The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-02-03
WICHITA sNUBBED A LEGISLATURES.
Memorable Visit of the Kansas Solons to the
Princess During the Boom.

| fffncesS During the Boom.
Somebody has suggested the plan of
having the legislature come down to
| Wichita in body to look at the Gar
field University, that splendid pile,
which it is determined shall be turned
/ into branch Normal school.
If the legislature should come, WITCH
tia would treat it better than she did
another legislature that visited Wich-
| tia several years ago.
1t was during the boom and the fame
| of Wichita had attracted the attention
OF the whole country. With the rest Of
/ the land, the curiosity OF the Kansas
| legislature then in session was awak-
| ened and the members, one and all, re-
! solved to come to down and see what a
| boom was like.
They arrived in the middle of the day
and were received by a few patriotic
Kansans at the depot. But the citizens
were not at the depot. AS matter Of
fact the citizen of Wichita at that
time was not a kansan and didn't care
continental for the Kansas legislature
or any other legislature for that mat
ter The citizen and the boomer had
came from Indiana and Ohio and Hi
nois and New York and New Jersey
and Texas and many of the men who
were making thousands on real estate
in the city would have been puzzled if
you had asked them il Wichita was in
Kansas or Missouri.
So the great event, the visit of the
state legislature, attracted no interest
to speak Of. There were not enough
carriages at the depot to carry the
legislators down from Oak street. Most
of them took the cars and others
walked.
When they reached town the streets
were packed with boomers and real
estate men. Those men were bent on
making money and they had no respect
for the legislator, who considered him
self mighty, at all. The Solons were
elbowed unceremoniously off the side
walks. If a legislator apprised any
one of his legislative identity he was at
once seized upon by half a dozen brok-
ers and asked if he didn't want corner
lot in Phillip and Orme's addition; and
if he didn't he could let il alone.
Several of the legislators grew tired
of being pulled and hauled and tried to
find a resting place. This could not be
done. The hotels were all full. No
man could rent house or room for
love or money. The architects could
not plan fast enough or the carpenters
build quick enough to satisfy the de-
mands of the growing city. Tired out
and weary, pushed and crowded, dis
regarded and snubbed the legislators
leaned up against telegraph-postS and
They We're not allowed to rest, how
ever, because they We're constantly the
prey of the real estate men. In sheer
desperation some of the men from To-
peka are said to have accepted bar
gains. disposed of them again in flf-
teen or twenty minutes, and left the
town five hundred or thousand dol
lars winner.
But for those who did not enter into
the whirlpool of the boom it was a
sorry time.
No one appeared to know that the
Kansas legislature was in town or
even that the Kansas legislature had
an existence. And when night came
there was no place to sleep. Some OF
the less frantic citizens of the town
sought out the legislators and their
families and provided them beds ar
private homes, but a great part of the
the visiting crowd had to sit up all
night or walk the streets.
When the legislators got back TO To- |
peka they proceeded to roast Wichita |
to a finish. But Wichita was never 10 |
blame. Everybody here was making |
money so fast that no one cared for a /
legislature and the representative from |
Wichita had no business to invite them |
TO come For what is every body's bus
mess is nobody's and everybody left II !
TO everybody else to entertain the leg
islature of Kansas on is memorable |
-;cit 70 Wichita