New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-08-22
ACROSS THE PLAINS.

CAME OF A ROMANTIC DAY DBEAM-TME OK
TRAIN AND MuLE-wAGON GIVING WAY TO THE
ENGINE AND PULLMAN CAR CHANGES IN A
CHANGELRss LAND - DURABILITY OF TIE
"GREAsER '-PROsPECTrv RICHES OF THE VAL
LEY OF TIE RIO GRANDE.
fhoM AN OCCASIONAL CORR spoNpENr THE TRIBUNE. i
TOPEKA, Kan, Aug. 15-ltisnl IT necessary for a
man TO be very venerable to remember all about it,
1t was less than twenty wears ago. Some of the
oider residents of WestpOrt, Lexington or Platte
CITY, in Missouri, will tell you that they were here
when those somewhat decayed towns were very
lively because of their traffic across the desert and
when there was plenty of money, a big crowd, and
considerable accompanying deyiltry Twenty two
years ago, my own hrst glimpse of Kansas City
showed me steamboat landing, with three or four
Warehouses, u tavern, and deep cut through a
yellow hill to get away from the place by. On the
blum above there were several groceries the
merchantable stock therein consisting of sundry
barrels OF what was then known as jIg water" and
some unctious piles of thick bacon. Some of these
TO say truth are there yet; the same or worse
This was all by and for what was called the
Santa Fe trade. 1t even before California
came forward prominently, or the sublime senti-
mcnt OF Pixies Peak Or Bust" had been epun-
ciated. All Kansas was almost rs uninhaDited as
Llano Estacado is now, and the builaloes came and
drank ont of the Missouri. From among the cotton
woods that lrnged the mouth of the kaw arose
lununorable columns OF thin blue smoke Beside
the yellow roads and dotting the hills were the
loaengc shaped villages formed by wagons drawn
into hollow squares All day the sharp detonations
of the bull-whps fell upon tine ear, as constant as
pic6et-firing. Gaunt, high-shoudered long horned
buiIocks wandered evory where sometimes worn
ont and stupid, often sullen and combative The
usual one long street of the village which formet
the depot OF "a great trade lued and crow ded
with gigantic wagons and long teams from end to
end There were few women IN those days, and the
male passenger was obliged to pick his deyions
way among horns noses, yoles hubs aud big
chains. No such wagons those were ever used
before or will be made again. 1t was nine or ten
feet from the floor of the box to the top of the
canvas About sixty hundred weight were congid-
orcd a fair load Tor "A team of twelve oxen, fer a
journey of 1900 miles over plains sand stones
ravnes, rivers-eycry thing.
THE PAST GENERATION
Humanity took strange forms in those DAYS The
n-whacker,' as everybody called him and he
called himself. was not like the miner ranchman or
frontiersman of these times. He was himself-a
bull-whacker. He could bring out tae capacities of
could. He acquired skill like unto that of Japan
csc juggler III the use of the m0nstrous whip that
tralied behind him in the glass some fourteen feet
and could he heard singing through the air and
gong OH III series of sharp explosions in fraction
OF n second thereafter. There was to him no iov
n
his crossed He was the original great nm
washed, as "A matter of fact and habit and to know
him was to understand how greatly ordinary life is
burdened by useless ceremonies and superauities
The plains between the Missouri and the New
Mexican mountains-a very long reach Of country
were very much hvelier then than they are to-day
What has relapSed into primeval desolation now
twinkled with camp-iires twenty years ago and
there were echoes of barbaric song and merriment
untr -l,, IL.
for years no man has slept Sung. There were
millions in it," too. loaded train represented
one or two hundred thousand dollars There waso
great deal of 1t also. An attenuated string of white
specks that III the intense sunshine traed itself
over hill and dale along the verge of the borizop
was seldom out Of sight One would scarce think
II could occur to these creeping caravans to run
races with each other but they sometimes gro
tesquely did SO, and staked considerable Sums of
money upon the result.
Like sailors, these fret ghers were rcticent people
and New Mexico the queerest country that was
ever under the American flag. remained "a tara
HoogHitG' The old ones in those Missouri towns
never found out anything about it 1t was until
eight or ten years ago, rs far of as China The
o"li -whacking voyascr seems seldom To have de-
serted and stayed there. and only rarely could a
greaser" be found stranded among the Missouri
cottonwoods Traffic and intercourse came and
went thus from time immemorIal to abont Is,e,
Then two or three impecunious individuals in n
Kansas village and one especially dreamed tho
idea OF railroad upon the Santa lie trail II yvo.
an uea that ought then to have sent the author of
II to n lunatc asylum, if there had been any and
ought now to perpetnate him in bronze | knew
NM lie had pleasant and insinuating manner.
anu as lar BACK rs lS6O-the awful year that uone
ol the ieW VINO were here then will ever forget-be
used sometimes to speak OF the 5 heme he had A.
he hiandly eXpatiateI nobody believed in il and ~
/ pass him in the street now | say to myself 81 |
wonder If he believed in it 7" Yet knov, he b,,o
mered that idea until it finally took shane. II il
an immense affair. very little like Il dream now
the understanding line of ties aud rails so or
ever lad by single corporation. For the first Tina
we have got our hands upon the real tre,au a of
the empire of the IncaS, the vast region of o,o,n
talns ana loneliness, OF coal, gold copper and
oil tropical uAuriaAco and Arctic barrenncss WHOSE |
1PaniSh hlllf9l ANTS llVed very much they are |
living now before this Republic was born.
THE rHAiL Conquered ny THE TRACK
have been carried by that Interesting animal an |
army mule from the Missouri To Santa re and |
some hundreds OF miles beyond myself II will |
never occur again but when / go now the remark |
aoc thlhg ABOUT 1t Is The contrast it presents Ia tina
Ola tllnes. And those ancient days have not oone
entirely unregrctted. Not long since | occuuied
seat beside the driver upon one of those hdeous
canvas covered machines, called by the proprietDrs
Of it a COACH As we iolted over New, MINI,
stones which have a peculiar quality of iayuednass
ana crept IN ana out among the mountain spurs he
detailed to me his opinions and wrongs mu,, -
going to Australia" said he, where upders,ond
they still has siage-nes. | used to drive nm rh
'iains, ana Them railroads and driy me ont u,
mat An then / comes mere, thnkn' thew never |
'ould gu us out these ctarnal mountains And
low cones TINS last, this ere Topeco and SANITY Eeo |