The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-05-05
CURTIS GETS FUNNY
Description of Wichita by the
Chicago Writer, HumorousIy
CAREFULLY AVOIDS FACTS
Thus Surprising Bill Nye'S
Effort on the City,

w. T.. curtis, the humor1St OF the Chi
cago Record, has written up Wichita. 1t
is the funniest article on the city since
that written by Bill Nye nine :ears ago.
when Nye spoiled MS article by getting
in some facts, an error that Mr. Curtis
has carefully avoided. The serious, sar-
castle coloring in the article was in
spired' and the source of information is
not difficult to divine.
The article appears in The Chicago Rec
ord and is headed Wichita is Immortal"
1t follows:
| Wichita, Kan, April 2S.-The pressure
! of local prize and ambition at Wichita Is
| about as powerful as that of the natural
| gas at Iola-2000 pounds to the square
| inch-and a skeptic can easily cause
an explosion by expressing doubts as 10
the future greatness Of this city.
Wichita is typical boom" town.
Twelve years ago it had a population of
$1,000. Today it has perhaps p, 600 which
is a considerable recovery from low tide
in 1885, when it had less than 1900 ac-
cording to estimates based upon the num-
Der of names in the directory. IN 1SS6-S,
before the boom broke, Wichita real estate
was selling at New York prices, and they
point out lots on the main street that sold
for $500 a front foot for which the own
ers would now be glad to get $500 or S40O
The real estate exchange n New York
in good times will reach about S32 00o, 900
a year; in Chicago in 1892, just before the
worlds fair, the transfers as shown by the
~ ooo,o
but at Wichita during the five months pre-
ceding the collapse in 1888 more than $780,
000,000 in town lots changed hands.
There was never such a craze for spec
ulation anywhere else in the world. Town
lots were sold at auction, night after night
The trading at the real estate exchange
was like the speculation in stocks on the
New York stock exchange and in wheat
on the board of trade in Chicago Com
paradvely few of the sales were followed
by actual transfers. Before the deed could
be made out the property would be sold
to some one else at an advance or a loss,
as the case might be, for values were af-
fected daily by plans for improvements
and rumors of street car lines, new rail-
roads, factories and fine residences to be
streets were laid out over an area suffi-
Gent to accommodate 1,OOO, 900 people.
When the boom burst it is said that
900 houses were torn down and the ma
terial used for firewood. Town lots that
once were severed and sidewalked and
piped for gas and sold for hundreds of
thousands of dollars are now cultivated
as cornfelds. One man sold quarter of
his homestead on the outskirts of town
for $10G0,000 and spent a large part of the
money in building and equippng a street
car line to reach it. He took the land
back from the purchasers upon the pay
ment of a small part of the purchase price
and surrendered the notes they had given
him for the amount of $4,000 The rails
of his tramway were sold for old IRON
the ties for firewood and the cars, which
were brought all the way from Philadel-
phia, make a picturesque group of out
rOuses around his barnyard.
One of the real estate men who survived
the boom tells me that his commissions
on sales Of town lots were 900 the week
before the break. The week after they
were less than $1,000.
The collapse Of the boom in Wichita is
traced directly to an editorial written by
Marsh Murdoch and published in his news
paper, the Eagle. That editorial probably
caused more commotion in this little west
ern world than any other article that was
ever published, because it knocked all the |
wind out of Wichita, and the rapid panic |
that followed became contagious and |
spread to every Kansas town. 1t is a |
question whether Mr.. Murdoch realized |
the possible results of his admonition He |
was a pioneer in Kansas state builder. |
He started the first paper west or south |
Of Topeka in 1863, and he came to Wichita |
before the railroad He loved the town |
more than any other man in it. His am
bition his pride, his hopes were all in
volved in its interests. and he did more /
than any other man TO create the fiction |
Of a metropolis which he himself exposed, /
and to inspire the delusion that he de- |
str0yed. Nobody doubts his sincerity no |
body ever questioned the honesty of his /
motive, but it is doubtful if wider or /
deeper or more vigorous imprecations were |
ever heaped upon any other man. Thou |
sands Of spectators who thought they |
were milionaires were bankrupt the next /
morning. Every line Of that editorial cost !
SLoo0,oo0 to the town Of Wichita, and with |
out doubt It was the most costly article |
that ever appeared in type.
But the boom would have broken sooner
or later. The balloon had become so dis /
tended that it must have burst within a
few months, and it was that knowledge |
which prompted Mr.. Nurdock to call a |
Halt" Under that tide. in a few impress
sve words, he warned the people Of Wich-
ita that they had reached the limit OF hu-
man folly, and in The name Of honest citi-
zenship and ordinary business sense he
demanded that insane speculation in town
lots should cease. and that the energies
Of the people should be employed IN the
ful6ilment OF the promises and the &C.
velopmeut Of the resources upon which
the boom had been based. He called the
attention # he public TO wha; IVES already
painfully apparent 10 every one-that IL
would require half q century % patent
toll 10 carry out the plans that had been
made FOR the Improvement OF Wichita
and that there was not enough money IN
the state OF Kansas 10 settle the obilga-
lions that had been assumed in that town.
He urged his fellow-c.tizeus 70 abandon
speculation and settle down 70 business
The Wichita Eagle had big circulation
in those days and il had always been one
Of the most influential papers in the state
NlT5ock vas recognized 81 a man OF
great power with the pen and a strength
OF purpose that never faltered. Hence
when the real estate Spectators and the
boomers read tha, editorial they realized
that IL was the honest eNaortation II
man who could No. be- hl,ll.zr7 M .7a-sst-,3 /
They knew Thar March Murdoch was act