Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-07-24
THE FRo11csoME FISHERS.
Where They Are. How They Set There, and
What They Arc Doing.
WAGON WHEEL GAP, July 10, 1889.

l
| To The Editor Of the Eagle
| According to promise made you before l
left for Wagon Wheel Gap, Col, to write
you series of letters describing our trip
and incidents of fishing and hunting, /
| now take the pleasure of writing letter
No. /, which hope may prove interesting
reading to yourself and also to our many
mutual friends and your twenty thousand
subscribers. After spending two days in
getting together all necessary articles that
| 90 to make up a complete fishing and
| hunting outfit, we found ourselves ready
| to take a z o'clock p. m. train over the
Missouri Prcific railway. At $50 the hack
| called for US according to orders and with
| out any accident or mishap we were safely
| landed at the magnificent depot on the
corner of First and Wichita. In few
minutes the ever accommodating con-
| ductor. Mr.. HAYDEN had US comfortably
seated, and before We had time to say
good bye to the crowd at the depot the
signal was given and away we few across
| our beautiful Arkansas river and through
| West Wichita And on we sped up the
beautiful valley and IN few minutes
were running along through and
| by immense fields of waving corn
that more resembles billowy
sea with wave chasing wave
over its beautiful surface than this i'm
mense sea of waving green in our ever in
MIGRATING Kansas breeze. What sight
to beholdI Enough to make US wish that
we were all farmers in our beautiful val
| lev Great fields of wheat and oats that
| looked golden in the setting sun with the
cheerful and hard working farmer moving
among his grain like Roman god Then
| such fields of potatoes, cabbages, melons,
! Hat ,v,1
meadows, pastures with their thousands
of cattle and tens Of thousands of hogs,
making in the sunset a picture Of plenty
| and content that will never be
forgotten. But how fast the
scene now changes as night approaches.
| The green of the corn begins to look black
and the men in the fields have the appear
ance of giants and the cattle as we whirled
| past at forty mile gait looked like ele-
| plants and the wheat shocks had the ap-
| pearance of an army of men rushing by.
| The lowing of the cattle, the bleating OF
the lambs, the barking of the house dog.
the chirp of the crickets, the cry of the
| prairie dog the cry of the frog carries the
writer bak to his childhood days. Then
presently the lights were lit, the curtains
came down, and all of this beautiful pam
Drama with its shades of lights and
| shadows is shut out from view. Then my
party HE themselves to high and spend
the evening very pleasantly till someone
cries out ITO bed" and TO bed we go, and
J in a few minutes all is still where only
short time before the air was full OF cries
OF who threw away the 81 and wish had
! bid seven. was all spades! Why do you
not throw on a five? Why did you not
give me that in when / bid eight and had
seven points in, with reply that minute
ago you said if l had kept my
ten we would not have been
mine. Not much, my Mary Ann, played
the duce! And how many times are you
going 20 deal? And didn't, and you did,
/ etc Having been there, dear editor, you
know how it is yourself. But then all
! things have an end, Except those articles
of Missouri for Mi>sourians and Kansas
! for Kansans) and before we seem to have
asleep we were called for breakfast, and,
! 10 and behold we were travelling in Il
! foreign country where instead of the
beautiful fields of waving corn and golden
wheat and oats, we have cactus and
sage-brush and immense herds OF
cattle that looks III the early
as they stop feeding for few minutes to
gaze at us as we fly past. We begin now
| TO see what becomes of our river as every
! little while we pass large irrigating bitches
that sap the very life out of our beautiful
stream to irrigate few patches OF corn
and oats that seem as nothing compared to
| our immense fields. Away north we see
a herd of ten antelope grazing on a beau
| tiful lake surrounded by immense trees
! and large houses. Some one of the party
cries out, what beautiful place that
is" Another says. 1T is summer re-
sort" But the writer says. "Oh, yes, IN
YOUR mind" because he had been there
before. In few minutes our antelope, lake,
trees and houses had disappeared and
! instead we had cactus bushes. slough grass
and bluffs, which paralyZed our tender
footed friends Blow! A loud blow, and
! some one cries, "Pueb-low." and in few
minutes we are in city Of smelters.
While we are now in Colorado | can not
say that we find it any cooler, but instead
| found 1t very hot. Our destination,
though, being Colorado Springs, we are in
| a few minutes flying away and running
along the mountains. which are only three
or four miles away. but after running
about two hours we find they have gone
away, and some old-timer. who has
got on to OR fish bait, claims they
are forty miles away and going
! Such is the deceptive sights OF IA mountain
scenery, Colorado Springs they call, and
now we begin to draw long breaths Of this
/ cool and invi goIating mountain air ana
| behold in all his majesty old Pixies Peak.
What a dandy of a mountain 1t Is anyway,
| and when one views it and thinks OF that
great rush of 40 and Of the broken hearts
and BOTTLES that it has seen, then he no
more sees the mountain of stone and trees
but mountain of joy, sorrow and death.
A monument not of man but of history
everlasting. We are to spend the day I'M
til 10 o'clock at the Springs, so we order
carriages and are on the go. VIII not
undertake to describe our visit here the
time is so short and we have much to see.
At 10 o'clock our party was aboard again
and back to Pueblo and then west over the
! d., r. Il e. to Delmorte which is the end
Of our railway trip. W.