The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1883-04-05
The March of Empire.

A cor respondent of the Philadelphia Press,
writing from Topeka, Kansas, dwells on the
change twenty-three years have effected in that
State and section. In 1856 he was on the
same ground where now Topeka stands, with
its 10000 inhabitants. Then 1t had few
rude cabins, and was only a town by name
The nearest railroad was at Jefferson City. in
Missouri, Iowa City, in Iowa, and Quincy.
in Illinois. The largest portion Of the W est
ern territory, where now are thriving States,
was still marked as the .'Great American
Desert" No telegraph communicated across
to the Pacific. New Mexico had but few
American citizens; Colorado was not de-
tached from Kansas Territory. Arizona was
myth. California was still the land of the
golden romance. The Mormon power was
supreme in Utah and the vast mountain for
nation of the West; ranging 1000 miles either
way, and now teeming with busy life, was
desolate and almost unknown except to the
Indians. Topeka is now the location of the
offices of great system Of rairoads-the
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe-beglnning
at Kansas City and ending at Guaymas, on
the Gulf of Californ ia, in the Mexican State
of Sonora, and representing direct length
of ], 400 miles, with branches and feeders there
with connected, to the length of503 more miles.
With this system is linked what is known as
the Chicago, Burlington aud Quincy eombina-
ton, and further to the West and Southwest
that neighborhood- errand.bearer of
railroads, the Denver and Rio Grande Narrow
Gauge Railway with its l 500 miles Of noun
tain.climbers and canyon-piercers. North
of the Kansas river runs the Kansas Pacific,
with its $50 miles Of trunk road, from Kansas
City to Denver and its 215 miles Of branches
in Kansas. In Kansas State proper there
are 1866 miles of railroad with their connec-
tions to the West, North and Southwest, ag-
gregating at least 10000 miles of constructed
roads, and at least 900 miles under way
The astounding growth OF the West is Illus
trated by the advance of Kansas, the railrc ads
which thread her territory and the connect
ing lines which reach out to the Pacific and
the farthest verge of the East. Soon that
West, as this writer forecasts, will be in the
Pacific Ocean, and San Francisco will be the
centre of the territory thus drained East and
West. The lines run from Machais, in
Maine, to the farthest Western Isles of the
Aleutian Archipelago in the North Pacific,
distance of 5000 miles, and each year, rail
road enterprises opens up an empire.
1t is difficult, if not impossible, to compute
the vast wealth that is yearly developed-the
political power that is created each year by
these great arteries ofcontinental commerce.
as well as national strength and unity. They
but dimly foreshadow the future of the Re-
puhlic-its teeming millions Of busy workers
the imperial destiny that awaits The life
of one generation, with its manifold agen-
cies of development and progress, but imper-
fectly indicates the possibilities which lie before
4us-the great proportions which as a Nation we
must Fredericksburg all the peoples known
to history, or dreamed of in the most extraya-
CANT philosophy.
A number of St. Louis and New York cap-
italists have organized company to erect
and operate an immense steel mill at Gunpi-
Ut