The Wichita daily eagle., 1898-01-02

To the Editor of the Eagle:
How is Wichita? Are all the ole
crcakers alive that asked "what are you
going 10 do with the outside addition:
when the boom busts?" Probably they
have found out by this time.
Well. Wichita amt the only place
where the boom busted. Long Island is
a sand dune. 1t seems TO have been put
there to keep the Atlantic ocean from
| encroaching on Long Island Sound. II
wasn't necessary 10 give il any soil foI
| that purpose, and if a colony of prairie
dogs should emigrate there, they would
| De compelled to have their provender
shipped in.
Some ''lanl boomers" acquired a title
| 70 the lower end of the Island and laid
it out in five acre farms. Fancy farm
Of five acres. Well. the purchasers are
| not as poor as if the farm had been
larger. The projectors ran excursion
trains down to their intended-to-be
Eden, gave free lunches to their intend
| ed victims, and spent the money they
| plucked from the pigeons right roy
| ally. When the boom busted" they
| made frantic efforts TO revive 1t, spend
| ing all they had not already fooled away
| in advertising and excursions, but the
| lambs were sny' and the boomers were
obliged to seek other means Of getting
a living without work.
| Some have emigrated, few have died,
some are in the penitentiary, and more
| ought 10 be.
A large part Of the Island has been
taken into Greater New York and may
become inhabited if the millennium is
put off long enough.
Business is very unsatisfactory; money
Is rusting in the banks. Those who
| have the security dom wtant to borrow,
as they can make no proitabi use OF it
| and the middle class G.e., those VINO
try to make living without work. have
no securities to offer and can't get it.
They live by getting in debt to each
other. Everything is done on credit.
Fancy buying coal on the installment
plan.
Law and justice is dispensed with in
manner not dreamed OF in the west
The undersigned was drafted on the
jury for two weeks-not a profitab BILE oc-
cupation, as you must serve for nothing
or go to jail. 1t seems they take the
stupid one Of the family and make
lawyer of him, and the judge that pre-
sided in that court must have belonged
to very stupid family. Some OF his
decisions would have caused Dogberry
to smile.
The lawyers here think II they could
raise enough TO get west their fortune
would be assured Wouldn't some Of the
Wichita bar take the conceit out OF
them?
Everybody except the favored few live
In fiat.
A New York nat would be a curiosity
If there wasn't SO many Of them. The
streets in Upper New York are 200 feet
apart, the lots are laid out 25 feet front
by 100 feet deep mo alleys, a five-story
brick skeleton 25x90 feet, leaving a back
yard 10x25 feet, is erected, a narrow
alley called a hall is run down the mid
die of each floor, two tenements are
partitioned off on each side of the alley
hall, one facing on Inc street the other
on the back yard. Four tenements on
each foor-tWenty in all. The kitchens
are in the middle Of the structure and
it is not necessary TO cook your own
onions 70 enjoy the aroma of that pun
gent vegetable. You get light and air
every time you go out OF doors. The
rooms are all larger than a soap box,
but II is necessary to shut one door be-
fore attempting TO open another. The
whole structure teens with humanity,
dogs. cats, parrots, etc. 1t is min
iature p3ndemonium.
The janitor contracts the habit Of walk
ing Sideways.
Stout people don't live In iats, and
dogs that do wag their tails up ard
down.
1 am coming back to chase the lively
jack rabbit over the plains and corran
the slippery catfish in the majestic old
Arkansas.
1 would rather be a humble citizen Of
Sunny Kansas than president of a horse
railroad.
Truthfully yours, George Washington
Gay. No. Liz West 125th street, New
York.