Morning journal and courier., 1884-10-29

| - > the Journey The Great CornfieIds : of Kansas - At Las Vegas.
 l. LAS VEGAS, New Mexico, Oct 90 n To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 r On Friday afternoon, Oct 10, at half past : two o'clock party of gentlemen, in re- , sponse to invitation from MT. Wilson t Waddingham of West Haven, assembled at
 the New Haven railroad station about to
 make start for the West. The invitation included a visit to many interesting points and to the extensive cattle ranches of Mr. z Waddingham in New Mexico. The party,
 besides the host, included Hon. W. J. Mills of New Haven, Col E. E. Bradley and Mr. c. K. Bush of West Haven, and Mir C. w.
 Scranton of the banking house of BunnelI
 6 Scranton and your correspondent. Other gentlemen invited were unable to accept
 In these days trip to the far West means
 something, for such eastern towns as Chicago
 and St. Louis are considered but half way
 Arriving at the West Shore station at the
 foot of Forty-second street, this being
 the route decided upon, the party
 found that everything had been
 arranged for unusual comfort.
 handsome Pullman car was monopolized,
 mysterious huge baskets and bundles oc-
 cupying sections not needed by the guests. It was evident from the start that more pleasure than business was intended Not
 starting until dark the interesting features of the Hudson, as viewed from the west
 shore, were not observed. But the hours
 were quickly worn away and with an occa- l sional exception, when one would gaze from
 his berth at the track of the New York Gen. l tral silvered by the moonlight, running paral- Tel and causing thought of depressed divi- | dends, nothing occurred to interrupt
 the slumbering party until Buffalo was
 reached in the morning.
 We soon reached Niagara Falls, and after | enjoying short trip to where the waters ! were leaping to the river below, sat down to 1 a hot breakfast in own car. It is well known that the usual larder of the buffets 1 which the Pullman sleepers carry is not very 1 extensive, but buffets were ignored by this party. In fact we might have supplied many of them with viands and luxuries that would have astonished the everyday traveller l and wonderfully shortened his trip. Through l Canada we sped over the dusty and smoky 1 Grand Trunk and through ordinary country, l the grand lakes affording the most interest l as we occasionally rolled close to their shores. | At noon we came in sight of Detroit, thriv- l ing looking city, and soon our entire train l sailing across the Detroit river on one of the l largest ferryboats we have ever seen. Vol l umes of dense black smoke told the story of 1 soft coal so universally used in the large western cities, and rolling off to leeward it l joined itself to the great masses of the same which hung like pail over the city. How 1 anyone having once had the benefit of the 1 clear air and sunshine of of our eastern l cities can become reconciled to living among 1 soot and ashes, be there never so much enter | prise and push, we are at a loss to conceive. Once across the river hook on to the l Wabash and St. Louis express and are soon | in rapid motion again. We are more inter l on native soil. The country seems 1 more luxuriant, the fields brighter and the farms of Michigan stretch | out overfowing with wealth. By night
 we have seen enough to make our eyes | droop with weariness and we welcome the | retiring hour. Though the humming of wheels is constant the stopping and start | ing occasional, an easy conscience allows I us to sleep serenely, and awake much re- l freshened for view of the second greatest I river in the world, the Mississippi. Soon l the great St. Louis bridge, linking the States I l of Missouri aifd Illinois together, Is beneath \ | our wheels, and we are numbered
 among the great throng of passengers who 1 flow in and out of the St. Louis stations It | is Sunday morning, but nothing giving evi- | dence of the day is apparent. Throngs of | excursionists crowd the station looking for
 one of the nearing trains which will carry | them to places of amusement and recreation. 1 The through trains for the West are ready to start, Sundays not being allowed to l interrupt their programme, and in one of l these, the Wabash, our party is comfortably | situated after about an hours stay. The train l is crowded to overfowing, principally with | native westerners who form a medium of at l traction and study to us New Englanders. l Nine out of ten of the male portion of our | fellow passengers wear the broad -brimmed 1 felt hat, some have their brooches tucked in l their boots and all have air and general dress and look that at once mark them as a | westerner. Politics forms the subject of | conversation of many group and special | preferences of candidates are boldly indicat- l ed by badges conspicuouslY worn. In this 1 democratic State of Missouri, as far as we can | judge, the badges" show about even. The
 names of candidates are noticed more ire 1 quently on the wearing apparel of children, | and although they cannot vote we suppose it l fairly represents the sentiments of the father l of the family.
 l About lunch time, which, by the way comes
 pretty often, an amusing incident occurred
 rather at the expense of our genial 'Schef, i"
 who was pretty busy during these occasions. | While carefully working his way with a
 somewhat formidable looking knife into the | heart of French loaf, he was eccosted by | @ romantic looking individual somewhat
 under seven feet in height, and with slouch | hat to match his proportions, in the follow | ing manner: 'Look here, where is that ham
 sandwich I ordered some time ago." ''Wel, | I don't know, sir; am running in opposition 1 to the man at the other end of the train. | You will have to ask him." And to another | who wanted to supply his family with much l needed nourishment: ''No, sir there are nine | ahead of you, and I am all sold out"
 The train runs full all day and the stations l by the wayside seem fuller. All the natives,
 a great many of them colored, improve the | opportunity for gathering at the station, it | being Sunday and they having nothing else 1 to do. A twelve hours ride over the State of Missouri, which begins to show the evi-
 dences of the cornfelds to come, and we are 1 in Kansas City. Here is great state of bus 1 tie, enough railroad tracks to lead to all parts of the earth, one would think. The | station is on a flat below the principal part
 of the city, but the street alongside presents
 a busy scene. Stores and railroad offices are | thickly crowded together and the
 numerous ''scalpers' are doing lively busi-
 ness, especially at the present time, some | cutting in prices is going on between the
 roads. The rate from Chicago to Kansas l City during the week has been as low as one
 dollar. Sixteen different trains leave the
 station while we waiting for our train to l go and we presume as many more have ar l rived. We think that we something of railroading in Connecticut, but it all dwindles l into insignifcance when we view the vast l amount of it that is done in the West.
 | Our route lies over the Atchison, Topeka
 and Santa Fe road and after about hours | stay we are on way westward again. We
 awake in the morning to view the great l fields of Kansas which justly en- | title it to the name of the
 garden State. For miles and miles the gold 1 en cornfelds wave in the cooling breezes,
 now and then giving way to green patch of
 winter wheat, which already looks in four
 ishing condition. A patch of wheat no larg- | CT than our upper Green would not seem 1 very large, and to discover the boundaries of the vast fields of yellow stalks would require l a much more elevated position than that ob- | tained from our car windows. From rail
 road circular we learn that the State of Kan
 sas in 1883 sold her corn crop for fifteen mil 1 lions of dollars more than was received by | any other State. This year it is estimated
 that she has over two hundred millions of l bushels of corn and fifty million
 bushels of wheat Eighteen hundred thou
 sand head of horned cattle and in the neighborhood of six hundred thousand horses
 and mules graze upon her natural grass crops. 1 oy,1 hoo aIe 1aisod in vast n1-