The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-11-25
4 DESERTED VILLAGE.
The Last Days Of a Once Thrifty and Lovely
Little City.

'Runnymede is no more" said A. L..
Miller of Norwich yesterday to an EAGLE
reporter. Nothing is now left to show
where a miniature English city. erected
on American soil, once stood but the little
Episcopal church standing there. solitary
aud alone. And, strange to say, that little
English church is named after an Irish
saint-Saint Patrick.
"The hotel, an edifice that would grace
larger town, has been torn down and
will be regretted in the Cherokee strip, at
the town of Alva.
Runymede. unlike its English name
sake, is doomed to obscurity. 1t was named
after the birthplace OF Magma Charta.
that mighty factor in the spread Of modern
civilization and modern liberty.
At one time Runnymede bid fair to be-
come quite a thrifty city, but the Pops
came and with them came a blight upon
every foreign enterprise in Kan
sas. The alien law was passed and
Runnymede tottered on its foundations.
Before its fall a railraod was about to be
built to it from Wichita, by English CAPT
talists, but when the Kansas legislature
passed the Allen act the inhabitants oil
RLnnymede packed their "boxes" and re-
crossed the Atlantic; Englishmen clutch
ed their capital in their fists and Runny-
mede fell and went into decay. 1t is no
more 1t is numbered with the dead with
out hopes Of resurrection. Many are the
stories that could be told OF Ruunymede
and many were the sprigs of English
gentility that it once contained 1t saw
nil atUnv-an6 Gja6 II
was started in 1883 by Ned TURNKEY and
Charles O'Connell and died in 1898 with DC
one left to mourn it. During its existence
it was the mecca of young men from the
British Isles who made pilgrimage &c
Kansas The hounds and the horses were
there, and steeple chases and coursing
matches were among the sports it offered
to its guests. To visit Runnymede
was practically to visit York
shire, and the welcome there
was warm and hearty. Every class Of
men from Dean to prize fighter found
hospitality there and the hand of Runny-
mede was eternally stretched forth to bid
men welcome. Nobody ever went to
Runnymede while it fiourished that die
not meet with royal welcome, for mel
llVeQ There VINO were royal III IuciT uOopi
tality. The founder is now in ireland
where he has succeeded to the manage
ment of his fathers estates while the others
who made it their homes are scattered t.
the four winds. Goldsmith's ''Desertet
Village" is bowler compared to It. TIT
Harper county swain goes whistling atte
his pillow through the main streets and ha
established his hog pen on the public park
| His geese and ducks battle on the onc
gorgeous fish pond, and his mule gulp
| water from the fountain that once adorned
it. He gathers the eggs after his thrift!
chickens where a college site once ex
isted, and hay rick stands erect OF
the very lot set apart for ali opera house
The RABBIT sits on his launches and comb
his whiskers on the very spot where tn
kennel once resounded with the bay o
arstocratic hounds aud a measley Gu
whines beneath the tree where the Eng
| lish mastiff once dosed in the sunshine Xix
| lion at rest.
The founder of Runnymede has depart
ed, its houses have departed, its erstwhll
glories have departed. 1t is deserted; it i
dead. Such is fate in the far populistl
west.