Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1902-08-16

business, farming, STOCK ra1Slng-and
a little politics on the side. Bailey
Vile has no golf links but between the
barber shop and the postof1ice is a
space where the boys pitch horse
shoes: so the sporting instinct does
not languish.
But although there is more to Bal
leyville than w. j. Bailey and w. J.
Bailey's farm-it might be called a
ranch in some Iocalities-but Bailey
vile people call it farm-these are
the principal excuses for is existence,
and all the little life of the place CEN
tiers in the personality of the six
teenth governor of Kansas, of course,
taking it for granted that he Will be
elected He is the president of the
bank; Bailey & Comet is the firm
name on the elevator; he owns most
of the store buildings; he secured the
appropriation for the town hall, nam-
ed for the township, Marion hall; the
plans and specifications of the new
81 900 school building to be built this
fall are in his Office at the bank; every
man, woman and child in the town
ship are his friends and most of them
call him Chill" The cemetery where
his mother who died two years ago is
buried occupies a little space on his
farm. This ground for the ''city of
the dead" was donated by him good
many years ago when the first death
among the pioneers of the community
brought the forgetfuIly healthful peo-
pie to a realization of that necessity.
Mr.. Bailey has lived on his farm at
Baileyville for TWENTY-FIVE years.
When he came to Kansas, a young
man just out of college, there was no
Baileyville, only two houses and not a
tree between the land he chose and
Seneca, the county seat, seven miles
away. A neighbor whose 80" adjoins
the Bailey farm drove to Kansas with
him from Illinois. Another 800 in
the vicinity was the home of its pres
ent occupant who had homesteaded 1t
and was the only bit of cultivated
land in the vicinity. All around was
the wide unhroken prairie. Like so
many others who came to Kansas
aboue that time the Baileys bought
cattle and expected to pasture them
on the big open range, but within two
years the land had been sold and fenc-
ed in and the country filled up rapid
ly. The land around BaIleyville which
is now worth SO an acre then sold for
So. ''We paid $3.50 for ours" said Mr..
Bailey, because we saw there was a
chance for little station here be-
tween Seneca and AXtell and in few
years it came. I've refused $75 an
acre for my place but wouldn't part
with it at any price. It's my home
and the place l expect always to keep
for my home and it has a value for me
that it couldn't have for any one else.
1t has associations which have no
money equivalent. When / drove out
here with my neighbor, MCGEE, there
was nothing here but prairie grass. L
set out all these trees on my place.
I've seen all these people come and all
these homes established. This fine
country has developed from d wild
prairie right under my eyes,"
The Bailey farm house is just one
mile north of Bailevville railway sta
tion, but one corner of the farm is at
the end of the main street of the viii
lage. From this point it extends half
a mile south, mile west and mile
and half north. The old California
road crossed its northeast corner at a
place called Ash Point where there is
still wreck of the tavern which used
to be one of the posting points of the
old pony express. The farm has 500
acres divided into cornfields, pasture
and meadow land. 1t is the big stock
farm of the county. There is an over
seer and a corps of men who work un-
der him, but they are all under the
personal supervision of the master of
the place who has careful eye for
every detail of the business of the
farm in spite of the demands which
politics makes upon his time. Il
have to drive around and see how
everything's going when l get home,"
he explains. II only get chance to
look In on 'em nowadays. / got home
from Crawford county yesterday and
1 leave for Osborne county tonight,
but we'll drive around and see what
the boys are DOING He has had his
bay horse Chilly" hitched TO the top
buggy to make flying inspection.
There are other horses on the farm