The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-08-02

population of Kansas cities over o,OOO:
Kansas City, Kan. .3S, 3lt
| Topeka................ ......'-.... ID ,uUI
NlchlCa.... .-...-....' .''.''--. - -.
| LeavenWOrth. ...... ........--.'.'..-.! 10 COG
Atkinson -.....--'..'. 10 0V we
Fort Scott. ........'. l. 9f-
! Lawrence. ...........'..'.'....' 9'99l
| Arkansas City. ...-...-......'.''.. o'o1'
This shows Kansas has nine cities OF
over eight thousand, against New Hamp-
| shire's five.
By reference to other reports New
Hampshire has seven towns between
four and eight thousand, and Kansas
nine; therefore, the statement that
''Most Kansas cities are not as large as
New Hampshire villages" is not true.
That portion of the article referring par
ticuIarlv to Wichita is as follows:
UNFORTUNATELY, most Kansas cities
change hands many times before they els
appear For illustration, take Wichita,
the Wonder of the West in which New
Hampshire people are interested TO the ex~
tent of several millions. seventeen years
ago it was an Indian trading post; half
dozen wears ago it was a country village.
]
Spectators got mold it, doomed it, and in
three years it grew from village into a
city as large as Manchester in population
and much more magnificent. Two
wears ago it was finished, and 1t had then
six miles of business streets, lined with
splendid stores and banks built of marble
and sandstone and plate glass; sixty miles
of street railway reaching sfar out into the
prairie, through corn fields which were
staked out into lots upon which to borrow
money in the east; splendid churches and
school houses, the foundations OF I. M.
G. A. building to cost million; female
college; fine residences, luxurious hotels
and no end of millionaries who had got
rich, as they supposed, by swapping prop
hundred per cent advance every time.
To support all this there was a
shoe factory which never contained shoe
maker, a watch factory which wanted a
| tenant, packing house that was expected
to employ $50 men, and the Burton STOCK
Car company, five miles out in the sub
urbs. 1t required, it was said, $4,000
mechanics to build the town, as 1t was
built in two or three years, and while they
were there business doomed and there
were scarcely houses enough to shelter
them or stores enOught to supply them.
When the town was diminished they de-
parted, and more than a hundred and ntty
of the stores they finished last have never
had an occupant. Today there isn't legltl-
mate business enough in the town to sup
port Rochester or Great Falls. Whence
comes the money to produce this marvel
ous DEVELOPMENT? From Nashua, keene
and other New England cities. When will
it return? When Wichita is what she has
claimed to be. In our Judgment, never.
But the Kansas farm is just as good today
as it ever was Crops have failed and
l. hut lpncy a : Tpnnlp
eat bread and meat the corn and wheat
fields of Kansas will have a value, proba-
bly, a slowly but steadily increasing value,
and be good security for a reasonbly
amount loaned upon them"
1t saws: Unfortunately, most Kan
sas cities change hands many times be.
fore they disappear. None of the cite;
of Kansas mentioned herein are any
more likely to disappear than Manches
| ter, Nashua. Concord or any other New
Hampshire City, but have more advan
tages to make them grow than any il
New Hampshire.
For illustration, take Wichita, ''tht
wonder of the west" several railroad:
cross each other there; spectators got
| hold of it, doomed it, and in three years
it grew from a village into a city as large
as Manchester in population and much
more magnificent" No place in New
| Hampshire has over six railway line;
! leading out of it: Wichita has ten
! Wichita never grew to be as large a;
| Manchester-never claimed it-and there
! is no record to show it; but Wichita may
/ be more magnificent, and if that should
/ be true ii is certainly to Wichita'S credit
six miles Of business streets, lined
| with splendid stores and banks, built OF
! of marble and sandstone" We have
/ splendid stores and banks, but never had
/ six miles of them, and there Is not a mar
/ BILE front building in the city. The news
! papers claimed sixty miles of street rail
/ way operated by horses. TWENTY-FIVE
miles have been changed to electric, and
/ there are still several msleS of horse cal
1 lines. Not a lot was staked out to Dor
/ row money on. If any money was loaned
/ on lots by the eastern money lender il
was because he believed it was good Sc
cur.ty, or he would not have done it.
| We are proud of our churches
and school houses. The foundation
of the Young Mems Christian association
/ building was laid, not for a $1,000, 600
| but a SO. 600 building. 1t Is complete
and occupied by the association. Oul
residence and homes are fine, and oul
/ citizens enjoy them.
/ The writer SAYS 10 support all thi:
/ there was shoe factory, which never
/ contained a shoe maker" This i not
| true, because the factory although small
employed over fifty shoe makers at ;
time and its output viii compare favor
ably with any factory Of similar size il
/ the east.
A watch factory which wanted {
/ tenant" If the eastern watch makel
had fulfilled his part Of the contract th'
watch factory would have been II opera
/ ton.
A packing house that wa
expected 10 employ 80 men Here 4
/ ignorance personifed. One Of our pack
ing houses has 10 people on its pay roll
and the other has fully as many Il not
+ more The official report Of the packing
! business az Wichita, as published by tbs
/ Cincinnati (O.) Price Current. shows that
/ Is. GOO hogs we're packed here between
( March /. 1891. and July .. 1891. which
Is more hogs than New Hampshire r.
! ports IN the whole state.
The Burton Stock Car company. nv,
/ miles ont in the suburbs" l. Is only
I four miles out. and a western city has a.
much right to have a suburb as eastern
cities. There never were Is, eco mecban