The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-04-30

tain went down There was more hilarity
in the audience then than was really due,
as it was supposed TO be heavy tragedy,
and it was evident that the audience con-
sidered it light comedy. The next day
the budding Mansfield resigned his job
and came west to try and live il down,
and 70 this day the very mention Of ANA
teur plays makes him gasp for breath and
SILVER, as he takes one retrospective
glance back into the expanseless stretches
Of the coIorless bravaUras OF memory, and
dim-y recalls that sad night as he labored
vainly with his baking intellect in six
feet Of paper snow and got the harsh and
cruel colty smile from her he was trying
10 make love to in made-up attire and
before the pitiIess gaze Of 500 people.
WICHITA'S POPULATION GAIN.
No one except a man who has lived in
Wichita and has gone Through the mill
can understand the keen delight which
the Wichita man feels at the present time
over the appearance Of his city. There
is probably no town in the country 10
which its people are so closely welded as
Wichita. Even those who move away feel
that they are staying away al the dicta-
ton Of grim necessity and long to come
back.
But the men who have stuck it out"
for the last ten years are getting the re-
ward today. For period Of six or seven
years it may be said truthfuly that hard
" a splinter Of yellow pine was visible
from one end Of the city to the other.
Every man. when along about 1893 it was
evident that the city was in a condition
Of collapse and people realized that the
town had overbuilt, and that it would be
a long weary day before resusciation
would begin, braced himself to stand it.
Desperate as things looked a many stages
OF the city's career no one who had ever
been truly faithful in his belief in the
city surrendered his fidelity Empty
store rooms were a positive nightmare to
him. Occasional ramshackIe houses in
the suburbs Inundated him. The destruc-
ton Of brick buildings for the use of ma
terial elsewhere was notifying, but he
believed, through it all. that Wichita
would come out triumphant.
\ great many of Wichita's troubles were
exaggerated. One Of the chief reasons for
this was the proximity of Burton car
works to the railroads passing through
this city. Burton car works, long brick
buildings, were surrounded once by quite
a large town. which stood apart from
Wichita proper by at least two miles. To
a passenger on a rapid train these houses
appeared to be part of Wichita. These
houses took on a very disconsolate look
after the shutting down of this institu-
ton. Their windows came out, their walls
wabbled. and their chimneys fell over.
From two roads from the north and one
from the east this was the first sight of
Wichita presented to the passenger going
through. There was always near him
someone to explain that this was the con-
dition of the whole city, which was
busted" The appearance of Burton car
works steadily grew worse and worse IN
til the buildings were torn down altogeth-
or or moved away The dilapidation Of
the car works themselves was not so
easily detected from the trains. The re-
pairing Of the works recently, the reason
for which is still unexplained. vii, not yet
induce the transients 10 keep silent or
from pointing out the works as fearful
warning against 'booms.' When smoke
issues from the big stacks and the suburb
again grows. the moralist on the passing
train will probably keep his mouth shut.
No one doubts that this viii happen.
The Burton company expects to use its
plant and viii. It has been offered what
were considered good prices for its plant.
once Ringing Brothers desired it for win
ter quarters but could not secure it.
The car works have been the city's
Of 9 hrT..f n
reputation the city has suffered might
never had come had Burton car works
been not quite so visible. on the other
hand the packing plants have always been
a splendid visible advertisement, because
they have been operated in part all the
time and have shown no appearance of
decay and desertion They have done
something TO overcome the first evil i'm
preston made on the traveller by the car
works Garfield university, occupying a
western site and not 10 be viewed from
the through routes, has not done the city
injury by the way of spreading reru-
tation for general collapse, although for
the next twenty years and nOtwithstand-
ing it is now prospecting and viii prosper,
smart Alexis Will continue TO point It out
from the train as ''unoccupied and inhab-
tied D. bats"
ExaGceratOn Of the collapsed condition
Of Wichita also marked other portions Of
the city Paramount was never in a dilap-
dated condition. But two houses have
been moved of College Hill in the last
ten years.
In additions difficult Of access there were
once instances where buildings were torn
down and moved away TO Oklahoma /
towns. but for every house 50 torn down
and moved Wichita had TO suffer the re-
port that a hundred houses had been 50 /
torn down and moved. L was not true. /
Il never was true. People on the outside |
believed that there were hundreds Of
housas in Wichita unoceupied. surrounded
BY sunfowers and inhabited by owls and /
bats. It was not true. An Occasional, /
house IN that shape spread the report that
there were hundreds. L never was true. I
The collapse Of Wichita banks in 1893 /
was made an advertisement against the
city. Notwithstanding that at the same /
moment banks were failing ali over the |
country.
The truth OF he matter IS that Wich- 1
.-s has the unusual faculty Of being prom I
inert before the country. As IL cut 50 /
large q figure in prosperity. so IL cut a /
c0--5Sp 7n5-nSly large figure II adversely. /
Nothing can keep the city hack; moth /
ing can keen il from again coming before /
The country as q center ot prosperity. L /
will De advertised. and the people here /
are today enjoying some compensation for /
the evil reports they have endured against +
taem.
There is TO city in the country. not /
even fah'sd Port Arthur. which is grow /
ing as Wichita Is today. The c.tv tss