Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1922-11-10
The Story Of
Aqua Pura
Observation-Disclosures
Copyright. 1927. By the Macmillan c..
WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE
EOPLE who write about Kansas,
- as n rule. write ignorantly, and
xnaoly nf tha cfota 40 f}nIcba,i

SDtuh ol INC Stutt us u uIilSut
product. Kansas. like Gaul of old
divided into three parts. differing n
widely. each from the ether. as an
three countries in the same latitud
upon the globe. 1t would be as un
true to classify together the Egyptian
the Indian and the Central American
as to speak Of the Kansas man with
out distinguishing between the eastern
Kansan. the central Kansan, and the
western Kansan. Eastern Kansas Is q
finished community. like New York
or Pennsylvania. Central Kansas Is
finished, but not quite paid for; and
western Kansas, the only place where
there Is any suffering from drought or
crop failures. Is a new countryside
only in pluck which is slowly con-
! quering the desert.
| Aqua Pura was q western Kansas
| town, set high up, far out on the
prairie. II was founded nine years
ago, at the beginning Of the boom, not
by cowboys and rufiians, but by hon
est. ambitious men and women. OF
the six men who staked out the town
site, tw.--Johnson and BarrInger-
were Harvard men; one, Nichols, was
from Princeton; and the other three,
Bemis, Bradley and Hicks, had come
from inland state universities. When
their wives came West there was
Vassar reunion. and the first mail that
arrived after the post office had been
established brought the New York
magazines. The town was like dozens
of others that sprang up far out in the
treacherous wilderness in that fresh
green spring Of 1886.
They called it Aqua Pura, choosing
a Latin name to proclaim to the world |
that it was not a rowdy town. The |
new yellow pine of the little village |
cleaned in the clear sunlight. 1t could
be seen for miles on clear, warm day.
as II stood upon rise of ground and
over in Maize, six miles away. the cleo
trio lights Of Aqua Pura, which flashed
out in the evening before the town
was six months old, could be seen dis
tinctly. A schoolhouse that cost twen-
ty thousand dollars was built before
the town had seen It's first winter: and
the first Christmas ball in Aqua Pura
was held in an opera house that cost
ten thousand. Money was plentiful;
two and three-story buildings rose on
each side of the main street of the
little place The farmers who had
taken homesteads in the country
around the town had prospered.
Barringer was elected mayor at the
election in the spring of
81, and he plated out Barringer's
Addition, and built house there with
borrowed money in June. There were
TWO thousand people in Aqua Pura
then.
There was not a lawless element.
There was not a saloon in the town. A
billiard hail. and a dark ROOM wherein
cards might be played surreptitious-
y, were the only institutions which
made the people of Aqua Pura blush, ;
when they took the innumerable
Eastern capitalists" over the town
who visited western Kansas that year.
These capitalists" were entertained
1t three-story brick hotel. equipped
With electricity and modern plumbing
II order to excel Maize, where the no.
el was an Indifferent frame affair. .
This Is the story OF the rise. Bar
niger has told it thousand times.
5arrInger believed In the town to the Il
asst. When the terrible drought of a
sST, with Its furnacelike breath singed d
he town and the farms in Fountain Y,
which proudly claimed that the coun- d
ry was all right; and as chairman of H.
ne board of county commissioners. he
ent scathing message to the gov
rnor, refusing aid. Bnrringer's own =
ank loaned money on land, whereon "
he crop had failed, to tide the farm a.
RS over the winter Barringer's sig -
allure guaranteed leans from the East .
pom everything negotiable, and Aqna "'
ura thrlved for time upon promises. =
iere and there, in the spring of 1885. -
mere was an empty building. One -
pom Of the opera house block was VI
acant. Barringer started a man in ~
uslness. selling notions. who occupIed
ie room. Barringer went East and re
loaded with the men who had invest II
i IN the town TO be ensy on their on
ebtors. Then came the hot winds Of Il
lly, blowing out OF the southwest. Ia
'orching the grass. shriveling the III
'ain. and drying up the streams that ia
~ nilrd In the spring During the vi
VI of that year the hotel, which had lo'
zen open only In fhe lower story. 10
ossd. The opers house began 10 be az
'ed Tor "eid' meetings. and when the of
inter wind blew dust blaekened snow tb'
rough fbe dssolaie streets Of the ~
ne town, II rsftled hundred niD.
'"s IN vacant houses, and soDletlnles spl
=" fnn-reflsd boafos from The hlgh pr
lssuls that he'd across the gully 10 gr'
. big red grade ~ the Unfinished xel
llieagD Az Line na
iisiHnse' 90 noi 80 fssi fhai year
could np' hul ha pgOe wrois oH
snlpgl} aad pfpyJl ~ fhe tasfosn ~.
FiiniiHiH NlV Hfie cOurpfned lu hl. 10