"Coates's House," Kansas City, on which we descended late at night, is not exactly the hotel a fastidious or exacting person would select as an abiding place if he had one experience of it. Moreover, there was a convention at Coates's House. We have been much exercised by "Conventions," dropping upon them at unexpected times and places—"Conventions" of doctors, of druggists, of railway conductors; and these being in possession, and masters of the situation, were always the most favoured guests. A stranger accustomed to have his own way in his inn, and to have his orders attended to with dispatch, might perhaps have his temper ruffled by the divine calm of the coloured citizens who officiated as helps, or by the haughty composure of the landlord, probably a warrior of renown, and assuredly a "colonel," at the very least who did not complaints or importunities. Quoth British railway director to mine host at the office:—"There is no looking-glass in my bedroom, and I can't find any basin and ewer." To whom the lord of Coates's House:—"Well, I've done the best I can for you! There are ladies sleeping on the floor! And if you don't like what you get here, there are other hotels in Kansas City, and you can go to them if you please." Director collapsed. But he appeared clothed and in his right mind in the morning, and I do not think the Colonel meant to be at all uncivil. Perhaps a party of ten coming in after hours, each demanding a separate bedroom, is considered as a disturbing and aggressive element, to be promptly sat upon and repressed. Next morning we were all up and downstairs betimes. An ample breakfast was well served by white women, aided by "darkies," in the public room, and then came the leave-taking with Mr. Bickersteth, Mr. Crosfield and Mr. Neale, the friends and companions with whom we had been living and travelling day and night, since the 23rd April, in harmony, which was not marred for an instant even when there were discussions concerning the programme, or small conflicts of wishes. The regret of which the outward and visible sign was only a deal of hand-shaking and simply expressed good wishes, based on the harmony of our mutual relations, was sincere. We saw our friends off on their journey to New York, and bade good-bye to Mr. Whelpley our conductor, Mr. Whitfield the baggage-master, who had been with us all along, and to the steward and excellent valetaille of the train, to whose care we were very deeply indebted for our comfort.
We were now transferred to the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fé Railroad Company. Mr. White, representative of it, who took charge of the Duke and his party, was certainly an admirable selection in all respects, as we had every reason to acknowledge every day and night of the many weeks we were so fortunate as to enjoy his society and profit by his quiet thoughtfulness. Mr. White is one of those Americans—the modern types in all his good qualities of Juvenal's Greek—whom no one, after a short experience of the versatility of their talents—quick, sagacious, bold yet cautious, with a keen eye for character and much quiet humour, full of decision and resource—would be surprised to hear of as candidates for the highest office. He brought with him Mayor Anderson, a railway official who had wide experience of campaigning in the Civil War, and who carried about in his person a leaden memento of battle, which had no effect on his animal spirits, or, I am glad to add, his bodily health; Mr. Jerome, an officer of the Chicago Railway; and Mr. Townsend, correspondent of the Field, to the readers of which he is known, under the name of "St. Kames," as the author of lively papers. We left Kansas City at 11.30, in a complete little special train consisting of two luggage and two saloon and sleeping cars, simply perfection in finish, elegance, and internal arrangements, with kitchen, cooking apparatus, dining and sitting saloon, harmonium, tables covered with bouquets of choice flowers, thanks to Mr. Pullman.
CHAPTER IX.
KANSAS—COLORADO—NEW MEXICO.
Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fé Railroad—Land Grants—Farming Statistics—Immigration and Settling—Colorado—New Mexico—Santa Fé—Colossal Hotels—Archbishop Lamy—The Rio Grande.
We have now taken a new point of departure. In a few minutes we are in the State of Kansas (in which Kansas City is not, it is in Missouri) and the western world lies before us. We have crossed the great river by a bridge 1387 ft. long, which cost 200,000l.
Kansas has now been opened up, as it is called. The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fé Railway, incorporated in 1863, is one of the most important trunk railways of the American continent. It now extends, with its branches, over 1700 miles; but although it was authorised as a railway in the year I have mentioned, the line from Topeka westward was not commenced till 1869; and it was not till 1871 that communication was completed to Newton, and a branch made to Wichita. In the following year the line was completed between Atchison and Topeka; and in 1875 and 1876 between Topeka and Kansas City, with an extension westward to Pueblo in Colorado, increasing the mileage to 820. And now it has spanned rivers, tunnelled mountains, and crossed deserts to Florida Pass in New Mexico, where it "connects" with the Southern Pacific Railway and completes the communication with San Francisco. The Company are still developing and pushing out their lines. The Santa Fé Railroad is striking out for Albuquerque, New Mexico, to make a short route to San Francisco. Another line is being made to Guaymas, on the Gulf of California; and another to the city of Mexico itself. And when all these are completed the boast of the Handbook of the Company will be justified, and the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fé will be the longest railway in the world under one management. It will have every reasonable chance of being also the main continental route to China, Japan, Australia, and South America, tapping a large share of the passenger traffic to India, and leading across the American Continent streams of voyagers and tourists. When the Guaymas line is finished there will be a saving of not less than 1400 miles over the San Francisco route between New York and Australia; and Japan and China will be brought nearer by 800 and 1000 miles respectively.
Now it does not, I think, fall within the scope of such a book as this, which is intended to be a record of what a certain number of people did in a short tour in the United States, rather than a work of reference for emigrants, or repository of investigation, to offer any opinion which might mislead those who are looking towards the western world for their future homes and for the scene of their labours in search of competence or fortune; but from what I was told I think it may be taken as true that the railway company I have named has acted with a liberality, in regard to the settlers in the State of Kansas, which, if it has brought in return profits to them, must be admitted to have entitled them to the praise of liberal and intelligent dealing. When misfortune came upon the State, and the frontier settlers needed help, the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fé Railway gave it them, and carried them away from the scene of the failure, or granted them terms for the repayment of the obligations they incurred if they were willing to stay upon the farms. The Company have given fair warning to all comers that they do not encourage them to rush off to what is called the "Far West," and to wander about in the wilderness in the hope that they will find quails and manna already cooked and tumbling from the skies. They say that they do not advise any person to come to Kansas to start farming unless he has capital enough to run it for a year. By Act of Congress, in 1863, 3,000,000 acres of land were granted to the Company in alternate sections, between Cottonwood and the border of Kansas on the west, extending twenty miles each side on the line as far as Kinsley, where the breadth narrows to ten miles at each side. Government in these Western States, in the case of grants like this, is authorised by Congress to retain the alternative sections of one square mile, equal to 640 acres, which are retained for homestead and pre-emption; and at the time at which I am writing all the even-numbered sections which are thus belonging to the Government are occupied by settlers as far west as Spearville, and the sections with odd numbers within ten and twenty miles of the railway, belonging to the Railway Company, have now been largely appropriated, about one-third having been sold to actual settlers. But the Company state that it is almost impossible now to find any vacant land over one mile from a neighbour's house, or over three miles from a school-house east of Spearville, except in the strip of sandhills lying on the south side of the Arkansas Railway. In many of the counties, the country is thickly settled and improved, and has an appearance of having been farmed for a quarter of a century instead of a few years.
It would probably be unjust to suppose that the praise and recommendation of the gentlemen connected with the great lines are much, if at all, influenced by the consideration of their own interests as officers or shareholders; and therefore I may take it for granted that the assertion, that "no matter what the speciality of the farmer may be, he will find soil and climate in the sections of the Company to suit him," is justified. Along by Cottonwood, and the eastern half of the Marion county, the high rolling prairie, covered with sweet nutritious grass, broken at short intervals by numerous valleys of corn, a quarter of a mile to a mile wide, through which flow perennial streams fed by hundreds of living springs, and fringed with timber, is peculiarly adapted to cattle-raising and dairying as a speciality, and the soil and climate are favourable to general farming. Between Florence and the Great Bend is described as the finest portion of Kansas. The county is gently rolling, in rich fields of which nearly every acre can be tilled, with deep upland soil and dark sandy loam underlaid with a porous marl, almost equal in fertility and affording a perfect and natural drainage. It is almost ridiculous to enumerate the crops which can be grown, according to my authority in this district—corn, wheat, oats, rye, barley, flax, buckwheat, tobacco, Irish and sweet potatoes, sorghum, castor-beans, broom-corn, rice-corn, millet, clover, timothy, peanuts, silkworms, apples, peaches, pears, plums, cherries, grapes, and all kinds of vegetables.
There was in 1879, and a part of last year, a terrible drought in the western portion of the State, and Mr. Bennyworth, seeing that wheat could not be grown in consequence, planted 600 acres of sugar-cane, and was rewarded for his intelligence and enterprise by a crop of which the sugar and syrup are equal to the best of Louisiana—10 tons to the acre, every ton producing 80 lbs. of sugar and 2 gallons of syrup, the average yield of the acre being 800 lbs. of sugar, at 10c., and 20 gallons of syrup. Value of the crop $75 to $80 per acre, or from 15l. to 16l., which is, they say, a clear profit of 8l. an acre. The United States at present pays about 20,000,000l. to foreign countries for sugar; and if this new industry succeeds, a large outflow of money will be cut off and turned westwards into the pockets of the Kansas farmer. Dhoura, or Egyptian corn, is being also cultivated with success, and is pronounced very excellent food for hogs, cattle, and horses, giving the stock-raiser of the West cheap food for his cattle, and, in conjunction with the buffalo-grass, enabling him to fatten them at the smallest possible rate.
In South Central Kansas, forest trees are rapidly growing up; for it would seem that before the country was settled trees were not found at all, except by the banks of the streams. Between the Great Bend and Dodge City the country has the same deep, rich, well-drained soil, but it presents a great change in the climate and the grasses, the latter being principally the buffalo-grass, instead of the tall blue-stained grass of the country farther east. As we go westward from the Great Bend, there is a higher elevation, a drier atmosphere and a smaller rainfall, and a different system of cropping is required. Winter wheat is dangerous to meddle with, because there may be a short rainfall, which happens once every five years, and then failure is certain; but broom-corn can get on in dry weather, and the sugar-cane has never failed. The manufacture of sugar at Larned in Pawnee County is declared to have been so successful that sugar-growing and making give every promise of being the coming industry in South-western Kansas; and in the same district, sheep-raising has made marked progress. But it is admitted that the result was very much in consequence of the failure of the wheat-crop. Capital is required here for growing wheat, broom-corn, or sugar, or breeding sheep or cattle. West of Dodge City the Company admit that there is only grazing to be had, except along the valley of the Arkansas river, where irrigation is being carried on with successful results in fitting the soil to raise vegetables for the markets in Colorado and New Mexico. It must be remembered that the average elevation of the great region which is traversed by the rail is about 200 feet above the level of the sea; and although I will not go so far as to believe that chills and fevers, asthma, consumption, and pulmonary diseases do not exist, or are relieved and cured by the air, I think there is ground for accepting the statement that the climate is generally healthy.