Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1899-06-08
New Mexico Letter.
Portales, New Mexico, May 27.-


Portales, New Mexico, May 27.-To
THE TIMES: According to promise, l
will try to give you q short account of
our trip to this wonderful country.
AS you know, we left the Valley on
Saturday, reaching Omaha in good
time, but we're compelled to wait until
Saturday evening at 10 o'clock when
we left over the Mo. Pacific railroad
reaching Atchison at 4:3O Sunday
morning. Here we had several hours
to wait, and employed our time in
walking around town.
Atchison is built largely on hills,
very much like the Valley. The city
contains some very beautiful homes,
some of them on the hills, twenty to
forty feet above the street grades, with
solid stone walls built all around them.
On account of heavy rains some of
these walls are crumbling away. The
business portion is we'll built, all of
brick or stone, and presents quite a
city appearance.
Leaving Atchison on the Santa Fe
route, we reached Topeka about 1920
p. m. and remained there all the after
noon Sunday, and having nothing else
to do, we patronized the street cars by
going over the city. The buildings
here are beautiful, with large yards
We conclude that land must be very
cheap, or great deal of wealth in the
city to afford so much ground in lawns.
The capital building is built of white
stone, occupying two blocks. The
Santa Fe hospital is an immense
structure This company must be-
iieve in taking care of their sick and
wounded, judging from the very liberal
arrangements made for their care.
When the Valley can boast of q free
public library and building such as To-
peka now has, she can feel that she
has done herself proud. This institu.
tion is an honor to the people of that
city.
Tho -'"at beautiful place in Topeka
is the Betheny College AZ. Young la-
dies. 1t occupies four blocks and the
buildings are all of white stone. with
the old English Ivy clinging over them,
and present q beautiful appearance.
We spent portion of our time at
the park. In going to the park we
crossed the Kansas river on trolly cars
They attached the ropes to the drift
wood and used the cars to loosen the
wood. The river was very high and
hundreds of men were engaged in pro.
tecting the bridge from danger from
the high water. We did not enjoy the
thought that the cars might be pulled
over into the river. The wagon and
foot bridge is cement. 1t looks like an
immense pile of white marble and is
the only cement bridge west of New
York City, I'VE called on Lee Jones.
but he 1&as not in his drug store and
We left our cards. The Sunday paper
gives Topeka population of $4,000,
The next town of Importance on our
route was Wichita, which we passed
through on Monday. 1t is said to
have population of IS 600 and is the
cleanest. prettiest city we have ever
seen. 1t is certainly q thriving little
city and can boast of more public
buildings, hospitals and churches than
snytcity'tn'the state. The Jacob Doldd
psSkinK, house, a large concern, also
the Pabst Brewing Co., are here. The
Santa Fe road is mostly double track
and, rock bed. Their eating houses
are kept up in good style-rooms deco
rated with flowers and palms, and
prices to correspond.
At Alvla we crossed the line into
Oklahoma. Here we found potatoes
In bloom and people blowing corn.
Here we saw the first sod house. The
sod of this country begins to be q red
clay, and as we cross Salt Fork river
the water is perfectly red. You read
of the beautiful Oklahoma, but this
part presents the appearance of the