The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1880-03-18
OVER SUNDAY In NEW SHARON.

we reached New Sharon. NV fr;en,
Eastman and ]. at noon of arad;an
Kansas Saturday. Our visit ha;n,
merely one of curiosity, we conld NC
lali 10 notlce at first glance the uncoull
and .'nd slIlAing newness of every thing
ana yet 1t somehow seemed to us tha,
the town might have been there alwavs
SO strongly did it hint in its very dentI
OF grotes4ue freshness strange. pa.
tnetlc notion of decay, which even The
an-peryadlsg glare and scent of unpaint.
ea pine but slightly refuted. The bnild.
lngs were OF such varying and irrelevan,
patterns, and SO lacking in neighborli.
ness OF size and attitude, that one was
Justified in wondering if they had not
peen bought at auction. Few of them
ooasted any underpinning, and many Of
them sat dizzily perched upon awkward
corner-props, as if fearing a flood
There were no fences, and hence no
door-yards; no trees and no awn;nos
1 anu therefore an unchecked excess of
sunlight Above the town, spray of
sandy loan blew northward in FREQUENT
and rapid whirlwinds, and settled with a
sort OF reSentful disdain about the over
looking cupola. at the center of the pub-
nc square {" the park by courtesy).
"nlch proved to be the ambitious top of
a structure designed to serve in time
the purposes OF courthouse, but con-
tentlng itself for the present with the
| humber, though more popular. uses Of
shooting gallery. Here and there.
TOO, tents were pitched, with blankets
spread upon the guy-ropes; and oppo-
site our hotel, a railroad freight-car.
shorn OF its wheels and squatting in the
dust, abjectly sbesought patronage with
a placard announcing "Meals at all
hours.''
The railroad denoted the boundary Of
the town proper on the south: and
thence spread succession of yellow
plne-board pens, filled with cattle-ant-
lered, uneasy, alien looking cattle-out
over the level bottom land, pen after
pen, until the boards became shadows.
and the beasts lost their identity, and
all that was left was queer. sinister
perplexity of uplifted and tossing horns.
For New Sharon, let me hasten to ex-
plain, was what is known out West as
"a cattle-town THAT novel frontier
village which belongs to branch of
commerce, an aspect of life, unknown
elsewhere under the sun. Indeed, it
was not possible even here SO recently
as fifteen years ago, when the vast
plains of the Kansas border were the
sneer of geographers, and their short,
moss-hke grass was supposed to be little
more than mimicry in nature, fit,only
TOR flre and frost to sport with and make
ridiculous. But the railroad came
along at length and spanned the desert,
and the nimble-witted Kansan, putting
this and that together, evolved the idea
that pasturage upon which the plenti-
ful buffalo had lived and fiourished for
ages. perhaps certainly ever since 1912,
when the Spanish explorer Coronado
crossed it and saw it populated with the
" humpbacked oxen,' as he described
them-might be proftably utilized in
grazing cattle to supply eastern markets.
And so the immense herds roaming half
wild upon the Texan pampas, and there
valued only for their hides and tallow,
we're turned in this direction; and the
scorned expansc of Kansas prairie from
which the locomotive had but yesterday
frightened the buffalo soon began to
furnish fat, sleek beeves to New York,
Philadelphia and Boston at the rate of
hundreds of thousands year. In
round numbers, over four million head
have thus been disposed of since 1870,
and more than once the cattle-men of
Kansas have been able to dictate prices 4
as far away as Liverpool.
AS direct outgrowth of this new and
business, evoked from chaos,
as it were, came the cattle-town--the |
eonverging point of the narrow, RAM
bling trails to and from the outlying graz
ing grounds, the rendezvous of the drov-
ers and herders, the agreed depot for
the collection, assortment, branding,
sale and shipment of the cattle; and |
New Sharon, at the time we saw it, was
chief Of its class, and at the flood-tide of
its activity and consequence. The town.
site had been located less than year
before, it is true; but already the popu-
transients,'' as the
landlord phrased Numbered as many |
as three thousand, while fully fifty thou |
sand cattle were gathered there, await
ing purchasers and transportation; and |
all that the young city required to make
her I" the metropolis Of the Southwest,
the landlord assured us, was a second |
and some artesian wells, for dry
The street along which we strolled,
while making our observations, was
the main one of New Sharon
Grand Avenue, it was named; wide,
like the road to Avernus, and side
walked with long, slender, creaking-
planks, laid in the perfrnctory and un-
certain style of a midnight pontoon.
The symbols and inscriptions over the
doors and on the windows were largely
of a nature to unsettle our confidence in
what the landlord had told us in praise
of the water of the lOeality; for the
saloons outnumbered all other
places of business, three to one. We
seventeen of them in distance
of half as many rods, bearing such signs
as "The Alamo,'' "The Snuggery,"
sc Wallapus, s'Old Fruit" "Dew-
drop Inn," and in front of one of them
we stopped to read, over the pier-glass
and the pyramidal display of tumhlers
on the shelf behind the counter, this
unique monition: ssDrinks Cash.