
ternal adornments. seems rather aWk
ward in its architectural proportions,
and must necessarily do so until the
accompanying wings and pOrticos, to-
gether with the central dome and To-
tunda, are completed.
Another important improvement
here is a new iron bridge now being
erected over the KaW river, stream
likely to entail upon the State a good
deal of expense of this kind without
any very great compensatiDg advan-
tage. Too deep for fording and too
shallow for navigation, it is a good deal
more worthless than the stream de-
nouneed by John Randolph as unWor-
thy of Improvement by Congressional
appropriation, because always dry in
summer aud frozen in winter The
| Kaw would be considered trifle more
useful if it were to dry up little more
| 10 the one season or freeze up a little
more IN the other
Taking the cars for the eastward at
! Topeka, one almost loses In the busi-
pess-like hurry -scurry of the event the
remembrance that be Is yet in a State
of less than nine years growth, aud
scarcely a thirtieth part of which has
yet been touched by the plOw or oceu-
pied BY the settler. So far as may be
| gathered from all the appurtenances of
the elegant. sWifthyiDg and crowded
train, the ar fat and genteel ensemble of
i the travelling public and the cultivated
appearance of the country as one pass
es along, he might as well be thousand
miles nearer New York and not feel
that he had mistaken his longitude.
| If the KaW river is to be held in CRATE
full remembrance for anything it is for
having scooped out this splendid val
/ ley and broadened its banks with rich
and deep alluvion. With its alterna-
tions of prairie meadow, titled field and
fringe of timber, this valley wears al
ready an improved look, comparing
not unfavorably with the country boF-
dering the Miami or the Mohawk.
| Twenty y-nine miles from Topeka the
! traveller passes Lawrence, probably the
most elegantly built aud certainly one
of the pleasantest towns in the State.
This beautiful city, it is well known,
has been twice laid IN ruins by border
rufian and rebel malice, and has in
both instances sprung ph@nix-like
from its ashes more comely and more
prosperous than before. Lawrence
has the advantage of being located in
one of the best improved counties of
| the State and one of the richest. The
place is quite centre of science and
refinement, as we'll as of business, the
State University located on Mount
Dread near the city, being one of the
most prominent features, and the first
to catch the eye of the traveller. This
IS a free institution, endowed by the
State with 46,080 acres of land and
$4,000 cash, besides its site, forty
acres in extent.
Last aDd greatest of Kansas cities is
LeavenwortE, thirty three miles north
east of Lawrence and sixty-two miles
from Topeka. A population of forty
thousand is claimed for it; a claim
which may be safely discounted ten
per cent. The metropolis of their
State, all Kansans are naturally proud
of Leavenworth and take a lively
interestin the competition it is making
with Kansas City as the coming en-
pOrium of the Northwest Missouri
Valley. But after visiting both places
and with decided predictions in fay-
or of LeanVenWorth, candor compels
me to say this place seems rather dull
and slow beside its athletic young RI
val. Unless Leayenworth shall very
soon take a new and swift departure
forward, she may as well throw up the
spopge in the contest she is making
Like other cities favored with govern
meut institutions. LeaYenWorth has
rested too much in the assurance that
these. together with her early start In
the race, and the comparative lnsigniti-
cance of her competitor, would secure
her laurels. Aud even now, much of
her effort, which should be directed
toward securing better railway connec-
tions, is being spent in idle clamor for
additional government Institutions
Like Oliver Twist, LeavenWorth calls
for more, with an appeal which maeks
of distress and hunger.
Meanwhile an Insignificant neigh
boring hamlet, perched on an insight
ly bluff of the Missouri, grown within
half a decade to the full stature of a
busy, wealthy and enterprising metrop-
oils, reaches with iron arms In all di-
rections, and gathers in more and more
of the rapidly growing trade of all
that splendid country. With the Mig
souri, Pacific railway east, and the
Kansas Pacific west, with a branch
connection with LeavenWorth, another
with st. Joseph, another with Gamer
on, and still another tapping the rich
valley of Central Missouri, Kansas
City is now rapidly pushing seUenth
railway down through the rich eoun-
ties of southeastern Kansas, thus Sc
curing, first of all cities, literally an in
side track for Northern Texas, and the
splendid harbor of Galveston. There
is a tide in the affairs of cities as we'll
as those of individuals, (which taken
at the food leads on to fortune - and
Kansas City if she is sagaeious and
progressive enough to comprehend
and improve her opportunities, may be
borne to the goal she seeks more swift
~ avau ahan ahn droopoa oDI - IL