The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1902-05-02
on THE WING.
Geo. 7. Barr Tells Of Their Trip to
Southern California

To the Editor The problem facing
us is to comply with your request for
an occasional letter to the Free Press
at the same time needing the injunc-
ton of ''none of the old chestnuts
now" laid upon US just before leav-
ing Mankato by our friend Geo. b.
Clark. As this initial effort, however,
will have TO do only with the journey
from Mankato to Los Angeles, and
the caution from brother Clark proba-
bly, had reference to the oft told tales
of California fruits. flowers and
climate, the attempt at adjustment
may be deferred to some future date.
We left Mankato at 10 100 p. m. Sat
urdsy, April 9Th via the tourist car on
the Omaha with tickets reading over
the Santa Fe from Kansas City. The
journey to the latter place was with
out incident and is familiar to 80
many of your readers that no attempt
at description is necessary.
A stop over of four hours, during
which the overland trains were being
made up, gave us time for breakfast
and hasty glance at portion each
of the residence and the business sec
tions of Kansas City. A car ride out
Independence Ave. gave US view of
some of the finer homes and walk
through.several down town streets took
Us past the best of the stores. Though
it was Sunday and most of the bust
ness places were closed, the show win
dows were very attractive and indi-
Gated complete and varied stocks.
Kansas City streets are. however,
not attractive but are i'll kept and fill
ed with paper, orange and banana
Feelings and other loose debris blown
back and forth by the winds, and the
sight of them made us proud of Uncle
Morrow with his basket and hooked
stick and the resultant clean streets in
the business district of Mankato. The
grass of the lawns was much greeneI
and further advanced than in Manka.
to, but we did not see a good thick
turf anywhere, all the lawns being
pstchy and very thin.
Promptly at eleven a. m. Sunday
our train pulled out from Kansas
City, and almost Immediately We
were in Kansas and amid strange
sights The soil. the timber, what
little there was to see, the towns, the
people even, looked odd to northern
eyes. Our way lay through towns
many of whose names have beer
familiar since the struggle for thu
possession of Kansas between the OLE
slave power and the freesoilers ant
through the capital city of the state
Topeka. The trees along the stream
were showing little more green thai
was the case in Minnesota and durin!
the afternoon we saw peach trees il
blossom at Newton, but we saw n
others until on Tuesday we were il
Arizona. The day was without specia
incident and nightfall found us a
Hutchinson at the great bend of tn
Arkansas river.
Tuesday morning at breakfast tim
we were at La Junta, pronounced L
Hunta, in Colorado, and found tina
during the night the time had chang
ed at Dodge City to mountain time
and our watches had to be set bac
enc hour. We were up early and ha
our morning meal from our lunch boz
J so that we put in the twenty-fiy
minutes during which the train We
at this breakfast point in paradin
the station platform taking in goo
I, air and observing the first exhibit {
! Navajo blankets and other India
> novelt les offered for sale.
> Soon after leaving this point ahea
on the right we caught the first sigl