Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1878-06-07
NOTES OF TRAVEL.
Letter from jed Lake.
DALLAS, Texas, May rs, 1878.

and as our object was to kill time ano
see the world, we took the south bouno
train at $50 A. NJ. At 8 p. NJ, same
day, we arrived at Iowa City. In the
morning we called on Profs. Calvin ant
Philbrick, at the State University, ant
found them happy and the institution
prospecting. We learned that in com
pliance with the tendency of the pres
ent age, the faculty were making an eff
fort to make the scientific course thu
predominant one, leaving the classical
so called, as the secondary. AS ou1
sympathies are that way we certainly
hope it will be brought about.
From there we went to Des Moines
and found our State officers all able ant
willing to do the heavy sitting required
of them by the arduous duties of run
ming a well-conducted State. Bemis
said it was rather worse on him thar
doing surveying in new county like
Buchanan was 20 years ago. But he
thought that two years more practice
would get him so that he could stanC
the pressure, provided the chair did not
break. We went over the new capito
building from basement to roof of the
Senate wing. 1t is substantially built
structure, and ought to answer the pur
poses of our State for 900 years. By
that time the present taxpayers won't
care how heavily the people are burden
ed by work or taxes.
We passed about "a hours at Des
Moines, and then took the cars fol-
Eo,,o,1 R1,F, Horo wa mat n,,r Gov
mer citizen, A. T. Flickinger, who is
there engaged in the practice Of the law
He thinks G. 3. will be his home in the
future, and we think he will succeed as
limb Of the law.
We went over to Omaha and called
on our former citizens, N. Burr and his
son Dan. They have large building
well filled with labor saving machinery
which they are industriously selling to
the farmers of that vicinity. They
looked and appeared to be prosperous
They hitched up their team and took
Perry and | around the city, and point
ed out to us the places of interest
Then we went through the machine
shops of the U. p. r. r., and the smelt-
ing works at this place.
We returned to Council Bluffs in the
evening. On the morning of the 18th
we left Council Bluffs by the Kansas
City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs r. r.
for Kansas City. All day we sped
down the valley Of the Big Muddy, the
monotony of the scene only varied by
the occasional glimpses Of the river
rolling it's turbid volume southwark
The valley is wide and on either side
may be seen the bluffs. The land is
fiat and a great deal of it is marshy, and
that which was under cultivation did
not seem to be overly productive. The
houses and little towns along the valley
did not appear to be very prosperous
The bluffs on the west side, where they
sloped to the east, seemed to be better
covered with verdure than those on the
west side with west exposure.
At about 6 p NJ. we arrived at Kan
sas City. We had heard that it was a
city set on bluffs, but when we had
seen it we felt as the Queen of Sheba
said after she had seen Solomon's tenn
pie. The more we saw of Kansas City
the more we wondered what peculiar
freaks nature must have taken when
she shook her dice box and turned up
this chunk. Not being satisfied with
any view we could get from the streets
or bluffs, we went to the top of the
Court House, q judge it is $50 feet
from the grounO, and from there look
ed over the city. The more we looked
the more we wondered, and not being
able to make any definite solution of
the matter, we descended, and called on
our former townsman Il. b. Bullene
He solved the riddle for us by relating
an anecdote, thusly:
g In an early day a stranger called
here and wanted to buy a lot. The
agent went out and showed him bluff
lot. The stranger said, I would not
give you cent for it. 1t will cost twice
what the lot is worth to get the dirt of
so as to line it to grade The agent point
ed across the street and showed him a
gulch lot. Now look there, said the
agent, the man who owns that lot will
give twice as much for your dirt to fill
his lot as it will cost you to move it.
In few hours the man called at the Of
flee: and finding the other partner, he
asked him about lots, saying that he did
not want bluff lot. This member of
the firm took him to the spot where he
had been with the other, and showed
him the same gulch lot. The stranger
said, 1t will cost twice as much to fill
that lot to grade as it is worth. Would
not give you cent for the lot. The
agent pointed to the bluff lot and said
You see that lot?' Yes We'll, now
the man who owns that lot will give you
twice as much to take that dirt off as it
will cost to move it on to this gulch lot.
We Immediately saw the point. Do
you?"
Our friend Bullene, whose house is
BuIlene, Mores q Emery, seems to be
doing large. business. And Kansas
City has the prospect of always being
the distribution point for Kansas, the
Indian Territory and Southwestern Mis-
souri,. There are now five lines of rail
road from the north and east have their
terminus there, and six from the south
and west. These make Kansas City a
great railroad center; besides, the Mis-
souri, River comes down from the north,
strikes the bluffs squarely in the face,
recoils from the contact, and, contrary
to the advice of the renowned Horace,
goes off east. We concluded that this
place will always have large business
to do, as all the crops and stock are re-
shipped here, and all passengers change
cars here except those who have the
Pullman cars. And if we were pas
senger in one of them from Chicago
here, we should prefer a change before
leaving for Denver, or Southern Texas.
The r. r. Cos. have a union depot of
an unique kind. The building is large
and commodious, and has offices for all
the r. Rs. in it, and also express and
telegraph Offices, also dining halls and
waiting rooms. The track of each road
is open, but the platforms between the
tracks are covered with sheds, iron roof
ed, and but little higher than the roof of
the cars, and below the smoke stacks of
the engines, and then collateral sheds
leading across the tracks to the building.
This enables passengers to step from
the cars onto good sheltered walk,
where neither the sun or rain can touch
them, and pass from there to the main
building or to the omnibus stand or to
another train, without being exposed to
either sun or storm, and yet all the
smoke from the engines is above the
sheds, and that nuisance is avoided
We called on Mr.. and Mrs. Bullene
on Sunday the 10Th inst. and found
them and their family contented with
h cir situ n ton and huSinass and future