The Ottawa free trader., 1872-09-14
FROM KANSAS.

SALINA, KANSAS, Sept Sd.
l. left st. Louis Friday at 4 p. NJ, Aug 3Oth
going westward. This gave me- three aud hall
hours ahead of the express and an opportunity
to see Missouri BY daylight. For twenty miles
along the road one sees fine farm houses and
country seats, occasional thing, but the
larger part of buildings and Improvement
OF all sorts are in the Hoosier style of archtec.
ture. and the mode of farming that which ad.
mits of taking the world easy. To st. Charles
the road is along bluffs and on the bottom of
the Missouri river, where grow the rankest
vines and weeds, saying nothing about corn. 1t
is amazing to think what an amount of vegeta.
tion grows and perishes here each autumn Null.
tlply what is here by what is found in all these
river bottoms and you have product enough. if
1t were in bread stuff, to feed nation, counting
its population by hundreds of millions You
cross the river at ST. Charles on an iron bridge,
rising tiom the bottom on an inclined plain
and find nothing Of special interest till far away
through the state. Morning dawns on you at
Carrolton, in the midst of the most charming
prairies-wide, level and of great richness. At
Kansas City you cross the Missouri again, seem.
lngly an inconsderable but fearfully muddy
stream, now very low. But take it in high stage
OF water and you will soon realize its traditional
grandeur. Kansas City you can picture to
yourself by supposing Peru amplifed, exagger.
ated, more broken, bluffs twice as high, and val.
leys twice as deep, and a perpetual effort on the
part of the people to grade up or down, repair
trenches made by rain, or lay the dust by water.
ins. You will see, hover, enterprise and growth
fine buildings, long streets of brick stores and
general activity and hustle. The land agency
and the railroading business makes itself promi.
nent by fine but enormous sigr boards and pla.
cards and fine Offices.
LAWRENCE.
We reach II at noon-ffteen hours from st.
Louis. The valley Of the Kansas river is here
very broad the bluffs, without trees, are round.
ed and smoothed, and covered with grass, and
but very little timber anywhere. There is no
such charming city in the west no site where
you have such breadth Of view-such expanse
Of prairie-such paradise for farm gardens
Here, an eminence, is the State University
q magnificent pile Of buildings, costing $780,.
OOO, and numbering in its infancy 265 students.
Here are very fine streets, five miles of street
railway, beautiful and tasteful homes, and all
that allures and unites to quiet refining and en-.
nobliny home life. The churches in Lawrence
are an index to the population. The annual
revenues Of the Plymouth from pew reats is not
far from $4,000.
We leave Lawrence u. 12 M.-not on the Den.
yer express, at A. NJ. Ii any DAN wants to see
the most beautiful of all river valleys. let him
go up the Kansas by daylight Not far beyond
Topeka farms become sparse, fences few and
fewer. Through valleys of ever varying form
and beauty-alony bluffs, now near, and then
ten miles away, standing like evergreen mounds
or monuments, you zee an index of what Kansas
is What glorious country A night at Sa,
lima, about 500 miles from st, Leuis, and you
are ready for the Buffaloes tomorrow.