The Press., 1886-03-25
Issued Every Thursday Evening.
1For The Press.l A WINTER IN TOPEKA.
Topeka, Kan, March 8, 1886.


 Topeka, Kan, March 8, 1886.
 Two winter months have now passed since could say to Stafford farmers that blowing was being done for the crop of '86, which blowing came to very sudden stop before New Years day, and we were notified to respectfully doff our hats to King Winter as his regal car passed along, or have them unceremoniously jerked from our heads by his executive attendant, the remorseless blizzard. With the mer- cury anywhere from zero to 200 below, as it was along mid-winter, with strong men stranded in binding snows and frozen to death, and entire families perishing with cold; with tens of thousands of cattle of the plains, myriads of sheep and hogs per islIing, our winter would do honor to New England even, and it rather discounted the eloquent rhapsodies in which the true Kansan is wont to indulge over the lovely climate of "sunny Kansas" which phrase we modern immigrants could consciea- tiousIy whisper only in Greek or Hebrew. And yet there have been so many glorious days even in these wintry months that the raptures of the first settlers, the ancient inhabitants of this region, must be acknowl- edged to be at least pardonable.
 How that phrase, "first settlers, takes us away back towards the dawn of the world, that glorious morning when "the stars sang together" and the heavenly hosts were in exultant raptures And in Kansas history it stretches back along the dim vista of unlimited duration at least twenty five or thirty years Just think of such antiquity, ye denizens of New Eng land, ye whose innumerable ancestors ''came over in the May Flower" and "set foot on Plymouth Rock, for every one of them set his foot on that very rock-which, by the way, is itself the oldest rock on the continent, for does not the geologist assure us that the rocks and hills and mountains of New England are of prior origin to any formation between the two oceans, born and reared ill fact among the venerable Eocine, Miocine and Pliocine periods of earth's history? Certainly he does, and If he does not know, then who does? But fear am digressing.
 Although there was much snow in the western part of this state, and among the mountains farther west, blocking railroad trains and filling deep cuts to a depth oi thirty feet, yet we here saw but little, only some five or six inches, at two different times, but in consequence of the extreme cold we had for about one month, from about Jan. 4th, much of the time very fine sleighing, length of time very unusual and it was patronized and enjoyed very ex tensively by young aud old, and by tho small boy with unlimited gusto. Nlct sleighs and children's sleds seemed to b, scarce at first, but as the sleighing con tinued, a quantity of them, especially thu latter, were procured from the east, whicl may mean Illinois, Iowa, or anywhere eas of the setting sun. The said small boy
 who is just as apt to be girl as any way and more apt to be plural than otherwise ii seeing any manner of vehicle in motion goes for it, deftly attaches his long strinI to any accessible part of it, and holding ol
 to the end of it mounts his sled. Oftel four or five sleds, attached to the main mo tor, or to each other, with twice as man.
 boys of either sex, will be seen passinI along the streets ct a furious rate, an,
 when the team turns sharply around
 corner the boy have seen also turn nor corners than he had calculated upon, mucl
 to the amusement of lockers on and tn
 envy of the other boy who had no sled
 People seem to be very accommodating
 to the young coasters of either sex or color
 permitting them to hitch on wherever an,
 whenever they Can.
 I have seen no sleds as at the east, load
 ed with wood or other country products
 as the snow was so thin and the roads 8
 hard and smooth that wheels could yer we'll be used at all times, and the usus amount of sleighing or sledding is so sma that sleds seem to be scarce among farm CTS, still some "bobs" were seen, bein utilized by placing upon them any kind C box or improvised body, or a carriage 0 buggy, minus their wheels. There wer some nice sleighs, but much the large part was a combination of summer an winter vehicles,-that is the wheels wer , simply taken from buggies and carriages
 and all the balance placed bodily upo runners, which latter might be only boards l like the Yankee boys most primitive hand
 sled.
 f The most simple and apparently tn f best form of runner which 1 saw, an . there were many of them, is gas pip , turned up at each end, similarly or exactl , alike. till the ends point towards each otl CT, with gas pipe couplings fitted to tn
 ends for hubs, which support the aXles a the wheels did, and which are held firml in place by the same appliances that kep
 the wheels from running off This is very simple and very effective runnin gear. Other runners are made of sufi . ciently strong flat iron or steel bent to
 like form, and without any apology of hub, made to clasp the axles, being sC cured in place by aid of collars, whil' braces are used to strengthen the comb nation. Other forms were common, bein wide boards with the axles of the super
 imposed vehicle passing through or frml ss secured upon them, and projecting foc 2 more or less on either side. A very con [ mon and plebian form of body for the V hicle may be simple platform of roug f boards with dry goods box fitted with f seat, and often still having the shipper 5 nomenclature of its original contents COT
 spicuously displayed thereon. But th 2 2 most aesthetic body which noticed was Q hogshead cut down somewhat, more . front than behind, and still much more {
 the sides with a proper seat fitted to l
 This unique style of vehicle occupied by
 man and wife strikes a stranger at fir . sight as slightly comical.
 : The weather now, these first days ( 2 March, is daily cloudy, chilly and unplea v ant, the ground often slightly covered wit ' damp snow, which soon vanishes, an
 though we have for several months he e but very few rains worth mentioning, a 2 the roads are excessively muddy, and sHc 2 mud Woe betide the lady who withoI 2 2 first firmly tying on her rubbers venture 7 to go out shopping, as the probability a ?, xr,o x,o ia fhot cha nnust aithar leave ma (