The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-04-10
GALvEsTON'S GALL.
The Estimate Of Wichita Man Stirs Her
Up.

Mr.. L. D. Skinner, cashier of the State
National bank. of Wichita, went down to
Galveston. few days since to size up the
town. He went down probably as much
as for anything else, to satisfy his own
mind as to the truth of the conflicting
opinions entertained or expressed by
half dozen Wichita men who had
gone down there for the purpose
of veuturing a little money in a
speculative way, on the strength of
possible deep water boom" Some Of
these returned wanders talked one way
some another, but none of them so far as
could be ascertained risked any money on
possibilities which were not sufficiently
assuring. Certain it is that Mr.. Skinner
went down and looked the island, the
town and the bay all over, without the least
prejudice in the world. On his return an
EAGLE reporter asked him for a candid
estimate of the place, which he frankly
and unhesitatingly gave, and which APP
peared in these columns the next morning.
When the EAGLES interview had been
read by the editors of the News and
Tribune, respectively, a rush was made by
them for such Wichita men as could be
found, all of whom were questioned closely
touching SINNERS character. standing and
judgment, evidently with the intention of
roasting him in great shape The Wich-
tia men excused Skinner as best they
could, attributing his expressions, as APP
pearing in the EAGLE, to a misinterpreta-
ton Of the facts, his short stay and 50
forth. But the papers were bound to
pound him anyway, which they did to the
tune of a column or so each.
Now, those who know L. D. Skinner
know that he is a very careful conscien-
tious man, and that what he might have
to say about Galveston or any other town
or place or matter can be relied upon as his
honest conclusions, unclOuded by preju-
dice and uncOlOred by favoritism; and,
when in that interview, lie declared he
would rather, and as a business PROPOSE
ton, three times over, invest in Wichita
than in Galveston, and that as a specula-
ton, two or three times more could, in the
very near future, be realized in Wichita
property than in Galveston or in any other
town of Texas, he was not only talking
facts, and what he believed, but what any
level headed man who knows the towns
and their respective surroundings would
good viii for Galveston and hopes for its
deep water, but Wichita which is not one
fourth as Old is a better town, more metro
politan than is Galveston today. Calves
ton is surrounded by water, its Gulf side
and impossible port, its port side but a
shallow bay with no good drinking water
in sight. There is more wealth grown out
Of the ground, every year, within five miles
of Wichita than within fifty and five miles
of Galveston For hundred miles around
Wichita the country is capable Of sustain
ing one of the densest populations known
to civilization; for a hundred miles around
Galveston stands the negro's fOrlorn hut
and the cowboys lonely cabin thanked by
sluggish bayOus and low dank lagoOns and
leagues and leagues of level swamp lands
on the one side with salt water and prob
able six million dollar port on the other,
which port if made possible, will be of as
much advantage to Wichita proportion
ately as it Will be to Galveston.
i. d. SINNERS estimate of the relative
importance of Galveston and Wichita may
not suit the adventures who are trying to
work up a crazy boom in that town, nor
yet the good people of Galveston them
selves, but it exactly comedies with the es-
innate of nine out of ten of the Wichitamen
who have gone down from the illimitable
pastures and innumerable fields of this
bright altitude of health and wealth, to
the low-lying, fever exposed and misquito
veXed shores of the Gulf of Mexico.