Smyrna times., 1886-06-30
Across Uncle Sans Farm.
ROUGH NOTES OF A TRANS -CoNTINEN-
tai TRIP.

less than six days, and without chang.
ing cars more than two or three times.
The free-for-all fight of the trans-cOn-
tinental roads, begun last Winter,
knocked the high rates down to $27.75
for a first-class limited ticket from
Philadelphia or New York to San
Francisco, but after a month of that
sort of thing the fare was raised to
about $500. That is about the pres
ent price of a first class limited passage.
One may go third class, and very COM
fOrtably for about $50. From Phila-
delphia or Baltimore to the Missouri
river one may choose between the
Pennsylvania and the B. & O., and be
safely and pleasantly carried by either.
From the Missouri river to the Pacific
the favorite is the great middle route,
familiar to transcontinental travellers
as the Santa Fe Route" Ii has
been aptly said of this route that for
the business man who is in hurry,
the invalid who is in search of health,
or the tourist who travels for pleasure,
it has nc equal for elegance of equip
ment, diversity of scenery, regularity
of time and certainty of connections.
The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe
trains carry you swiftly from the Mis-
souri, to Albuquerque, New Mexico,
over nine hundred miles of the smooth
est steel rails tn America. The Allan
tic and Pacific road, the continuation
of the Santa Fe transcontinental system
runs westward from Albuquerque to
Mojave, 8l5 mil9s. From Moiave to
San Francisco, 3S2 miles, you go over
Southern Pacific rails.
The Santa Fe route IS a pleasant one
at any season of the year. 1t is nOta-
bly, free from dust in Summer and is
never showed under in Winter. From
the Missouri to the Pacific it passes
through country full of interest to
the traveller.
From Kansas City the road follows
the valley of the Kaw past the thirty
ing manufacturing city of Lawrance.
You can get a good dinner at Topeka,
the State Capital of Kansas, n beauti-
full city where some $4,000 happy peo-
pie live in pretty homes on wide, tree
bOrdered streets and laugh at the Eas-
tern mans fear of the frOlicsome cy-
clone. Go to the dome of the State
House in this charming city and look
over the surrounding country. You
will say you never saw more beauti-
full stretch of real estate and you will
feel like weeping because you can't
buy it all.
During the afternoon you pass
swiftly through farms and orchards
and past thriving towns of Central
Kansas. No prettier or more produc-
tive farming country than this can you
find anywhere on Uncle Sans ranch.
EmpOria will attract your attention
A few years ago I went through il
when it was a struggling village almost
on the outskirts of civilization. To-
day it has a population of $4,000
daily papers, street car lines, fine school
buildings, handsome churches and
brick blocks of business houses that
would look well in Philadelphia. 1t is
very wealthy city for its size, is
growing so fast that its statistics would
make an Eastern mans head swim
and it is the centre of the richest agri
cultural and stockIcOuntry in the Uni
ted States. You eat supper at Flor
ence, the heart Of the famous Cotton.
wood Valley and junction with the
road to the fruitful counties of South,
western Kansas, and then, as night
has closed the exhibition, you turn
into pour pullman berth and go tc
sleep. Sunrise finds you in Colorado
If your digestion is good and your con-
science rs clear as Il newspaper mans
you have a dremless Uight. You have
slept tarough the great grazing region
of Southwestern Kansas and now you
are seeing something of the cattle
ranches of Colorado. The exhilaratlng
morning air of these elevated plains
has sharpened your appetite for the
breakfast you will get at La Junta, and
the railroad people will SEQ that you
have thirty good minutes in which to
eat it.
During the morning you may see
some of Star Route Dorsey's big cattle
ranch aud the wrecks of o great
many cattle that succumbed to the late
dreadful Winter. At noon you reach
Trinidad, the cattle mans paradise and
the home of more thau IL dozen cattle
kings who are rated above u million il
herds and hard cash. Here are street
cars and electric lights, and draw poker
is the popular amusement all the yeal
round.
At Ration Pass, tho gateway of thu
old Santa Fe Trail, 1922 feet above seG
level, the road reaches the crest of the
continent and passes through tunne
nearly mile long. Mountain scenery
and Mexican settlements will interest
you through the afternoon. At La
Vegas the train waits while you cat
good supper, and when newsbOys try
to sell you for nickel copies of two
Las Vegas evening papers damp from
the press you know that Las Vega.
is not a slow town. If you stop off ,
day you will find it live and bus,
little city of 5000 population. Sil
miles away are the Las Vegas Ho
Springs, health aud pleasure resor
, well worth visiting. During the night
when you resume your journey will
me you will pass Apache Canyon, tn,
beautiful Georieta Mountains, Puebl,
and Mexican settlements in the Ri,
Grande Valley, and Lama, junction O
the branch road to the old city of Sants
Fe, II miles away. We will take thi
interesting side trip some other time
If you haue the luck to pass the glor
ieta Range by moonlight, and occupy
lower berth, so that you can look ou
3 of n ,,,indou, xyott will o,at souno ol;,,.,.