The Topeka state journal., 1897-10-21
The Old Kansas Boom Has Re-
appeared
And Pitched Its Tent in the
Short Grass Country.
ROLLING IN WEALTH.
The Mythical Cattle Baron a
Reality.
1T Has Been Found What the
Country is Good For.

st. Louis, Oct. 21.-The Globe-Demo-
crat prints the following letter from
Kansas correspondent:
The reports which the state bank
commissioner is receiving of swelling
deposits and more than corresponding
cash on hand are almost incredible.
They were notable first from the ceH-
tral counties largely devoted to wheat
growing. But not far behind, in pri-
mary evidences of prosperity, come
now the western counties With pain
ful regularity the appeal used to go
forth from western Kansas for food,
for clothes. for seed. The east had re-
lief committees which responded to the
annual calls from that part of the
state. Soliciting of aid for starving
Kansas became an industry at one
time Unworthy agents, smooth of
speech, worked it for all there was in
it. Today western Kansas is a part of
the state with more money than it
knows how to employ prOf1tably.
MY opinion is said a state officer
at Topeka the other day, that the
time is not far off when will be
kicking here against the arrogance of
cattle barons in the western counties.
Talk about the wheat raisers! There
isn't any part of the state where pros
perity prevails as in the western end"
This remarkable transition has come
by the realization of a mistake and
the correction of it. No people on the
sans when they find that they are on
the wrong road. The Kansan has been
called a crank-never a fool The west
ern counties were settled under the i'm
preston that grain and other agricul-
tural products could be grown there.
Two good seasons strengthened the
impression and magnifed the blunder
JentOld. People actually swallowed
the theory that the building of rail-
roads and the stretching of telegraph
wires had revOlutiOnized the climatic
Suaded themselves that Seedtime and
harvest would not fail any more than
they do in Illinois and Missouri. They
proceeded to divide a great slice of the
American Desert into hOmesteads of
$50 acres. For two years the western
counties doomed. They voted bonds
and built railroads Then came the
rude awakening. Five years of crop
failures followed. The population
dwindled from thousands to hundreds.
It underwent repeated and frequent
declimatiOn. In the boom period rival
towns fought with weapons over the
locations Of county seats. Today hill
locks on the prairies mark their sites.
Railroads paralleled each other. And
then the buffalo grass crept up the
grades and grew between the ties. It
seemed as if the hOmesteads were to
relapse into the original desert.
The evolution of western Kansas
brought a period not pleasant to re-
call DepOpulatiOn was not all at once.
Conviction of failure was not sudden.
into the counties. It was greedy to
loan at high per cent. It accepted the
results of two good years, enCourage
1Oaning in every way possible, except
by low rates of interest. Capital was
blind long after the eyes of the home
Steader were opened The conscience
of the agent who was drawing his COM
missions was not prompt The agent
held to the delusiOn that western Kan
sas was still all right when others
knew it wasn't. The homesteader per-
Tod hi
borrowed what came to him with
scarcely the asking, and moved away.
Then developed a great temptation, and
there were people who fell. Quarter
sections by the thousands were taken
up with no other intention than to
mortgage and default. Dishonest agents
were not wanting to betray the eastern
capitalists they represented.
Two young men of my county" said
Governor Leedy, sitting in the execu-
tive Office at Topeka, came to me one
day some years ago and asked me if I
didn't want to make a few hundred
dollars and have a good time for a
month or two. 1 inquired how. They
said they were going out to Meade
county to take quarter section apiece.
They knew an agent who had agreed
to make a loan Of $500 of eastern mon
ey on each quarter. With 5000 the title
could be obtained through public entry.
That would leave $500. The agreement
with the agent was that it should be
divided in halves with him. The young
them a good time hunting and yield
them $500 apiece. That sort of thing
was done all over western Kansas. It
was what gave the state it's bad name
in the east. 1t was the result of the
temptation offered by eastern capi-
tai"
The placing of fraudulent mortgages
In western Kansas grew into something
more than a pastime. It assumed the
proportions and the character of an in
dustry- Men adopted mortgaging as a
vocation. They moved from county to
county, from state to state, for the set
tied purpose of entering government
land. borrowing on it and abandoning
it. If the avarice of the east was not
responsible. it at least shared the cul-
pability with the dishonest agent and
the unprincipled entryman.
The western counties passed through
the period of blundering. and the era
of rascality. Then came something
better. Men remembered that the time
was not long ago that countless buffalo
grazedsOn these plains. They had read
that this region once sustained more
buffalo than any other like area on the
face of the globe. The easily discour-
aged had moved away from these coun-
ties, when two. three, four and five
years passed without crops. The ras-
Gals pitched their wagon covers and
disappeared when there was no more
eastern capital to tempt.In each coun-
Gy remained a few hundred people with