The herald. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1905-1953, 1922-11-23
The Story OF
Aqua Pura
20, bv the Macmillan Co.
- BJ '-'-
IAN ALLEN WHITE

rho write about Kansas,
nDfI1, nile. write ignorantly, and
~ the state as finished
ps' kansas, like Gaul of Old is
4 e into three parts, .s differing in .n as
q Zach &C from the other , as any
w. a. tries in the same latitude
o. s', lobe. 1t would be as un'
''s s..sIfy together the Egyptian
2 ,' c' and the Central American
'a'ss ~ Of the Kansas man with
: ,sI.ruishing between the o eastern esn
pD ~ central Kansan, and the
- son Eastern Kansas Is a
'n n community like New York
ns,rsuia. Central Kansas Is
s = INIT not quite paid for; and
- r y the only place where
a : NV suffering from drought or
.nn-es is a new countryside
ma pluck which Is '
~ the desert. ..o-,, xonsos
- high up, far out on the
II was founded nine years
!, ne beginning of the boom, not
.ssors and ruffians, but by hon
-
.mhitious men and women. VI
!. men who staked out the town
s-,Jobnson and Barringer-
u.rard men; one, Nichols, was
p,,uceton; and the other three,
bradley and Hicks, had come
',I,pd state universities. When
-,yes came West there was a
=, ,,uuIon. and the first mail that
- ,fter the post Office had been
''s,,.sed brought the New York
-s,ss The town was like dozens
A,n that sprang ur far out in the
.As,ous wilderness in that fresh,
M.IIfl1to
q gtng Of 1886.
nr called 1t Aqua Pura. choosing
m. name to proclaim to the world
Z, vas not a rowdy town. The
,,llow pine of the little village
Irued u the clear.sunlight. 1t could
=, for miles on a clear, warm day,
1 seod upon rise of ground and
q n Maize, six miles away, the cleo
trzhts Of Aqua Pura. which flashed
4 the evening before the town
= Il months old. could be seen dis
A A schoolhouse that cost twen-
tnsand dollars was built before
,psu had seen its first winter; and
int Christmas ball in Aqua Pura
3 held In an opera house that cost
thausand. Money was plentiful
! md three-story buildings rose on
4 dde Of the main street of the
b place. The farmers who had
- homesteads in the country
Nd the town had prospered.
hninger was elected mayor at the
nhipal election IN the spring of
nd he plated out Barringer's
11kn, and built a house there with
Imved money In June. There were
, thousand people in Aqua Pura
nae was not lawless element
M was not saloon In the town. A
E1id hall. and dark room, wherein
- might be played surreptitious-
me the only Institutions which
- BE people Of Aqua Pura blush,
- they took the innumerable
Inn capitalists" over the town
, Visited western Kansas that year
- capitalists were entertained
heestory brick hotel, equipped
9 dertzicity and modern plumbing
~ 70 excel Maize. where the no
- O Indifferent frame affair
- the story Of the rise. Bar
~ told It a thousand times
~ believed In the town to thu
Enen the terrible drought Of
M IL furnacelike breath singet
: m and the farms in Fountain
Y barringer led the majorit.
pnedly claimed that the coun
q right; and as chairman O.
d q county commissioners, h,
enthing message to the gov
Hza1ing aid Barringer's owl
md money on land, WHEREOF
had failed, to tide the farm
- he winter. Barringer's sig
aranteed loans from the Eas
ylhing negotiable, and Aqu,
Ind tor q time upon promises
mere In the spring of 1885
= n empty building. On,
ee opera house block wa
uauinger started a man Ii
seiling notions, who occupie,
barringer went East an,
MN the men who had invest
= town to be easy on thei
1hen came the hot winds o
'3le out of the southwest
ne grass, shrivelIng tn
ofying up the streams tina
- n the spring. During tn
= year the hotel. which ha
only In the lower story
~ ne opera house began to b
s!d meetings, and when tn
SO blew dust-blackened sno,
H desclate streets of tn
e nttled a hundred wiz
nt houses, and sometime
~ ped boards from the hig
= ied across the gully I
- trade Of the unfinIshe
Az Line
Il 0ld NOT IN Eaet thot voo,