People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1895-08-29
Senator FOrney in Texas.

~ HOpO gOu VIII poiNVu hN "hi4N
tell you about a few things l have
seen on my way here and what l found
here. l must first explain why I am
here,
Nearly two years age d few men
undertook to ihaugbrate system by
which railroad could be built from
Manitoba to Galveston and keep it
out Of the hands of the railroad cor
porations by the people taking the
bonds, and when the bonds were all
taken up by being received for freight
then the road to be turned over to the
states, owned and controlled by the
state, and all freight and transporta-
tion charges to be actual expenses.
This is called the Pop railroad be-
cause it smaCkS of state ownership.
The hard times have marred the pro-
gress of this grand and noble under
taking, but praise be to the memory
Of Buffalo Jones, Fox Winnie, Con-
gresham Featherstone, Noah Allen.
Fred Close and Others who by their
untiring energy have succeeded in
raising sufficient funds to complete
and equip the road from this point to
Port Bolivar. This is a strip of land
about twenty miles long lying along
side the gulf coast between the gulf
and Galveston bay which varies in
width from one to three miles. The
railroad passes down upon this strip
OF ground to the point, At the point
of this peninsula the government is
expanding six million dollars in put
thug in the jetties for the purpose of
establishing a deep.water harbOr and
is now considered a grand success.
The railroad company has laid out a
town at the point of this land five
miles from which, upon an island, is
located the city of Galveston, $4,000
population. This road is called the
Gulf and Interstate. The trains will
be carried across the mouth of the bay
upon fiat boats and land in the city,
Nearly ten miles of the road is built
and the steel upon the grouud for the
balance. The track laying is now be.
ing done by a track machine at the
rate of two miles per day, taking
thirty-fve men to operate it. The
famous Buffalo Jones is chief of Con.
structiOn and is in command of all the
forces, and all he lacks of being happy
would be the presence of his famous
horse, Comanche Bill, and his buffalo,
oxen and cart. If times will permit
and the people will help this road will
crawl on nOrthward like the mighty
serpent until its head rests 10 the icy
regions of Manitoba while its tail
swaggerS in tie burning sands of the
gulf of Mexico. This road if COM
pleted would be a God send to Kan
sas by placing it 700 or 800 miles
nearer the markets Of the world, be-
sides placing US in direct communica-
tion with the tropical portions of the
United States, the products of which,
if transportation charges would per-
NIT, could be exchanged for the prod.
ucts of Kansas to a great advantage of
both the people Of Kansas and Texas.
l enjoy the distinction of putting up
the first hundred dollars which were
spent in this enterprise.
Oh, yes l nearly forgot what l
started out to say: "Why am here
and what | saw"
/ lam assisting Mr.. Jones in the rus
thing material, purchasing supplies,
etc. Quite number Of Kansas men
are down here. The time is now ripe
for investment along this road.
left Belle Plaine the 18th of July.
The corn was then burning up and
some of it ruined. l rejoice to learn
that you are now blessed with abun-
dance of rain. The corn from Null
vane south nearly across the Strip or
until darkness surrounded US, showed
the effect of the drOuth and practical
ly failure. When daylight came, we
were crossing Red river and l noticed
everything green and fresh. They
have had abundance of rain. Oats
are badly damaged. Corn is the best
they evel produced and the acreage is
more than doubled. The low price
of cotton induced the farmers to plant
corn. Thousand upon thousands of
acres of oats were still in shock with
the grass as high as the shocks. Con-
tinual rains prevented threshing.
The first four or five hundred miles in
Texas the corn was very good and
ripe. The balance of the journey of
nearly three hundred miles there is no
corn or oats raised to speak Of.
Considerable of this coast country
is fat and swampy, although elegant
rice land. The rice grows in water.
They SOW the rice in April, May or
June whenever the ground is dry
enough to weed in and they harvest it
with selfbinder with long mud claws