The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-03-05

any. 1t is assumed, of course, that a
family, husband. wife and grown daugh-
tors, if any, vote as unit, but we have
had noticeable exceptions. How it is
now no one knows. as the Australian
ballot oonceals all that Of course
woman suffrage has worked no great
moral reform. as that sort of thing is
not done by voting. Wyoming has i'm
proved wonderfully since the wild times
you remember. but all new countries
improve, and it may be mere coinoi-
dence. AS to women on juries. well, it
has been found more convenient to have
jury duty done by men, except IN some
rare instances like those mentioned by
Blackstone, where the Judgment of dis
Greet matrons is thought necessary.
Continued attendance in court and be.
ing shut up in jury rooms are much more
inconvenient for ladies than for men,"
Potatoes and Peas.
At this point the senator's secretary,
Mr.. B. M. Amsterdam, and another
Wyoming gentleman arrived, and by
contagion of talk there arose such en-
thusiasm about the new state that I
shall credit the senator only with what
he Endorsed. 1.-THE possibilities of these
little valleys are illustrated by the ex-
perience of your former toWnsmen at
Corinne, y. T. A company has cut
canal through the rock up at the rapids
of Bear river, and thus taken the water
out on to the highest ridge of the valley,
from which by canal it irrigates vast
region, and SO Corinne has become a
prosperous place. AS you ride through
Wyoming it looks from the cars as if it
were barren, but turn water on those
yellow plains, and they produce in a
manner that is really marvellous. Con-
gress. you know, has granted 1000, 900
acres to each state in the arid region,
and our legislature is now devising q
plan by which settlers may be protected
and yet fair percentage given on the
capital invested in the canals. When
such work is done by private company,
there is great danger of grievous wa
ter monopoly The legal rate of interest
in Wyoming is IL per cent, but money
can now be borrowed for less. We can
raise more potatoes per acre than any
other region in the world and have
twice taken the worlds prize for big
yields of various products. Mr.. J. H.
Caldwell of Evanston, on land 6, 700 feet
above the sea, raised the finest potatoes
ever produced in the west, and 56 of
them picked weighed So pounds. On
Fort Bridger plain, which you pro-
nounced an irredeemable desert, one
man got water from little spring to
irrigate one acre, which he planted in
peas. 1t produced 80 bushels, which he
sold in Evanston at 6 cents pound.
Wyoming is more than twice as
point in it is higher than the highest
mountain in the latter state. Yet every
thing will grow where there is water.
The surprising wealth Of the state is in
coal, oil and gold, but the great wealth
to be is in sheep and cattle, and if wool
| is ever to be worth anything again there
| will be millions in it. It is the ideal
| home of the fine wooded sheep, and you
| may guess what our fellows think of
| your Democratic tariff when we tell you
! that wool as it comes from the ranch
| only sells at cents a pound. Inciden-
tally that makes them think of the eff
| fects of recommendation.
1t is nearly 81 years since I made my
first tour in Wyoming, and surely there
never WAS more reckless and migra-
tory population in any country or more
evanescent and roaring towns. In Chey-
enne the first house was erected July 3,
| 1867, and the next November there was
population of 1000, with a city gov
eminent, a municipal debt and three
daily papers, and likewise select soci-
| ETY., old settlers, newcomers and first
families. Laramie was the next me-
tropolis and then Benton, in the center
of an alkali desert covering at least 2, 600
square miles. Far as the eye could see
around the town there was not a green
tree, shrub or spear of grass. The
streets, eight inches deep in white dust,
were thronged with motley crowds of
railroaders, Mexioans and Indians,
gamblers, ''cappers, merchants, min
ers and mule whackers, and a new
conner from the east with black clothes
looked like nothing so much as cock
roach struggling through -four barrel.
Going to Extremes.
One day there were five serious fights,
ending in a most atrocious murder. The
road passed on, and every house was
moved with it successfully to Rawlins
Springs, Green River City, Bryan and
Bear River, which last "city" closed
the chapter with regular carnival OF
crime and pitched battle between Wig.
ilantes and roughs, in which 10 men
were killed and 90 wounded. was ter
days at Wasatch, on the summit of the
mountains, in January, 1869, and the
mercury never once got up to zero.
During the three months of that terni
nus towns existence it established 6
graveyard with 4S occupants, of whom
not one died of disease. Several were
killed by cave in the railroad cut al
the head of Echo canyon; several more
got drunk and were frozen; three were
hanged; five were killed in street fights
One "girl'' stified herself with charcoa
fumes, and another inhaled sweet deatf
in chloroform. Over on the Central Pa
oific, in the western part of Bear rive