The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-03-30
TERRITORY Types

To the student of human nature in
Wichita the corridors OF the government
building leading to the court room offers
the best place for the pursuit of this in-
clination. While the coHrt is in session a
crowd can be found assembled there that
is cosmopolitan to a degree. There are
lawyers, litigants, witnesses, court officers
and spectators There are white people.
English, Irish. Germans, Bohemians.
Scandinavians, Italians, French, negroes.
half-breeds and others. There are people
of all sorts, sizes, colors and kinds.
Among the lawyers may be found digni-
nifed, elderly men OF the south
ern type; the middle aged. sub
siantial, business-like practitioner OF
the Kansas school; the young barrister
fresh from college; men but little older
than the last named, but who have aged
by starting in with the opening OF new
country, and it is not uncommon to hear
a young lawyer addressed as Judge"
And, by the way. these lawyers from the
territory are the king pins OF their respec-
tive localities. Many homes were secured
to the residents of that country only after
a hard legal battle and my lawyer" is a
great man. They are universally respect
ed and looked up to.
The litigants, witnesses and others from
the territory, by their general appearance,
good apparel and other evidences Of pros
perity make good advertisements OF the
progress of that country. But while many
in the crowd show all this, some may be
found, as is the case everywhere, Of en-
tirely different type. There are num-
ha~a ate ri
before this term. They look forward to
the time they may come to Wichita to
spend a week or two as their annual vaca-
ton, and with that expectancy character
izing the small boy as he looks forward to
Christmas or the Fourth of July. The
serving of subpoena on them means good
time. 1t means fun. 1t means picnic
And they are the most loyal people on
earth to their friends "A comrxds in
trouble is hero to them. They admire
him for his notoriety, and will stand by
him to the end.
But where the best nature and heartiest
good cheer crops out is among the negroes.
They are proverbially the happiest race III
the world, and those seen i'll the corridors
yesterday were no exception to the rule.
l.
the throng about the doors as possible, and
wander down toward the south windows
where, while pretending to be interested
in the view Of the city, they are in-
dustriously engaged in making love to
one another. Sweetly whispered nothings
20. They could give the members of a
counting school pointers in cupid's art
In other parts of the building, and par
ticularly on the stairways, may be found
groups of cattle men, cowboys. scouts,
pioneers and soldiers, telling stories of the
range, Of the hunting fields and the war
path One man told a bear story yester-
day that made the reporters hair curl but
later when friend introduced the report
er to him he described the story teller rs
the champion liar OF oklahoma. But the
stories are told and enjoyed just the same.
The Bohemians are the clannish ones.
They get off in crow to themselves
and jabber and smoke and
take little heed of what Others do or
| say. And speaking OF smoking. there are
| a good many smokers in the crowd but the
prize winners are the tobacco chewers.
Aud this favorite pastime catches them
all. The weed has, of course, invaded ev-
cry domain and while Dickens awarded
the palm to the American as a splitter,
were he alive today and could spend an
| hour In the corridor he would be kept
| guessing, a. the spectator there Is, to see
who can expectorate a montEful Of tobac-
| co juice the farthes and hit the cuspidor
the oftener. But they don't all hit it and
! ianitors make the air blue in the evening
swearing as they survey the checkered
| floor with all its tesselated beauty buried
| beneath the juice Of the weed.