Arizona republican., 1891-12-12
THE WAYS OF THE WEST.
THEY ARE NOT LIKE THE WAYS
 OF THE EAST.
Walter weliman Has Returned to ue City of Washington and Writes Enter tainingly of the Persons and Things He Saw While Away.
nndence of TIE REpuHLGcANl

Cores pondence of THE REPUBLICAN,
 WASHINGTON, Dec. 6.-I have been "out west" The people there are more interesting than they are in the east They are, some way, different people They are of the same flesh and blood, vote the same presidential tickets, fly the same flag and soar the same eagle But you wouldn't be surprised to hear them speak a different language They look like foreigners, or else we do in the east. am not sure which. There was hot weather when was in the west, but didn't see anybody in the light, sum- merish clothing which we have taken up in the east. Westerners wear the same weight of clothing the year round, and the same shoes. High silk hats are scarce beyond Chicago Even in the city of the fair the motley crowd on the street is for the most part slouch hat crowd. The men of Chicago pay about one-half as much attention to dress as they do in New York, and farther west the discrepancy is still greater.
 A lltdlcI sCCh from box does not look like theater audience in New York Charley Hoyt, the theatrical manager, once told me he could be carried around the country blindfolded, in ignorance of his where abouts, and if taken on the stage of a theater and permitted to look through the peephole at the audience, could tell whether he was in New York or Boston or Chicago or Kansas City. Il can't tell you by what sign or indication l could distinguish one audience from another" he said, but the difference is there, strongly marked, unmistakable though indescribable. l believe he could do it.
 The people of the west are darker than those of the east. It is easy to see that. They live more in the open air. They are Drowned by the sun and roughened by the winds of the prairies. This is as true of the women as of the men. West of the Mississippi you see very few fat men. Even middleweight men are rare. The rule is, tall, dark, dark haired, brown or black beard, thin. What it is that makes so many men of the prairie west shoot up more than six feet in the air, and yet keep their weight down to 160 or l65 pounds, could not discern. But any one who travels much in that region must have noticed the remarkable stat ure of the men as whole.
 Of course the average of humanity in the west is more uncouth than in the east. In the hotels and dining cars you see more men, and women, too, eating with their knives or with napkins tucked under their chins. West of Chicago you ~ will hear three times as many persons sucking soup out of their spoons as east of that point But in kindliness, true, sincere politeness, absence of affectation and priggishness, the westerners beat us every time. If you go out from the east and think to take them up for hayseeds or pumpkins you will make sad mis- take.
 "You ought to come down east" said l, just little boastfully, to train ac- quaintance, "and see our great build ings, our elevated and electric railroads Why, in Washington we have an cleo tric road six miles long"
 Yes" said my friend, ''the electric railway is great thing. In Denver we have a line nineteen miles long. We have very good elevated roads in Kansas City. 1 was surprised to discover while in Europe that they have no elevated roads there. did not like the under ground roads in London at all In Der lin. Vienna and even in St. Petersburg found the electric road used to good ad- vantage. When l was in South America l rode all over the suburbs of their large cities on beautiful cars propelled by cleo tricity."
 had thought my friend needed travel! They are the greatest travellers in the world, the people of the prairie country. They think nothing of a journey of 800 miles. Almost every man you meet has been all over the western country-to Denver, the Black Hills, to the coast, to Chicago, and very many of them have visited the east and the Old World. They are so fond of travel out there that the trains are always crowded. At this sea- son of the year the roads are running extra trains, and yet it is almost impos- sible to find a seat. Crops are big and times promise to be good, and in conse- quence thousands upon thousands of women and children are coming east to their old homes to see their fathers and mothers and grandparents.
 The railroads are overrunning that country at tremendous rate. The maps of Nebraska, Kansas and the Da- kotas are being cobwebbed by the lines which indicate iron highways, Really the railroads have been in measure, and still are, the pioneers So keen has been the competition for territory be-