Bent County register., 1889-03-09
"a Eew Iteroas that May be
Of interest.

vi = " -AfF AAaiAN'-Es tAAtNA sA'4ANA- ''-N
thinas We saw and heard was: Two
old men one sixty-four the other sew
ent, two years old at Pueblo quarling
over the Mormon question, they both
wau.ed TO lsAi and afforded amuse-
ment for weary passengers ut the
union depot for two hours.
Soon after the Rock Island road
was completed to Colorado Springs
Manager Cable accompanied by his
wife was making a trip over the road,
a few miles east of the Springs Mr.
Gable remarked that he would put in
station at that point, his wife at the
time was reading Robert Elsmer and
she told him to call the station Els
mer, which name it now goes by.
Between the Springs and the Kan
sss state line is colony of old maids
twenty in all from New York, who
have taken claims and their shanties
can be seen from the cars, we were
informed they liked the country and
intended to farm for living.
Darlington is n town of a thousand
inhabitants, has good brick buildings
and had the appearance of prosperity,
the many corn fields in the vicinity
of the town would indicate good
crops last year.
From Burlington a. hundred or
more miles east nineteen ont oe every
twenty farm houses, stables aud out
houses are made of sod, fully half Of
the number have dirt roofs, some
have shingle roofs and the houses
present . homelike appearance, res
ident told us the walls were from
two to three feet thick, they are
warm in winter and cool IN summer,
and best OF all do not blow down In
the Kansas blows.
There are some very pretty towns
along the line of the Rock Island in
Kansas, but all are dull, money scarce
and times are hard, corn is worth but
sixteen cents bushel and that in
: trade. Cattle aud horses are fat,
there are good many hogs in the
country but they wont bring cash.
A gentleman who appeared to
have a knowledge Of the county
told us.that along in central Kansas
farms with improvements that We're
well worth SIX or seven thousand
dollars, would not now sell for three
thousand, and that real estate town or
country was very low, with no buyers,
that portion Of the country have no
means of irrigation except by reser-
yolrs and nothing of the kind has
ever been adopted, the farmers man
age to make living but as some ad-
initted they had no sure thing and
expected an occasional failure.
We heard new idea advanced as
to how farmers could become well
to do or well off, which is applicable
to Colorado, our informant said farm
ers gha havo their land free Of debt
make mistake in trying TO make
money, what they want to do is to
make good living, keep out Of debt
and in few years their land and
improvements have increased In val
ne enough to make them in property
well off or rich, with all the time
good living and little to spare. The
speaker said investigation as to how
the old farmers in the eastern states
became wealthy, would prove large
majority, by the increase of the val
ue of their lands.
Times are hard at Kansas City, of
course it would not appear SO to
stranger, SO many people and so
much going on, but wages are low
and money hard to get, we talked to
several men who work by the day
and to some who work on q salary,
and in answer to the query why they
did not go TO some of the thriving
towns in the weat and make a start
for themselves they said: when /
stop work here the living for the
family stops. | have no means to
look up location. and if / should
fail to get work l could not come
back home because some one would
have my place. There are thousands
of clerks. mechanics and laborers of