The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1878-08-08
THE PLAINS AND MOUNTAINS.
St. Louis to Denver Sedalia- Gar
den Spot of Missouri-Kansas City
Up the Kaw River Southern
Kansas, &c.
Correspondence of the CltiLen.l
DENVER, July 9th, 1875

LEN VEN, - uA9 = vi, ACao
Take thirty six hours ride witt
me from the banks of the Missis
sippi to the shadow of the Rocky
Mountains, and let us read as We
run. The journey is common
enough, being performed by thou.
sands every week, but is full of les
sons for those who wish to learn
Leaving st. Louis by the night
train, we pass over tie toughest and
least attractive portion of Missouri
during the hours of darkness, the
sun overtaking the train as it enters
upon the broad rich prairies of the
central portion of the State.
sEDALIA.
Sedaha is an inland town of Mis-
souri, that has grown into the pro
portions of a respectable city. Ii
has become quite a railroad centre,
the NJ, K. & L. passing through it
from northeast to southwest, the
Missouri Pacific from east to west,
and the Lexington Branch of the
latter, running off through the rich
lands of Pettis, Saline and Lafay-
cite counties to the Missouri River.
The growth of Sedalia has been
marvellous, and the large district of
fruitful country lying around it,
and the railroad facilities now en-
joyed, promise future prosperity to
this young and flourishing city. 1t
has long since thrown off the swad
ding clothes of new prairie town,
and now rejoices in gas lights, wa
ter works, street cars, live newspa-
pers, urches, schools. we'll paved
numerous blocks of sub
stantial stores, fine residences, good
hotels and other concomitants of
a thriving inland metropolis.
GARDEN SPOT OF MISSOURI.
From this point west to Kansas
City lies the garden spot of Mis-
souri,. Great stretches of as fine
prairie land as can be found in the
West, watered by streams running
of to the Missouri, Lamine and
Usage, and those streams fringed
with the belts of excellent timber.
There is no better farming country
in the world than this district; and
it may be added that nearly one
half of. this great State is almost
equally beautiNl and productive,
While these rich lands are cheap,
close to a good market, and less
than one-tenth of them in actual
the question comes up,
''Why are they not settled by i'm
migration?"
The rough raids and robberies
that followed the civil war have be-
como nnettor of History. Society
is as orderly and property as well
protected as in any part o. the
world, and when Che people and
State authorities take pains to let
the world know all about the re
sources and attractions of Missouri,
this little conundrum will be settled
and satisfactorily answered. A few
hours run through this fruitful
region, where great wheat and corn
fields, meadows and pastures, with
pleasant towns and villages are scat
tered along the line of the road,
brings us to
KANSAS CITY.
This is the second city in Mis-
souri,, and one of the most enter
Drising in the Western country.
Amongst its citizens there has al
ways been a strong element of go
that would brook no
delays, and seemed to defy all OBJ
,tacles. The situation of the town
lear the confluence of the Kansas
liver with the Missouri, and at the
elbow bend of tie latter, gave it pc
,uliar advantages; and although the
grading required to sink the hills
md raise the hollows has been
marvellous, it has been
lone, and Kansas City stands to-
lay, not only the largest, but the
most enterprising and wide awake
,ity between st. Louis and San
francisco.
OUT THROUGH KANSAS.
Steaming out from the Union De
pot, where half a score of trunk
ines cross or terminate, our way
les up the banks of the Kaw or
Kansas, and then along the timber
Delt of the Smoky Hill Fork, and
across the rich plains to Denver.
This State of Kansas is a modern
in the way of settlement
md growth. In twenty years it
has looked forward a whole century
in the career of material progress.
Even the five years since my last
visit haYe worked such wonderful
changes that l hardly know the
country. The immense wheat fields
that have first been stripped of their
golden treasures, and the still larger
fields of our great staple, corn, the
1ocks and herds, the pleasant farm
houses with their gardens, orchards
and vineyards, the live towns and
villages that station the road or dot
the wide landscape, all give to the
the i'm preston of an old
settled and highly cultivated region.
The Kansas wheat crop of this year
is simply immense, and the grain of
the State, if there was a Joseph to
put it in storehouses, would be suf-
ficient to resist a seven years famine.
SOUTHERN KANSAS
Has attracted many thousand emf.
grants during the past five years,
and the tide still sets in that direc-
ton. The Atchison, Topeka and
Santa Fe railroad which crosses the
Kansas Pacific a. Topeka, has con-
.ributed largely TO stimulate settle
ment in the southern counties of
this young but glorious State. This
road, by the way, is making rapid
progress on its route to New Mex
leo, and it is said that arrangement
has been made to push it forward
from Santa Fe to form a junction
with the Southern Pacific of Cali
fornIa, somewhere in Northern New
Mexico or Arizona. If this can be
done, so be it.
MORE PACIFIC RAILROADS WANTED
The time is approaching when
there must be as many thorough
fares between the Mississippi and
the Pacific as between that river and
the Atlantic ports. Even if a rail