The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1889-06-29
A Trip to Nebraska,


Having to go to Quincy, May 9th, after
finishing business there, purposed to take
look q Nebraska. l had read Of cheap
lands along the lines Of the Burlington Route
in Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming and North
western Kansas, and Of some "two hundred
new towns Offering to manufacturers and
business men IN excellent opportunity to
locate with profit" had no doubt Of the
facts, yet wanted to see for myself. Start
ing for the Hannibal & st. 10 railway trains
l said, "Now, in this State Of Missouri,
shall not find the same elegant cars, OF
quite the same style in dress. The people
were none too loyal in war times and their
generous ways iu tobacco chewing may be
anticipated" The train was ready and aboard
we went, for a long ride on warm day
Pushing in, We found the car floor carpeted,
reclining and easy chairs, elegant fixtures
for wraps, hats, umbrellas, &c. palace
car" said we, and "fare extra" But no
it was just the ordinary thing, and began
speedily to make myself at home. The
conductor at that time ccming in, with q
look Of injured innocence I said, "Mr. Con
ductor, there are no slippers here or smok'
ing jacket, don't you furnish them with the
other fxtures?" to my surprise, he replied,
that they did not furnish them. The fire.
quent rains had began to tell disadvantage.
ously along Eastern Missouri, and it was
easy to see that the old time population was
still there on the broken and comparatively
poor soil. In the western extremity of the
road it was different-splendid farms. young
orchards; finer, more comfortable and
modern dwellings.
We reached st. 10 in time TO take ride
for an hour on the new electric railway; this
going on up hill and down, with q sort Of
homemade manufactured lightning was a
new experience, and as evening shadows be.
gan to fall, the sparks along the ever hang
ing wires evidently betokened, THAT our
flag was still there
1t was seventeen years since we had
crossed Kansas and Nebraska, and now what
q change! For couple of hundred miles,
we spun on through beautiful upland prai-
ries. as fresh and green as are foundauywhere
all dotted over, for the most part, with small
farm houses and smaller barns, or dug outs
occasionally for some later conner, or shelter
against wintry winds for otherwise unhoused
stock. The one obstacle to settlement any
where was overcome, when little more
than dozen years ago it was found that
water, pure and inexhaustible, could be
secured by boring through to depth of
seventy or eighty feet. Then the farms
were "taken up and Improvements began
and have since then steadily and rapidly
advanced. Men may, if they choose, still
believe that this world is, to say, at low
figure, six thousand years DID, A look at
the "two hundred new towns"-more or less
and the cheap farms and 80 recent i'm
provements, spread all abroad over the
southern half of Nebraska, will satisfy
any reasonable man that that whole district
of country came fresh from Creations hand
within the last twenty years. There is
nothing old about it. well remember in
school day aliases it was noted with solemn
awe, as the "Great American Desert" with o
few buffalo looking over the lines at it with
ominous suspicion that it was no good. Later
maps were inscribed Indians" on the por'
tion west of the Missouri river. We did not
see that desert or the buffalo. The exper.
fenced eye could here and there discern
some trace of the buffalo wsllows, where
these anti-deluvans had rolled to clear their
pelts of gnats and mosquitoes. The only
visible Indians apparent was one carload
headed eastward for hunting grounds where
game was more abundant than in this lovely
garden of Gods, stretching off towards sum
set with countless fields Of maze and grain.
One can easily find the charm which draws
the young man and the young family west
ward, where now government land is no
longer plenty and where farms improved
cannot be had for q song. 1t is that this is
yet the field where all are beginners; where
self denial is easy and where small capital
qualities one for "best society," if he has q
manly bearing, manly soul and true cour-
age. I found no settler who didn't like it
out here. The OVERLOOKING school houses
told of households and prophecies of the
next quarter century. had been over
nearly all the track Of the c., B. & Q. in
Illinois, but never on its lines in Nebraska
1t is something to think of such a railway
under one management, with one spirit OF
promptness and kindly care, along
its thousands Of miles; taking out the pio-
neer, bringing back the produce Of his
annual toll, taking his daily mail, returning
him or his to The visit at the old home in a
few hours. How unlike the conditions in