The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-08-11
TDjnn Pacific

| EdSttfu NtS1puIc, NJ. Q. LEW u. Al
Eastern Vestibule, No. 9, $50 a. II
The are east-bound trains and are
| used by nearly all the Kansans who
have TO visit Topeka on business. Ii
| is true that so hard is it TO reach To
peka at a seasOnable hour that most
| of the statesmen, using passes, go to
| Kansas City and come back later in
the day, or the next, day, as there is
so much time to be idled away, and
Kansas City is s. lively town. But if a
man does not go to Kansas City, if
he is undertaking to save money on
railroad fare, he will find that coming
into Topeka on these trains, he will
wait over either till midnight or noon
tells and paying for it and neglecting HIS
business at home. 1t is estimated that
a Kansas man who visits Topeka twice
a month idles away three weeks of
time every year and pays the Topeka
hasherieS for it
To say that the 10000 people in To-
pel1a manipulate the affairs of that city
for the benefit Of the two or three
hotel and three score of boarding
houses located there would be twadle.
No such thing is attempted or accom-
plished. Topeka's location as town is
beyond any help within Topeka s
power. That it is impossible to reach
Topeka, transact business and get out
in, <f l.
cept from the eastern portion of Kan
sas, is not Topeka'S fault, but her mis-
fortune. Kansas City, great rail-
road center LES only three hours ride
to the east of the capital city of Kan
sas. All time cards of all roads are so
arranged that Kansas City is reached
by all through trains in the morning
and evening. 1t is because Of this that
Topeka, find that in order to transact
a couple hours business with the state
of Kansas they must reach Topeka
either at an nuSeeminly early hour of
the morning or in the afternoon when
the state house is being closed up for
the day. Having arrived and trans
acted whatever is on hand the Kansas
man from the southern, northern or
western part of the state, must remain
over in the state capital from fifteen
to twenty-four hours and taking
train either in midday or at midnight
If he takes the midday train, he is no
condition for work on the morrow,
what little sleep he gets being broken.
That this circumstance Of timetables
helps the three leading hotels and three
score boarding houses should not be
taken into consideration. The time Of
every business man and statesman is
valuable, and what he objects to is not
the paltry hotel bill, but the idle time
spent in the hotel corridor that should
be passed with the books and business
at home.
An ideal capital would be one where
it was possible to arrive in the morn
ing and leave for home at 6 or o'clock
in the evening.
This will always remain impossible
4oI VI NCStcIu. cOulnclu
and northern Kansas while Topeka re-
mains the capital of the state, because
the great railroad systems of the west
are not going to alter their time tables
throughout the length and breadth of
the land for the accommodation of the
Kansas statesmen. If some central
town situated at least twelve hours
ride from Kansas City were the capital
Of Kansas this difficulty would be OBJ
waited. OF course the boarding house
and hotel business would be seriously
hurt in such a capital, but the people
who had business at the capital could
be accommodated greatly.
An immediate change Of the capital
Of Kansas is too much to be hoped for.
But it must at some future time be
more easily reached by the people of
the state at large. If western Kansas
does not die completely of hamilton or
be dwarfed by corporate schemes and
Topeka press lies about hot winds, it
will grow TO a figure some day where
It will insist on reaching the capital
and getting back again without con-
suming two days time for twenty min |
lteS business