The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1903-07-10

THE KINSLEY GRAPHIC:
| DEAR EDIToR:-I felt like talking
to old friends through yonr paper
this morning while waiting for the
bank to open. The customs are some
what different in this country. The
banks open at 10 O'Clock and close 1T
l5 O'Clock. 1t is daylight here at =
O'Clock and gets dark at 22 O'Clock,
having only four hours darkness.
/ came across the line at Portal on
| Saturday, June 10Th, at IA O'Clock
and 15 minutes, or 2:l5 p. m, after
having asserted that was in good
health and had been vaccinated.
From Portal we ran through much
farming country similar to the DakO-
tas, all wheat and flax. Elevators
were situated at every sidetrack with
hardly house in sight of them, and
in the populated towns there are two,
four aud six elevators-and large
ones, two. From Portal to Moose
Jaw there is perhaps a fair amount
of rainfall. but from Rush Lake to
the Hat it is evidently very dry, and
from Medicine Hat to the mountains
all through Alberta is very dry
country. North and south of the
Saskatchewan river, the arid country
is more or less broken into by SHOWS
and rains, and is accordingly good
and not good for the stock business.
This is the greatest horse and cat
tie country ever saw aud big opera
tors. are rapidly coming here with
herds ranging from 5000. to $1,000 cat
tile. The Creswell Cattle Co., A. j..
Day, manager, will have this fail be-
tween 25 and 80 thousand cattle on
the range. They have already this
season shipped in 5000. Medicine
Hat is the headquarters for many
stockmen, claiming population of
1000, but 1900 to 1000 would think is
nearer the number, and this pOpula-
tion is comprised of nearly every
nationality on the globe. AS Canada
is free to Chinese, there are many of
them here. Scotch and English pre-.
dominate. The business men and Of
ficials have met have proved them
selves very nice people; there is the
same open Western hospitality.
saw the first genuine red Goals here:
they are local militia out for th=
summer drill. Medicine Hat is or
the south bank of the Saskatchewa;
river, a navigable stream, and car
: only be crossed by bridge or ferry. e
The town was built some 20 year:
ago, doomed for time, and later
went awful dead, but in the last five
years by the help of railroad ant
cattlemen it has taken a new star
and is quite prosperous now. We
think in. the states we have railroad
monopolies, but this Canadian Pacif
ic is the worst in the world. Fol
years it did not pay, but now it il
. very profitable and is making YER!
expensive improvements. AT th'
same time it cannot begin to move
the business, offered. Its passangel
trains make only twelve miles al
hour and are all loaded and passen
:. gers stand on all trains. There is al
= immense amount Of projected railwa!
l building in the northwest territories
and if ever the ice difficulties of Hud
,, son Straits are overcome there viii
, be one Of the worlds greatest sea
ports on0HudsOn's Bay.
The character of the prairies her
is different from the Kansas prairies
O there are few creeks; many lakes, ant
- the rivers are Deep. The. bluffs ar
;. not high. and the canyons are not hal
;. a mile long, and where creek come
4 to the river the hills are less than
a mile along its banks from the rivers
!. then it is u sluggish stream of waite
through the prairie, like Coon Creek
There are quite a few round, smo"t
a stones all over the praries, more i
l. some places than in others, and som
.el sand hills. Few of the lakes hav
abrupt banks, and most of them al
7, bordered with rushes and rathe
e, stickey in places for stock to get OF
A to water, but in places have Me
lie gravel bottoms. Many of them g
e. dry in dry seasons. If the sun ha
e. the power here that it has in Kansa
Is the evaporation would be immens'
t, The elevation at Medicine Hat
w 295O feet. The farmers get water
wells at from six to thirty feet ever,
where. The cheapest Canadian P;
al cific Railway land is 1926 per acre.
sr Igo this evening at 1905 o'cloe
ne to Calgary, and tomorrow to Edmo
q. ton, where l wish to go into the Pea,