The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-03-06
SLEPT WHILE RIDING.

The men who have made the history
of the present century of the United
States worth remembering, have been
the sons of the west, of the borders Of
civilization. They have been the most
picturesque, resourceful, self-reliant
and brainy. The Pilgrim Fathers and
the Revolutionary Mothers were in it,
In their day, in a way, and distinctively
compared to the heroes Of exhausted
and effete nationalities, but they them
selves were Of the selVedge of civiliZa-
ton. The progressive enterprise, in
which this nation holds the edge on the
world, and the success flowing from
which arrays all the world in envy,
comes of the west. But for the new
men the west continually pours into
our eastern cities, Boston would have
long since ceased to have been more
than a modern Madrid, and New York
but a latterday Liverpool. This coun-
try owes all its distinction as a civiliZ-
ed courser without a rival to the spirit
that alone is brooded in the western
breast. The Dan Boones, Davy crock
etts, Kit Carsons, Sam Houstons, no
less than the Lincolns and Grants of our
glorious record, were all of This brood
Of nesting. These western plains have
swarmed with Bentons and Boones,
with Larimes and Kearneys, with Au-
breys and Carsons. and but for whom
the Indian and buffalo would have been
much slower in giving way to the Santa
Fe trail, to the pony express, and to all
Of the triumphs which have followed in
the wake of these. The east has little
conception of what it owes the west in
the way of national character and the
spirit of inspired progress.
Speaking of T.. Y. Aubrey. steam
boat was named for him. In the spring
of 1857, while coming up the Missouri
loaded with 400 barrels of whisky, it
ran afouI of snag and sank opposite
the town of Parllville. This muddy
tide of deceit is ever changing its chan
mel. Years ago it made a change at
Parkville. The place where the Au-
brey sunk is now considerably inland
IN a swampy spot. \ company has been
formed to dig down TO the wreck and
take out the whisky. It is presumed
that there has been neither leakage
nor evaporation from the barrels. If
this proves true. and the whisk is re-
covered, the worth Of il is figured out
as something like $4,000. The work
began last November. SO far il has
cost the wreckers $1,000. Two shafts
have been dug. but without results 4
caisson is now ready to sink in another
spot, which it is expected VIII be over
the center of the boat
But we digress. Few. however. can
write OF Missouri, its people or rivers
without depressing or doing some more
urseemly thing. +. Y. Aubrey, for
whom the boat was named, was in the
sos famed pony express rider and
freighter across the plains He wag-
cred $40. 0000 about 1850 that he could
ride from Santa Fe 10 Independence on
horseback in six days. He won in FIVE
and a-half days. He then bet $4,000
that he could accomplish il from Kan
sas City to Santa Fe, a distance OF
about 500 miles. in four days. he did
Il in about three and a-half. and won
again on this trip he was chased by
redskins ana lost a few hours by max
ing a detour to escape them. All the
provender he carried was a bundle OF
sundried meat and a canteen of water.
Wherever he could get a fresh pony he
bought it, and abandoned the one he
was on. He slept while riding
And so the west. true to its destiny
and the star Of Empire which it has
corralled, has slept while riding, and
slept generally with one eye open. The
country west Of the Missouri river-that
treacherous stream which set the hypo-
critical pace for later prohibition by
swallowing up at one gulp 400 barrels
OF copper distilled whisky-has made
more progress IN twenty I've years than
New England and Virginia made il
two hundred years. and still these have
been accusing the west of dishonesty,