The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-01-10
Facts and Perhaps Few FAncies-vicks-
burg as 1t Was and Is-Saved by Dream.
Impress of the Heavy Hand Of Tine.
[snscia, Cor-es,oudence. ]

| marked:
.'See that little peninsula youder, with its
three expresses intertwined with Spanish
moss:"
| Yes"
swell, I never see that spur of land with.
out thinking of the time when l saw it first.
| A cousin of mine and were on our way to
| New Orleans. We were mere schoolboys,
neither of us over II, and were of On a va.
cation frolic. We were out on deck to-
| gether as the boat went drifting by that
| spur, when denly-though the day was
very sultry-both my cousin and began to
| shiver, and l cried out, oh, how deathly
cold I amp
So am T. said my cousin, dropping into
| seat with face as white as snowflake.
1t was singular feeling that possessed US,
but it soon passed away.
| well, our vacation in New Orleans drew
to close, and we prepared to return home.
"'When does the boat leave, Hal:'
queried of my cousin.
"'We are not going home by the boat.
he replied
But we have return tickets 1 said.
No matter he answered. We'll &c
back by rail-
L WON'T I replied testify. 4 have river
passage and purpose using it, at the same
time opening my wallet to look at my ticket.
ut was missing, and, what was worse, /
hadn't money enough to pay my way home.
Hal saw my dilemma. 1'll tell you what
I'll do, Dick he said. If you'll return with
me by rail, I'll pay your way was com.
PEELED perforce to surrender, and by rail we
returned.
well the next day the papers recorded
terrible steamboat explosion on the Mis-.
sissippi at the very place where Hal and !
had felt so strangely, and it was the very
boat on which we were to have taken
passage! Hardly passenger escaped death
in its most dreadful form.
81 handed the paper to Hal. 4 knew it
would happen he said Il dreamed it in
all it's details, and knowing you would
only laugh at me if told you my dream
crept out Of bed and stole your ticket while
you slept. Here it is, and he handed me
the ticket"
AS my friend concluded his story OUT
boat touched the Vicksburg wharf, and we
walked up the steep street to the main
thoroughfare. Nearly 20 years have filed
by since then, bat the city is no larger now
than it was in that far day, and its appear.
ance has undergone no perceptible change
In the. meantime cities have sprung into
existence all over the north and south,
hamlets have put on metropolitan frills,
and hardly town between the two sea-
boards that hasn't felt the touch of progress.
Why, then, has Vicksburg stood still
through all these years. / think the reason
can be traced to the fact that its shipping
facilities have been in a large measure
ruined by the recession of the river. Once
it had one of the best ports on the Father
of Waters. Today it has no port at all for
steamboats, of heavy draft mean none
within distance of less than three miles
Vicksburg is lovely if not lively city,
however. 1t is EMPOWERED in semitropic
foliage-the matchless magnolia being con.
spicuous by reason of its glossy leaves and
its great sweet, radiant blossoms Flowers
are everywhere-in the garden plots of the
poor in the lawns of the rich trailing down
from terraces and reaching up to the CHM
ney tops of almost every home. And. oh,
such flowers!
The most salient feature of Vicksburg in
point of architecture is it's courthouse 1t
is a large, strikingly elegant edifice and
stands many feet above the sidewalk ON a
plateau that occupies square. 1t seems
~ VIC tOuCu vi t!ult, iUE IL
stood there when the thunder guns of the
Federals were BON harding the city, and
marks of the flying bombs can be seen IN
places upon its walls, but it is as substan-
tial a building today as it was in the year
that it was built and bids fair TO grace the
green plateau for a century to come.
strolled out toward the Federal GENE
terry. The road for a part of the way wound
1<., l. ,,rll H. e
banks were the caves which the people Of
Vicksburg dug during he red, terrific siege
of their city way back in 1863, and in which
they resided, maintaining life the while by
feeding on mule meat These caves are the |
haunts of tramps today and are Uttered |
with whisky bottles. ssrdine cans and other |
emblems of tranphood.
/ said that the Vicksburg of 20 years ago |
is the Vicksburg of today. that it has !
known 10 change in the sweep forward of /
the years, but, alas, il has known the uni !
versal change that comes to every commu- |
nifty on our swinging star, for the young |
men | met IN that far time are men of mid /
die years today, and many of the elderly /
people who welcomed me with kindly 1
handclasp then have passed beyond the /
sea into the unknown and +
sphere.
have met many representative citizens
while here, lawyers, journalists. poets and
others, and | am rather staggered 10 find
that many of them are pronounced Theos-
ophists. | hardly looked for any mem bers
OF that mystic cult in a community bearing
the staid. conservative, orthodox reputation
of Ficksburg, but here they are, and they
much of The brains, scholarship
and worth Of the city
The Nlcksburgers are q very hospitsble
people, and saw no evidence OF thai poiit-
ical intolerance with which they are &C
cased. They are cheerful withal. though !
they have passed through war. pestiieEee
and famine, and they are an American PEG
pie, few foreigners being found within their
gates-for We can hardly regard The blacks
as foreigners. though belonging 20 . RAGS
that is Numerically different from our
OWN These blacks Swarm everywhere AID
constitute Laore than half the population.
Last Sunday | went for stroil up u Ssh
ngtou street, the principal thoroughts-e II
he city. and by actual count ! was askszi
los times IL | would have shine, . and
every one who thus saluted ne was youth
II African hresge. aEe every ozs O. them
must have SEEN that Iay shoes had Deza
Jlacked less than an hvIr before
Will HCgs.g1 KEgsAS.