The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1870-07-15

two railroads sooner or later, ana Is the |
county seat of large county, every |
acre of which is tillable.
But we must abruptly break loose |
from Wichita and move suddenly down |
the river sixty miles to Arkansas City. |
This place is situated on an eminence
the former is in the valley. Here, we
gain a splendid view of the whole sur
rounding country; there, no such privi-
lege is afforded. Here, the valley is
comparatively narrow; there, it is ex-
tremely wide. Here, there is quite a
large quantity of timber; there, there is
almost total absence of it. AS to size,
Wichita is about five times as large.
But the place is growing just as rapidly
as it can, with the present facilities for
getting lumber. Two large steam saw
mills are now at work and the supply
can not keep pace with the demand.
Here, also, we find several of our form
er townsmen. In fact the majority of
the citizens came from Emporia. Prof.
Norton of the State Normal School is
the leading spirit. He is full of energy
and enterprise, and is determined that
the new town shall grow and the eoun-
try develop. Max. Fawcett is laboring
with zeal that is truly commendable.
The stranger has not been in town one
hour before the question is asked him,
:" Have you seen Max Fawcett's claim %
If not you must go at once. When you
get there you are glad you came. With
Mr.. A. G. Wilkinson as our guide, we
visit it early Sabbath morning We
reach it at distance of one and one
half miles west of the town. 1t lies
along the banks of the: Arkansas. We
first hasten toward the spring for we are
thirsting for drink of pure, cold wa
ter. A strip of timber lines the bank
of the river ten or fifteen rods in width.
We reach the edge of this timber and
find ourselves on the brink of precip-
itous bluff. Our guide directs our at
tention to path that leads down the
hill through the trees. Our eyes follow
it gladly down farther and farther until
they behold away down ever so far the
most beautiful stream of pure, cold wa
ter flowing from out the hillside that it
was ever our good fortune to see. The
path has steps of stone carefully ad-
justed by the hand of Max. himself.
Descending we find that an artificial
reservoir made of stone receives the
water to which it is conducted by means
of wooden troughs extending back to the
hillside. From this reservoir another
trough carries the water eight or ten
feet and precipitates it down descent
of three or four feet, where another
smaller basin carved out of the rock re-
ceives it. A cup attached to a chain
hangs by the side of tree near the
main basin. While your are drinking
you look eastward and few rods in
front of you, carved on big rock you
read: "iStrange',, you are scelcOme here"
You look southwark and Oh another
rock you read:
Better than gold s-.t
|. Is water cold,
From crystal fountains flowing"
from you, you find two natural chairs
formed of rock. On one is written
"easy chair" on the other "hard chair"
You sit down on the easy chair and
sure enough you sit as comfortably as
on the softest easy chair in your parlor
at home. A path leads you along the
foot of the bluff in westerly direction
until you come to the mouth of great
cave whose inner chambers have not
yet been wholly explored. We wish
we had time and space to tell about this
cave, other springs and other pleasant re-
treats. But we mustsay farewellto Max
and his beautiful claim, with the advice
to every one who goes to Arkansas City
to be sure to go and see Max.'s fount-
aims, springs and caves.
/ We are now on the road homeward
bound. Between Arkansas City and
Winfield, twelve miles north, you pass
over some very fine prairie. The land
is all rich, the grass tall and luxuriant.
Winfield is on the Walnut, has a SPLEEN
did location, plenty of timber in close
proximity, and is the county seat of
Cowley county. We remain over night
with an old friend of ours, DIR. VIM.
Graham, in whose pleasant home we
spend a happy evening, talking of the
good old times. The next morning we
are on the road bright and early, anx-
ious to get back to Emporia. 1t is the
| glorious fourth. At Douglas the stars
and stripes are flying to the breeze.
They are making big preparations for a
celebration. This is at present the best
town south of Eldorado. We hurry on
toward Augusta. Reach it at noon.
We find several hundred people assem-
bled in pleasant grove celebrating our
national anniversary in dead earnest.
We stop an hour or SO with them, listen
to some very good instrumental and vo-
cal music, to the reading of the Decla-
ration of Independence and to portion
of very interesting speech by Judge
Locke. The people are orderly and in
telligent. Augusta is expecting the
land Office and has very fair prospect
of getting il. Wereach Eldorsdo about
three o'clock. We stop just long
enough to have pleasant little talk
with j. S. Danford and VIM. Price, and
come on to Chelsea. The ground fur
nishes q bed for the last night. The
next day at two O'Clock we are in a
stones throw of the western line of the
town site of Emporia. How good the
old town looks to us. AS we come
down the Cottonwood valley and see
the fine fields of corn, unsurpassed by
any we have seen outside of Lyon coun-
ty, and again as we ride through our
beautiful, thriving town, we think,
"Wen here is where we wish to live af-
ter ALL" And here we shall live.
NEWS OF THE WEEK.
1t is prophesied that the moment war