Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1893-01-28
WINTER IN ST. LOUIS.

Skating Parties-Ioe and Coal Both
Cheap-A Nurses Good Fortune.
ST. LOUIS, Mo-, Jan. 20.-In two Of
the great parks of the city. Lafayette
park and Forest park, skaters, by
thousands, have enjoyed themselves
since New Years Day. The skating
in each of the parks is equally good.
but there is q social distinction be-
tween those who skate IN Lafayette,
and those who go out to the park. In
Forest park, it was a good-humored
scramble all the time to keep out of the
way of somebody, while in Lafayette.
most of the skaters know each other,
and the skating goes on with much
more formality. Some Of the fashion
able people gave skating parties in
Lafayette park during the week. In
vitations, lettered inside the picture
of a skate, would be sent out, and two
prizes would be given, one for the best
skater, and the other for the skater
who got the most falls. It is seldom
that the cold weather ever lasts this
long in st. Louis, and the ice concerns
are making the best of it Some Of the
companies are cutting fifteen thous-
and .tons a day. This sounds encr-
nous, but in fact it is rthe report Ct
only one of the seven embarrassing
syndicates of the city. All of these
say that the price of ice this summer
will be one-fourth less than it was
last season.
Speaking Of ice, coal is naturally
suggested, and it is worth while to
say that in every city of the size Of st.
Louis, just now, the price of this fuel
is at least one-third higher than it Is
here. One can buy soft coal here at
II cents a bushel and anthracite at
S7.25 ton from any coal dealer. Conn
pare those prices with those that pre-
vail in New York, Chicago, Boston and
Cincinnati, even, and see what an ad-
vantage St Louis has. These prices
are to the retail trade; the wholesale
consumers, Of course, pay much less.
The reason for the low prices is one
that assures the St Louis man that
his cheap coal can never be made
higher by combine. The coal capital
here has tried TO control the market,
and failed for natural causes. Within
thirty miles of the city, in this State
and Illinois, there are inexhaustihle
beds of coal, so near the surface that
it takes but little money to mine It
Farmers frequently strike beds Of coal,
while blowing, sink shafts with
their hired men, and then sell out to
company of miners. New mines are
opened every year by new men, and
the supply is kept up to the demand, so
that there is never any violent huctua-
tion in the price. In many cities, the
coal bill of the man of small means
worries him more than his rent In
st. Louis, his coal costs him hardly
more than his street car fare.
:. The true tales of money made in real
estate in St Louis just now, have Q
pleasant sound to the ear, like stories
one hears Of fortunes got In mining.
! There are 80 many electric railways
being built in and around the CITY that
the man who bought lot last year
for homestead finds very likely this
wear that it Is too valuable for him TO
hold for that purpose, and he sells II
and buys another still furtaer in the
suburbs, which he will probably find
himself selling next year for the same
reason. One instance Of this occurred
to hospital nurse. She had bought
a.lot on time payments for thousand
dollars, paying $40 month. Her In
come was thirty and she lived on less
than twenty. Before she had paid
$500, the Assembly gave suburban
road the right to run by the block
where her lot was. A SPECTATOR
bought her lot for $1,000 cash He
will make money, of course, but she
has got a sum of money whose inter-
est will provide for her as long as she
4 lives. Hundreds OF similar anecdotes
might be told of people who have
bought suburban property in the last
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