The Coolidge examiner., 1938-06-09

the pro-slavery ticket Missourians
dubbed Border Ruffians" -
f1ocked over to help the slave-own-
ing element.
Murders. raids and house burn
ings continued for years. At Law
renee, type metal from the Herald
of Freedom, thrown into the river
by a previous mob, was fshed out
and nodded into cannon balls.
One event in border war Kansas
will never forget; that is QuantrilPs
guerrilla raid on Lawrence, when
that Missouri hothead sacked and
burnt the town and slew some $50
citizens. History gives space to the
Marais des Cygnes massacre and
"Old John Browns" historic cru
sade and his final execution, after
his effort to seize guns at Harpers
Ferry arsenal to arm slaves.
Even after Kansas was admitted
as free state, in 1861, and after the
Civil war ended, it was plagued
for years by Indian raids, county
seat fights, and bad men who rode
up the great COW trails from Texas.
Writers still argue as to whether
Dodge City, in its wild days. was
more wicked than Abilene.
Scenes in the Oil Fields.
Day and night. oil field bedlam,
as at Russell field near Hays, fills
the air with clatter and shouts. Big
strikes quickly cover empty plains
with new, unpainted pine shacks.
tents, new stores, lumber yards, ma
chine shops, auto camps, big piles
of new pipe, walking beams" of
working pumps, black pools, fright
ful-looking dense smoke clouds from
burning waste. long lines of tall
steel derricks that march like big
skeletons to far horizons.
You see slangy Mattresses at
quick lunch counters; gnomelike
electric welders, in ceaseless move
ment, wearing odd helmets that
ward off heat and binding torch
light; and crowds of men in over
alls so greasy that they seem to
have just been baptized by total i'm
mersion in the smelly black oil now
pumped from the worlds deep,
dark, greasy bowels-oil that means
more cash to Kansas than her boast
ed wheat crop.
AS you near Mcpherson, silvery
domes of oil refneries CLINT in morn
ing sun like mosques on a Babyloni-
an plain. Heavy tank trucks, load
ed with new-made gasoline. speed
west for Denver.
One of the newest scientific oil
hunting methods is use of the sis
mograph, which works more or less
like the echo-sounding machines
used by ships now to measure ocean
depths.
Wichita Is a Busy City.
Wichita has one of the Vests fin
est airports, with airplane shops
that build planes for our army and
navy, and some for export.
Supplanting its pioneer fires of
buffalo chips, gigantic factory
here makes oil stoves and lamps
that are sold to worlds end. Tall
flour mills pierce the skies, and
crowded stockyards. noisy with
bawls, grunts, squeals, and bleats,
handle trainloads of meat-bearing
animals.
From all over the South buyers
flock to Wichita's busy mule mar
ket. Missouri mockingbirds, " they
nickname these agile, shapely, but
sterile hybrids, whose quick heels
pack a lot of dynamite.
Metropolis of this state is Kansas
City, Kan. On the Missouri side:
shops that sell boots. big sombreros,
and horse gear; on the Kansas side:
big, busy town of mills, packing
plants, soap factories-and the fine
homes of many who ride over to
daily affairs in the big Missouri
town across the river. Shaded by
great modern buildings, in the heart
of the Kansas city, is an old Indian
burying ground, long bone of con-
tention between sentimentalistS and
municipal builders.
In sheer size, colossal Santa Fe
shops and offices easily dominate
Topeka, almost obscuring even the
statehouse. Brisk industries abound,
ranging from meat products and
flour to the printing and metal
trades.
Curious among industries is one
which packs horse meat for export
to France.
Hub of the states highway sys-
tenn, served by four railways and
by ample water and power plants,
Topeka is good example of a we'll
balanced, mature American provin-
cial city.
Round, fecund earth knows no bet
ter corn land than east Kansas.
Most corn is not sold for cash; it
is turned into money through the
alimentary canal of livestock, par
ticularly pigs.