The Wichita city eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1872-1883, 1879-05-15
W. C. Woo6man's Address,

some of us, and from that date the frequent
pleasure Of our ever increasing multitude to
meet together and deliberate over the present
or prospective interests of our wonderful
young city. Ii was scarcely then hamlet
the echo of the barbarian, war whoop still
fingered on the desert air. Then came the
scm-barbarism of the Texan bravado strange
~ commingling with Puritan civilization.
Yet Wichita developed amid this conflict of
the most inharmonious incOngruities ever
thrown together for the construction of such
| future as We are now all proud to witness
in our present beautiful Queen City of the
Happy Valley. The people Of Wichita owe
il all to themselves and their liberal spirit,
for amid every individual or local strife there
has been manifest charity and forbearancc
which has ever saId-''this is mine if it is my
this prevailing spirit of give, take, and for
bear has made Wichita towering city amid
the ruins of her many competitors who have
been swallowed up IN local selfish con;on-
items. Let us cherish that spirit liberality
and charity are emotions it is Il blessing TO
enjoy. OF all the conventions we have ever
held none have been so rife with interest to
Wichita as this assembled here tonight The
result of this days deliberations casts the die
of Wichita. To-mOrrow's sun will rise upon
her destined future. Shall it be a future of
glory, or shall be a future of shame. We
have witnessed the vicissitudcs Of Wichita in
her past. In her short life she has success
fully weathered many peItng storms. The
advent of the A., L. Il $. +. X. Il. made her u
red hot town; the cattle trade for time
made her great commercial mart. As pre-
diction run with its decade went Wichita
the grass would grow on her streets, and her
town site would make good cornficld. !
call you all here at this moment 10 witness
the false sophistry of that philosophy. and in
full testimony city eight years old, of six
Thousand souls. and the heaviest commercial
mart in the State of Kansas. On what now
do our eroaking lamp post prcdcters, these
wink-eycd sQuall baromcters found their
predictions OF her utter ruin. "Oh. dear.
the railroad is going to leave us ~ Why. did
you ever know a commercial city of any note
with but one railroad. and do you not all
know that no railroad can so from us with
out also coming to US. and that branches OF
the A., T. & 5. r. +. from here to Winfield
and Wellington makes us three roads and
that this city can afford to give the A., 7. 4
5. +. SIS. 900 to build these branches il they
will not do ii without! and that the road d-
rect TO the Atlantic Ocean via OswegO and
New Orleans. of which We are going to lay
the track tonight, makes folr terminal rail-
a. in, t.l.if
months. Please send the fellow up here
quick who wants to sell his Wichita proper.
~ cheap, and II he cIn't come tonight let
him come round to the bank on Monday.
We are open for some soft snaps. Who are
the men that have built Wichita. We're
they inspired by that kind of God-forsaken
courage, that soft mother milk kind OF energy
| that snudders at shadow. and are they less
| competent to-day with their accumulated
thousands than they were in their begin
| nings with nothing but their willing hands
and true aud honest intentions. Are they
going to incidence. into bankruptcy or to
sepulchres. No. not a whit Of it. They'll
strike till the last armed foe expires. But
there is a grade of fellows. both lean. lank
and scanty. and fat, rugged and lazy-you
note them-holding up lamp posts or hold
ing up goods boxes with all their weight.
They know something's going to happen and
they they always did know it, and in their
sympathy they ever bewail ii in anticipation.
| They know the railroad is going on, and
| they always did know il. Some of them have
waited eight Years in daily expectatio,l-car-
rying the mean,y saved money in their
breeches pockets or losing il in good nation
al banks, else they would have invested
i'm Wichita. If were king III like 10 give
| all such chroncs \ passport from Wichita
TO Medicine Lodge. l think the towns would
each benefited BY it-and Lo, 'twould suit
him better. Then. TO us the question does
/ h.,n .
roads leaving us, but how best TO utilize the
great advantage Of their coming to Us. Now
the Oswego road opens up to us the vast
coal fields of Southeastern Kansas and the
vast hard and soft wood region of Arkansas.
This will put Wichita in closer and cheaper
! proximity 10 these two great elemental sub
stances OF manufacture than any great manu-
! featuring city of the Union is 10 similar sup
| plies. Chicago now gets her hard wood from
Arkansas and the Indian Territory. Then.
we are surrounded central city by an in
creasing population of AT least one hundred
thousand people willing and able to purchase
everything essential to both comfort and cle-
gancc, utility and caprice. that can be manu-
factured from the proper application of these
elements. We have here growing. in the
most luxuriant abundance. on lands besfow-
ed TO the agriculturist. all the elements es-
sen'ial to the hcalthiul and comfortable sup
port of human life. What then is manifcstly
the great opportunity aud duty Of Wichita!
Never. no never was there such field open
for remuneratiye manufacture as is present.
cd in Wichita at present Here are we in
the center of the granary Of the world our
harvests are the wonder Of the age in which
we live: our bread 10 eaten by every civilized
nation Of the earth. Flour. wheat corn.
pork and beef should be productions Of
direct expectation, purchased here in Wi4h-
1 ita by foreign buyers who will compute their
purchases in pounds. shilling and pence,
crowns. roubles or fhxlers. And il will be
SO. Ii We secure proper economic transpor-
tation. why not: We are to-day the largest
wheat and corn growing region on the globe.
and we are but just beginning. This will
not alone induce direct purchases, but si,so-
iutely command them. 1t is in harmony with
the spirit OF the age. Then let us carefully
stimulate every beginning TO this end. There
Is AN infection in every cloud OF smoke that
issues from mandatory that generates an
| another. thus will the Wichita OF to-day in
1899 be prosperous city Of dfty thousand III
habitan.s. and her future be glory and not
4 shame And even then you'll ind some
seedy fellow waiting for the railroad 70 60
on. And now my friends our future ~ city
depends entirely upon our own energy.
With proper and abundant railroads to and
from the markets Of the world will give us
facilities Is wholesale markef-peer to any
inland city in the Union. There Is ne COM
mercial requirement. no want, NO necessity
comprising region Of hundreds Of miles but
will he Sahsefyiept 10 wichita II she vgf>pneP.