The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-06-22
EVOLUTION OF WICHITA.
How the Kansas Town Started With
G~reiffenstein's Cow and
Murdock's Eagle.
Agency Of Wind and Whiskers In
That Boom, Long Since
Subsided.
When the Excitement Was Highest tho
Editor Called = Halt-End
Of the Craze.

$3.50 ~ AA0WU ShAO
Editor Called , Halt-End
Of the Craze.
WIcHIrA, Kan, June 19.-W. b. Stevens,
staff correspondent of the st. Louis Globe
Democrat. sends that paper the following:
Tn man who begot the Wichita boom
cAme to the confluence OF tho Big and Little
Arkansas rivers in 1871. He found 800
people here and he started a newspaper.
Four years earlier Kit Carson. Gen. Har-
ney and Gen. Dent had signed a treaty with
the Indians at the meeting of the rivers.
Old Whirlwind is still loaRng around Ell
Reno. down in the territory, with the Indi-
ans duplicate of that treaty reposing in a
pouch under his shirt. The year after the
Indians signed away their rights Bill Grief
9enstsin came hero from the territory and
traded q COW for a quarter section. 16O
acres, on which the business center Of the
city is now built. There is no ancient his
tory about Wichita. The Indian who signed
the treaty is still begging whisky. Bill
Greidenstein is living in q mansion, with
two big fountains in front and a
$1,000 barn behind it. The man
"Ao AAnklAcu Uu5 UOOLu 6lGB uu-
der the outstretohed wings of an American
eagle. "hysterical bird" and writes on slips
OF paper three feet long about the destiny
of Wichita. He is sanguine in makeup and
manner. He has maize-colored whiskers,
long and silken. Thirty three years ago he
came to Kansas. Recently he wrote a poem
on his ffty-frst birthday. Yet, with all of
the wear and tear Of booming, with all OF
the kissing of Kansas suns and all of the
blowing of Kansas winds, those magnificent
burnsides maintain the delicaoy of their
sanRuine tint. And the eagle still screams
the praise Of Wichita.
II you get on the cars at a commercial
center in the morning you will land at a
commercial center in the evening. This
was the law of American cities which Mar
shall M. Murdoch formulated in 1871. II
held good for the country east of the Mis-
souri,. Why shouldn't it apply west of the
Missouri he asked. Then he followed the
radius OF a future days ride by rail from
Kansas City over the map of the state of
Kansas. His finger stopped on the junction
OF the Big and Little Arkansas. He looked
up and down four wide tributary val
leys IN which the prairie grass grew to the
saddle girths. He started his paper and be-
SsyAIs :" ~ . a. poople Deleve onMo Wlcnlta
OF the Missouri. He convinced the 800
people he found living on the quarter Bill
dreitfenstein had bought with a COW. He
infected them with his faith. Wichita be-
thi Il. y ~ ny 'I To- olaglnai pian ene nam
southwest from Kansas City to Wichita and
then run west. II veered off to the north,
however, and went winding around the
Great Bend. The Wichita people nearly
h;r saria .hr,,at ~ - au Az, ~ y :ne
= iittIes Noe vicia rs p enS aown INV sne lux
1identIv thar avar Tha s %rvSo ~ 1not 10 ou n,
If oom nron;ea an - oan.a - ~ way
down 70 W;ohita Rorthu;th ~ tha ia aan;a
& the ,]ocat;on obouaI ;tsalf '"o tMTsio
,eoame Tor tba tima +ha oreota.s
asathia shipn;nn nn;n+ ~"
continent. The ed;tor lnoLad n,+ rnn ~
Donoissa avanna and uow thrae ~, apo =
mrsi nIavino in front of as nan nnnhI;na
ho.aes trhssa vara W;nb;.a,. Nx;ia nnS9
woollv DAYS. Th GLORY Of the cattIa traaa
ruoya3 nng ,v,,ad g. ~. c = ! ~ = etaa
aiIy ths aditnT reatad b;a nan uant "a
east Ha ahowad %;a n rs va - W W." ta'Loh
Wichita to canitai;sta opd transnortat;ou
mapnates. Railroad after railroad headed
for tha innction If tha two r;nars 0 na 49,
the editor rrocIai,rsd that r,ona ,r,;n 49,,
unloaded from farm WAGONS INTO cars q a.
W;chita tban a+ INV n+har .hi, nso .
In the world. Ha ch.IIenoed cnmnoriSo~
His 1lpurnA anatpina6 him Ha yuroto IN
The h6O neonIa If 1871 orew n x non oni
donhled IN that. All vho "ama cornh+
the hoom fevar' Tha fan,a and tho ;nfao
tion srraed, Wichita mt IN c;tv mrs iTho
editor heo,n To co;n snch tLinr, mo-
s.Wicbita Tho wonder ~ a. vost y, s4ha
nasrlaas nr;ncas. nf tho Nv. r;ssn ...ho
maoical mnscot If the ,nariaian SIND the
Ike The rest of the conntrv Ian,bad tbnr
talked. then inonirad ,TLa pnnni.t;on
donhiod AGAR. The ed;tor,s sanctn,m ;a
HIGH mn in a hn ildino midwav on tho nrins
c;nal tborouohfar ,Thar" ;,ts ut ~
oenter q bio Inv vindow Tha editor,s
chair and tabie are close 70 THO w;nSnv
IA hha editor wrote he saw tho citv a,nnni
nnder the jnaniration IT ri. hoon,;no rar-
ms. Ons day ha tool, mn his nan dinrsa 4
m the ink, hesitated. and laid IL down. He
locked out upon the avenue seventy five
feet wide. Seven hundred men stood on the
corners buying and selling town lots. In
the jostling crowd were miners from the
Rock mountains and savings banks presi-
dents from Massachusetts. From all the
country between Portland, Ore, and Port
land, Me-, the Witicha boom had drawn in
vestors. In the crowds the editor could
pick out men whom he had known for years
as merchants, as farmers, AZ railroad Of
fioials, rs professional men in and about
Wichita. All had turned realestate specu-
lators.
The editor raised his eyes from the
throng. Three miles to the enst he saw
mansions and villas dottiuo the gentle
RlOpeR of Colleue Hill and of Fnirmount