The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-04-26
Again Prevails in Kansas Ac-
cOrding to Mr.. Curtis.
People Making Money and Pay
ing Their Debts.
CROAKER is SILENT.
The Chicago Record COrrespOn-
dent on the Situation
As Seen by Himself and j. w.
Breidenthal.

The following appears in the Chicago
Record from the pen of William E. Cur
tbs who was recently in Kansas inspect
ing the states industries:
Topeka, Kan, April 22-Between the
microbes and the trusts and other ills
we inherited from ADAM all of US poor,
miserable sinners, as we are called in
the prayer book. have a hard journey
through this vale of tears; but some
how or another the people of Kansas
make more fuss about it than those of
other states. They have done more
bOasting and more complaining, accord
ing to their own accounts they have had
more booms and more breakdowns,
more money and more mortgages, more
prosperity. and more poverty, than any
other section OF the world The state
was settled with men who came to
propagate ideas with moral suasion If
possible, and with shotguns if neees-
Sary, and they shed their blood and saw
their houses burn and gave their own
lives, many of them, in defense of their
convictions. 1t has been nursery of
theor1eS5 a hOthouSe of moral reforms.
Nowhere else have isms and oIogies
thrived so luxuriously as in Kansas.
Some say that all this is due to the
cooking; that there is more dyspepsia,
physical and mental, in Kansas than
can be found anywhere else, and that
If the women would give their attention
TO domestic science rather than to in
fermentation inside of their husbands
and sons 1 have no evidence to sustain
the assertiOn-it comes from a man of
experience, and gave it for what it is
worth-that the women of Kansas know
too much about books and too little
about cooking, and that a large share
of the fanaticisms and fallacies that
have terminated here and spread from
Kansas into the country at large have
been due to diSordered liverS and di-
1uted gastric juice, or, in other words,
md ri lad hnn fCfa L h.
hysterical history of the state is ac-
counted Tor in that manner, and the
gentleAan who makes the assertion is
intending to leave a large fortune in
trust for founding cooking schools.
1t is habitual for Kansas to overdo
things If it is a cyclone or a drought,
a crop of corn or a plague of grass
hoppers, a stack of mortgages or a gas
well, great moral reform or a sorghum
mill, race horse or a regiment of fight
ing men, Kansas always excels, or at
least she thinks she does, and that is
the same thing. Her orators are the
obstreperous, her soil the most fertile
and her skies are the bluest in the
world In the eXuberance of his oratory
one of the brilliant sons of the state re-
Gently exclaimed, God said, Let there
De hight and there was-Kansas." The |
entire people appear to contemplate
their own virtue and valor in a similar
spirit.
I was talking today with the most
popular and perhaps the ablest leader of |
the Populist party in the state, John w |
Breidenthal, who still holds the office
of bank examiner. and is undoubtedly
better posted than anybody else upon |
the financial condition of the DeopIe 7 |
remarked that 1 had heard that |
prosperity had returned to Kansas and |
had come to look at it
You can find plenty of it everywhere |
IN this state he answered. land can |
cut 1t off in great chunks. We are now |
praying that you may have equal |
prosperity in the east so that your |
and buy farms and be happy There /
never was a time nor a place where a |
man seeking home and happiness |
IouIa 90 SO Wen as he can do today in |
Aansas- Ihere was never time nor /
a place where anybody could find a |
more prosperous, more contented or a /
napier people. We have been through /
the fire of adversely, and we not ONLY /
appreciate the contrast, but have profit. !
ed by the experience"
Have your people paid off all their
mo; I think there will be a net IN
crease IN the mortgages on Kansas pro-
perry curing the current year, but that |
as an evidence of financial strength in
stead OF weakness. OF the hard-times |
mortgages not more than $50, 900 900 re-
main We have probably paid off $751;
100000 during the last three wears The
census of 1890 credited us with s240 600
GOO of mortgaged farms and homes
That was pretty near the truth. The
census of 1900 may show $50. 600 900 or
$75, 900, but the greater part will be
mortgages of recent date, not given to
replace the old ones, for most of them
nave been Cancelled, but for new FARMS
new homes, improved machinery high
bred stock and other evidences of pros
perity. The Kansas farmer always
COvetS the land that adjoins his own 4
and a great many have been able with
In the last year or two to buy out their
neighbors. The addition may have cost
5000, and having only 81. 1000 in the
bank he has borrowed the balance. /
There have been more new houses built
in Kansas during the last two years
than at any time in our history and
quite as many new barns. There hasn't /
been quite enough money saved up to
pay for them and the owners have an