New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-07-27
KANSAS AND COLORADO.
RAPID sETTLEMENT-FERTILE SOILS

RAPID ETTLEMENT-FERTILE SOILS
THE REVOLUTION CAUSED BY STRENGTHENING
CHANGES OF FEW NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. LOOK
ING FARMs-THE ADVENTUROUS PIONEER
THING PAsT-THE GOVERNMENT LAND
NEARLY ALL TAKEN.
IRON STAFF CORRESPONDENT OF THE rRIBuSEl
CANON CITY, Col. July 13-Of all the books
which read IN my boyhood. none interested me
more or left & more lasting impression than those
which described the overland journey to California
in the early days before stage lines and pony
expresses were established. The narratives.
as / now remember them, for ! have
not seen one of the books in twenty
years. were not models OF elegant style
III writing, and some Of them must have been tedi-
ousy monotOnous in their almost endless descrip-
lions OF selecting places TO camp. securing the
animals, uneventfu nights and early starts; but
the adventurous spirit which led those to brave
the dangers and fatigues of two thousand miles
journey over almost unexplored plains and I'M
known mountains IN search of the precious golden
sands was fascinating to the scboOlboy 1t made
the dulest diary interesting, when 1t did
not recount fierce fights with Indians, exciting buff
falo hunts. terrific storms on the plains and i'm
passabe SHOWS IN the mountains.
AL this was recalled the other evening, when,
few miles of Kansas City, the conductor of the
train in which was riding called ont. "Independ-
ence," a small station IN Missouri on the Chicago
and Alton Railroad. IsuppOse it is the same town
which, IN 1850, was one of the principal QUILTING
points tor overland emigran:s The name brought
back with wonderful distinctBess. some of the pic
lures which those early narratives left.
saw again the struggling town of shan
ties and tents. the last outpost of
civilization, and pretty rude civilization at that
There drinking saloons and eating-hOuses III
abundance, stores at which wagons, PROVISIONS and
the few cooking utensils indispensable for four or
five months of camping could be bought, corrals
where oxen mules and horses were sold, and the
long struggling street was full of life and hustle.
Roughly dressed men with uncut hair and beard,
wearing long pistols in their belts and huge Mexican
spurs on their boot heels. iosted against men, wo-
men and children from Eastern cities who never
before had seen prairie schooner or slept under
the open sky.
could describe now, almost as though had seen
it myself the departure of q party for the rem
devious Of train few miles out upon the prairie
the difficulties and perplexitles of the first few
miles of the journey; the dlsmay when 1t was dis
covered that some indispensable article had been
forgotten: the bedraggled and disconsolate condi-
ton of the emf grants after the first heavy rain the
wagon mired IN a slough from which it was extri-
Gated only after one two days of work, and when
everything in 1t had been unloaded, the homesIck-
ness which the mishaps of the first few days in
duced-all this and much more the daily ex-
perience Of the Argonauts of 40" and the few
succeeding years. The story Of that time and those
people fills one Of the most romantic chapters of
American history which has. as yet, been only par
italy wrtten--a chapter all the more intensely in
terestng because of the startling contrasts which
third of century has brought about.
A STRIKING CONTRAST.
For 200 miles west of what in 1850 was far be-
yond the last line of settlements almost the entire
country is fenced off into farms which have made
their Hners thrifty and well-tO-do; great cities
stand where the gold hunter of thirty years ago
shot buffalo or pitched his camp and strengthened
it against possible attack by savage Indians. and
the man who will now seek his fortune IN the mines
rides in a palace car over the whole length of the
old Santa Fe trail. or into the Businesses of the
Rocky Mountains, which were inaccessible even to
the most adventurous prOspectOr few years ago.
The Journey from the Missouri River TO California
Gulch the centre of the Pixies Peak excitement of
1859 or into the very heart Of New-Mexico, Is &C
tuay pleasanter and less fatigulng than that from
New-York to Chicago ST. Louis The trains do
not rush along at such break-neck speed throwing
the coaches from one side to the other
short curves are rounded and filing them
with dust even the best constructed
and managed roads. The heat which
makes travel so uncomfortable in Summer is sell
dom oppressive on the plains and never in the
mountains Refreshing winds blow through the
open car windows all day. rarely bringing dust
cinders and at night safety from locomotive sparks
does not require that the coach shall behermeti-
cally sealed. What would the poor fellows who
YEARLY tOlled up the Arkansas and Picket-wlre"
from the time when the eastern terminus of the
Santa Fe trail in Illinois TO the day when the
Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad began to
crowd them off of the trail have said if they could
have foreseen the revolution that has actually
taken placef
came from the Missouri River to Pueblo by the
last of the great through lines to be completed TO
the noun tains, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe
and the ride gave better idea of the almost in
exhaustible agricultural wealth of the State of Kan
sas than any had previously taken. The first two
hundred miles of tine Kansas Division of the Union
Pacific Railroad formerly known as the Kansas
Pacificl passes through wonderfully rich country
which as | described in a letter written a
year ago. has been settled up and de-
velopsd with astonishing rapdity. But it
seems to me that the Santa Fe road intersects, II
possible, richer section of the State, which,
though the road has been more recently opened,
seems already to have dense q population astbe
COMMITTEES further north. For half of the distance
from Kansas City to Pueblo, at least consider
able portion Of the land lying along the
railroad has been taken up for FARMS and
Hhat surprised me than anything
else was that even after had passed beyond the
agricultural lands and the arid plains.
there was hardly a mile of the road from which a
cowboys cabin or q herd of cattle could not be
seen in so1ne direction. / no game where five
years ago the buffalo were plenty frequently
TO stop the trains
CROPS THAT LOOK PROMISING.
The crops from the Missouri River west looked re-
markaby promising The wheat had generally
been cut but in many cases it still remained upon
tho 6old in shocks which stood near enough ia,