The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-04-27
PRAISES Up KANSAS
w. {. Curtis Writes CompIi-
mentary Things of the State
ORATORS ARE ELOQUENT
Says Prosperity Again Pre-
walls Within Her Borders.


The Chicago Record prints the follow.
ing from William E. Curtis, its Wash
ington correspondent, who recently visited
Kansas:
Between the microbes and the trusts and
other ills we inherited from Adam, all Of
us poor miserable sinners, as we are cal
ed in the prayer book, have hard journey
through this vale of tears; but somehow
or another the people of Kansas make
more fuss about it than those of other
states. They have done more Boosting
and more complaining, according 10 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 shot
gun if necessary, and they shed their
blood and saw their convictions. It has
been a nursery of theories, a hotbed OF
moral reform. Nowhere else have isms
and ologies thrived so luxuriously as in
Kansas.
Some say that all this is due to the
cooking; that there is more dyspepsia,
| physical and mentalt in Kansas than can
be found anywhere else, and that if the
women would give their attention to do
nestle science rather than to intellectual
pursuits there would be less fermentation
inside of their husbands and sons. I have
no evidence to sustain the assertion-it
comes from a man of experience, and
! give. it for what it is worth-that the wo-
men of Kansas know too much about
books and too little about cooking, and
that a large share Of the fanaucsms and
fallacies that have been due TO disordered
livers and diluted gastric juice, or, in
other words, to heavy bread and fried
| beefsteaks. The hysterical history of the
| state is accounted for in that manner,
and the gentleman who makes the asser-
| ton 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,
crop Of corn or a plague of grasshoppers,
stack of mortgages or a gas well, a
great moral reform or a sorghum mill,
race horse or a regiment of fighting men,
Kansas always eXcels, or at least she
thinks she does land that is the same
thing. Her orators are the most eloquent,
her cranks are the most 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 recently exclaimed, God said
Let there be light and there was-Kan-
sas." The entire people appear to con-
template their own virtue and valor in a
similar spirit.
I was talking today with the most pop
ular 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 people. I re-
marked that I 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 it
off in great chunks. We are now praying
that you may have equal prosperity in the
east, so that your people can sell out and
come to Kansas and buy farms and be
where a man seeking a home and hap
piness could do so well as he can do today
in Kansa. There was never a time nor
a place where anybody could find more
prosperous more contented or a happier
people. We have been through the fire Of
adversely, and we not only appreciate the
contrast, but have profited by the ex-
perience."
Have your people paid off all their
mortgages?"
'eNo; l think there will be a net increase
in the mortgages on Kansas property dur
ing the current year, but that is an evil
dence of financial strength instead of
weakness. OF the hard-time mortgages
not more than $50, 600 remain. We have
probably paid off $751; 600 during the last
three years. The census of 1890 credited
us with s240 900, 600 of mortgaged farms and
homes That was pretty near the truth.
The census of 1900 may show $50, 100000 or
$1,000 600, but the greater part will be
mortgages Of recent date, not given to re
place the old ones, for most of them have
been Cancelled. but for new farms new
homes, improved machinery. high-bred
stock and other evidences OF prosperity
The Kansas farmer always covets the
land that adjoins his own and a great
many have been able within the last year
or two TO buy out their neighbors. The
addition may have cost 5000, and having
only S2000 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
hasn't been quite enough money saved up
TO pay for them and the owners have
anticipated the future But for TWO years,
perhaps for three. no man in Kansas has
been compelled to borrow money 10 pay
legitimate expenses, and no man has been
idle except from choice
How have the mortgages been paid?"
First. by rigid and forced economy; by
the sacrifice OF all luxury and many COM
forts: by thu careful outstanding Of every
source Of revenue, and then by the PROFITS
upon the splendid crops we have had for
the two last years. The value Of the
crops OF the Kansas farmers in 1895 was
Sis. $50 COO: in 1897 it was S126 $50 60, and IN
1SeS It was l5ls23 l'oe"
What is the banking capital OF the
state today?'
About $170.ooo,oo0. or this sS.9a.oo9 IS in
national banks and s6.5Oo.J0o IN private
banks. and bosh have a surplus Of ABOUT
$. 5o9.c0"
And the dePosits?"
About $s7.co0.oOo. can not give YOU the
figures for the national hanks. but the
deposits in the state banks. over which
have supervision. have increased very
rapidly. In 1891 they were SIG zee: in