The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-04-03
"REMINISCENCES OF UNCLE BILLY
ROSS
As Successful Potato Raiser--How
Supply and Demand" Scooped
Him
To the Editor of the Eacle-

over period Of twenty years, to Wich-
tia and Sedgwick county, 1 am reminded
Of times and places when and where the
natural laws Of supply and demand
reigned supreme, and l may here relate
a few incidents in the history of our
trade and commerce, that may appear
| like fiction to the farmer and merchant
of today. did not come to Kansas be-
cause / was poor, had plenty of money
and good clothes. I left Illinois and
! struck out into the wilderness to get rid
of Horace Carpenter, and may tell your
readers some day how got rid of him.
| On the day that first arrived in Wich-
tia 1 piloted my prairie schooner
down through the main and only
| street there was. TO the south end
| of town, where l stopped and entered a
store that stood away up on stills at the
edge of a slough that run across Main
street, little south of Second street, and
bought some goods from Arthur Allen.
be being chief clerk of the concern. 1
next inquired if there was no newspa-
per in town, and being directed to place
where they were starting a paper" l
went up little outside stairway into a
little apartment, and found two men
running off the first issue of the first pa
per ever published in Wichita Vi
dette''-the sentinel on horseback
mounted on guard upon the boundary
line between the savage barbarian and
the semi-civilized barbarian. These two
men We're endowed with a bushel o
brains, but the Lord had also furnished
them with big, generous hearts, and
that's why you don't see Bill Hutchinson
and Fred Sawyer every day driving along
the boUlevards in an open barouche, with
a "nigger coachman,' and funkies in
livery,
Just at that period in the history of the
"Peerless Princess" and the Great Ar
kansas valley" there was a fearful de-
mand for food for man and beast, and
also for building material, and the supply
was so limited that -four cost IS per
100 pounds, corn meal $500, corn and
potatoes 50. 90 per bushel, salt $1100 per
barrel, side meat 81 to 40 cents per
pound, lumber $1,000 per 900, shingles
$1,000 per 1000, other things in proper
ton, and money could not always buy
goods even at these figures, prices ruling |
higher or lower than the above accord /
ing TO the condition of the roads between |
here and Emporia. So that mans |
might be demanding" food for
two or three days at a time without any
supply" in sight. When l got set |
tied on the Minnesota, my next door
neighbor was Bob. Lawrence, and the |
between our doors was twenty I.
miles.
In the fall of 70 started for Emporia
after load Of supplies, and [ stopped in
at WOodman's store and bought a side
of bacon from Jimmie Black. to be sent
down the trail to the Ninnescah ranch |
for my family. l handed him so bill
to pay for it, and he handed me back %
cents in change. On my return from
that trip party of us Were going out on
a Buffalo hunt, and | went to the
ranch to get a couple of bushels of
5helled corn. They sold it to travellers
for $500 a'bushel, but as | was a neigh
Dor they let me have two bushels
for $500. On returning from the hunt,
and having nine quarters of meat for
my share, | made another trip to Wich-
TIA for provisions. | might say we did
not put up at the Carey in those days:
we generally occupied apartments in
he back yard of the store where we
raded. and after unhitching we secured
)ur teams by passing one end of a chain
through the spOkes Of a wheel slipping
he other end through a ring and then
around a horses neck and made fast with
paddock. as the demand for horse
iesh, like everything else. was greater
han the supply" This done, we took
upper. got under the wagon rolled up in
/ blanket. and slept the sleep of the just
Among other things that | wanted on this
occasion was flour. 1t was So per hun
lred. But it happened that a farmer
wing near Cedar Point. hearing of the
zig prices at Wichita. had a lot of his
,wn wheat ground into flour. and ar
lived in town during the dav with a
DAD to sell. But the -four and feed men
rot up combination" on him, and
would only give so much. He said that
led Oe id if he'd take it: he'd peddle
{ round first; and l bought six hundred
rom him at So a hundred, and saved $50
" the operation.
In the spring of II I planted fourteen
bushels OF potatoes, having hauled them
rom EmporIa: Early rose. shaker rus
cts and peach blows. Ny early rose
a big Weld. That summer the
ounuy was full of cattle men from
'eXas. When they arrived on the Mn
eScah they seemed famished for Irish |
otatOes and onions, Of which latter veg !
table had sOwn u quarter of an acre
here were three ranches near the trail !
rossing and each of them were Compel /
no for my truck" but / was in no :
AIRY to close with them. | had been :
iiIaged up 10 this time myself; | was ;
ow a "bloated mOnOpOlist:" I had a :
corner on the vegetable market. and it I
-as about time for me to get some of ;
~ money back, When NV early rose j
-ere ready TO dig. Mr.. Rocky came :
long and paid ne 500 in advance and /
ngaged all my early potatoes at 8 per a
usheI. my onions at twenty cents a . (
unch of one dozen. and half an acre of C
-ater melons at fifty cents apiece. He I
lld the potatoes at 81 a peck: onions. T
our punches for 81; melOns. seventv-fve i
antS each. In this case the demand / q
as out of all proportion 10 the supply: 5
ut the natural laws of supply and de C
land worked ike a charm. The pro- v
ucer was remuuerated, the merchant q
lade a fair profit, the consumer didn't /.
lex. and everything was satisfactory all u
)und especially 10 myself r
/ viii mention one more circumstance a
lat did not have such a satisfactory n
.rmination. and may help to illustrate r
ow a simple and generous heart NAV C
lmetimeS betray and mislead the best n
/ heads. l was always very successful U
growing potatoes. and I often wonder Z