The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-06-28
KANSAS VILLAGES DESERTED.
Conditions which Need Legislative
Action.

CohuAtiohS w h1cn Need Legislative
Action.
EMPORIA, Kan, May 22.-If the gov
ernor calls an extra session of the leg
1slature, one Of it's chief duties will be
to take action on the condition of West
ern Kansas towns and counties which
are having difficulty in holding up their
END or the financial legacy left them
by the boom times. A suit just ended
IN Greeley county to collect $4,000 Of
county bonds held by the state has re-
suited in the county's winning, and the
matter will go to the supreme court
The bonds were issued to cover county
warrants which had been piling up as
the expenses of the county increased
when taxes could not be raised.
The school fund commissioners of the
state proposed last week to buy $4,000
of Graham county bonds, but the state
treasurer positively refused to pay the
money unless compelled to do so, say
ing that it was a foregone conclusion
that this portion of the state never can
pay out The pressure from other
sources is so strong that it is probable
that the purchase will never be made.
Such is the prejudice here in Kansas
against the Western counties, and it
seems to be we'll taken. Two young
men OF this city, one Of them being the
editor Of the Gazette, went through a
half-dozen counties Of Western Kan
sas few days ago for the purpose
Of seeing if things are as bad as has
been reported. In letter they indorse
all that has been written and add more.
OF specific cases they say:
The editor of the Hugoton Hermes.
who runs the only paper in the coun-
ty-a Republican paper-says that the
men can stand the country easily
enough, but that it is tough on the
women. There is SO little going on
church only every other Sunday, no
SHOWS, no entertainments. When we
were at Woodsdale we met Mrs. Car
penter, the postmistress. She and her
son and little girl are the sole in
habltants Of the town. She says she
does not mind it much. The mail
comes to town every day. But she
told Of woman north Of there whom
MRS. Carpenter went to see the other
day. The woman had not seen any
other woman before for two months.
mat must be wearing-in time! Even
Al Farmer, whose nearest neighbor is
seventeen miles away, says that the
women do get little lonesome now
and then Bill took picture of the
town site of Springfeld-a plot Of
ground about the size of the original
town site Of Emporia. Once the town
cast about 400 votes. Now the place
is pockmarked with gaping cellars and
three families live in the five houses
On the town site: Nine. children go to
the $4,000 school house-upon the
bonds of which not one cent of interest
or principal has ever been paid-and
yyo crOt 70 hn
barn in town our buggy barely grazed
lire hydrant Of a system Of water
works that had cost some Eastern
plutocrat $4,000. The people of the
town never paid a penny toward the
debt or the interest. The water tower
is sllhouetted against the sky and we
Watered our horses from one of the
plugs"
The extent Of the emigration from
this once f1ourishing section can best
be realized fro this description Of a
sixty-mile ride through Stevens and
Seward counties:
We passed through Woodsdale, Mos
COW, Springfield and Fargo Springs,
with total population in the four
towns Of eighteen people. We passed
seven occupied houses in the long
journey. We passed one movers wagon
on the road and saw just one man at
work in field. Yet man whom we
found at Hugoton said:
Say, look here, boys-you amt a.
goin' to try to get up no boom out here,
are you, and praise up the country
and all that?'
''Bill said Nope
Well continued the man earnestly,
I'm glad Of it. They's too blame many
folks here now
He didn't mean it as a joke He
was serious and a good sensible fellow
Bili asked the men around town what
the other mans idea was in putting it
that way and they said:
I'VE know who told you that-it
was Al Farmer-he's making money.
Got cattle ranch and wants the
range
1--WE afterward talked to Al Farmer
and he told us how many steers he had
"a gOOd-SiZed herd. He said ne hadn't
bought a dollars worth of feed in years
just let 'em rustic. They Craze on
the short grass all winter and in the
fall make pretty fair cattle-but they
look like the parboiled grizzle of sin in
the spring"
They spent one night in a town that
a few years ago had 1900 people-now
it has fifty. The men recalled the flush
days when they raised $500 to buy brass
horns for a band twenty miles away.
Every quarter section was mortgaged
for S. an acre. They tore down one of
the old three-StOry frame hotels that
rose during the boom. Under the floor
of the bar room they found a $50 gold
piece, a diamond ring and a gold brace
let, relics of the flush times. County
Attorney John Kelly, of Stevens coun-
ty, commenting on those lively days,
said:
1--WE wouldn't have those times come
back if we could. We nave got down
to bed rock. There isn't an able bodied
man in this county who isn't making
money. The only pauper in the county
is an old woman-a widow. Every
man has his little bunch of cattle
They save the cows. The herds are
increasing The steers are gradually
grading up. Two out of three have
white faces now! We have plenty OF
good air-the best in the world-plenty
of good water that is pumped up by
the Wind, plenty of good land, plenty to
wear, enough to eat and no debts. We
can't borrow a dollar. There is no
bank in a days hard ride of the coun-
ty. We are glad to see newcomers-if
they are willing to work and have a
little to tide them over. But it's no
place for a speculator and we are not
after the kidglove citizen"
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