Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 November 1875 — OUT WEST—CONTINUED. [ARTICLE]

OUT WEST—CONTINUED.

The Sentinel, not unnaturally, expresses surprise at the existence of an officer who has refused a bribe of $14,000. — Indianapolis Journal. In, view of the recent crooked whiskey revelations, the Journal is when it remarks that people arc surprised at the discovery of these isolated cases of offibial integrity.

■ |. ;; Col. JohrtiA. Joyce, of St. Louis crooked whiskey fame; was recently sentenced to a term of three years V * and six months in penitentiary and to 'pay a fine of $3,000, upon conviction of complicity in whiskey frauds. He had his joys with the money defrauded from the govern ment, Justice now has her Joyce, and all good people rejoice. Like the Spectre of the Brocken looms up the shadow of lion. Michael C. Kerr in connection with the candidacy for the Speakership of the next Congress. Sammy Handle, Sammy Cox, Jimmy Brooks, and the other prominent democrats who have been named in connection, with that position, are really becoming amazed at the strength Mr. Kerr develops. There is no possible hope for a republican to occupy the seat, and Mr. Kerr is as good as the best, and far less objectionable to republicans than some, of his democratic—competitors,— Indeed there is no doubt of his making an efficient officer.

And still do the mills of the gods grind fine. United States grand juries are constantly finding indictments against gaugers, distillers, storekeepers, bookkeepei s and revenue officers for complicity in stupendous whiskey frauds against the government. The Christian statesmen and hightmjed gentlemen implicated in these “crooked” and “irregular” transactions are as numerous as the scallawags who throve during President Johnson’s term. But be it recorded to the credit of the present administration, thus far n,o lenity has been, shown the implicated parties and they are being prosecuted, convicted and sentenced with a vigor and determination that is at Once appalling to the guilty and pleasing to honest people of whatever shade of political opinion.

Rev. Henry Ward Beecher is not likely to obtain rest from the Tilton infamy soon. Mrs. Emma D. Moulton is now after him with a hot pen, and demands the Conference to arraign him for adultery, upon confess sions made to her. Plymouth church recently dropped her from its membership, because she would not attend its sessions, though renting her pew and paying dues promptly. She demurred to this action, responding that her absence was enforced on account of the hypocrisy and profligacy of its pastor. Mr. Beecher will probably find in his offended parishioner a foe more terrible than even the wronged husband of his paramour. It is also probable thatit the case is again investigated, the great evangelist will find his resting place far below its present level in the opinions and sympathies of moral and religious people.

It is reported that some of the prominent republican members of Congress have announced that the itc tcaus i rig ne per an d "perro d - ical publishers to prepay postage on their publications, was passed under a misapprehension of facts; and that an effort will be made to secure its repeal by the next Congress. No matter whether the act was passed under a misapprehension Of facts or not, it is a just and good law and ought never to be revoked. No sound reason can be advanced why newspaper men should have privileges . extended them by tine government that are not extended to others; but on the contrary every consideration of fairness and policy demands that there be no partiality shown by the government to any class or individual'. It is a violation of the spirit of a republican form of goverijhnent to establish any privileged classes in the land. Don’t repeal the law compelling publishers to prepay postage upon what they send through the mails.

According to the Chicagi Tribune 1 Professor Jenney, with the Black Hills exploring expedition, reports having discovered a wonderful agricultural region, iwhich is well watered, “there being scarcely a day from May to August w’ithout, one or two showers, and yet, owing to the dryness of the atmosphere, the climate is very healthy.” Should the learned Professor next discover a region upon which the sun shines j with perpetual tropical vigor, through constant snow storms that cool the air to an agreeable temperature and’ cast upon the earth an unbroken envelope of delightful shade, Congress ought, in order toprove that republics are not always ungrateful, to retire him on full pension for the remainder of his life—and grant him the privilege of mascnlining his donkey name.

Comes now Senator Sherman, of Ohio, with his financial plan. lie is confident that, the act fixing 1879 as the date for specie resumption can not be repealed, the Senate standing ready to defeat any such attempt. His plan is to secure one hundred millions of dollars in gold and as large reserve in greenbacks as practicable against the time appointed. He would not do this by increasing taxation, but by large reductions of expenses, for which he says there is room enough. This would look to an interested taxpayer -as being the bes t pl an y c-1 devised—just the one exactly. But how does this admission of room for such large reductions of expenses comport with the statement of the Administration supporters who constantly hold up “our presi dent’’ and “our party” as models of economy?

Of a clear frosty morning in the fall, to resume where these notes abruptly terminated last week, it is fine sport to hunt squirrel in the nut-bearing southeastern Kansas. One must be up early, for his game breaks fast as ospon as light begins to streak the eastern horizon, and, lazy brute, goes to bed directly after; and the hunter must move cautiously over the russet carpeting of dead leaves, “hnd be quick' at the trigger, for Ins game is wild, nimble and cunning, and when alarmed dodges dexterously behind limbs or into woodpecker holes. The prairies, also, afford fine sport, being covered with quail and chickens the year round, and at some seasons abounding with vast flocks of plover, snipe and curlew. Cranes, geese * and brant frequently alight on fields of young wheat, but are difficult to get within gun range of, on account of the openness of the country and their own wariness. Fort Scott is a city claimingS,ooo human inhabitants;- of whom a large sprinkling are negroes of different tints of color. TlieVown is scattered over a succession Jof low hills and ravines. Some of the buildings are substantial and commodious. Business has been good in former years, but is now very much depressed, and, it is said, property can be bought hero very low. It is a military post, and a small fort is mantained by the general government in the southeastern part of town. r ,Two railroads cross her^ —the Missouri, Kansas & Texas from Hannibal on the Mississippi river crossing Mis's dur i , Kansas, the Ind Tail Territory and Texas in asouthwestern course l, until it reaches Galveston on the Gulf of Mexico, and the Missouri ,

River, Ft. Scott & Gulf road, running north and south, whose termini are Kansas City and Baxter Springs. These are competing hues of railroad, and seldom, if it is possible to avoid it, make connections to accommodate travelers. The latter mentioned monopoly, which is°sometimes called’ the Joy road because Mr. Joy was at one time interested in it, is seemingly conducted for the deliberate purpose of swindling all who are so unfortunate as to fall into its power. To illustrate: The passenger tariff is abbut five cpnts a mile for the privilege of racking one’s back in mean coaches; if one has a gun. along he is not permitted to place it beside him in the §eat where he can watch and protect it from bruising, but is compelled to give '

it up to a surly baggage smasher, who pitches it into one corner to be battered, banged and trampled upon and charges “a quarter” for taking care of it! A dog is treated to the same accommodations (!) given a gun and his owner must pay $2 for it. From Fort Scott there is now also a coal switch, or feeder, run about seventeen miles southeast with its terminus at Mem- ' phis in the same county. One or two trains come over this feeder daily loaded with coal for the city market and towns west and north. Fort Scott has the' reputatiop of being an excellent trading poinL and its merchants are largely patronized by people living thirty and forty miles distant, who haul their produce in wagons and pass by or through smaller towns on the route without even stopping to inquire what prices are being offered for what they have to sell, or asked for articles they want to buy. But for all its shipping facilities, its wholesale and retail trades, and the reputation made for it in previous years by enterprising, restless men, an atmosphere of languor seems to brood over it, and a stranger can not help thinking that it has outgrown the country about it; that rival towns have sapped much of its nourishment; and that in the past it has seen better times than it will again enjoy for many years to come. Nothing but the establishment of manuf acturing'interests in its midst will ever restore to this city a season of prosperity equal to that of former years. What is written of Fort Scott is also to a greater or less measure true of Parsons and smaller towns. All of them have a “finished!’ appearance. Occasionally a new building may be erected; on Saturdays and during court week, or on election and circus days, streets may be full of people; but these paroxysms of activity bear very distant relation to that constant daily tide of business observed in older settled cities and towns further east.

Girard, capital of Crawford ’county, is a pretty prairie towj.i, mostly built around a square, after the fashion of Mexican or Spanish villages. Its business structures are not extravagant either in design; material or finish; although this season one or two brick stores were in process of construction. At this place are two steam flouring mills of generous capacity, a private bank or loan office, two hotels, fifteen or twenty stores and candy shops, lawyers'offices, blacksmith shops, millinery shops, physicians’ offices, drug stores, one saloon, a Masonic chapter and lodge, an Odd Felloes encampment and lodge, temperance societies, granges,and half a dozen (more or less) other password and grip organizations. The Girard Press is an eightcolumn paper of Republican proclivities, whose proprietors, Messrs. Wasser Riddle, are gentlemen; they conduct an excellent local journal which is a credit to the town and the newspaper profession. There was also another printing concern at Girard. It was one of those weak creatures court house rings sometimes inveigle to acounty seat to •“crush out'’ a newspaper they cannot control, and “starve out” editors tVho have contracted a disagreeable habit ot publishing official peccadillos. During the heat of a campaign it is easy to fill'd people~vhd "are anxious to “support the cause” and will contribute money and promises for the harmless, good-natured, pumpkinheaded youths that edit these “organs.” Afterwards, an occasional sheriff’s sale, delinquent tax list publication, survey notice, or court advertisement, judiciously administered from time to time, keeps the

machine grinding until there is a new deal of the public offices. Then tfie'se organs are for sale—at priif a purchaser can be found; if not, then by an officer on a writ of attachment for boardor foreclosure of mortgage. About 1,200 inhabitants are claimed for this town. SeySeral religious sects have votaries lu?re, and three or four houses of divine worship ite among its buildings. The court house is a newTrame structure, of awkward’ architecture, which the commissioners were, so . ashamed of that they hid it among livery sta-

blels, barber shops and peanut stores. But the crowning glorv and just pride of Girard is her school house. This, really, is a fine building—a fitting monument to the intelligence of a community of earnest, agreeable and kind-hearted people. Iwo hay presses are operated at this town and several .thousand tons of baled hay are shipped 1 from there annually. This is also a remunerative business at every railroad town visited in Kansas. Columbus, capital of Cherokee county, twenty or twenty-five miles south of Girard and fifty miles south of Fort Scott, perhaps contains 1,000 inhabitants, but probably not more than 800. The writer drove through it one Sunday afternoon, and saw nothing remarkable about it; unless it was the location of its grave yard, which is as near the business quarter as theft-square stone court house.

About midway between Girard and Columbus, and three miles east of the railroad, out on the open prairie, is situated the town of Ware. It probably numbers a population of 700, and has been built up in two years. Our Visit to the town was made at dusk on a Sunday evening, and about ten minutes were spent there. Everything was bustle and life. People—men, women, children and fallen angels were walking or driving through the streets. Half a dozen or more saloons were lighted up, and patrons were continually going in and coming out of them. This town is in the midst of a rich coal out-crop, and the nucleus around which it has crystalized is a zinc smelting furnace, owned by a company of Chicago capitalists. Nobody in that region of country knows the town by its name—Ware—but call it“ihe smelter” or “the zinc works.” There is no ofg found anywhere in the neighborhood, but it is all. hauled in wagons from Joplin, in Missouri, sixty odd miles distant. Why-j/lid they not build the works where the ore is found? Because there is no coal there; and as two tons or more of coal are required to reduce one ton of ore, it was cheaper to build where the coal is and haul the ore to it. There are two kinds or conditions of zinc ore brought to this smelter. One consists of heavy masses of" black crystals of resinous lustre, mingled with foreign substances, called blende by mineralogists, commonly knywn as black-jack, false-galena, or mock-lead. It is a sulphuret of zinc. The other ore is known as calamine, and is the silicate of zinc. This is a dull, light reddish colored, stony appearing substance. The smelter fires are never suffered to go out or to diminish in fervor day or night, for the Sabbath or any holiday; but it is ever kept burning with fervid heat, and reliefs of men are in constant attendance.* The product of ’this furnace is about 2,100 pounds of shining white zinc metal every twentyfour hours. This is cast into broad,.flat bars or pigs of convenient size for handling, is carted threfe or four miles to the railroad and Shipped to. markets hundreds of miles away. Chanute—or New Chicago, as it was formerly called However, the reader is probably tired by this time,‘the writer surely is, and further consideration of that beautiful, brilliant, bursted bubble, which was inflated in one season and collapsed the next, is postponed' until next week.