Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1886-12-29

duOTu Ic4ldI Adolc eAaiuPics VI ouCi SAticS
Such instances are not to be classed with
those true commercial centers wholly locat-
ed with regard to commanding position
in an extensive field abounding in the great
est variety of the natural products needed
| by man. A city SO located will spring into
existence in defiance Of the proximity of
other towns, and of all known rules. No
human opposition exerted By ignoring or
deceiving; or by changes Of carrying lines
or schedules in hostility TO it
will avail It's pioneers may not,
and probably seldom do, properly appre-
ciate their growing village. 1t matters not,
however, for each new immigrant sees it
in more encouraging light and plants his
fortunes with her. The pioneers establish
its standard upon the certainty of becom-
ing village: the next influx see in it a
village in fact and a good town in prospect;
the next see a town and anticipate city;
the next see city and standing upon the
apex of its INCORPORATED mind and matter
discern a thousand indications Of com
mercial metropolis as certainly as the peo-
pie of the nineteenth century see world
and other worlds as no proceeding age
could see them. Such place is verita-
BILE chameleon, even changing and aston
ishing all beholders by presenting the I'M
expected phase. No city of this character
in the United States when located in fair
agricultural country has ever reached 60
900 population and ceased to grow rapidly
where it was the largest place within a
radius of over 100 miles. And the more
recent the founding of such a city the far
t.er west it has been necessarily, and the
more it has been expedited by the most i'm
proved methods in use All these enhance
its progress as to time, size, architecture
and all other features.
The one general rule by which such
cities seem to be controlled in design and
growth is their general location in some
part Of q great valley, and that all Of our
great valleys whose rivers are semi
transcontinental contain number
of such cities controlled very largely by "a
free commerce, and existing
by the great law of natural selection in its
broadest sense.
To again illustrate, the st. Lawrence and
the great lakes which is one waterway from
the mountains to the sea contain in its val
ley Quebec, Montreal, Buffalo, Cleveland,
Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee and Duluth.
In the Hudson valley the clustered metrop
olis of the continent is at It's mouth and
Albany in its center On the James we
have Norfolk, Richmond and Lynchburg
On the Ohio we have Louisville, Cincin- |
natl, Wheeling and Pittsburg with consid-
srable cities on its principal branches. On
he Mississippi are New Orleans, Memphis,
St. Louis and Minneapolis-St Paul On
he Missouri are really ST. Louis, Kansas
City, Omaha and growing cities further
up. Aside from the Missouri the Arkan-
;as is the only tributary of the Mississippi
hat heads in the Rocky mountains. 1t is |
.he very latest of the great valley regions
10 even partially develop. Little Rock
and Fort Smith are small yet beth are most
likely destined to be always as they are
now the metropolis of the lower Arkansas.
Pueblo and Leadville are the leading
places of the upper valley. In the middle
Of this great valley, as in the the middle of
The Mississippi valley where the principal
travel crosses from east TO west at st. |
Louis, those conditions exist in great meas |
ire which makes it the natural crossing Of |
he principal highway from the far south |
% the extreme north and east. In |
he middle of the great Arkansas val
ey, natural selection, using men as
secondary element in the process, has
Is certainly laid out the exact location of
great commercial metropolis as it ever To-
;ated Roman cities upon the sites of ey
met Etruscan towns, or the cities of Amer
ca where those of the extinct aborigines
lad long since been 1t will be to this
ALLEY what ST Louis is to the Mississippi;
chicago to the ST. Lawrence and the lake
ALLEY; Cincinnati to the Ohio: and more
han what Kansas City is to the Missouri
alley, Whoever seeks such place, let
hem find in this valley the central point
which comes under the rules laid down in
his paper and he will have found the fu
ure metropolis. RESEARCH