The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-12-01

child But as my Thoughts were else
where this was not Of special notice.
But while the outside was dark !
knew well the passing melodrama-
For had I not traversed the route an
hundred times in the daylight'S glare.
The wind was coming in scurrying
blasts through the WellhOuse orchard,
as we fitted by its hundreds and hun
dreds of acres of growing, bearing
trees Then a long stretch of dead
prairie grass with patches of sumach
and an occasional proving wolf.
A heavy whistle, with two quick
| shorter ones from the LOGON olive
Carbondale-we had entered the coal
lands. A small town with little to
glorify 1t save the one industry-that
of gathering black diamonds. In a
twinkle we were by and there was but
a confused memory of derricks and
loaded freight cars and the town lay
behind US as dark and silent as the
grave.
Without Stacking pace, the ''Prairie
Scooter" scoOted on through a contin-
uation Of the coal land territory. Zip!
We flew by Burlingame. A breath at
Usage City, then Reading and a shud-
dering sigh at the Inflated Lang. A
monetary putting over the long hill,
NeoshO river, dark and turbulent
through beautiful East Lake and
around the curve into Emporia, one of
the most beautiful residence cities in
White and the Emporia Gazette.
Swift as the flight of an eagle to its
nest had we come the two counties
south and one west from Topeka,
sixty miles away.
The dawn was beginning to break
and in the gray spectacular light we
could see a two-story stone depot and
heavy mail trucks trundling up and
down the platform This metropolis
of Lyon county is one of the Santa Fe's
smart towns with its two noted coll
leges, splendid milling properties and
strong financial institutions.
But there was little of this for the
tourist to see or note beneath the fad
Shortly we glided away from the
sleeping city and up the beautiful Cot
tonwood valley. While Conductor
Schaefer's chronometer pointed ION
time, TO a dot"
Strong city called for a whistle and
a stop and from the rear platform I
could see far to the east the big red
sun pOking its face from out the hills
and across the valley to the south Cot
tonwood Falls, the former home of
General Manager Hurley and the best
catfish and bass fishing resort in Kan
sas.
strong city is fortunate in possess
ing the famous Lantry quarries and
cruShers which turn out tine ballast for
the model double track, newly equip
ped with s5-pound steel rails, over
" lAAGAl We We're TRAVELLING
With a reduction Of grades and such
! a roadbed the run up the Cottonwood
valley is a joy unto an engineer and
the fireman, also, who only has to
shovel four tons Of coal from Topeka
to Newton, where under other condi-
lions it might have been a half dozen.
We were jogging along at pretty
lively gait as we spun through Elm
dale, where almost every man has gas
we'll in his back yard, and those who
haven't may buy all they need fer IS
cents a thousand feet. Time was pass
ing. though not like a tortoise, as we
| iourneyed on through this paradise Of
a country with the river nurmuring at
the foct of the bluffs and the land slop-
4 ing away to the west in farms and
ranches.
On to Clements. Cedar Point and
Florence. a division point. then a brief
stop. Then away towards Peabody.
TIE telegraph poles fitting by as close
1 " as If combined in q trust and the
wheels pounding as IL the man at the