The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-07-06

ing company, or in other words, there
are to be more irons In the fire. The
charter calls for a capital stock paid
up of $4,000. with G.. J. Michaelis,
president; John Mccoy, vice president;
J. r. Ashcroft, secretary; p L. Stout
treasurer and business manager NO
less than 35 business men and farmers
are its stockholders. NJ. c. Inflow,
present editor, will remain at the edi-
torial head. The paper will be en-
larged, and a new cylinder press and
other material will be added. The
policy of the paper will be independ-
ent with strong Democratic-Populis
opinions.
Few towns have as few drawbacks
as Hill City. Her constant branching
out has drawn trade as far as twenty
five and thirty-five miles distant; there
isn't even a billiard parlor or pool
table In the place, hence a person Bit
ten by q poisonous snake will find It
difficult to get an ounce or liquor II
the doctors prescribed It, The eleva-
tors are being put into repair to ham
die the grain trade; one of the har-
ness firms said they had disposed of as
high as eight sets of harness In a day.
One of the bankers is erecting mod
ern home at a cost of $4,000; another
citizen raised enough Strawberries for
his home and supplied several neigh
bors. R. V. Wilcox, lawyer, Is getting
ready for several weeks outing with
his family in Colorado. Cement walks
board sidewalks; the depot is SO far
away few people go there to see the
trains pass and repass as other towns
people do who live near the railroad,
and there is pride all over the resi-
dence part of Hill City to make the
homes more inviting by fixing UP at
tractive lawns.
1t has been more than a quarter of
a century since the writer first was In
Hill City Then it contained few
struggling frame houses and numer-
Gus "soddies," today it has a popula-
ton of about 500, with brick and stone
business buildings, and dozens of COM
Portable, modern homes; then 1t was
striving for the seat of government of
Graham county, today she has stone
court house as good as any in north
western Kansas; then farmers were
few and hot winds were blowing, to-
dav the county has close to 10000
people, and farmers are gathering one
of the best crops of wheat ever har-
vested here or elsewhere; then there
wasn't a school nor church in Hill
City, today they have magnificent
stone school house and several church
buildings; then one or two business
men did the business, today there are
DOZENS together with three banks,
three newspapers, three lumber yards,
two opera houses, Touring mill, two
first class modern hotels. with two
others thrown in for good measure
and half a dozen or more restaurants;
then there wasn't an acre of alfalfa in
the county, today the visitor can see
hundreds of acres of it growing in
either direction from town; then it
was a vast treeleSs prairie, and today
it is a garden in whatever direction
the visitor may travel; then a person
could get most any quarter section of
land for a song, today you have to
pay what it is worth. These wonder
full changes in this time have been a
theme of conversation among the later
corners to know how such changes
could really come about.
The people of Hill City and Ora
ham county have no cause to grumble.