Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1900-01-17
EN- ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA
A Breezy Letter From H. A. Bigelow,
Describing His Trip to the Far West.
Los Angeles. Cal, Jan. sth 1900

lawyer or having saw, / saw what ]
never saw before. After leaving Deco
rah fell to meditating upon leaving
home and friends for so long journey,
and while in deep revery, feeling little
blue and wishing had little of what
st. Paul said was ''good for the stom-
achs sake", the brakeman called out
"Old Wine". 1 reused up and said l
would take bottle, but he paid no
attention to my request, and when he
came around I asked him why he did
not bring me some wine. Bring you
what? Did you think 1 had wine to
sell? Why, that is the name of a town,
you greenhorn; you had better 60 to
school some more" L was determined
to be as sharp as anybody after that
and kept my mouth shut all the way
to Cedar Rapids.
When we arrived there all the trains
were behind time except ours, and we
had to wait there several hours. The
depot was full of people and had
nothing to do but study costumes and
faces. Finally my curiosity overcame
my caution; and such an impudent set
of people / never saw. merely asked
several Ofthem very mildly where they
were going, and they told me it was
noLe of my business. saw the fellow
that owns the railroad; he had gold
bands around his hat and walked
through the depot when trains came
in, getting off lingo in loud voice
that no human being on earth could
understand, except the last word. At
the end of his Grafton he would yell
louder than ever "Boardv' i told him
was going on in few hours and
didn't want to "board'', but wouldn't
mind taking free lunch, and he look
ed at me as though be was mountain
ard 1 mouse. They have a very fine
depot at Cedar Rapids. 1t is $50 feet
long and platform $50 feet long, marble
| floor, etc., etc.
The country from Cedar Rapids to
Des ,Moines and Council Bluffs is~se
well known that it needs no description,
suffice it to say that it is No. and
right in the natural corn belt, although
the corn stalks were no larger than
those in Winneshiek county.
After crossing the Missouri the horses
grew smaller and the corn cribs longer.
Wichita, Kansas was the first city of
any size we saw by daylight after leav-
ing Lincoln. Wichita is one of the old
time boom towns and the result shows
the folly Of building on wind. A gang
of spectators bought up large guam
tity of farming land around the town,
laid out streets, blocks, parks, graded
for street railroads and succeeded in
getting up so much excitement and
rush that, a citizen told me, in boom
times there was 10000 population ard
now only 10000. Kansas, Oklahoma,
Indian Territory and part of Texas
have very much the same appearance
on the surface, and Bates could build
race track 1000 miles in circumference
without grading down a single hill.
Riding for hours and hours over such
vast level country becomes monoto-
nous, and one longs to see burr oak
tree or an Iowa river bluff, or what
would be by far the most acceptable, a
pure and sparkling Iowa spring. Even
bucket of water from. an Iowa well
would be thankfully received. 1t is
hard to judge the quality of soil from
car window, especially where there are
no crops, and it has as manv colors as
the rainbow. The prevailing color,
however, is red. The natives all claim
the soil is first class, but for myself i
should prefer soil have heard of
farther north. About the first thing /
saw in Oklahoma was two carloads of
cotton going to market and was told
that they raise quite quantity also in
Indian Territory and Texas. If any
one wishes to move to a warmer cli-
mate they can find plenty of cheap
land here, where the neighbors would
be 100 miles apart.
The largest and most northern-liKe
city seen in the South so far is Fort
Worth, Texas The population is
estimated at from $4,000 to 10000; it
depends altogether upon the size of the
imagination of the person you ask. 1
have had desperate time to find out
the true population of any of the west
ern and southern towns. 1t is almost
as hard as it is to find out how many
fish Grow and Vance catch. The next
important city on the route is Ell Paso,
Texas. Business seems to be rushing
there. The day we got there two
murderers were hung and the next day
there was bull fight. No one can
doubt now that the world moves when
murderers can be legally executed in
| Texas.
We arrived in Los Angeles Sunday
noon, Jan. 7th, feeling as well as when
we started, except being little tired.
| A pvnEV