The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-06-23

in the valley where grew the lotus tree.
AS intimated in the beginning. do not
istic capacity to draw a picture of our
! selves as we see ourselves The meager
by your fertile imaginations. 1 am more
than willing, however,t to leave it that way,
sas man is rarely appealed to in vain
s'The Past of Topeka"
To Mr.. P. T. Bonebrake was assigned
the task of picturing The Past of To-
peka." In his response he said:
To me has been assigned the priv
uege of saying something about the
Past of Topeka I am not highly
pleased with this duty, as the subject
deals in "reminiscences. 1t is said that
| when man takes to "reminiscences, it
is evidence that he is growing old. Not
witEstanding, I have lived in Topeka
for thirty years. want it understood
that I am not a day o1der-alI due to
the ozone in the Kansas atmosphere
| and the healthy location of Topeka
Topeka was founded on the 5th day
of December, 1854. It's founders were
c. K. Holiday, F. w. Giles, Daniel H.
| B. Chase. NJ. c. Dickey. c. Robinson
and L. G. Cleveland. All have passed
away but c. K. Holiday. The last to
go was Frye w. Giles, who lived an hon
| town unto the day of his death-nearly
| forty four years. Peace to the ashes of
| the dead, and long life and prosperity
, to Colonel @. K. Holiday.
Nearly forty-four years have elapsed
since those hardy pioneers selected the
| site for Topeka Then it was a beauti-
| full undulating landscape, covered in
| summer with grass and flowers, virgin
soil upon which the foot of a white man
| had hardly trod. Today it is covered
| with palatial homes, business blocks,
| churches, schools and everything that
! goes to make life happy. e
TODAY A
! $4,000, (not including most of the addi-
| tions), and ninety-five per cent of whom
| wealth of twenty-eight millions of dol
| lars and a debt of only 1886, 500-leSS
| than 2 per cent.
can evidence of the educational at
tainments of our people is shown in the
! fact that of a full regiment of men sent
| from here to the present war, every one
| was able to sign the muster roll in his
| own handwriting.
Topeka has siXty-seven churches. As
Joe Waters said, the prevailing re-
! ligion is a good square orthodoxy with
/ birthstone in the fireworks
Topeka is a temperance city. There
are no open saloons. Public drinking
| is under a ban; and when a man pre-
! tending to responsibility enters a joint
| found in some basement he looks up
and down the street to see that none
| OF his friends recognize him.
'"To sum up, Topeka has seven points
| of railroad connection with the outside
world and is satisfied with the liberal
manner in which the railroads are man
aged. The several railroads in their
shops, offices and train crews give en-
ployment to 2,8S7 Topeka citizens, dis
| bursting in wages about $2,000,000 per
annum. Suppose each employe repre-
sents a family of three persons; we
have an aggregate of 1851 persons
maintained in whole or in part by the
railroads centering in Topeka
"a list of the clubs of Topeka would
a n a
I'VE have clubs, religious, education
al, historical, social, financial, athletic,
literary, political, in fact club repre-
senting almost everything under the
sun.
1--WE have a preachers club that
| meets every Monday morning and I'M
der present official management; poker
clubs that meet every night of the
week
1.-The most persuasive club is the po-
| Hceman's club; the most useful, the
Commercial club. This club is com
! posed of some of the best business men
of the city, who are industriously work.
ing for its advancement. 1t should
number 500 members instead of so.
I'VE have AZ newspapers and peri.
odicals representing every live issue of
the day. Two good daily papers. Late
ly the daily papers not ours), have
added a new feature to their business,
! towit: Manufacturing. They must
have news. When they have none that
! is genuine, they manufacture news to
fit the case.
Topeka has a number of libraries
We point with pride to the public free
library with it's beautiful building and
it's 10000 volumes open to the rich and
the poor alike. A monument to the
public spirit of our citizens and friends
of Kansas in the east.
Our peCgle are happy. They are all
like the man in the oft told story:
When asked by the preacher if he
wanted to go to heaven, he answered,
NO. When asked if he wanted to go
to the other place, he answered, No
When asked where he did want to go,
he said, L am satisfied to stay here
So with our people. They are perfectly
satisfied right here