USA > Kansas > Sedgwick County > History of Wichita and Sedgwick County, Kansas, past and present, including an account of the cities, towns and villages of the county, Vol. I > Part 23
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Finlay Ross' Administration .- This administration will be re- membered as the "park administration." To Ross' efforts Wich- ita owns the finest city parks in the state. It will be as a monu- ment, when he is wearing a robe and twanging a harp in the New Jerusalem. This administration was one that brought the old street car line to the final end, but the administration had noth- ing to do with getting the present street car company. This credit is due to Coler L. Sim. This administration commenced the fight on the M., K. & T. Telephone Company and granted the fran-
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chise to the present Independent Company. Whether rightly or wrongly, Ross is accused of having had in mind the formation of the Independent Company when he commenced the fight on the old company. Ross' friends do not believe that he was in any wise connected with the new company until after his time as mayor of the city had expired. Whether it is an error or not, there is in Wichita amongst all classes a deep-seated opinion that Finlay Ross, as mayor, honestly, earnestly and faithfully per- formed his duty and that he demanded a system of bookkeeping to be inaugurated so that the city could know what it owned and when it was due. It has been said that up to the time when Ross became connected with the city administration that the books in the city office were not kept in such a way that the city knew either what its bills payable or bills receivable were.
Ben McLean's Administration. There is now on and is not yet history, and hence will not be written about, except inci- dentally, to say that the west side is being cared for as it never has been helped before. Every good citizen is aware that the west side has the mayor, as heretofore it has been neglected. The west side surrendered its rights as an independent town and sank into the insignificant condition of being a ward. The building of a double bridge on the river, carrying gas and water pipes and having good foot walks across, with double driveway, will bring the west side close to Douglas avenue, and the present adminis- tration is recommended to do two things before it closes and goes into history: First-Organize a Historical Society. Second- Build a double bridge on Douglas avenue, so that the future col- lector of events, when he proceeds to gather his facts, will embalm in the history of Wichita that the McLean administration paved the west side, built the double bridge and organized a Historical Society.
The Boom Administration .- Ben Aldrich was mayor of the city from 1885 to 1887. This might be properly named the "boom administration." During this administration was the awakening of the people of Wichita to the fact that Wichita was being no- ticed by people from the Eastern states, by men with money ; by simon-pure, unadulterated, square-sawed oak, beeswax-rubbed and unpolitical speculators ; the man who hunts a place where values are rising and who keeps tab on every place where money can be quickly made and harvested. The population of Wichita from 1885 to 1887 increased about 20,000 people. The west side, also
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called Delano or West Wichita, had a population sufficient to organize as a city of the second class. At that time William Pitt Campbell, also known as "Tiger Bill," was the city attorney. The things accomplished under this administration, which were pure city acts, were the building of the Rock Island Railway ; the Midland Railroad (now part of the Frisco system) ; the Wich- ita & Colorado Railroad to Hutchinson; the extension of the Mis- souri Pacific Railroad from Anthony to Kiowa, to get this terri- tory of a tributary to Wichita, and also a road called the Leroy & Western, which was built from Mulvane, through the southern part of the county, west to Clearwater, Norwich and thereafter to Coldwater, all for the purpose of bringing this territory into Wichita as tributary territory.
West Wichita was induced to become part of the city, and Robert Lawrence was one of the prime movers in this undertak- ing. Wichita at this time passed from a second to a first class city. This was purely the work of William Pitt Campbell, as 90 per cent of the citizens of Wichita did not desire that Wichita should go from a second to a first class city, because of the addi- tional burdens and expenses, which were necessarily incident to such a change. During this time the United States Government Building was got under way. Incidentally, this cost the men that located the buildings $1,200 for the location. The Burton Car Works were got under way. During this time these were com- menced, but nothing was done until after Allen's administration had closed; also the county court house was commenced. From 1885 to 1887 were record-breakers, world-defeaters. Millions were spent in public and private and quasi-public improvements. Thou- sands of acres of land were added to the taxable values of the city. The Valley Center motor line, that is now but a legend, was built and operated at the cost of thousands in the building and a loss of thousands at the final end. During this time George Strong built his two lines of street railway, one of which ran up Fourth avenue and is now a myth; the other which went up Water street north to Fifteenth street and east to Fairmount College. This was an electric line and the lots cost over $100,000, and some of the bonds are still afloat. During this time J. O. Davidson got his first electric railroad, called the Riverside line, up Market street, west on Pine street to across the little river to Riverside addition. Historically speaking, this was the first operated electric railroad in the United States.
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Henry Schweiter built his line down Emporia avenue and out to Linwood Park. The West Douglas Avenue Street Railway Company was organized by promotors of the Wichita & Colorado Railroad, and Capt. F. G. Smyth, who was one of the prime movers in what was called Junction Town Company addition. The old street car company had agreed with the Junction Town Company addition that as soon as their addition was platted it would extend its line from the corner of Main and Douglas avenue across the bridge and at least one mile in length, but it took its time to per- form its promise. The west side was demanding that the street car line be extended across the river. One Sunday morning Cap- tain Smyth called a meeting of the Junction Town Company and stated that it was absolutely necessary for the moving of the Junction Town Company property on the west side that this street car line be built. Thereupon a charter was drawn up. On Mon- day morning it was forwarded to Topeka. A wire was sent from Topeka that the charter had been filed and a copy mailed to Wichita. On that afternoon the city council were seen, a special meeting of the council was held, the franchise was granted to the West Douglas Avenue Street Car Company, and on the morning thereafter Captain Smyth left for St. Louis to buy two cars to put on this line. The most of the work was kept secret. The first that the old street car company knew of the progress made hy the West Douglas avenue company was when its officers beheld the street cars sitting on the Frisco sidetrack, ready to be un- loaded. In twenty-four hours the old street car company had gathered its company and called a meeting of the Junction Town Company with its managers and assumed the obligations of the West Douglas avenue company, paid for the new cars and track and commenced to operate the road as soon as it could be gotten under way.
It is estimated that the loss in the building of the street cars in the city of Wichita, from the organization of the first street car line in 1883 down to the time that the present street railway sys- tem purchased the electric line three years ago, amounts to about $700,000. In this connection, it might be said that the first street car line was organized in 1883, by Col. John W. Hartzell, then of Topeka, Kan .; J. M. Steele, Kos Harris, L. D. Skinner and Frank Hartzell. This street railway line ran from the Santa Fe depot up to Main street on Douglas avenue, and thence north to Oak street, now Murdock avenue, and thence east to Fifth avenue, and thence
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north to the old Santa Fe depot. The present city street railway rails weigh over 100 pounds to the yard. The Wichita street rail- way, when built in 1883, used iron, which weighed but fourteen pounds to the yard, so that one can readily see the difference between building a mule car line and an electric car line. The Wichita Street Railway Company, organized in 1883, issued its bonds to the amount of $14,000, payable to S. W. Wheelock, of Rock Island, Ill., and after this line was built, cars purchased as well as mules, the company had about $8,000 in addition to the $14,000 furnished by Wheelock. The earnings the first year were 127 per cent on the amount of capital stock. Subsequently this road was sold to Colonel Powell for $25,000, and thereafter Colonel Powell sold one-half interest for $25,000, and thereafter he sold his other half interest for $100,000, which was paid in notes and mortgages taken by him in part payment, and he lost over $35,000. During this time the Garfield University was started by the Chris- tian church; also Fairmount College, the German Reform Col- lege, now used by the Catholic church, south of the golf grounds. During this time John Bright's University was started. There is perhaps one person in five hundred in the city of Wichita who remembers where John Bright's University was located. This administration was the one that gave to Wichita the celebrity and it is a period of high values. The apex of its prosperity and this administration passed into history before Wichita realized that it was insolvent or dreamed of what would follow.
As a matter of fact, the city of Wichita was in the condition of a man who goes home and finds some of his family is ill. While he is shocked to some extent, the member of the family lies sick for one month, two months or three months. The doctor tells them that there is doubt of the recovery of the sick person. By the time the person dies, the family have become accustomed and reconciled to the condition, and the death is not as much of a shock as the original information of the illness. Where a person goes home and finds a member of the family has been suddenly killed, the shock is terrible. Wichita was a sick man. It did not know whether it would recover or not as the days, months and years went by, and had become reconciled to the condition. If on some morning in 1888 all of the misery, desolation and bank- ruptcy had suddenly come to Wichita in the night, the shock would have been so great that the undertakers of this city would have had to telegraph to Eastern coffin manufacturers to order
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boxes with which to bury the suicides. My judgment is that all the strychnine, arsenic, prussic acid and laudanum in the town would have been used in forty-eight hours if one-half of the mis- ery and desolation had struck us suddenly instead of being long drawn out.
During this time Linwood Park was laid out, which was the first real park of the city. The Christmas of 1886 was the wildest and noisiest day in speculation that Wichita ever beheld. Real estate trades that amounted to millions of dollars were made in that day. There was indebtedness enough created on that day to bankrupt at least fifty families. On that day the writer was a member of a syndicate and put up his portion of $30,000 in a piece of property which was thereafter carried ten years and then sold for about the same amount of taxes that had been paid out on the property from 1886 to the day of the sale, a period of about ten years. On that day every hotel of the city was full and run- ning over. Business men had abandoned their stores and became real estate speculators. Stocks of goods were sold and boxed up and the stores were rented for business houses. One business house on North Main street rented for $125 per month, was used as a real estate office, and sublet for desk room, so that the original lessee of the room received a profit of $250 per month for the room.
During this time the Rock Island Railway made a contract with a local syndicate to locate its depot at its present site and the ground, which in 1885 was worth perhaps $20,000, was bulled until the owner saw fit to ask $60,000 for 100 feet of ground facing on Douglas avenue. The railroad company was determined not to pay this money or to make this location. It was agreed between this syndicate and the railroad company that the company would pay $20,000 toward the purchase of this ground and the syndicate should pay the other $40,000, and the railroad company was to give the syndicate company reasonable time in which to purchase the ground with which to requite itself of the amount paid for the depot site. This syndicate made its first purchase of the ground now known as Rock Island addition, which runs from the Rock Island depot across Rock Island avenue to the Frisco depot, east and west, and runs to Division street, north and south, being located 140 feet south of Douglas avenue. Fifty thousand dollars' worth of other property was purchased on Douglas avenue, and Rock Island addition was laid out. Rock Island avenue was
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thrown open, but to get to Douglas avenue with Rock Island ave- nue it was necessary to purchase two lots on Douglas avenue and dedicate them for a street, and these two lots were purchased for $12,000, and afterwards dedicated to the public for a street. The syndicate that purchased this addition and furnished the depot to the Rock Island Company, made a profit over and above expenditures which amounted in the aggregate to over $60,000 or $74,000 in six months from the date that the addition was platted. So in truth and in fact, Ben Aldrich's administration should be put down in history as the "boom administration."
CHAPTER XXII. REMINISCENCES OF A BRIEFLESS BARRISTER.
By KOS HARRIS.
When one falls into a reminiscent mood, 'tis said to be decay -dry-rot-softening of that part of man which passeth for brain ; yet Daniel Webster, the tutelary god of American authors and embryonic constitutional expounders, hath said: " "Tis pleasant to indulge in recollections of the past"; hence I will indulge in recollections. I state, as a preface, that I belong to the prehistoric, second-grasshopper period of Kansas. My information is that there was a grasshopper raid during the war, ere what we call civilization penetrated southwestern Kansas. I may say that dur- ing the year A. D. 1874 I did not live, but simply existed. My office was nine feet wide, twenty feet long and eleven feet high. Could I have had the arrangement of the square feet of the office, I might have shaped it better, but as I did not pay any rent, or any part thereof, during the year 1874 I had a delicacy about "kicking" on the inconvenience of the office, or the leaky condi- tion of the roof. I only remember one rain that year, so that I was not damaged. I had hoped for a soaking rain that might bring in a bill for damages on my library, but was deprived of the privilege through the benign goodness of Him who watcheth over the fledglings.
Having nothing to do, in A. D. 1874, I grew dissipated, and regularly took one glass of beer per diem at a saloon called the "Texas Saloon," usually the resort of cowboys and Mexicans. This saloon was the last resort on the west end of the street, and there, unnoticed, unmolested and friendless, I went to get one glass of beer to submerge my sorrows and engulf my grief. This saloon was under the guardianship of a descendant of some al- leged old Spanish hidalgo whom I will call Don Carlos Juandaro. I could not for my life help admiring, yet hating and despising,
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Don Carlos. The first time I beheld him was in March, 1874, standing behind the bar with a revolver pointed at a desperado and influencing him to pay one dollar for thirty cents' worth of the meanest beer a mortal ever tasted. He was a beau ideal Span- ish guerrilero. I usually passed by if he was at the bar, being in no condition to pay over five cents for five cents' worth of beer, and did not intend to take any chances on it. The long, hot and windy summer days came and found me in my dingy office, contemplating cold, clammy, worm-eaten physical dissolution, temporal annihilation, permanent absence from earth, commonly known and denominated as death. Of course there is no such thing as death, but as common people will understand me better when I say death, I will therefore call it "death." I did not feel too young to die, to be dissolved, annihilated, permanently re- moved, but I felt too bad to die; therefore I existed, not from love of life, but from fear of hell. Had I been better fitted to be a male angel, no doubt this would never have been written; no doubt the hand that writes this would long since have been part and parcel of a compost heap o'er which little buttercups, wild cacti and bluestem would long since have budded, blossomed, withered, decayed and dissolved. Perhaps the cottonwood would, ere this, have "sent his roots abroad to pierce my mould, etc." Who can say that the undertakers of Wichita would not have had a quarrel over my fleshless skeleton; that some future Ham- let might not have used my skull as an apostrophe on the fleeting condition of mankind in general and me in particular? Yet all this has been happily avoided by my cowardice or want of spir- ituality. Save the footfall of a creditor, no sound reverberated in my stairway, nor disturbed the quietude of my lonely den, save my own, till one day a step on the stairway gave me palpitation of the heart, vertigo, sent shooting pains through my bloodless frame, as if stung simultaneously by a thousand nettles, each net- tle provided with as many prongs as the countless tongues of the Mohammedan chanticleer-viz., male cock-of the Koran, with which all mankind is familiar. To paraphrase Burns' lines, I could say at that time "The fear of a creditor's whip is hell." All boomers, to the manner born, will echo this sentiment.
At that time there was an old attorney here, formerly a judge advocate in the army, "lofty and sour to those who loved him not, but to those that sought him, sweet as summer." The legal kids respected him for his legal knowledge, yet feared him for his
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acid accent and his seeming roughness and brutality in his prac- tice. He will be known as "Surly Bill." In September, 1874, after the "grasshopper" had swept the verdure of the Arkansas valley, even as Bismarck's "iron dice of destiny" had mowed the vineyards of France, I was in my office, aimlessly "sitting like Patience on a monument," not, however, "smiling at grief," and heard a sound on the stairway. Every creditor had previously paid his respects, and I was wondering if one of these fiends in human garb was returning to drive me mad (the word mad is herein used in the idiotic, insane sense, not as denoting anger), when Surely Bill came in. He had ne'er before opened my door, nor walked across the floor, and I expected naught save a dun, a suit, a judgment, disgrace, humiliation, commercial dishonor and insolvency. Bill seated himself-without invitation, by the way -and remarked: "I suppose you have not seen a dollar for so long that you can't tell the difference between a good or bad one." This was humiliating, yet almost true; insulting, yet I bore it all-in fact, separated as I am from that day by years, I may be pardoned for saying that it was Christian meekness that nerved me to bear it without at once whipping him soundly, even though at that date the contrast as to size was about the same between Bill and myself as between Judge Reed and Judge Wall. Bill, mollified by my forbearance, continued, after a pause : "I have a little case, a proceeding in aid of execution. I wish to have some depositions taken, and I will have you appointed to take testimony if you desire. I want to examine the debtor as to a conveyance made to his father-in-law." Visions of wealth came before me, and I eagerly assented and thanked the judge. He left, had the appointment made, gave me the names of witnesses; I made out the subpæna and gave it to Mike Meagher to serve. (Mike was afterward killed at Caldwell, Kan., by some cowboys.) Mike served the subpæna and returned it to me with a "grin." . This nettled me, as I supposed I had made "some break" that he was "on to," and I asked him what he meant. "Old Bill is going to let you try this, is he?" said he. "Yes; why?" I replied. "Oh, nothing-only two or three of the boys have com- menced on the case and quit. Juandaro won't answer, and you'll have to send him to jail. I don't think he is dangerous, but I'll come round when you examine him." I now realized that I had been caught because I was green, obscure, and had never heard of this matter, which no doubt all the other attorneys had full
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knowledge of. My proud, imperious spirit sank. The next two days were simply a prelude of the everlasting Calvinistic torment to come to man after death-i. e., dissolution-and before the day of trial arrived I contemplated leaving town, skipping; yet had no money to skip with. I dreamed of being shot, of dying. I beheld my lifeless form in a coffin, pale, sad, melancholy even in death, and yet how relieved I was I had died, but not by my own hand! I thought the agony of the interval between the date of serving that accursed subpoena and my death had so purified my unclean and aching heart that my poverty, utter loneliness and abject wretchedness would appeal to the good God, that he would permit me to at least enter the back yard of paradise; perhaps grant me admission to the stables of the King of Hosts and give me a pass to the hay mow for a bed. Time, that is so fleeting ; time, that matures a five-year note in one year; time, that has buried the archives of centuries; time, that has obliterated the glorious records of deeds of generations of Turiennes, Charles XII's, Cromwells, Hannibals, Marlboroughs, Napoleons, Grants, Shermans and Von Moltkes; time, that in its hurried flight reckons not days, years or decades, was for me too slow. It dragged along at a crippled snail's pace; hours were as days, and a day was a month. I was in a fever heat. I wanted to examine Juandaro, hear him refuse to answer, commit him to jail, be shot, die and be dead, dead forever and forever. In fact, none save God knew "the fatness of my full-rounded misery."
All things temporal end, however. The day, the hour, came; and as I sat awaiting, a heavy foot was heard on the stairway, bounding up two steps at a time, and in an instant Carlos Juan- daro stood before me, and then for the first time I knew who was the witness. As I remember him, he was a man of about five feet eight inches high, well knit, an iron-built frame, swarthy com- plexion; long, snaky black hair hung round his shoulders; eyes as black as a raven and piercing and relentless as a rattlesnake's ; a frown on his brow as ominous as inky sky in summer; a mus- tache heavy and long as the "jack of spades" of the American army; a mouth that half opened like that of a snarling cur, dis- closing two rows of teeth white as pearl. He wore a white som- brero, with wide rim and tall crown covered over and over with silvery binding and rosettes, that shone like a helmet in the sun ; a pale-blue shirt and no coat or vest; purple velvet trousers tucked in a pair of high-heeled boots, set in yellow stars. Round
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his waist was a belt filled with cartridges and over this a heavy crimson-red sash which, wound round and round his body, formed a fold, the rich tassels hanging down at each side, and peeping from the folds of this belt appeared the ivory handle of a revolver. He was the ideal creation of an artist, a poem on legs-his tout ensemble astonished, fascinated and bewildered me. Scientists say snakes don't charm animals, but that animals become en- tranced and charm themselves by being unable to remove their eyes from the snake after once gazing on it. In the same way I was hypnotized, became dumb. My heart ceased, almost, to beat. I was tired, weary, sleepy, limp, when I was suddenly roused from my lethargy by a loud voice saying, "What in - do you want with me, - you --? "
I rallied, grew talkative, explained as best I could my position in the matter, begged his pardon, expressed the hope that it was all right, and thus in the presence of impending death was as cheerful as I fancy "Praise God Barebones" (Cromwell's assist- ant) would have been at a dance at the time when the Long Par- liament was prorogued, and the only real amusement a Round- head had was singing psalms through his nose as a vocation and spearing Cavaliers for recreation. That interview, however, came to an end, and I was permitted to live. The day of trial arrived. The judge; G. H. E., Carlos Juandaro's attorney, and Juandaro entered the court room. The preliminaries were soon over; the witness was sworn; the first question asked and answered about . as follows : "State your name, age, residence, occupation." "It's none of your business as to my age, residence or occupation, and as to my name, unless I am the man for whom the subpoena was issued, I have no business here. If I am the man, you know my name." The next few questions were answered because they did not tend to elicit any information. At last a question was put by Surly Bill, and to the end of it, by way of parenthesis, he added : "You can now perjure yourself if you want to, or surprise me by telling the truth." This addenda to the question produced a clap of Mexican thunder in a cloudless Kansas sky. Juandaro raged and swore and foamed at the mouth like a mad dog. He almost burst a blood vessel and his gall bladder. He swelled up in the neck like the picture of a cobra filling his hood preparatory to ejecting the poison gathering under his tongue, and his eyes were as changeable as a tiger-eye jewel. When he paused to recover breath, Surly Bill remarked in a dry voice that he was a born
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