Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-05-21
HOME AGAIN.
TIE SACRAMENTO MERCHANTS HOME
BY TEE SOUTHERN ROUTE
Atchison-New Mexico-Las vegas-santa
e-Albuquerque-The Rio erande-
Arizona = Yuma = Home.
SACRAMENTO. May 10, 1881.

SACRAMENTO, May 10, 1881.
At Minneapolis and st. Paul one finds
the tide of emigration West at respect
able flow. The railroad cars and depots
are alive With people bound West and
North. The roads running west to Bis
marck and north to the Manitoba country
land these people at q cheap rate SO quickly
out on those great plateaus and valleys
that they do not seem to realize that they
are we'll out of reach of what was once
considered frontier civilizations and they
never will realize that these swift wheels,
running day and night, have taken them
past sections of country more suitable to
their wants and much nearer the markets
of the world-but the tracts they carry
and the story they tell prove that the
great railroad real estate missionary has
done his work well, and his converts are
going to see and know for themselves.
kota which is "a step in the right direc-
charge of the Mississippi, the train backed
down to Fort Smelling, and thence we went
by the Chicago and Milwaukee and Iowa
Central nearly south through Austin, Ma
son City and Marshalltown to Ottumwa,
Ia, and thence west by the Burlington and
Missouri to Omaha. This was trip OF
over thirty hours through regions of vii
lagos and farms that line both sides of the
road for miles. As far as the eye could
reach one could see that the board and
wire fence formed
COUNTLESS FIELDS,
Now fresh.turned soil or meadow, show
ing green or stalk and stubble fields to
each farm, it's herd of cattle, sheep or
swine and miles of cribs filled with the
white and yellow corn. A view of such
realm of varied wealth and intelli-
gent industry, free from waste and idle
ness, is worth trip around this spotted
earth. 1t is no strange fact that Iowa's
vote is true from line to line and stream
to stream.
Arriving at Council Bluffs some idea
was had Of the trouble this country has
had with floods. Several lines reach here
now by the same track, and that seems In
fearful condition, and is barely crept over
by the trains. Even In the deep cuts.
where one would suppose the formation
would be fair, the earth seems more like a
mortar bed, and it is only with the great
est care and labor trains are even now able
to run out on the bottom. Between the
town and the Bend bridge the road-beds
are swept away. the tracks moved, and
the cars are pitched in all manner OF
shapes. 1t will take much money and
labor to right things here, and place them
as they were before the rise.
We crossed with the train over the
bridge into Omaha 1t was cold and windy,
with slight rain, the thermometer at 90 !,
and by the date of yesterdays paper we
find this is 80 May Day" but the "queen .
is compelled to stay at home with her
mother alongside the stove. A run of
about IT'S miles west on the Union Pacific
took us across the Platte river near Grand
Island and to the pleasantly situated little
town of Hastings, located about 40 miles
southeast of Fort Kearny, and in the
midst OF farming country which
SURPRISED Us.
Nineteen years ago the writer proposed TO
give a quit claim deed to this whole coun.
try for $40, bus the buyer wanted him to
include Omaha also. Then there were
sections of the country that did not have
anything hardly on them, but they have
been cultivated and now will do we'll Very
little wheat is raised, but there is a large
yield of corn, oats, ETC., and there are good
meadows for stock, too, which Is having
attention as much as possible under the
circumstances. Some counties have the
herd law, and fence is rarely seen. School
sections are sold to the people for Sc per
acre on twenty years time, 6 per cent. IN
terest, land exempt from taxation, and it
is well taken up The soil is sandy
loan, one to two feet thick, on bed of
porous clay. Nearly every foot is avail
able for cultivation, and from forty to
fifty bushels of corn per acre is produced.
They burn corn here frequently in place Of
coal. Corn at 90 cents per bushel is nearly
equal to coal at Sc so per ton. We have
noticed another
STRANGE FREAK
OF these Nebraska farmers-many of them
leave their farm implements out under the
sky, thereby losing enough by injury to ma
chinery to keep their families well supplied
constantly with first class mental food, and
every third year build barn. Such pio-
neer extravaganza must seem strange to
farmers elsewhere.
A run of $50 miles southeast from Hast
ings towards Atchison was through we'll
occupied country and brought US to a small
place called Seneca. We had learned that
we could not reach Atchison via Troy or
st. Joseph, SO we left the train, engaged
livery team to drive US across a beautiful
prairie and farm section ten miles to Cen
tralia. where we took the train of the Gen.
trail Branch, reaching Atchison dry-shod
at midnight.
ATCHIsoN
Has-som $4,000 people, has one good
business street, nice union depot, good
fair ground and exposition building just
outside, and seems to be getting along in
good, quiet way. Itseems that the sleeper
of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe
starts from Kansas City, but the agent
here (Atchisonl was intrusted with the
sale of one section. This was quite ample
for the writer, but it is well TO bear IN
mind that family is more certain to get
accommodations by making Kansas City
from the East than Atchison. The
forenoon train was taken, and after a run
of fifty miles through green farms and
herds of cattle, via ''Valley Falls, y" we ar.
rived at Topeka, where we waited for the
regular midnight overland train, which
leaves Kansas City at 10 o'clock P. NJ.
Topeka is lively town of some is. 900 in
habitants Is, 900 colored), and is the head
quarters of the Atchison, Topeka and
Santa Fe Railroad. The company's shops
are also here, and employ some 700 people.
These, added to the division men of the
road, and also the State officials, give the
place quite business air.
From Topeka to La Junta, 500 miles,
the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Rail-
road runs along the Arkansas river, yet
IS far as common observer could note,
the road could have been built anywhere,
for the river seems to dow on the top of