28 KANSAS AND THE COUNTRY BEYOND.

the Pacific without breaking bulk. Before five years more shall have
rolled round, that which lately seemed but an enthusiast’s dream will
be sober verity, an accomplished fact

I have said that I was pleased to see the energy of Chicago in
grasping this prize. It is eminently commendable; and if the cities
along the other great line of the country’s commerce — beginning at
Philadelphia and ending at St. Louis—allow themselves to be out-
stripped, it is their own fault. This, however, 1 do not like to see.
Allow me to state frankly the result of my observation during the
past few days of constrained sojourn in this lively little border town,
which is for the present the commercial terminus of this road. I have
rambled through the closely packed warehouses of the railroad and
of the forwarding-houses, and one empty glass box, bearing the
stencil-mark of a Pittsburgh house, was the only evidence I met that
there was anything manufactured in our State. Ohio was represented
by some agricultural machinery. Even St. Louis had very little to
remind one that it is a great city, and that to its enterprise the coun-
try is mainly indebted for this magnificent thoroughfare into a vast
and prolific region, which, but for it, would afford no market to any-
body.

The magnitude of the trade on this road astonishes even those who
are building it. Its revenue during the month of May was over
$172,000, or at the rate of over $2,000,000 a year. A double track will
be needed through the valley of the Kansas long before the far distant
goal can be reached.

P. S.— In justice to our own State, I must not omit to mention the
fact that all the rails on this road, together with the locomotives and
cars, are of Pennsylvania manufacture. I only spoke above of the
commodities which enter into the general trade of the road.

 

LETTER VI.— Water falling —_ A new Hotel — Return of three of the
Pond Creek Party — Observations upon the Country above.

Santina, Kansas, June 14, 1867.

I am still here; but as it is a very good place to see and hear what
is going on, to witness the vigorous workings of border life, I cannot
say that I regret my involuntary detention. I am comfortably fixed
at a respectable restaurant. We have a good table, clean and tidy
chambers, and pleasant and intelligent company. I tried the Goddard
House about thirty-six hours, but that was enough. In a few weeks