Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1872-05-17

AKansas0 eedsr Iewn--Ls1asC attls
and RaAAns--DuAk1ses anA ln1i-
Ans.
Correspondence Of the Bulletin.
GREAT BEND, May Z, ~.
Tonight / find myself at Great
Bend, in Barton county, on the Ar
kansas river. The town derives
its name from the bend Of the river,
in which it is situated. 1t is five
miles west Of Fort Larah, and about
one mile back from the river. tits
situated on a slight elevation of
land; making it dry and giving it q
good view Of the river and valley.
The Atkinson, Topeka & Santa
Fe r. R. is graded ready for the
ties and iron about 80 miles beyond,
and cars will be running to this
place on or before June 18TH
There is plenty Of timber all around
the town-something rather unusu-
for Kansas town. They expect to
make it the principal point for the
Texas cattle trade, and the set
tiers of the town are in fever Of
excitement for fear that they will
get up some morning and find a
town equal to theirs a few miles
either way from them that will III
val them in their much-longed-for
and short-lived nuisance, Ito amy
farming country the Texas cattle
trade. 1t brings in plenty of mo-
ney, and Texas ruffians, who make
day and night hideous with their
drunken and shooting ARRAYS
They multiply saloons and dcns of
infamy and render the lives of
peaceable citizens unsafe. While
there are few owners and buyers
who are respectable men, the larger
portion are a rough, wild set of
half:ciyilized ruffians, of which
Wild Bill is fair sample. They
value mans life about as highly
as Josh Billings values the life of a
"yallar dorg."
Two months ago the first house
in Great Bend was completed
There are now about forty quite re-
spectacle frame houses and stores,
a good-sized two and a half story
hotel doing a fourishing business,
and everything is full of life. Even
the two buffaloes who ventured
down within forty rods of the town
found it to lively for them, about an
hour ago, and they are now being
sold to the hungry settlers, and an
odor from the kitchen tells me that
1 shall have a piece of them for my
supper, which one can appreciate
after chewing Texas beef for a
month and dining at the ''dug-out"
ranch ON the plains.
The inhabitants, including the
transient, number about 500. They
are composed Of all nationalities
and shades of color and in all kinds
of business, from the too fast, ex-
tremely anxious Ito be ahead) COM
mercial drummer to the dusky little
Mexican greaser; all determined to
be first and get the lead in their
different callings. I left the X. P.
R. r. at Ellsworth, and found the
country rough and bluffy for about
eight miles from there, till within a
few miles from the river the prairie
is equal to the best in the State
Where the land changes from up
land to bottom.land it is bluffy and
covered with kind of red stone,
which makes quite good building
material.
Twenty-Five miles up the river
there are 700 Usage Indians, all
warriors, painted and armed ready
for business. The settlers are some
what alarmed. but the "blue coats" "
who are on the road here, will send
some of them on their long hunting
expedition if they make any demon,
STATIONS. For my part, l am glad
business calls me back to civiliza-
ton at once. Yours,
D. B.