The whole afternoon was spent in watching the panorama of cities and towns, farms and ranches, creeks and rivers, as we rushed by them. For nearly the whole distance between Topeka and Emporia we passed through one of the great coal-fields of Kansas. After leaving Emporia and the noted limestone quarries of Strong City, our path lay through an almost continuous field of corn, until we reached the thriving city of Newton. After a moment’s stop we rushed on through wheat, corn, and oats until the famous Arkansas Valley was reached, and Hutchinson loomed in view. Our car was soon on the house track, and we found a large company awaiting to welcome us, among whom were: S. W. Campbell, Esq., President First National Bank; John Lowry, Esq., President Iowa Town Company; George S. Bourne, Esq., Treasurer Empire Loan and Trust Company; J. R. Pope, Esq., Cashier Valley State Bank; F. R. Chrisman, Esq., Cashier People’s State Bank; Samuel Matthews, Esq.; Miles Taylor, Editor Daily News; E. L. Meyer, Esq., Cashier First National Bank; W. T. Atkinson, Esq., Cashier National Bank of Commerce; James McKinstry, Esq., Attorney at Law; A. J. Lusk, Esq., President Hutchinson National Bank; W. R. Bennett, Esq., Vice-President Empire Loan and Trust Company, and many others. They crowded our spacious hotel car, and introductions followed. At the request of the party, presented by a committee of ladies, Mr. Knox consented to deliver to us the address which he had prepared for response to the toast, “The East,” at the “Bankers’ Banquet,” of the American Bankers’ Association, at Kansas City. Did orator ever have a more unique auditorium or attentive and appreciative audience?
He said: “No American, returning home, can sail through the beautiful harbor and bay of New York without experiencing a thrill of joy and pride at the unequalled location of this great Eastern city and the rapid strides with which it attracts and combines all the elements which have heretofore formed the largest cities of the world! The Germans drink their bumpers, at home and abroad, to the river Rhine. The river Hudson was the first link of communication between the East and the West. Eighty years or more ago our fathers celebrated the opening of the Erie Canal with a joy unequalled by any of our modern celebrations. They felt that the East and the West were brought more closely together by adding this second link to the methods of transportation.
“I remember when a boy to have visited the cabin of one of the passenger packets of the Erie Canal at nightfall. It reminded me of the buttery of my grandmother in the country on the farm, which was a long room with pans of milk placed on shelves on either side, with a narrow passage between. In this cabin, instead of glistening pans of milk, the passengers were laid to sleep upon the shelves. Outside, three horses on the towpath drew the boat, and upon the horses were boys to guide them. Soon after nightfall the boys were asleep, the horses were asleep, and if the boat had been called “Somnambula,” every thing would have been in harmony with the name! The passengers were three weeks making the journey from New York to Chicago by canal and the lakes. If there was a storm upon the lakes there was danger that they might never reach their destination! Yet our fathers rejoiced over even this small improvement in their means of transportation.
“Within a few months, chiefly by the employment of Eastern as well as Western Capital, perfect lines of railroad have been built and recent improvements have been made, which have so shortened the distance between Chicago and New York that a breakfast can be taken in New York and upon the following day repeated in the city of Chicago. Yet so blasé have we become that this perfect system of transportation has gone into effect almost without public acknowledgment.
“The East and the West then have reason to love the beautiful Hudson, with its Palisades, its Catskill, its West Point, and its
‘Villages strewn like jewels on a chain
All its bright length.’
The Mohawk Valley beyond, excels even the Hudson in pastoral beauty.
‘Whole miles of level grain,
With leagues of meadow-land and pasture-field,