Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1888-05-19
WICHITA, THE KANSAS WONDER.
Our trip to Wichita, last week

WICHITA, THE KANSAS WONDER.
Our trip to Wichita, last week,
was very pleasant. The deep-green
young vegetation along the Union
Pacific from here to Salina was beau
tiful to behold. We feel safe in
saying that Natures mantle of May
never presented, in the region from
here to Salina, prettier picture
than was then on exhibition.
At Salina we boarded the C. K. &
n, and reached Wichita just before
night. This well-built, smooth,
well-equipped and well-managed
line Of road runs through one Of the
most beautiful regions on earth. A
few years ago it was no better de-
veloped than Trego county is now;
to-day, with the exception Of the
improvements being newer. it stands
the peer Of central Illinois in the
sweetest dress that garden spot ever
wore. To Mr.. John Sebastian, gen
eral passenger and ticket agent of
the G. K. & N, we are under obliga-
tions. Without being under any
obligations to do so, he furnished
us transportation from Salina to
Wichita. He is the kind Of an Of
ficer and his the kind Of a road for
which an editor feels natural dis
position to say a good word at ali
times.
Wichita perhaps shows better
than any other city in an agricul-
tural district what Kansas grit is
able to accomplish in less than
twenty years. On our southwestern
march with the Nineteenth Kansas
Cavalry, in the fall Of 1868, very
nearly where Wichita now stands
was a point on the route. The city
had then not been thought of.
With the exception of 'Uncle" Ben
Richards and his son Peleg, there
perhaps is not to-day man in Trego
county who saw this section of
country in as primitive a condition
as that was then. Wichita, be it
remembered, is a hundred miles
nearer the Missuri than the Colorado
line; and in that fall of 1868 there
was not so much as one settlers
shanty between the spot now occu-
pied by that large city on to Colora-
do, a distance of two hundred and
fifty miles. 1t was thirty miles east
of the spot now occupied by Wich-
tia to where the hamlet Of Eldorado,
in Butler county, then stood. Be
tween the two points there was just
one shanty. Now Wichita has all
the modern conveniences known to
a great city. The architecture aver
ages far better than that usually
seen in cities Of its size. Mr.. S. C..
Robb, who is from Chicago, pointed
to a building in Wichita, and OBJ
served that it would do credit to
State street, in the Illinois metropo-
lis. Several manufacturing plants,
each calling for an outlay of mill
ion dollars or upwards, are established
in Wichita. The Burton Car
Works, animmense plant are turn
ing out new railway coaches. The
shops and the residences Of en-
ployes, isolated somewhat from the
main city, present disappearance of
a handsome town. Wichita has
grown into great jobbing point.
She is, on this account, a great
thorn in the side of Kansas CITY.
Wichita and the region roundabout
have plenty of timber to keep them
This, too. has, for the
most part, been grown within the
past twenty years.
The citizens of Wichita We'd with
one another in making pleasant the
stay of their visitors. The members
Of the Northwest Kansas Editorial
A,.o.:ok:.,. x~,o,.o kho,,o ~, eo.oo 81