Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-07-15
PRINCESS OF THE PLAINS.
THE ROME WHERE THE EAGLE
SCREAMS.
A Rich and Beautiful Country and a
City Of Modern improvements
and Appliances--An Eli
and a Boomer.

| AiStoii Clty, u. d. L. -udSAsii iS@AO, tHo
chief of the Philadelphia Record and
Boston Herald Bureau, and who spent a
few days in Wichita last month, writes
the following article for the Boston and
Philadelphia papers:
In 1876 western friend of mine on his
way to the Centennial exposition stopped
over for day in Wichita, Kan. As he
rode into town he noticed signboard on
a post reading, ''No shooting allowed
within the city limits" As he rode
down the one struggling street to the
''city" he met crowd of men carefully
guarding wounded cowboy to the Jail.
What's the matter with the cowboy"
he asked the nearest citizen. ''Why,"
he was told, ''that fellow was one OF a
half-dozen who came tearing in here this
morning firing at everything from the
'no-shooting sign at one end of the
town to the 'no-shooting' sign at the
other, hitting the store windows partic-
ularly hard. We chased them out of
town and winged that fellow just as they
got clear on the prairie after filling the
'no-shooting' sign with holes. l guess
we'll have to swing that fellow up to-
night as warning. These cowboys are
getting too free and easy"
often thought of this story when |
began to hear two OF three years ago of
the wonderful growth and prosperity of
Wichita. 1t gave romantic favor to
the reports of extensive and profitable
real estate speculation which filled the
letters of our friends about that time. l
am afraid it impressed me more than
any of the real estate marvels, startling
as some of these were. One real estate
speculation is, after all. very much like
another. The Wichita "boom," to be
sure, was one of the most vigorous and
intense. The real estate offices ran
night and day and Sundays. More
property was transferred in day than
in week here, and the recorder of
| deeds got rich. Spectators and invest
ors fastened there as to a mining or an
oil town. They overfowad the hotels
and boarding houses, and even the hos
pitable private houses, and were glad to
find room to sleep on the sidewalks.
Things were at this white heat for
months, and then one morning the EA-
GLE, real "organ of public opinion"
quietly announced that it was time to
cool off, and as it spoke for the majority
Of the people, including all the wiser
heads, the cooling off process began that
day. This judicious course saved Wich-
tia from the common western fate of
expiring with its ''boom." By stopping
just then it held It's vigor and its money,
and turning them into the ordinary
channels of business, made its success
substantial and permanent.
wichita is an Eli" said one of her
foremost citizens recently. ''She gets
there every time" That air a true
word, as Craddocks men are always
saying. No town in the United States
has equaled Wichita in growth during
the past five years-the real period of
her active life, although she celebrated
her eighteenth birthday this month
From the obscure position which she oc-
cupied long after the cowboys insulted
her ordinances and broke her plate glass
she has shot forward to the first place
among the cities of Kansas, and to a
rivalry with Omaha and Kansas City
outside, with firm grip on the present
and a strong hope for the future. | had
been curious to see this remarkable /
town, and SO. when [ got an invitation
out IN ST. Louis to run down the 500
miles to Wichita, l accepted with that |
easy recklessness as to distances which |
you so soon pick up in the wide, wide |
west. In their special car on the train |
going down to Wichita were a dozen /
Maine and New Hampshire capitalists, |
most of whom had been attending the |
St. Louis convention either as delegates /
or alternates. They were among those |
shrewd New England investors who |
have put as much money into |
Wichita as into other western |
towns, yet none of them, l think. had |
been there, and so all We're as eager as / /
was 10 see the peerless princess Of the /
plains" They knew all about their own
special lnveStment-a stock car manufac- /
turing plant, ready, they told me, TO turn /
out ten cars day. with possible capac /
ity of sixteen; they knew, they said, that |
they had found Just the right place for 1t. /
and that when new railroad already |
under way should be completed TO Mem /
phis they would get their woods from !
the great southern forests, and 50 be bet (
ter off than ever One of them was a !
farmer by brevet and knew all about the /
splendid fields we shot through on our
way down. He told US, what the people /
In Wichita emphacized, that this was the /
great crop year, and he pointed out the /
richness of each particular crop.
L did not know that 1t was rich, but 1t /
was certainly a beautiful country. 1t
was not entirely fat, and it was not tree
less. Much of it was rolling and some /
of 1t hiiiy, and the trees were everywhere. /
The green of the fields was living green,
bright, lustrous and growing before your
eyes. All night, all morning and half
this afternoon we rode through this fine
country, always climbing up lalthough
we were going down 10 Wichita
until we got 1900 or 1900 feet up and
rolled into one of the neat railroad sta
tons of the young city. Like all the
others, was astounded AT once. and
never recovered from the astonishment
until | left. We saw broad. well or
dered city, covering as much territory as
Washington, with wide streets and ave
nues lined with fine public and private
buildings and residences, with street
cars, electric lights, gas lamps, police
men, postmen, newsboys and al the
other features Of modern city hfe-ex-
cept saloons. There are saloons, or
Joints, as they call them there. but
did not see them.
Lawns around the houses and double