The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1875-09-10
THE ArcHrsoN EXCURSION.
a So Ride, Big Crowd, and Grand


a So Ride, Big Crowd and Grand
Celebration.
Three or four hundred of our citizens,
including a good many ladies. were on
hand at the A, T, & S. f. depot at an |
early hour On the morning of the I'd, to |
take the 81 ride to AtchisOR and return. |
There being eleven cars, all had ample |
room, and the weather being most pro- |
pitiOus, everybody settled themselves for |
pleasant trip. At Usage City a large
party boarded the train, includi 1g num-
Der of very stylish ladies, evidencing that
a high degree of civilization has already
been attained out of the coal business.
Every successive station increased the
crowd until by the time the train reached
Topeka, the eleven cars were nesrly all
we'll filled, and the passengers heard with
much satisfaction that the Topekaites had
got on X. p. train of five coaches. and
preceded the EmpOria train to Atchison
The country looked in magnificent con-
dItion along the entire route, the corn be-
ing taller aud better in Lyon county than
in any other county on the route. Begin
ming in Shawnee county it was easy to
see where the fields had been ''grasshop-
pered,'' and replantCd, but all the way to
AtchisOn the corn, though the stalks were
short, aud in some places rather thin, was
good crop, and the latest evidently sure
| to fully ripen aud be harvested. Valley
Falls has pretty site, and some substan-
tIal buildings. One oddity is an octagon
hotel. From Topeka to Atehison, the
broad expanse Of rolling prairie seems al
| Ill. A kaI.f
to Emporia. 1t will take the herd law to
populate those old counties and have the
square miles of uubroaen sod turned over
and transformed to waving fields of wheat
and Iustiing oceans of corn.
The train arrived in Atchison about
p. NJ, aud was at once run over the new
bridge TO the Missouri shore. Here, for
the first time many of the party had as
good view of Atehisou rs can be had ex-
cept from i balloon. The muddy Mis-
souri, rolled under the bTidge--an evident
~ we'll built structure, looking, only on
wider and larger scale, like the bridge
over the Cottonwood at Soden's mill. The
old ferry boat that had done so much SER
vice was on the Kansas side, as if its days
of hard work were ended at last. Up
, | Tue steep Dank, peFCncu uu tHS sNeepet
bluffs and browning the innum cradle hill
teps, was the city of Atehison, most Of it.
buildings solidIy built Of brick, and this
streets, so far as they could be seen from
the river, very steep and rough to the eye
of an Emporia citizen. Along the narrow
, strip OF level ground by the river ran {
net work of railroad tracks, and a dozeI
trains stood in full view, most OF then
having brought in excursion parties
Each railroad has its own little depot and
freight house, and a union depot is great
ly needed. The Missouri river bank il
: fiat, and much of it in view was evidently
covered in flood times. There was som
. settlement On that side, and depot o
= two and some IN tchine shops, but evident
ly no prospect for an ssEast Atchisons c
any great extent. Howalarge Atchison
: could not be Judged, as its site Is SO hill
t and abrupt that but a portion OF the cit
r can be seen at any one view The steer
VI ness of its streets would appIli the deni
}. Zens Of the settles OF the plain,'' but tn
e Atchisonians evidently like TO cut hi
t. side partly down, fence it up with ston
wall, make ; succession Of steps or terTs