The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1898-11-18
KANSAS ITEMS OF INTEREST.

lola has attained the switch engine
stage of development
improvements are being made In
Rock Island property at Herington.
The wheat fields in southern Kansas
look exceptionally fine for this season
of the year.
Homemade farm wagons are for
sale in Seneca; and they are said to be
all right too.
1t is said that more money will be
spent for Christmas presents in Kansas
this year than ewes before in the his
tory of the state.
Marion has washing machine fac
tory in operation which employs seven
men. The machine is the invention of
Marion man who for some time has
been having them made by an eastern
concern; but lately they have been I'M
able, on account of press of work to
turn them out rapidly enough to keep
up with orders, and the owner deter
mined to establish factory at Marion.
The county commissioners in Har-
vey county are after the tax evaders.
The other day they subpenad two
Newton bankers to testify as to the
amount of money certain taxpayers
had of deposit on the first of March.
The bankers refused to testify, alleg-
ing that the relations between bank
ers and depositors were sacred and in
violable. A contempt suit will follow.
Down on the Verdigris river in Mont
gomery county, Kansas, the farmers
have established free delivery mail
system. The men of the neighborhood,
by arrangement, take turns in bring
ing the mail from Independence and
delivering it at the farmers doors
every morning Every postmaster
with rural constituency is familiar
with the parties who come in, usually
on Saturday, and call for their own
mail and that of their neighbors.
The matter of Missouri Pacific shops
at Atchison will not be defditely set
tied until after the remainder of the
Central Branch is disposed of. AT
present the Missouri Pacific owns only
the first hundred miles of the Central
Branch, although it is operating the
remainder under lease. 1t is probable
that within thirty days the entire Cen
tral Branch system will become the
property of the Missouri Pacific, and
then the shops matter at Atchison will
be settled.
When Wichita people succeed in pre-
venting the wholesale theft of water
by Colorado irrigators from the Arkan-
sas river, as there is every probability
that they will do in the near future,
the river will again become something
more than a name. There was a time
that river boats ran as high as Arkan
sas City, but the irrigating ditch put
an end to that. 1t is not impossible,
however, that the day may again come
when steamer whistles may be heard
on the river.
The Wellington fire department was
called out one day last week to check
a prairie fire, and stopped it without
much difficulty, as it was no great
shakes of fire; but turn fire depart
men loose against full grown fire
sweeping across the prairies with a
good wind, and it would accomplish
just about as much as the old woman
did who attempted to sweep back the
waves of the ocean. Reports of dam
ages done by prairie fires are begin
ming to get to the front. Every man
whose property is threatened in this
manner ought to pillow fire guards.
Never in one year has there been SO
many debts paid and so much improve
ment made as there has been in Kan
sas during the past twelve months.
Let the good work go on and all will
be happy.
Ely Cromwell, a Kansas travelling
man, has the reputation of being the
biggest eater in the state. He eats five
meals day An order for one meal is
three beefsteaks, three cups of coffee,
three orders of potatoes and other
things in proportion. Hotels and res
taurants charge him double price.
Well of all thlngsl A Lincoln county
man showed up at the Industrial
School for girls at Beloit not long ago,
and asked the superintendent to let
him pick out wife OF course he
went home without having his desire
gratifed.
A Wilson county farmer who came
into Fredonia the other day on top of
a load of flax, said that more good
barns and other buildings had been
built in his township the past year
than in any one season for the past
twenty years.