The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-10-31
A BROAD SMILE ON KANSAS
PAST HARDSHIPs FORGOTTEN IN
THE VIEW PROSPERITY.
Tho Latest Turn In tho wheel or Fortune
Victims and Heroes OF Vanished iioonS'
Some Wonders or Finnncc-rho HIg crops
That Arc EnHlnE OH OLD NnrIEngrs.

Victims and Heroes or Vanished iioons.
Some Wonders or Finnncc-Tho HIE crop"
That Arc Paying or Ola Mortgages.
KANSAS CITY, NO., Oct. 27.--This is the most
prosperous year that Kansas has had since
1856. In some ways IL is tlo most prosperous
ever known In the Sunfhowcr State, A core.
spondcnt for THE SrN has to-day finished a two
weeks tour through the farming regions Of
Kansas, travelling over tho Atch!son, Topeka
and Santa F6 Railroad from the Colorado state
line to Atchison and visiting thirteen ng!icul-
tural and cattle towns. Everywhere there is
the same story OF very large grain crops, lots Of
cattle and hogs. and the best prices in n
decade. The whole state from Dodge City To
Kansas City has a broad smile OF contcntmcnt.
Tho Santa Fc Railroad Company has not run
such heavy freight trains in years; the grain
elevators along the lines of tho railroads are
humming six DAYS in the week from dawn to
dark; the country roads are tnmpcd by the
wheels OF heavily loaded farm wagons; banks
have their largest deposits; the streets in the
rural communities arc busy; new houses and
barns are being built more generally since lSS.,
and the mortgages on Kansas farms ure being
paid at tho rate of $40. ooO,O 900 u year. Cattle
are away up, butter and eggs bring unusually
high prices, wheat is worth 30 cents a bushcl,
and corn has gone from L. to 81 cents u bushcl.
Tho experiences Of this season are but q new
Illustration OF how rapid a transition Kansas
may have. The kansans have had changes
before and the old-timcrs out here are not sur.
priscd. Kansas had her years Of dcspondcncy
In war times, when the border warfare dcpopu-
lated the eastern part of the State and left whole
sections without food or shelter. Tho reaction
came after tho war. when things doomed as
never before and free farms out in Kansas /"
were proverbial. Then there were the drought
years of 1869 and 1870. when crops failed.
Once moro Kansas was prosperous in 1872 and
1873. The grasshopper plague of 1874 and 1875
caused another period OF hardships and dcpopu.
lation. Appeals went forth to Eastern people
for old clothes and provisions for starving
kansans. In 1877 and 1873 the Kansas
farmers had the largest yields in their expert
ence, and sold them at top.notch prices. There
was another immigration into Kansas, and in
1878 moro than 10000 new farms were made on
the prairies. Prosperity continued for seven
years. The tide of immigration rose higher each
year. Eastern Kansas became as populous as
the farming regions OF Illinois and Iowa. and
tho incoming farmers gradually reached out
into western Kansas, on the plains OF what tho
biographies OF u generation ago taught was tho
Great American Desert. Counties were marked
of on the cattle ranges and railroads competed
with one another in eaSerness to build there.
Farms of 100 acres were taken up from the
Government faster thu ever before known and
mushroom towns sprarS up in a year or two.
I Registers of the United States land offices still
tell how for months their offices were bcsiegcd
by homcstcaders from the East.
Two successive years Of unusual rains in
western Kansas. and resultant good crops OF
wheat and corn, set the omcstcaders wild with
JOY at having big farms that cost them little
and could make them as much money as land
Elsewhere worth several thousand dollars. The
most prodigious boom that this State has ever
known started in 1856 and continued until
1883. There have been few like it anywhere.
The western Kansas farmers believed that the
climate of the arid region had been conquered
by the building Of railroads and telegraph lines,
and tho springing up of new towns along the
old cattle trails. The desire TO have farms in
western Kansas grew fast in 1887, and many
men who had taken up homesteads free
from Uncle Sam a year or two pre-.
vious sold them for several thousand
dollars each to later corners from the
Eastern States. Extravaganza and a longing
for the conditions of old settled regions were
easily bred and there began in 1856 a reckless
use of money in western and central Kansas.
Loan companies were organized in every town
and county in Kansas, and the case with which
Kansas farmers got loans was one OF the mar.
veis OF financiering in the West. BONDS were
voted and sold Tor county buildings worth
$4,000 and 100000. where there had been
only vast cattle ranges "A half dozen years be.
fore. City Halls ana official structures costing
&T5, 600 and 500, 600 were built, with bOnas
sola in New York and Boston, in communities Of
$500 people, where there had been no human
ime = si in he iest bei Reft THAT they had M' conSn ieT,der rn
obstinate climate. plunged into all manner Of
agricultural luNur:cs amt borrowed money reck-
lessly from the loan companies that were han
ding Eastern capital.
.. .5 hsye Sssn il il. he M. W Witt since nf b }s$s;" c snid
the other day, land ! don't believe there ever
was an era tor borrowing money, by people prac-
ncularly western Kansas, in l-S6 and iss7.
We used to wonder where all the money, came
from. 1t came principally from New York and
the New England States. | know of several
towns, such as LyoWs, Auburn, Cortland. and
upward OF 100000 Tor Investment in Kansas
farm MORTGAGES. Rome, ~. y, alone sent more
millions Mill Of eollars cam came + from IN New YORK and n,
H r. TO- for our coG nby e!sy' f an ssho9I o6 6S1 nn s
w Ma the so ygo q tss on l Kan tss' farm army mSrig.Seso o oT
public bonds. 1t was no trick at all to &c,
with good address and a knowledge OF Kansas
farms, who became loan agents in western Kan
sas in 1855, advertised for loans in the Easj crn
religious and literary journals. and soon had an
enormous business; In two years they were
in 1887 that there WAS no end TO the Eastern
peoples none: The per cent: interest eX:
that hired smooth takers to 20 out among the
farmers and beg them 10 borrow money on theiI
down 10 the loan compsnv.. Naturally thou
sands otloans were excessive for the security,
iLc DOOM IN western htlsaS II stcu until TIT
spring OF 1888. The high.wuter mark was in
October, 1887, ana in that month more than 49,
' o 10000 was lent on raw western Kansas Iarm'
alone. almost every dollar coming from the fnl
Eastern states. What caused tho reaction wal
never known, but it always comes suddenly am
At the most unexpected period In IA Western
boom. In tho spring and summero OF 1888 the
FORMER dry weather came upon western ant
central Kansas. Farmers We're unable to grow
crops, and the cattle business had gone down Il
nothing in the carving out OF farms on III,
ranges. There was the nrst pinch OF hard times
ana interest on obligations went unpaid. /
was IL rude awakening for both farmers ant
Eastern money lenders. and from that time I,
this hardly a dollar OF Eastern capital has beel
lent on farm mortgages or bonds in Kansas ives
Of Newton or Marion, while all the rest of til
State has suffered severely in the money market
because Q thc unhappy reputation of western AM
central Kansas. For five years the Sunfiowc
State had poor crops and the scvcrcst of har,
times, In western, Kansas the boom town
melted away; settlers packed up their few
belongings and one after another rode away 4
= their prairie schooners, leaving their homestead
TO the Eastern mortgages, To do with them n
best they might, There arc n half dozen countic