Mexico weekly ledger. (Mexico, Mo.) 1855-1956, 1879-07-24
FROM COLORADO.
DENVER, COL, June 10, '7s


of this country, l will try, should
you see fit to publish this incongru
Gus scrawl, to relate the incidents anC
observations have thus far expert
enced.
The initial point of the truly west
ern trip is Kansas City, whose union
depot you find thronged with an eager
throbbing crowd, which, for restless
ness, size and general incongruity
no period or point of the Centennia
travel could equal. Consumptiv(
and capitalist, tramp and tourist
pauper and prospector, drummers
dead beats, emigrants and everything
comprised within the two great clas
ses Of health-hunters and wealth-hun.
ters, jar and jam each other between
baskets and boxes, trucks, trunk:
and valises, while the eagern2ss o
hope and impatiencc at delay radiatt
from every feature, as they impa
tiently await the departure of thc
western trains.
The trip across the plains may
now be accomplished by two grea
routes the a. 7. & : f. to Pueblo,
or the X. p. directly to Denver
Joaquin Miller's description, in one
of his ballad, of his hcroinc's trip OF
the L. z. applies very aptly to the
Journey by either OF these roads anC
renders any further attempt at de
scriptiOn almost supCrtluous.
''Shc lunchcd and mncllcl
Aud had her ticket punched ami puncEcl,
Till she arrived At ldaho.'
They both go to Topeka on separate
sides of the Kansas River; thence tho
Southern route bears southcrly
! through the rich coal fields CT Kan
sas and Arkansas and approaching
the latter now at Hutchison, follows
it to Pueblo. The X. =. continues
up the rich valley Of the Kansas
thence up the Smoky Hill Valley tC
about the Colorado line, where it
takes the divide between the Repub-
| lican and Arkansas; thence up Bic
Sandy Valley to River Bend, wher,
| it glides down the north side of the
great divide between the Arkansas
| and Platte to Denver. BY either
route you leave Kansas City about
eleven O'Clock, a. ln., and for several
hours you pass the heavily timhercd
| Cat least for that country farming
! lands of the Kansas or kav Valley,
where well fenced farms, vcrdant
with new wheat and brown with the
heavy stubblc Of last years corn
growth, spread out on either side.
The houses look like :homes and all
! air Of general well-tO-do pervades the
entire region. Later in the after
noon you begin TO leave the timber,
and fences OF thin shalev stone
which lies near the surface along the
little prairie streams take the place
OF those of rail and board. Later
comes the post and two wires inclos-
ing the newly sehled farm. and as
the sun sinks lower and looks square
into the brazen eye of the engine, the
"kansas home" has dwindled to n
hut, and the green wheat and brown
stalk fields, fenced only by few
tlrc-turrows, now checker the pralries
III wild neglected way, as though
the cereals were indigenous in this
country. The richness of the soil
everywhere imprcsses you. On the
northern route. it is of redish brown
color, deep and grumblng, with no
imperiOus hard-par beneath. On
the Southern road it is of that black
alIuvium which charactcrizes tnc
heavy coal deposits of this high prai-
ric plain. Even to n Missourian the
scarcity of timber has now grown dis
trcssing. 4 stone corral of few
acres is all the enclosure which a
farm now boasts. except an occasional
yard, with gate post Of hOx-aIdcr.
like gas-pipG and fence posts rang
ING from rattan to a tooth pick. You
are reminded that ut the Kansas City
hotel You pOcketcd lot of pine
sticks TO break OFF in your teeth.
suck into your wind-pipc, and make
yourself generally uncomfortable
with, and they have grown heavy on
your conscience. In this trecless
country they have acquired Il value
you never dreamed OF, and haG YOU
opportunity to barter with this bor-
der farmer you might mitigate your
expenses considerably. When YOU
think how many you have thought
lessly chcwcd up and spit out of the
window, dclicacy these poor chill
drcn of the frontier cannot afford,
you are shocked at your cxtraya.
ganCe and seliishness and put a self
denying check upon your wood-cat-
ing propensities, for fear that when
the train stops for supper you might
absent-mindedly consume some SQUAT
tcr's entire improvement. Why, a
manger-eating Missouri mule would
ruin Rothchild to keep him in the
luXuries Of life out here.
And now, as the sun sets and the
twilight prevails, the settlements get
further and further apart-only along
the water courses now, the last YES
tiges of agriculture depart, and the
little farm drops from your view and
vocabulary and th4 indolent rancho
claims your attention. Further, and
a darllness that yields not the ghost
OF a object to your searching gaze,
draws mantle Of charity; you guess
over the rest of "bleeding Kansas.
When anon you look again and be-
hold a kind Of olive twig of light upon
the sable tlood-a feebly fitting cam
die miles and miles away, across the
prairie, a want to- see home and
mother sort of loneliness comes over
you, and you pull down your curtain
and feel that for all you can see the
old geographers ere right and this is
still part of the great American
desert. You lunch, lie down, and
Graded into slumber by the swaying
of the coach, you change old Sancho
Pazas benediction into "God bless
the man who first invented sleepcrs"
and are gone. There is more of
Kansas, but you never see it. Co
ing and coming, sleep and sleepers,
claim their tribute here. When you
awake next day you are still in Kan
sas, but on the plains now in strict
reality, If on the A. T. & 6 T. Won