The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1891-06-18
BILL ARP'S CHAT.
The Difference in Travel Now and Long
Ago.
atlanta Consultation.


KANSAS C1TY, No., June 13.-It is
not 80 far after all. Distance is now
counted by hours, and not by miles. A
man can leave Atlanta at s o'clock in the
morning and reach Kansas City by s
o'clock in the afternoon of fhe next day.
Many years ago, when the people of
Oregon asked for territorial govern
ment, Daniel Webster opposed it on the
ground that the territorial delegate could
not get to Washington city before his
term of Office expired. remember when
it took my father two months to make
the Journey from Boston to Georgia. He
never crossed railroad, for there was
none to Cross. I remember when Texas
vas considered the jumping. off place
the end of the earth-and going there
was environed with as many perilB as was
Stanley's exploration of Africa. Since
left home l have travelled in Georgia,
Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois,
Indiana, Missouri and Kansas, and it
took only thirty.two hours to do it. /
found the great State oil aAoat from St.
Louis to its western border. 1t has been
raining for two weeks with not a days
intermission and the farmers were alarm:
ed for their grain crop. Such crop
never saw in my life. Such an unbroken
stretch of heavy wheat as was ever in
sight of the 300 miles of railway. It
seemed to me enough to bread the world
for q year, and the Kansas c.op has been
put down at 50,000,00O bushels more.
Verify the poor will have cheap bread if
no disaster comes. But even now before
the grain is turning there are cowlicks
in almost every field and where the grain
is heaviest the fall-down is the worst.
To. day the sun shines and the heat comes
down in the good old-fashioned way, and
everybody is happy. It is all right now,
they say, and the crop is safe. This is
not a prairie country, nor is it broken
or mountainous country. 1t is more like
middle Georgia used to be when her
lands we're fresh-a hig b and gently
rolling country that drains itself and does
not wash. There is but little forest, but
the trees are the same-the old, familiar
oaks on the high lands, and populars,
walnuts, ash and elm trees in the low
grounds. The distant farmhouses were
surrounded with fruit trees interspersed
with the tall and graceful lombardy pop.
lars that pointed heayenward like the
spires of the city churches. Our route
was for 100 miles along the banks Of the
great Missouri upon whose bosom hun.
dreds of steamboats, used to bear their
burdens, but not now. The reign of the
steamboat has passed. saw but two
during the day and they were small, ugly
crafts and were loaded with wood. This
fast age will not wait on paddle wheels.
The Kansas beef must get to New York
with dispatch, and the Georgia water.
melons must be hurried away to Kansas
City. A lady remarked to me that she
supplied her table every day with the
luxuries of every State, and they we're
about as good as where they were grown.
see in the market the most perfect and
beautiful peaches, and they seemed to
me as fresh and luscious as if just pulled
from the trees in Texas, where they came
from.
But the transportation problem is not
yet solved. Corn is 50 cents bushel
here and $1.10 in Atlanta. 1t looks like
the difference is too great, considering
how cheap the railroads can carry freight
on long hauls.
Kansas City is a brand new town and
most beautifully laid out. The streets
are paved like Pennsylvania avenue in
Washington. Their street car lines are
all cable lines, with perhaps one excep-
tion, and the metallic ring of the wire
ropes underneath the ground makes
pleasant music, and sounds like the
hummipg of bees in the corn tassels.
These lines connect by transfer, and you
can ride ten miles upon them for nickel.
The suburban residences are beautiful,
and failed to find any place where the
poor folks lived. There are no slums or
dirty hollows, and it seemed to me that
the large majority of the inhabitants were
either rich or in comfortable circumstan-
ces. "Are all these beautiful homes paid
forp" I asked, "Not altogether" said
nv friend. "The constitutional mortgage
is upon most of them. This mortgage is
feature of the great west, and makes the
place healthy and the man diligent
Everything is moved here by mortgages,
Our records were examined not long ago
and the mortgages footed up $100,U00, 600
in Kansas City" Where does the
loaned money come from?" said l.
"MostIy from Boston and the east" said
he. You read a good deal about the
Kansas mortgages on the farms, but
those very mortgages have built up and
developed the country and the farmer
has got the benefit without interest
Most of them had nothing to start on and
they have managed to keep their farms
for six or eight or ten years and if they
have to give them up they generally find
q new creditor who will try them again
They are not in the pitiful condition you
read about, but they belong to the
Alliance and will kick up dust among
the politicians. What they want or will
try to do to better their conditions has
not yet developed, but man with big
debt hanging over his home has no par
ticular attachments to the old parties and
is ready to join new one that will prom
ise him relief. The Alliance will sweep
this country for time, but what 1t will
accomplish remains to be seen.
I visited the great packing houses here
and was amazed at the magnitude and
perfection of this butchering business.
wished to see it one time and that is
enough. It is like our desire to see q
hanging-one sight is enough and will
last us lifetime. What life it is for e
man to take life every minute of the day
There he stands with his great muscular
arm and his long double:edged knife,
and every minute strikes the heart of g
hog as it is swung along before him.
The hogs are suspended by one leg and
moved along by roller machinery, and
they are ever coming with life and going
away struggling and bleeding with death.
The Juicy canvassed ham chat sdorns our
dinner table has passed this horrible
ordeal, and fear that will not be able
to forget it. I met q fine old gentleman
who is a vegetarian and would abolish
the whole business if he could. He
believes it sin to kill any one of Gods
living creatures for food. Well, / admire
his humanity and T have observed that
when man grows old he is inclined that
way. When teeth and appetite decay
vegetable food is the best for man.
Milk is good for the baby and 30 when
our second childhood comes over US We
neither need nor care for animal food.
This butchering will 60 on, I reckon, and
O man said In ma that If we didn't kill up