Wichita eagle., 1889-03-06
KANSAS.

COMMERCIAL RELATIONS OF WICH-
TIA AND OOLDWATER, RE-
SPECTIVELY.
| What Wichita is to Eastern KANSAS,
Oklahoma and Texas, so Can Cold
water be to Southwestern KAN
sas, the Indian Territory and
the Panhandle.
| From the Caldwell Review.
A half century ago Morse, the geo.
grapher, was telling the American school
boy the story of the "Great American
Desert Ten years later Col. Benton
supplemented Morse'e story of the ''des-
ert" in never-to-be-forgotten speech in
the United States senate, in which he
described the whole country between
the Missouri river and the rocky noun
tains as "a barren waste, incapable of
successful agriculture and practically
uninhabitable to civilized man." The
heroic Captain Pike had already trav-
ersed the great region to the snow-cap-
ped mountains, but gave little descrip-
ton of the country. In 1885 Col. Dodge
| led troop OF soldiers from Leavenworth
up the Republican valley, returning by
the Arkansas valley, establishing old Fl.
Dodge, but strangely enough neglected to
give the world information of the rIch-
ness of the country. A little latter Col.
| Bent penetrated the country, married a
squaw, grew rich in trade and neglected
to tell the world of Morse's error and the
senator's mistake.
Later still Carson and Boggs, two
hardy, backwoods Missourians, ssfound
their way to the ''far west" married
Mexican wives and contented themselves
with rearing families and growing rich
with herds of cattle and horses. They,
too, were enamored with this wild life
and cared not to divulge the secret or
break the spell. AT last, in 1912, the
son-in-law of the senator who had
characterized the country as ga desert
most unfit for man." heroically pene-
trated the wilds and broke the fabric of
the senator's baseless dream. The
gallant Pathfinder" Col. Fremont, gave
the world the benefit of his
discoveries and explosions. The
geographer's story and the SEN
ators speech were mere lllu-
sions- So universal was the attention
attracted by Fremont's report that the
vast and rich plains began to draw adj
venturous men from all sections, which
soon brought on bloody conflict be-
tween men of the northern and southern
states. 1t was about this time. also, that
the great senator changed his mind.
Many of our older readers will remember
his great speech advocating the building
of the Pacific railroad, opening up the
vast resources of the great west, and
pointing a prophetic finger to the west,
Numbered forth, This is the way to
climb.
kansas had her baptism in blood.
Red handed war devastated the peaceful
homes of her pioneers, but her great re-
sources, her rich soils and salubrious eli
mate had become, by this time, SO well
known that no earthly power could
check the tide of hardy immigrants who
poured over her borders. Where is the
mythical "desert" today? Where is the
barren" country that was ''uninhabit-
able by civilized man" Where is ''the
great desert" inhabited only by warlike
savages, wild beasts and reptiles! To-
day the desert OF Morse and Benton is
the agricultural garden of the continent.
Where the savage revelled In his deeds
and crime the husbandman peacefully
pursues his calling. Where vast herds
of buffalo roamed, great herds of domes-
tic cattle quietly Craze. Where Morse's
desert existed, are now vast fields of cul-
tivated farms. School houses, churches,
towns and cities occupy the place of the
Indians tepee. Lowing herds on
thousand hills and the golden sheaves
of the industrious farmer have forever
dispeiled the exploded desert idea and
year by year the greatness of Kansas as
sefts itself as onward and upward she
takes ner course. ''Ad Astra Per
Aspera."
Is it any wonder that there should rise
on the border of this wonderful state,
and almost in the heart of this ''desert,
a great city? Wichita, the Peerless
Princess" is a true Kansas town, and
Kansas is proud of her. She is one of
the great arties which carries the life
blood through the commercial veins Of
the state. All true Kansans are proud of
their Wichita, and Wichita, with her
10000 population, her great shops, her
railroads, her magnificent stores, her
splendid newspapers and her hundreds
of industries, is proud of her state. Like
the state, her march is onward and up
ward, and with such territory as is af
forded by southern Kansas, Oklahoma
and Texas, pouring their treasures into
her Golfers she will, in less than another
decade, reach 100, 900 inhabitants.
The relation Of Wichita to her terri
tory can, if the proper effort is exercised,
be said Of Coldwater as the distributing
point for southwest Kansas, the Indian
Territory and the Panhandle of Texas.
With the additional railroad facilities
which the Rock Island and Frisco rail
roads will give us, with the start Cold
water has over any other town III south
west Kansas, with the help of a sugar
mill, paper mill, a flour mill and other
manufactures which our natural advan-
tages will bring, the advantages to be
derived from our coal beds and salt in
dustry, by the aid OF the rich soil sur
rounding US, by the enterprise and pub
lie spiritedness of our citizens, Coldwater
will as surely be the metropolis of south
west Kansas as Wichita is Of her section
of the state.
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