[ADS.]

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

J. W. HAMILTON T. F. ROBINSON, Notary Public.

Can suit anybody who desires to purchase with reference to the size, locality, and improvements of a farm.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

[PERSONALS.]

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

Our peach trees are in full bloom.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

B. F. Baldwin is ill with the bilious fever.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

Mrs. Kennedy is expecting a nice stock of new goods.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

F. Gallotti has a new stock of boots and shoes on the way.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

J. E. Allen has got a full new set of the Wisconsin reports.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

Harter Bro.'s & Co. have a new stock of groceries on the way.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

W. C. Root & Co. have a new spring stock of boots and shoes.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

J. Hoenscheidt, architect, has his office in the rear of J. E. Allen's law office.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

Harter, Harris & Co. sent 21 yoke of cattle to Pawnee Rock and Larned on Monday morning.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

Mr. Wagoner is fitting up the Farmer's restaurant for meals and lodging in comfortable style.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

The silver bill has passed, and now all you have to do to be rich is to step around lively and earn the dollars.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

The new Methodist appointee (whoever he is) will preach at the M. E. Church next Sabbath, morning and evening.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

Rev. J. E. Platter will address his congregation next Sabbath morning on the subject, "After Conversion, What?"

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

J. C. Fuller has launched out in the fast team line. He thinks his spanking blacks are just a little ahead of all competitors.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

There were seventy-five persons received into the Presbyterian Church last Sunday, sixty-four by profession and eleven by letter.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

B. M. Terrell is getting ready to make the drive between this city and Eldorado in five hours. The livery business is booming.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

Samuel Pennington, of Vernon Township, has fallen heir to a fortune of $19,000 by the recent death of his father in Indiana, so it is said.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

Some of the young people are rehearsing under the tuition of Mr. and Mrs. McGinnis, a drama to be recited before our citizens in due time.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

L. H. Hope has the finest stock of silverware ever brought to this section of the country. It is well worth the time to call and see his beautiful display.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

A large lot of Paular merino sheep direct from Vermont were driven through the city a few days ago, to be located in this county. We did not get the owner's name.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

County Superintendent Story received the county apportionment of the state school fund amounting to $3,012. It is now ready for distribution to the school districts.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

The sexton of the M. E. Church particularly requests that tobacco chewers leave their quids outside the church and avoid spewing on the floor. The ladies, no doubt, second the motion.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

Notice the new advertisement of H. Jochems. He is doing the tin roofing and guttering of several of the fine residences now being built and proposes to furnish Charter Oak stoves for the millions.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

The family of Mr. N. O. Fuller, assistant in the bank of J. C. Fuller, arrived last week and are temporarily domiciled with his brother. The family consists of a wife and two children. Another new residence will be the result.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

DIED. Mrs. Lydia Moffit, wife of John Moffit and daughter of Mr. and Mrs. S. S. Holloway, died at her residence in this city on the 6th inst. The funeral was largely attended on the 7th. The numerous relatives and friends of the deceased have the warm sympathies of this community.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

Col. E. C. Manning went to Wichita last week with teams loaded up with wheat, to bring down the carload of lumber which he expected had arrived. He was obliged to sell his wheat for 65 cents, for which he had been offered 70 at home, and his lumber not having arrived, he bought in Wichita to load his teams back.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

A good joke is told on the Telegram agent. He called on John B. Holmes, the great Rock Township farmer, and solicited a subscription for his paper. J. B. answered that he had been hunting three weeks for a job of work to earn money to pay for the other paper. The agent thought he had struck too poor a customer and "slid out."

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

Mr. Seneca Harris, now living with his son-in-law, Mr. N. Shurtleff, three miles north of town, called on us the other day and revived the memories of Vermont when that state was young and western New York was the far west. In 1825 to 1830, when the father of the senior editor was a young man, Mr. Harris was his friend and associate, and is familiar with the wild and magnificent scenery that surrounded our childhood and youth, and with the people who were our earliest associates. He is hale and vigorous though near three score and ten.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

Out next issue will be the most valuable paper for Cowley County ever published. The enormous emigration to this state is being carried by us on the railroads to locations greatly inferior to this county in almost every particular. All we need to secure a very large accession to our county in population, money, energy, and brains is to place in the hands of these emi- grants the facts in relation to our county. The COURIER will contain these facts. Shall 2,000 to 5,000 copies be placed in their hands? Answer with your cash orders for extra papers.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

P. H. Clark, of Maple Township, has a large orchard and raised splendid peaches two years from the seed. He is an enterprising farmer of old time, genuine hospitality.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

The following will be taught at the Winfield high school during the spring term: Orthography and orthoepy, reading, writing, arithmetic, commencing at percentage, algebra, grammar, commencing at syntax, physical geography, U. S. history, botany, and geometry.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

"Justice" writes from Otto and dissents from the opinion, expressed by "I. Guess," that Mrs. Ledley's school was the only successful one ever taught in that township. He says they never had but one poor school, and mentions the schools taught by Mr. W. E. Ketcham and Mr. O. S. Record during the last winter as particularly excellent and giving general satisfaction.

"Justice" and "I. Guess" are both good, sound, intelligent men, but such frequently differ on account of looking at the same thing from different standpoints.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

Farmers! Put your seeds into the ground as fast as possible. Sow your oats, plant your potatoes, and other vegetables, and then your corn. If the summer should be dry, the early corn will be the only full crop. It should all be in the ground in March.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

Col. J. M. Alexander arrived in town last Thursday evening. He has disposed of most of his Leavenworth property and will now remain in Winfield and attend to his large property here and his law business. He looks as if he had been well treated in Leavenworth.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

Young Finch went into the jail about 11 o'clock on Monday evening; his father, the jailer being absent at Wichita, to get the light and lock up the cells. On entering a cell, he was immediately shut in by the prisoners and two of them; a colored man charged with horse stealing, and Billson, the Arkansas City man charged with stealing jewelry, escaped. Hostetler remains. Says he did not want to leave. A good horse is missing from Dr. Davis' place and a poker from the jail was left in place of the horse.

LATER. The white man has been retaken.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

Robert Johnson, from Champaign County, Illinois, is visiting his brother-in-law, J. W. Hamilton. He is a substantial man, the kind we want, and is delighted with Cowley. He will locate, of course.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

In writing up Chautauqua County for the Leavenworth Times, D. A. Beckwith says: "To those in search of a location for a stock ranch, this section along the border of the state offers unexcelled advantages. The same may be said of the country between this and Winfield. Dexter, a small hamlet about fifteen miles from this, is in the same stock belt, and around it is also a fine farming country. There are several fine stores here with an enterprising population. As we leave Chautauqua County and get into Cowley, the surface changes. Here it is better for grain than for stock; the streams become less frequent and the settlements thicken; fine farms lie on each side of our road until we reach Winfield."

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

EDITOR COURIER: The literary at No. 21 closes on Friday evening of this week. The question is: "Resolved, That a monarchial government is preferable to a republican govern- ment."

Mr. Frank Limbocker is yet confined to his bed. We hope he will soon be able to be about.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

W. Baker and wife to Frederick Gaertner, s ½ n. w. 33, 32, 3, 80 acres, $607.

R. L. Johnson and wife to O. A. Vanocker, s. ½ of s. w. 33, 31, 5, 80 acres, $350.

Chas. Leach to Chas. King, n. ½ of s. w. 33 31 5, 80 acres, $600.

Alfred F. Stanley to Thos. S. Green, w. ½ of n. w. 6 31 4 and n. e. 1 31 3, 120 acres, $2,000.

D. M. Weitzell and wife to E. B. Weitzell, n. ½ of s. w 4 33 3, 80 acres, $1,200.

H. H. Martin, administrator, to W. E. Martin, s. ½ of n. e. 22 32 3, 80 acres, $500.

E. C. Manning and wife to Clarissa J. Moore, part of n. ½ of s.e. 20 32 4, $1,200.

Frank Gallotti and wife to F. P. Rowland, part of s.w. of s.e. 21 32 4, 1½ acres, $125.

P. F. Haynes and wife to F. Austin, n. ½ and s.w. of s.e. 4 35 5, 120 acres, $300.

Israel Tipton to John Tipton, e. ½ of s.e. 31 34 5, 80 acres, $1,000.

Reuben S. Begner to R. S. Begner, w. ½ of n.e. 24 32 3, 80 acres, $300.

E. D. Brown to Orville Smith, n.e. 6 34 4, 160 acres, $400.

W. H. Grow and wife to Alex. Limerick, n.w. 33 30 4, 160 acres, $2,000.

Lucy J. Brady and husband to Thos. F. Axtell, n.w. 26 33 4, 160 acres, $1,500.

R. B. Corkins and wife to Elizabeth Knies and C. A. Daniels, part of e. ½ of s.e. 33 32 4, $500.

Henry Colyer and wife to A. G. Mattingly, part of w. ½ of s.e. 33 32 4, $25.

Frank Williams and wife to S. Firebaugh, s.e. 8 32 5, 40 acres, $450.

John Tipton and wife to Peter F. Haynes, w. ½ of s.e. 31 34 5, 80 acres, $800.

R. E. Irons to Peter F. Haynes, part of lot 9, 6 35 5, $30.

K. F. Smith and wife to H. P. Farrar, lot 12, block 79, Arkansas City, $100.

Frank G. Cady and wife to J. P. W. Corkins, lot 10, block 7, Winfield, $525.

J. K. Finley to Arkansas City town company, lot 3 and 4, block 120, lot 17, block 9; Arkansas City, $10.

Arkansas City town company to Amos Walton, lots 15, 16, 17, 18, block 98, Arkansas City.

Sabrina R. Bear and husband to J. G. Bullene, lot 9, block 185, Winfield.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

EDITOR COURIER: Last Tuesday and evening will long be remembered by the youths and adults in the vicinity of the Randall schoolhouse, and the people of the surrounding country, as a day of hilarity.

The forenoon witnessed the closing exercises of Miss Allie Klingman's winter term of school at the above place. As your reporter was a little late in arriving, therefore cannot give a detailed account of this part of the programme, but suffice it to say, that the exercises were of a pleasing and entertaining character. Miss Allie taught an interesting school and gained the confidence of the people of the community by her labors the past winter.

After partaking of some refreshments, the afternoon was devoted exclusively to the playing of a match game of base ball by the champions of Beaver and Vernon. For four hours the sport was exceedingly interesting and exhilarating to both players and spectators. Time being called at five o'clock, the Beavers were acknowledged the victors of the day, the game standing thirty-six to nineteen.

Each and all then repaired to their respective homes to make preparation for the neck-tie sociable, to be held at the schoolhouse, commencing at seven p.m. Early in the evening could have been seen teams loaded with precious burdens, horseback and pedestrians, wending their way from all points of the compass toward the schoolhouse.

Promptly at seven the committee comprised of seven ladies, viz: Mesdames Randall, Smith, Foster, Clark, Page, and Walrath, proceeded at once to the culinary department, which was a canvass addition attached to the north side of the house, to prepare the supper.

In the meantime, the neckties were disposed of and the possessors having secured the proprietors of the tiesmany oddly mated couples were the result of the promiscuous drawingrepaired to the dining apartment to partake of the sumptuous feast which awaited them, and which only rural patrons like the genial, whole-souled committee that supervised the affairs are capable of getting up.

From the dexterity with which the knives and forks were handled, it was evident that everyone made all possible exertion to do ample justice to the delicious viands, beneath which the table swayed; it is needless to say, that after an incessant warfare of more than an hour, the inevitable Turkey surrendered. Though the table had a seating capacity of more than thirty, yet it was found necessary to set three tables in order to accommodate the hungry multitude.

After supper the large concourse of people were pleasantly entertained by excellent vocal and instrumental music. Mr. Wilson Foster's choir furnished the vocal part by singing a number of solos, duets, triplets, quartette, and chorus songs. Miss Orie Kellogg, an accomplished musician, manipulated the organ keys. After the playing of a variety of games by the young folks and the selling of several cakes and pictures to the highest bidder, by Mr. Clarkwho filled the vacuum behind the peanut standthe crowd dispersedjust as chanticleer commenced sounding his warning notes of the approach of dawnfeeling that it was good to be there. The proceeds of the evening, amounting to forty-one dollars and sixty cents, goes to the benefit of the presiding pastor, Rev. Hopkins. HORATIUS.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

The United Brethren held their third quarterly meeting for the year at Mt. Zion, last Saturday and Sabbath. It was largely attended and the Elder gave us several fine sermons. He is a lively man and well received.

Thirty placed their names on the anti-tobacco pledge last Monday night. We had a good time.

Our Sunday school was organized the 1st Sabbath in March. Nearly one hundred were present. Officers were chosen as follows: Superintendent, George Easterly; assistant superintendent, W. Bowers; secretary, J. A. Rupp; treasurer, Lib. P. Alexander. Fifty were present last Sabbath. We expect to have the finest Sunday school in Cowley County this summer.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

JOHN SWAIN: Dear Sir: After looking all over the different mining camps, I will give you some information in regard to them. First, the new diggings in the southern and southeastern part of the Hills, and on Elk Creek are all pronounced a fraud. All of the early locators in that region of the Hills have returned. Deadwood City is growing slowly, Gaville and Golden Gate are at a standstill. Central City is building rapidly. Lead City on Gold Run is the liveliest place in the Hills. Carpenters wages have been four dollars per day all winter. Some of the foremen on the new mills have been getting five dollars per day, but the principal rush seems to be about over. There are a good many idle mechanics, yet those at work are getting four dollars per day. At present any good mechanic can get all the work he wants. I think good mechanics can get steady work all summer after they become known. Miners and mill men's wages run from three to four dollars per day. Inexperienced hands are working as low as two dollars. The prospects are that all wages will be cut down this spring except for a few of the best workmen. There will be a great immigration of laborers to the Hills this spring. Let none come from Cowley County. Not more than six of the mines are paying well, while 25 or 30 are being worked that do not pay expenses. Three that last summer were thought to be very extensive mines have been worked out. I will now speak of the silver mines, which bid fair to become the most valuable and permanent mines in the Hills. The ore in Bare Buttes district, as the mines are being developed is leading on to milling ore of a high grade which can be worked much cheaper than smelting ore.

The weather is very fine; snow and ice fast disappearing. The camps are well supplied with everything needful. Price of board from eight to twelve dollars per week. No man who works for a living can afford to come to the Hills and take the chances.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

ED. COURIER: While others are complaining of the long rest from bonds, we are not so afflicted. This time it's the bridging of the "raging Arkansas" that agitates us. Now comes the burgh over the way and says "we must have your trade, or that dreaded snipe-hunter will be here before long; but you must furnish your own way to get hereit won't cost you but $2,000." Now the question is, Hadn't we all better turn out and give them a day and move them over to their supplies rather than keep this up for an indefinite time? Tomorrow decides the matter.

Peach trees in bloom. Wheat still looks fine. Some rain again this morning. Plows are running on almost every farm. Considerable oats already sown. A great many orchards are being put out; most of the trees furnished by Trissell. Some land selling. Home-seekers coming inand yet there is room. RUDY.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

Fine weather and growing crops are the only faults now found by the Tisdale farmers.

The Tisdale school closed last Friday. The total enrollment of the winter term was 63; general average, 43. Average attendance, 37½. Miss Sada Davis is the best scholar.

Abe Conrad is the only scholar perfect in deportment. Advanced grade, Sada Davis; Inter-grade, Nettie Handy, Hattie Young, and Eddie Young; primary grade, Jessie Newton, Lulu McGuire, and Carlyle Fluke are the most advanced scholars in their respective grades. In general scholarship Abr. Conrad stands far ahead.

The school will give an exhibition on tomorrow (Tuesday) evening.

Farmers are all busy plowing for corn and oats.

Mr. Van Fleck lost a valuable horse last week. He had started for Wichita and the horse died in less than twenty minutes after he noticed that it was sick.

Ed. Millard was quite badly hurt by falling from a wagon last evening.

Our obliging young clerk, Johnnie Marsh, left today to seek his fortune in Greenwood County. Johnnie is a good boy and has many friends who will miss his lively talk and generous actions.

Bob. Tanner is a great horse trader. He traded twice last week.

Sim Moore now runs the Tisdale wagon shop. Sim is a good workman and will doubtless retain all the custom of his predecessor.

BIRTH. George Lafoon is happy, it's a boy.

Yes, Yes, Paul, it was pretty girls; at the start Tisdale had a pretty girl, a cake, and no money. At the end Sheridan ditto, with Tisdale holding the cash. We thank the boys of Sheridan for the kindness in helping us pay our preacher. LYCURGUS.

March 11th.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

ED. COURIER: Thinking a few items from this place might be of interest to your numerous readers, I would say that since the silver bill has passed over the president's veto, our farmers have gathered up their teams and tools and commenced farming in earnest. The wheat crop was never more promising for a bountiful harvest.

Mud has disappeared, gardens are being made, stock is beginning to graze, and things are generally lively. EXAMINER.

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

The value of our common schools has been called in question from Boston to San Francisco, and a few parties have pronounced them a failure. True, many of our schools are failures, and many of them show a waste of capital, a waste of time, and a fearful dissipation of energy and mental force. But why should it be otherwise? When a school will show month after month from one to two hundred cases of tardiness and an average attendance of less than fifty percent of its enrollment, what else than failure should be looked for? When a district, able to sustain a school for nine months in the year, able to employ a first-class teacher at first-class wages, votes en masse for only a twelve weeks' school and for the cheapest teacher in the market, what else than failure can be expected? When schoolhouses are so constructed as to be only uncomfortable in bad weather; when they are too small for the accommodation of a school of thirty, but are compelled to take in from forty to sixty pupils, and when blackboards are deficient in quantity and poor in quality, or entirely wanting, how can the best teacher in the world make his school anything else than a failure? When there are more classes than pupils; when no single grade has three books of any one kind, and when the books in use are relics of the last century and are as "ring-streaked and spotted" in their qualities as were Isaac's spring calves in their colors, why should not such schools be egregious failures? When neighborhood quarrels are allowed to enter the schoolroom; when personal spite and malice affect the selection of a teacher; when a party defeated at the annual election determines to throw every possible impediment in the way of the teacher and the school, and when parents assail and break down in the eyes of their children the authority, the dignity, and the respect of the teacher, what power not miraculous can teach a successful school?

While hundreds, perhaps thousands, of our common schools should be branded as failures through such causes as those just mentioned, the great mass of our public schools are not failures! They do not turn out practical mechanics, bricklayers, stone masons, printers, doctors, lawyers, and farmers, it is true, but they do turn out men and women whose minds have been awakened to a desire for learning; who are able to think of the political, commercial, financial, and social problems of the day in a cool and sober manner and with ripening judgments, and who become the successful men and women in all the leading industries of the day. The fathers and mothers of this generation were educated in our public schools, and if the one is a failure, so is the other.

There are defects in our system of public schools, but defects are found in every production of man's mind or man's hand. The consoling fact remains very patent, that teachers and educators in all lands discover these defects, are pointing out these evils, and are laboring with hand and heart and brain to bring in a better and a brighter day in the educational world. R. C. STORY

Winfield Courier, March 14, 1878.

At the late examinations, held in Winfield, Arkansas City, and Dexter, the following teachers were present. The questions submitted to them were published in the educational column of the COURIER last week. [I did not list questions from previous issue.]

ARKANSAS CITY: Mrs. Amie Chapin, Miss Mattie Mitchell, Miss Albert Maxwell, Miss Flora Finley, Miss Anna Norton, Miss Mary Pickett, Miss Tirzie Marshall, Miss Stella Burnett, Miss Isabella Birdzell, Miss Dora Winslow, Miss Rosa Sample, Miss Jennie Scott, Mr. C. C. Holland, Mr. B. F. Maricle, Mr. H. M. Williams, Mr. N. N. Winton, Mr. C. M. Swarts . [As usual, Courier had his name as "Swartz."]

WINFIELD: Miss Mollie Davis, Miss Ella Hunt, Miss Henrietta King, Miss Mattie West, Miss Maggie Stansbury, Mr. B. F. Starwalt, Mr. M. H. Markcum, Mr. J. O. Barricklow, Mr. J. D. Hunt, Mr. John Bowers.

LAZETTE: Mr. J. K. P. Tull.

NINNESCAH: Miss Maggie Scott.

TISDALE: Miss Gertrude Davis, Miss Sada Davis.

NEW SALEM: Miss Sarah Bovee, Mrs. Ida Brown.

ROCK: Miss Electa Strong.

FLORAL: Miss Mary Pontious.

CEDAR VALE: Mr. J. P. Hosmer, Mr. James Perisho.

DEXTER: Mr. T. J. Rude, Miss Belle Byard, Miss Alpha Harden, Miss Anna Harden.

OXFORD: Miss Veva Walton.

Winfield Courier, Thursday, March 21, 1878. Front Page.

MILLINGTON & LEMMON, PUBLISHERS.

The people of the eastern states are hungry for information in regard to Kansas. Every mail brings letters of inquiry from persons who think of casting their lot in our State. Immigrants are pouring into Kansas faster than they have ever done before. They come on every train, and our principal highways are lined with "prairie schooners," filled with people in search of homes. They have heard of our splendid climate and the wonderful productions of our soil, and have determined to come and see for themselves. This article is written that some of the questions of the former may be answered more fully than they can be by letter, and that the attention of the latter may be called to this part of the State, a section that has never received its share of advertising, and that offers advantages unequaled by any other.

Cowley County is situated on the south line of the State, one hundred and ten to one hundred and forty miles west of its eastern border. It is bounded on the east by Elk and Chautauqua Counties, on the north by Butler County, on the west by Sumner County, and on the south by the Indian Territory. It is about 240 miles from Kansas City, 220 miles from Atchison, and 180 miles from Topeka.

Take the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad to Eldorado, thence by stage forty-five miles down the Walnut Valley, the most productive valley in the whole country, in a general direction a little west of south over an excellent road to Winfield, the county seat of Cowley County. Or take the same railroad to Wichita and thence by stage down the best part of the Arkansas Valley, over same kind of roads in a southeastern direction forty-five miles to Winfield.

Persons with teams will find plenty of good roads leading to Winfield from all points east and north.

The county is one of the largest in the state. It lies in a compact, square form, thirty-three miles north and south by thirty-four miles east and west, and contains forty-five hundred quarter sections of land, sufficient for an ordinary farming population of twenty-five thousand.

The western one-third of the county is what is called first and second bottom lands, being the location of the valleys of the Walnut and Arkansas rivers. Some picturesque mounds and bluffs appear in places along the vicinity of the streams, but very little of the surface is unsuitable for plowing. The central one-third is more rolling, being a succession of gradual slopes forming the fertile valleys of numerous small streams of water, but is mostly first class land for the production of corn and wheat. The eastern one-third is still more rolling, having very rich valley lands and high ridges. The Flint hills extend along the east line of the county, but are intersected by many rich valleys, while the slopes are fertile and produce abundant crops. This part of the county is especially fitted for stock raising, and many large herds of cattle are found there already.

The bottom lands of the county are considered the most valuable and usually produce the heaviest crops, but the uplands have produced heavy crops of corn, wheat, and most other agricultural products, in fact sometimes even better than those of the rich bottom lands.

Concerning the soil of this region, the editor of the American Agriculturalist says:

"It is a deep, black loam, resting upon a lighter colored subsoil, consisting of loam, clay, and gravel, both soil and subsoil being so porous that surface water rapidly passes through them, and in no case is there any difficulty experienced in crossing with wagons or stock, any water courses or beds of streams. Teams may be driven across springs or creek bottoms fearlessly without danger of miring. This porosity of the soil, while it renders it capable of being plowed or worked immediately after the heaviest rains, at the same time keeps it constantly moist by evaporation from below and protects it from drouth. Within six hours of the cessation of a rain, in which we judge at least three inches of water fell, I saw farmers breaking sod and cultivating young corn.

"The crops of corn, oats, rye, spring and fall wheat, potatoes, and garden vegetables which I saw growing on both old and new breaking in various localities in the valley are equal to any that we have ever seen anywhere during many years experience. I know of no part of the country possessing a more attractive soil for the farmer than this."

The soil is loose, in fact too much so if plowed in the spring. The best time for plowing is immediately after a crop has ripened and been removed; even then it should usually be packed down with a heavy roller in the winter or early spring. Large crops of wheat have been raised on old wheat ground without plowing, and a fair crop of rye has been produced from sowing on the unbroken prairie.

Cowley County is thoroughly well watered. No other county in the state has more streams of good, pure, clear, running water. The Arkansas River flows through the western and northwestern part of the county. Its principal tributary, the Walnut River, one of the most important mill streams in Kansas, extends entirely across the county from north to south, about ten miles east of its west line. Grouse Creek is a large stream flowing from near the northeast corner of the county southwest to its confluence with the Arkansas. Timber, Silver, and Rock Creeks are important streams. These and many other streams are fed by springs of the purest water, and they have never been known to "go dry." Abundance of good water can be secured anywhere by digging from fifteen to forty feet, the average depth of wells being about twenty-five feet.

The rain-falls occur at the time they are most needed. During the spring months the ground is well saturated with water; in the last of August and during September copious showers prepare the ground for fall wheat; and during October, November, and the winter months there are reasonable amounts of rainfall though not often so much as to require more shelter for stock. From about the 10th of June to the 20th of August, is the time of harvest, but little rain falls. The wheat harvest commences about June 10th. At that time corn and other crops if planted in season are so far forward that there is need of little or no rain thereafter to mature them.

The average width of the timber belt along the Arkansas River is about one fourth of a mile. The varieties are cottonwood and sycamore with some oak, walnut, and other varieties. The Walnut River timber belt is one half mile wide on an average and has a great variety of timber of which oak, walnut, sycamore, pecan, hackberry, coffee-bean, mulberry, elm, and cottonwood are the principal. Along Grouse Creek is a timber belt upwards of forty miles long and one eighth of a mile in width, and on Silver Creek, Rock Creek, Beaver Creek, Badger Creek, and many other streams there is a considerable timber of same kinds as described on Walnut River. Native sawed lumber is worth from $2.00 to $2.50 per 100 feet. Cord wood sells on the streets of Winfield at $3.50 to $4.00 per cord. Rails and posts are worth $4.00 to $6.00 per 100.

Coal has been discovered in the eastern part of the county and there are indications that the whole western part of the county is underlaid with coal at a depth of 250 feet but the cheapness of timber has given no inducement to prospect for coal.

In all parts of the county the supply of the best magnesia limestone is inexhaustible. It is found at various depths below the surface from ten to forty feet and in many places along the bluffs and streams it is exposed and handy for quarrying. It exists in layers of from three to twenty-four inches thick and can be quarried easily in almost any desired shape. When first taken from the quarry, it is soft and easily worked with the hammer, chisel, and saw, but on exposure to the air and sun it hardens and becomes durable, appearing much like marble.

This county was named in honor of Matthew Cowley, a brave Kansas soldier who died in the service at Little Rock, Arkansas, in August, 1864. It is a part of what is known as the Osage Diminished Reserve. In 1870 a treaty was made with the Osage Indians, by which this Reserve was opened up for settlement under the act of congress of July 15th, 1870. Before this, and as early as the fall of 1869, settlements were made along the principal streams, the Osages taxing the settlers $5.00 each and permitting them to remain among them peaceably. The county was organized in the summer of 1870, and Winfield, then only one cheap house, was made the county seat. The county then contained a population of about 700. The survey of these lands was made in January and February, 1871, but the plats of the survey were not received at the district land office at Augusta until July 10th, 1871. The Winfield town site was the first tract of land in this county which was entered at the land office. The first assessment and taxation of property in the county was in 1872.

This county contains 716,800 acres of land. It being a part of the Osage lands, it has been open to purchase only to actual settlers, in quantities of not more than 160 acres each, at $1.25 per acre. The entire western half of the county has already been patented. As the land is purchased direct from the general government, titles are unquestioned. No railroad grant covers any part of the county. The question of title is in no respect complicated by the conflicting claims of railroad corporations.

Substantial improvement is being made on almost all the lands that have been purchased or claimed. Nearly every quarter section is occupied by an intelligent and industrious family intent on making a home. Most of the people now here came intending to stay. They have built as good houses as they can afford. Tree planting has received considerable attention. Many fine groves have been planted, and, where they have been properly cultivated, the growth has been wonderful.

Considerable rail, board, and wire fence has been constructed, and the ease with which good stone is procured has induced the building of much stone fence; but the Osage orange hedge is destined to be the fence of the future in this part of the state. At present, growing crops and trees are protected by a herd law, which requires every man to take care of his own stock. Hedges have been planted so extensively that in a few years a majority of the farms will be surrounded by an everlasting fence. Then the herd law will be abolished. Many farms are now completely fenced and sub-divided by this hedge. It grows rapidly and makes a complete fence in three or four years.

Nearly all kinds of fruit do well in this locality. As yet the country is too new to contain many orchards of bearing apple trees. The young trees are thrifty, and the fruit thus far produced has been of excellent quality. Cherries, grapes, strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries have been thoroughly tested; the fruit is luscious and the crop abundant. The peach orchards have begun to yield. The first crop was harvested last summer and fall. No finer or larger peaches grow anywhere than last year's crop in Cowley County. The crop was very heavy; every four-year-old tree was loaded with fruit.

More than four-fifths of our people are agriculturists. At present wheat and corn are our staple productions. During the past year more than fifty thousand acres of wheat were harvested in the county. There are now in Cowley County eighty-nine thousand acres of the most promising growing wheat ever seen at this time of the year. The yield of corn is very large. Forty-six thousand acres of the best was produced last year. This spring sixty-five thousand acres will be planted. Fed to stock, this will be a great source of revenue. There are about 717,000 acres of land in the county, of which 600,000 acres are good wheat and corn land.

Many farmers, particularly in the eastern part of the county, are turning their attention to stock raising, and there are already quite large herds. As soon as the herd law is abolished, the eastern part of the county will become a great grazing country. The whole county is peculiarly fitted for such purpose. Its heavy growth of nutritious grass and many fine springs and streams of running water specially recommend it. Cattle, sheep, and horses could not do better than they do in Cowley County. Our stock of hogs is very fine, and no disease of any kind has ever been among them. Much attention has been given to raising improved breeds of stock. There are six excellent flouring and several corn and saw mills in the county.

There are nearly sixteen thousand people living in Cowley County. Generally they are intelligent, industrious, enterprising, go-ahead young people. They have been reared in the best society and educated in the best schools of other states. They read the newspapers, support schools and churches heartily, and think for themselves. They are the kind of people God sends to a country that he intends to bless. The man who hesitates about coming to Kansas on account of our society is fooling himself. It is as good and as cultivated as he will find anywhere.

This county contains one hundred and eleven school districts, nearly all of which have substantial schoolhouses. Many of these houses have already been wholly paid for. In a very few years every dollar of our school bond indebtedness will be paid. The people tax themselves freely for the support of schools, and keep the schools open as long each year as they can afford to. There are a large number of thoroughly well educated and efficient teachers, and the schools are noted for their good work. The schools are as convenient to all and as efficient as in most of the eastern states.

There is a church organization in nearly every neighborhood in the county. Most of these hold their services in schoolhouses. A few have built excellent church edifices and others are "talking the matter up."

There are already some very fine and large church edifices in the county. Many denominations are represented. The leading are the Baptist, Presbyterian, and Methodist. The ministers are up to the average anywhere. Some of them are men of great talent and culture. The man who preaches to the keen, shrewd, thinking people of the west, or who teaches their children, must have brains, education, and grit.

A considerable portion of the surplus wheat crop is required to supply the Indians in the Indian Territory. The mill owners buy very large quantities of wheat for grinding to fill contracts for flour for the Territory and for neighboring counties in the state. What cannot be disposed of in this way is at present mainly hauled to Wichita, an average distance of forty-five miles, to ship by railroad or sell to buyers there. This inconvenience will however be of short duration.

At present the county is without a railroad, but work is progressing within eighty miles of this county on three different roads, all projected to run through it. Two of them promise to reach the county in time to move the crops of the present year. Besides, the A. T. & S. F. road has built two branches in this direction to within twenty-five miles of our county line, and it is believed by many that it will be the first road to reach Winfield.

No danger need be apprehended from Indians. Since the settlement of the country eight years ago, they have not committed an outrage within our borders. Their location is really a blessing to us. It furnishes us a good market at home for much that would have to be hauled away were they removed.

The grasshoppers, chinch bugs, and other pests are no more numerous than in most other localities in the west. The first named have never visited this locality but twice, and then they came too late to do much harm. The region of their origin is many hundreds of miles to the northwest, and when they move they either distribute themselves over the region north of us or arrive in this locality after the crops are matured and out of their way. We have no fears of ravages from them.

The prices of land are much lower than along the lines of the railroads. The reason is that persons coming to this state flock along the line of the railroads, and are told that what they see is the best in the state. They enter into competition with each other in buying and create a demand that raises the price of land in those locations. They buy there or return east without looking farther. Rarely one strays far away from the railroad. Occasionally an exceptionally shrewd, energetic man gets away into Cowley. Here he is delighted, finds much land for sale and no buyers to compete with, and therefore buys the best of land at very low prices.

Little farming land can yet be had at $1.25 per acre by settlement and pre-emption, but all the best of the unimproved land will be found already entered, and can be bought at from $3.00 to $6.00 per acre. Good farms more or less improved can be had at from $4.00 to $15.00 per acre, depending upon location and the amount of improvements.

There is no finer climate, all things considered, in the world. We have had green grass and leaves every month the past year and have scarcely seen snow or ice. There has not been a cold day the past winter and the ground has not been frozen to a depth of two inches. Some winters however have been colder, producing ice from two to six inches thick and sometimes snow, which has remained for a week. Usually ground can be plowed during most of the winter. The summers are warm, but strange as it may seem to some, we have no hot days like the hottest in New England. The nights are always cool. In the seven summers which the writer has spent in Winfield, he has not passed a night so warm that no bed covering was needed. The range of the thermometer between extremes of heat and cold is at least twenty- five degrees less than in the eastern and northern states.

Winfield, the county seat, is a young city of 1,611 inhabitants, according to the census taken last February. It is situated on an undulating prairie on the left bank of the Walnut River, is bounded on the north, south, and west by a beautiful belt of timber and on the east by a line of finely rounded mounds, and in the midst of natural scenery of surpassing loveliness. It commenced to be built in 1870; the early buildings were of timber frames and rather small, but each year has added more spacious and substantial buildings until now it has many large and beautiful structures of brick and of magnesian limestone which compare well with those of older and larger cities of the east. Winfield is the center of business for the county and has the reputation of being the liveliest city of its size in the state. The streets are generally well filled with teams and the merchants are doing a very large business. Nearly all kinds of business are represented with good stocks. The citizens are enterprising and intelligent, society is excellent, and one needs only to visit the splendid costly churches and the school rooms where from 300 to 350 pupils are taught efficiently by the most approved modern methods, to be satisfied as to the tone of morals of the place. The names and lines of business of some of the leading businessmen of Winfield will be found in our advertising columns, to which we refer the reader. Winfield is 16½ miles from the north line of the county, the same distance from the south line, and 8½ miles from the west line.

This is a city of some 600 or 700 inhabitants, is beautifully situated on a swell of land between the Arkansas and Walnut Rivers near their forks, and is one of the most charming towns in the state. It is in the very best portion of the Arkansas Valley and is surrounded by a splendid farming country. It has a class of citizens of unusual intelligence and culture, and some fine large business houses with large stocks of goods. It has the finest schoolhouse in the county. It is located 4½ miles from the south and six miles from the west line of the county. Almost every line of business is here represented.

is situated four miles from the south and twelve miles from the east line of the county. It is built upon a rounded rise in the prairie and is surrounded by cultivated farms. It contains one store, two blacksmith shops, and one wagon shop. Like other Cowley County villages, it has a good school.

is a thriving village beautifully situated on Grouse Creek, twelve miles from the east and twelve miles from the south line of the county. It has several merchants and a steam flouring mill and steam saw mill. It has three stores, two blacksmith shops, and a variety of other business, and is surrounded by rich farms.

is a thriving village on Grouse Creek, ten miles from the east and ten miles from the north line of the county. It has a steam flouring mill and good stocks of goods. It has three stores, two blacksmith shops, and other business, and is in the midst of rich farming lands. There are three saw mills within two miles.

is a village situated on a fine, high divide in a beautiful rolling prairie in the geographical center of the county. Its location has given it some prominence in the history of the county. Business is here well represented.

The roads are almost always good. The streams and small runs have rock or gravel bottoms and there is no mire. Continued rains make the roads muddy but the mud is never deep, and the water drains and leaches out rapidly so that the roads become good very soon after the rains cease.

There are four fine bridges within one mile of Winfield. One crossing Timber Creek, just north of the city, is an arched iron bridge of 100 feet span and 30 feet high stone abutments. The next is a wooden truss bridge across the Walnut River just northwest of the city 200 feet long on stone pier and abutments 35 feet high. The third is an arched iron bridge across Walnut River just southwest of the city one hundred and eighty feet long and thirty-five feet high on stone pier and abutments. The fourth is an iron bridge with a single span 155 feet long on 35 feet high abutments, across Walnut River just south of the city. The total cost of these bridges is about $25,000. Other good bridges are found in various other parts of the county.

There is an abundance of water power in this county, though but a small part of it has been utilized. Along Walnut River, Rock, Timber, Grouse, and Silver Creeks, are very many good water mill sites with plenty of water power. At Lazette, Arkansas City, and some other places these sites have been utilized to some extent.

There are at Winfield two excellent flouring mills, each working four run of burrs and doing a large business. They are both run by water, having each an excellent water power on the Walnut River. They make good market for a large amount of wheat. The upper mill is a large stone structure, and has a fall of eight feet. The lower is a large frame upon a substantial stone basement. The river in this place runs in the form of an ox bow, with the two ends near together. Upon this neck a tunnel is constructed, a distance of about 100 feet through which the water passes to the mill and attains a fall of about eight feet. There are several other mills in the county.

Winfield has five excellent church buildings. The Baptist Church was built of magnesian limestone in 1871, at a cost of $2,000. At that early day when but few people had located on the town site, it was something quite wonderful that so good and costly a structure should be built. The enterprise, energy, and public spirit displayed in the erection of this church has not been excelled or equaled, considering the circumstances, in the erection of the more recent and more imposing structures.

The M. E. frame church was erected at the same time, when the Methodists were few, and their self-sacrificing energy at that time was at least equal to that exhibited in producing their present magnificent structure. This last was built during the past year of magnesian limestone, costing $7,500, and is perhaps the most spacious and imposing church in southern Kansas. It is capable of seating, comfortably, 800 to 1,000 people; has a fine orchestra and class room, is beautifully furnished, and its windows are magnificent.

The building of the Church of Christ is a fine frame building, built in 1874, when the church had very few members, but these few were thoroughly imbued with genuine western enterprise.

The Presbyterian Church which has been built during the last year at a cost of $9,000, is of brick with a stone basement, and is perhaps the most beautiful structure of the kind in southern Kansas. It is magnificently furnished, and is a delightful place to spend an hour.

The Catholic Church is a fine substantial frame building which has been erected during the past year.

The year 1874 is specially noted as the drouthy grasshopper year in Kansas. In that year but little rain fell in Cowley County from June first to September first, and therefore late planted grain and other farm products suffered much from drouth. The grasshoppers came in the last of August and first of September and devoured such products as were then unmatured.

It happened that much of the corn and vegetables were planted late and were a complete failure, but the early planted corn and such other products as got their principal growth during the spring months did not suffer materially from the drouth and were too ripe for the grasshoppers when they came, so, such produced about the usual crop. There were instances in Cowley County in that year of early planted corn producing fifty to seventy bushels per acre. The wheat crop was ready for harvest in the beginning of the dry time, producing a full crop averaging about twenty-three bushels per acre throughout the county. The wheat harvest commenced June 5th and the weather thereafter was very favorable for securing the crop, so that the quality of the wheat was unusually good.

In September, 1876, the grasshoppers appeared again, but as the season had not been specially dry, and the crops had been planted early, they were so mature that the grasshoppers did but little damage except that they stayed so long that the frightened farmers did not sow their wheat in September, the proper time, fearing the hoppers would destroy it as fast as it came up, but delayed sowing until November. The result was that it did not get much growth until the warm showery weather of the spring when it grew so very rapidly that the straw rotted and the wheat shrank so that the last crop was inferior, both in quantity and quality to the usual yield. Many farmers, however, planted their wheat in September and had the usual crop both in quantity and quality, some as high as 40 bushels of the plumpest wheat to the acre.

Excepting the two years above mentioned, the county has never failed of producing large crops of almost every kind that has been tried. Experience points unmistakably to the conclusion that had all crops been sown early and at the proper time, there would have been no failure in the past, and that there need be no failure in the future in Cowley County.

There is no county in the United States whose average wheat crop has been larger per acre and better, for the last six years, than that of this county, and the farmers are so well assured of a crop that instead of planting less on account of the partial failure, planted during the past September about 89,000 acres in the place of the 60,000 acres of the fall before.

The climate here is by no means a dry one. There have been more complaints of too wet weather than too dry, since this county was settled eight years ago. There is not a state in the west, if in the Union, where there has been in the same time so little failure on account of drouths. The rains are usually as frequent and as abundant as could be desired.

So far as the grasshoppers are concerned, we believe their history establishes the fact that they never invade any territory except in a very dry time, and we have no occasion to fear that they will visit us at all more than once or twice out of a dozen years, or that they will do any material damage at their visits if farmers follow the maxim "plant early."

No county while new and while the soil is being newly disturbed, where the soil is rich and the vegetation rank, has been exempt from malarial fevers, and Cowley has had many cases of such fevers. But it has no marshes, swamps, sloughs, or standing water, no fogs or moisture laden air. It always has a breeze, generally light but sometimes strong, and should be healthy, as it in fact is in all respects except as above. Many persons have come here diseased or suffering from chronic complaints, who have very soon begun to improve and have since quite recovered.

The following is from the assessors books of March, 1877.

Cowley County:

Number of acres in county, 718,080; taxable acres, 284,443; under cultivation, 126,440; increase of cultivated acres in one year, 25,132.

Dairy Products. Cheese manufactured in 1876, 6448 lbs. Butter manufactured in 1876, 185,327 lbs.; increase 71,525.

Farm Animals. Number of horses, 44,501; increase in one year, 765; mules and asses in 1876, 881; increase 312. Cattle in 1876, 12,107; increase 211. Sheep, 4,883; increase, 3,157. Swine, 14,982; increase, 6,980.

As a general rule, those who have no means to invest and must gain their livelihood by their labor either of hand or brain, for hire, will not find great encouragement. Farm and common labor are in supply in excess of demand and most of the mechanical trades and professions are so well supplied with workers that the competition is very strong. It is only those who have considerable skill, energy, and talent who succeed conspicuously, yet there are many here who came with no money and are now on the high road to fortune. Energy and brains will always succeed but some money to invest in farms or business is the quickest and surest. The east is better for the laborer, but there is no place in the union where money investments are surer of immediate and large returns. Those who have money, energy, and brains should come to Cowley by all means. In fact, it is pretty good evidence that one has all these if he breaks loose from the land sharks along the railroads and comes to Cowley where he can buy much better lands at much lower prices.

Cowley County has her schoolhouses, her churches, her courthouse, and her bridges mostly built and paid for and the taxation for these purposes will hereafter be light. In the new counties along the railroads all these have yet to be built and paid for and the taxation must necessarily be heavy.

Here there is no homestead land and the land is mostly entered and taxable; there the odd sections which do not belong to the railroads are homesteaded lands and will not be taxable for several years, therefore, the taxes will be much heavier on other property.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878. Second Page of above article.

It is now conceded by everyone acquainted with the topography of Kansas that the four countiesCowley, Sumner, Sedgwick, and Butlerconstitute the garden part of the state. It is just as freely conceded by the inhabitants of these four counties that Cowley is the garden spot of this great garden. More clear running streams with rich alluvial bottoms, more good timber, a better upland soil, with enough of the beautiful magnesian limestone for all building purposes, have established the character of Cowley County as the very gem of agricultural territory.

Now take heed. There is not a railroad within twenty-five miles of this glorious county. A large portion of the settlers are poor and still laboring under the curse of exorbitant interest-bearing mortgages given to secure the purchase of their homes. They must sell. A farm thus encumbered can be purchased for $500, when one adjoining it, and not as good, but owned by one out of debt, cannot be bought for $1,500.

Now take heed again. There are four railroads, with lines already surveyed, headed towards the great Walnut Valley, which extends from north to south through Cowley County, some of which are in process of construction and will be completed into the county inside of two years, when the value of lands will at once shoot up to a margin of from 100 to 500 percent.

Now, then, is the time to strike for farms in Cowley Countyto get ahead of the railroad a year or two, and lay the foundations for a splendid and lasting fortune.

[EDITORIAL ITEMS.]

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

See Hamilton & Robinson real estate advertisement. They have about thirty-five good farms and a first class mile site for sale. Call and see them.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

Skipped the next item which compared Cowley County with other counties in Kansas as given in Green's KANSAS REAL ESTATE NEWS.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

Taxes for each year are due on and after November 1st.

One-half of the taxes may be paid on or before December 20th and the other half on or before the 20th of the following June.

If the whole tax is paid before December 20th, five percent is deducted from one-half of the tax.

If one-half is not paid on December 20th, five percent is added.

Another five percent is added on the 20th of March following, and again on the 20th of June, when the land is advertised for sale to pay the taxes that remain unpaid. The sale takes place on the first Tuesday of September. Three years after the sale, deeds are made to the purchasers and the land is lost beyond redemption.

Non-residents who have occasion to inquire about the taxes on their land in Cowley County should enclose twenty-five cents to A. H. Green, Winfield, Kansas, to pay for getting the information.

[NEWS NOTES.]

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878. Editorial Page.

Gold has sold as low as 100-3/4.

Another heavy run on New England savings banks.

The house has defeated the ante-bellum mail contractors bill.

Gen. W. T. Sherman is appointed regent of the Smithsonian Institute.

Snow fell five feet deep on a level at Deadwood City, Black Hills, on the 16th.

The secretary of the treasury has purchased enough silver bullion to keep the mints running five weeks.

[OUR NEIGHBORS.]

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

Mr. T. E. Clark, the founder of Oxford, and Mr. Hutchins and family have moved back to Oswego.

[PERSONALS.]

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

Hon. L. J. Webb is in Chautauqua County attending court.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

DIED. March 16th, J. D., son of G. W. and M. E. Robertson, aged 4 months.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

Seed oats and other small grain are mostly in the ground. Many farmers are at work planting corn.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

We object to having Winfield represented at the Paris exposition by a photograph of our public school building.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

Mr. W. J. Wilson, of Hammond, N. Y., has located in our city and accepted a clerkship in Mr. Kinne's office.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

Last Saturday a six mule team was loaded at the Tunnel mills with 7,500 pounds of flour for the Cheyenne Agency.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

MARRIED. At Winfield, March 19, 1878, by Rev. N. L. Rigby, Rev. David Thomas to Mrs. Julia G. Goodrich, all of Cowley County.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

Farmer Lemmon practices what he preaches. For several days he has been down planting trees, hedge, and "sich" on his farm east of the city.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

The map of Cowley County in this issue was made four years ago and is of course incorrect now. The land marked as "government lands" is now mostly sold.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

The city election occurs a week from next Monday but we have not heard a word yet as to candidates. Is not the glory of an election worth something?

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

Mr. W. F. White has assumed charge of the passenger and ticket departments of the A. T. & S. F. railroad with the title of General Passenger and Ticket Agent.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

The Baptist people, headed by Rev. Rigby, have been at work beautifying their church grounds. They have put out over 200 trees, with rose bushes, vines, etc.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

Last Sunday, March 17th, Mr. Rarrick cut from the field of Mr. Moore one and a half miles west of town some stalks of growing wheat which measured 30 inches high.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

Walker Bros. have the largest and best assortment of fancy and staple groceries in the city, which they are selling at the lowest possible margin above cost. Call and see them.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

The black man who escaped from the county jail with Billson, as noticed last week, was recaptured last week by Martin Barber on Skull Creek, and has also been returned to jail.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

S. M. Kessler, M. D., eclectic physician from Webster City, Iowa, called on us yesterday. He is so highly pleased with this county and city that he has concluded to cast his lot with us.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

We have taken up most of our space this week with the description of our county to the exclusion of many communications from our correspondents. We think we will make room for this correspondence next week.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

We are informed that some persons at a distance have the idea that the Presbyterian minister of this place was meant in the strictures of the Wichita Beacon two weeks since. This is a mistake. The Presbyterian minister does not promise to pay; he pays. He is noted for his financial soundness. A claim against him would be a curiosity.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

A. H. Green is alive to business. He has got up a 6,000 edition of his real estate paper to circulate on the railroad trains among the emigrants to Kansas. It is of course attended by large expense, but will doubtless bring to this county a great number of land buyers who will all come to see Green and what he has for sale. Persons who have land for sale would do well to put it in the hands of A. H. Green at once.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

Maj. T. J. Anderson, who has heretofore occupied the position of general passenger agent of the A. T. & S. F. railroad, has been appointed general agent of that company and will have charge of both the passenger and freight departments of that road to Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico, with office at Pueblo. The Major is a gentleman whose executive ability, energy, and urbanity, peculiarly fit him for such a position on a great road.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

A difference of opinion having arisen between some owners of fast horses in Winfield in relation to the speed and endurance of one of B. M. Terrill's livery teams, a purse of two hundred dollars was made up to be delivered to Mr. Terrill in case he should drive the team from Winfield to Eldorado, forty-seven miles, in five hours. The trial came off last Saturday afternoon, and the drive was made in four hours and fifteen minutes. This is pretty fair time even for the "Bobtail" railroad. The team exhibited no signs of distress, and was driven back next day, arriving in good condition.

[Note: This time they have "Terrill." The ad placed in paper always shows "Tyrrell & Ferguson." Sometimes they spell his name "Terrell." I do not know what is correct!]

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

FRUIT TREES. Parties wishing to purchase nursery stock of any kind will do well to call on T. J. Floyd, Telegram office, as he has home-grown stock which he will sell cheap.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

Our county will be represented at the Paris exhibition. A photo of the schoolhouse at Arkansas City, given to Mr. Lemmon some time ago by Esquire Bonsall, to be hung in the superintendent's office at Topeka, will be a part of the Kansas educational collection.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

NOTICE TO PHYSICIANS. I offer for sale, cheap for cash, a small stock of drugs and medicines and my practice, in one of the finest locations in Cowley County; practice amounts to about $2,500 per annum. Address, "Physician," COURIER office, Winfield, Cowley County, Kansas.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

EXTRA COURIERS, descriptive of the county, $3 per $100; or, we will mail and prepay postage at $4 per 100. Send in your orders with cash at once that we may know how many to print. If you prefer to have us mail and prepay postage, send the addresses to which you would have them mailed.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

Next Monday evening, the 25th, at the courthouse will be rendered the drama of "Ten Nights in a Bar-Room." This drama has been under rehearsal by the young people here under the tuition of Mr. and Mrs. McGinnis, who will, with nine others, be actors in the play. The public will be well entertained.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

A sheriff party, from Shawnee County, last week pursued a horse thief into this county and rushed down into the Indian Territory about twenty miles. Having lost all track of him, they gave up the pursuit and search; and while passing through this county on their return, they met their object of pursuit jogging gently along on his stolen horse toward the Territory, and took him in.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

On the stage from Eldorado to Winfield the other day were two Cowley County six-year- old boys, Jesse and Bertie. After crossing the county line into Cowley, while passing a very much better field of wheat than any seen further north, Jesse asked what county they were then in. "Cowley County," answered Bertie, "don't you see that wheat? That is Cowley County wheat."

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

The old log store has gone to a more northeastern site. Robert Hudson put his log wheels under it last Saturday and it had to budge, heavy as it was. In 1870 this building was about all there was of Winfield. It has done service as store, church, political headquarters, law office, post office, schoolhouse, printing office, and almost everything else, but it had to give place to a more pretentious building. It looks lonesome around the old site.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

There is something grossly wrong about the way mails are handled between Wichita and Winfield. We have been unable to find out why it takes from two to three days to carry mail matter between this place and Ninnescah, a distance of only fifteen miles, and a daily mail both ways. Is it a fact that the way mail goes to Oxford both ways and lays over a day or two, and if so, who is to blame? Is there a way mail between Wichita and Winfield? If not, why not? If there is, why does it not serve the post office at Ninnescah and Littleton? We are hearing loud and constant complaint, are much annoyed by the failure of our papers to arrive at their destination, and are getting to feel quite belligerent on this subject. At whom shall we strike first.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

Our public schools are to close tomorrow for a vacation of one week. The work of the term has been satisfactory to teachers, students, and patrons. We spent a part of last Tuesday visiting the different rooms and were pleased with the interest and attention manifest in all of them. Mr. Robinson and his assistants deserve and receive the hearty support of the people of our city. The only hindrance to the complete success of schools is their overcrowded condition. During the term just closing, Prof. Robinson has had an enrollment of 54; Miss Saint, 72; Miss Wickersham, 78; Miss Bryant, 114; and Miss Johnson, about 30. It is a mistake to crowd 360 students into five school rooms. Steps should be taken at once to secure additional school accommodations before the opening of the next school year. Now is the time to attend to this matter. The schools now occupy two rooms in the schoolhouse and two rooms in the basement of the Presbyterian Church. These rooms are now far from sufficient. Two additional rooms are needed. The main building of our schoolhouse should be erected this summer. We have no school bond indebtedness, the last bond is being paid; building material and work is cheap; the state permanent school fund is so flush of money that it has taken seven percent bonds at par. It is estimated that $7,000 will build a main building of four large rooms and remodel the old so as to make the whole one of the most beautiful structures in the state. Who will move in the matter.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

The Kansas Methodist Conference closed Monday night. The following appointments were made for this district.

WICHITA DISTRICT. A. H. Walter, P. F.

Wichita. J. Kirby.

Wichita Mission. Supplied by C. Brooks.

East Wichita. L. F. Laverty.

West Wichita and Eldridge. Supplied by A. S. Wimbree.

Cartwright. John McQuistion.

El Paso. G. W. Harmony.

Belle Plaine. J. W. Cain.

Belle View and Rolling Green. To be supplied by E. W. Abbot.

Wellington. J. N. Boicourt.

Oxford. J. W. Stewart.

South Haven - Supplied by - Roman.

Arkansas City. T. S. Hunt.

Caldwell. A. W. Ryan.

Winfield. J. L. Rusbridge.

Winfield Circuit. P. D. Lahr.

Dexter and Tisdale. W. H. Rose.

Lazette. M. C. Green.

Douglas. C. A. Stine.

Augusta. J. A. Hyden.

Eldorado. O. A. Palmer.

Plumb Grove. A. Cain.

Quito. H. Wait.

Sedgwick. D. W. Cameron.

Cottonwood Falls. P. F. Jones.

Toledo. Supplied by C. Masses.

Florence and Cedar Point. H. J. Walker.

J. F. Nessley, Chaplain to State Senate.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

The following awards were made at the Post Office Department at Washington on the 9th inst. for carrying the mails in this vicinity.

Coffeyville to Arkansas City, 100 miles, 2 times per week; $972. B. Magoffin.

Elk Falls to Wichita, 86 miles, 3 times per week; $1,475. H. B. Gurnesey.

Elk Falls to Winfield, 58 miles, 3 times per week; $939. A. A. Call.

Eureka to Arkansas City, 70 miles, once a week, $488. J. W. Darsey.

Eldorado to Winfield, 45 miles, 6 times per week, $1,344. H. Tisdale.

Augusta to Ninnescah, 34 miles, once a week, $244. A. J. Vail.

Arkansas City to South Haven, 19 miles, 2 times per week, $228. W. C. Brown.

Oxford to Medicine Lodge, 90 miles, 2 times per week, $838. J. R. Miner.

Wellington to Arkansas City, 36 miles, once a week, $263. B. Magoffin.

Wichita to Arkansas City, 60 miles, 6 times per week, $1,220. H. Tisdale.

Wichita to Caldwell, 66 miles, 6 times per week, $1,584. H. Tisdale.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

FRIEND SCOTT. Our town looks lively and bustling every Saturday and Monday. Today is a little more so.

The usual crowds of gaping, idle country louts and villages loafers are gathered around the cheap stationery man with tinsel helmet and coat of many colors, who is slyly taking in their quarters. The auction nuisance has its crowd of idlers listening to half a dozen whisky- nosed gentlemen, all of them brawling at the top of their voices at the same time, trying to sell some wind-broken, spavined, hip-shot, broken down, and worn out horses.

Arkansas Traveler.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

J. L. Rusbridge and wife to L. W. Bigelow, part of southwest 28 32 4, 2 acres, $100.

F. P. Meyers and wife to Cemetery Association, part of s w 5 35 7, 1 acre.

James Martin to Wm. Tannahill, s e 26 31 7, 160 acres, $1,500.

Robt. Allison and wife to J. K. Lawrence, e ½ of n w ¼ of s e 23 31 3, 20 acres, $800.

Frank P. Davis and wife to G. S. Manser s w 33 30 3, 160 acres, $485.

W. H. Cochran and wife to Robt. Allison, e ½ of n w of s e 23 31 3, 20 acres, $800.

Nelson Felton and wife to Elizabeth Green s w 21 30 3.

Jas. L. Way to Samuel Beakley, n e of n e 80 31 6, 40 acres, $200.

O. C. Holman to Robt. P. Wooley, w ½ and n e of s e 36 33 3, 120 acres, $800.

Jas. P. Craft and wife to Elizabeth Morris, part of s ½ of s e 29 31 7, 12 acres, $215.

Geo. M. Caldwell and wife to E. Copeland n w 12 30 3, 160 acres, $612.30.

W. L. Mullen and wife to Julia A. Stevens, lots 7 and 8, block 90, Winfield, $1,000.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

James Trout to Emily Wilson.

Joseph Craft to Elizabeth Walck.

David Maricle to Elizabeth Dally.

David Thomas to Julia G. Goodrich.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

List of letters remaining unclaimed in the Post Office at Winfield, Cowley County, Kansas, on the 21st day of March 1878.

FIRST COLUMN: Bridges, E. P.; Bing, C. A.; Claybaugh, Charles; Condit, Mrs. Jane; Elixson, L. N.; Franks, Miss C.; Fuller, John J.; Fuss, Mr. Joseph; Hill, J. M.; Johnson, John M.

SECOND COLUMN: Kizer, Miss Mattie; Lane, Stephen O.; Lacey, Mr. Wm. F. M.; Matel, Mr. E. A.; Marrs, Mr. William; Stevenson, Frank; Suits, T. H.; Tyler, Chas.; Taylor, W. K.; Wentz, Wm.; Wright, Mr. Blachley T. Persons calling for any of the above will please say "advertised." JAMES KELLY, P. M.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

The spring term of the Winfield schools will commence on the first day of April and continue ten weeks. Teachers and pupils from other school districts will have the opportunity to attend the high school department during the term. GEO. W. ROBINSON, Principal.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

Notice is hereby given that sealed proposals will be received at the city clerk's office, in the City of Winfield, Cowley County, Kansas, up to 7 o'clock p.m. of the 25th day of March, A. D., 1878, for the construction of sidewalks designated in ordinance No. 75 of said city, or so much of the same as the city council of said city may see fit to let. Said sidewalks to be built in accordance with said ordinance. The bids shall specify the amount per square foot for which the same will be built, to be paid out of the assessment made upon the lot or lots abutting upon said sidewalks; also for the construction of a sidewalk in front of No. 11, in block No. 129, in said city, in accordance with ordinance. For further particulars enquire of

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878. Back Page.

A number of the prominent businessmen of Winfield made a flying visit to our city last Friday. Among the number we observed the pleasant countenance of W. C. Root, proprietor of the principal boot and shoe store of that city; Gillelan, of the celebrated dry goods firm of Lynn and Gillelen, and well known throughout the valley, Walker, the popular groceryman; and Suss, the man who cannot be beat selling dry goods and clothingall pleasant gentlemen representing the best business houses of that city. The irrepressible By Terrill, with one of those first-class turnouts from his livery, had the entire company in charge, himself holding the ribbons and engineering the whole train. The boys were apparently enjoying the trip hugely, and we highly appreciated the visit. Call again gentswe're always glad to see you. Wellington press.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

Last week while John Noel and T. S. Bethell of Val Verdi Township were in the Territory getting out timber, their camp (in their temporary absence) was the scene of a conflagration, which proved quite disastrous to the effects of the company. While the men were absent on a trip to the State line with timber, by some means to them entirely unknown, a fire broke out in the camp, and in a much shorter space of time than it takes us to tell, it most effectually cleaned up the camp, and got away with whatever happened at the time to be laying around loose, including wagon covers, camp equipments, beds and bedding, cooking utensils, together with the entire stock of grub on hand, which (the last item named) proved to be quite a serious affair, as the boys being a long ways from base of supplies, were not only put on short rations, but absolutely with none at all until they reached the settlements near home. The loss to them was considerable, but we understand our friend Bethell most of all laments the loss of his fine pillows with embroidered slips and some fine linen sheets. A man to whom those articles are indispensable should never make a camp in the Territory. Wellington Press.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878. Back Page.

Hon. Thomas Ryan, member of congress from the third Kansas district, in his speech delivered at the Sedgwick County Fair, at Wichita, Sept. 27, 1877, paid a just tribute to Cowley County in the following words.

"Over three hundred years ago, a Spanish expedition passed not many miles from where we now stand. One Coronado, at the head of 1200 men, then traversed the counties of Barbour, Kingman, Reno, Harvey, and McPherson. Could he have done the same thing again but a few short years ago taking in the counties of Cowley, Sumner, and Sedgwick, he would have explored the garden of the universe, still occupied by beast and savage, precisely as he found it three centuries before. But were he to return today and chronicle the preternatural change, and could we go five hundred years into futurity and read his marvelous narration, we should doubtless conclude that Coronado was the champion liar of the age in which he wrote. But seeing is believing; with our own eyes we behold Cowley County with her 15,000 population; her schoolhouses, her magnificent churches, her mills, her newspapers, her four hundred thousand acres paying tribute to government, and one hundred and fifty thousand producing acres; and yet she was organized but seven years ago."

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878. Back Page.

The Walnut Valley Stage Line advertised in our columns is the best, cheapest, and shortest route to this county. By taking the A. T. & S. F. railroad to Florence and Eldorado and this stage line to Winfield, you will save $1.50 in fare.

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878. Back Page.

The Arkansas Valley which has become famous for fertility and beauty is that part which lies southeast of Wichita, in Cowley, Sumner, and Sedgwick countiesnot the western part, which in comparison is much less fertile.

[AD.]

Winfield Courier, March 21, 1878.

Leave Eldorado daily (except Sunday), at 7 o'clock a.m.; arrive at Winfield, same day, at 4 o'clock p.m.

Leave Winfield daily (except Sundays), at 7 o'clock a.m.; arrive at Eldorado, same day, at 4 o'clock p.m.

Connects at Eldorado with the Florence, Eldorado & Walnut Valley R. R.

Connects at Winfield, going south, with Stage for Arkansas City.

Winfield Courier, March 28, 1878.

[First Page of March 28, 1878, issue repeats the long article given in March 21, 1878, issue.]

[EDITORIAL ITEMS.]

Winfield Courier, March 28, 1878.

The new silver dollar preaches a sermon as well as pays all debts. Its motto is, "In God we trust."

Winfield Courier, March 28, 1878.

The subscriptions to the four percent loan on the 19th were $1,012,000. Total subscriptions to date: $4,000,000.

Winfield Courier, March 28, 1878.

The A. T. & S. F. company have succeeded in securing the pass in the Raton range of mountains against the Denver & Rio Grande road, and are pushing forward the work to connect with the California road in Arizona. Large forces of workmen and hundreds of teams are employed.

Winfield Courier, March 28, 1878.

Winfield mechanics as a rule are men of intelligence, who love social order and respect the rights of others. We are informed that the plasterers have formed a trade association or guild for the mutual benefit of its members. This is a measure which we commend. Such associations, if properly managed, are very useful in many ways, not only to their members but to the community. One of the objects is to keep the prices of their labor up to a fair and just compensation, and any measure tending to that end which does not interfere with the rights of others will receive our warm sympathy and support. When such a guild fixes minimum rates for work, one natural result should not be overlooked, which is, that those who are known to be first-class workmen will be employed at the established rates and others will only find work when the demand for workmen is in excess of the supply. It is all in favor of good workmen and good work. Newcomers, until they have acquired a reputation, and those who have no reputation as good workmen, cannot afford to become members of the guild. They must work at low prices or starve. The workmen who have a reputation have a vast advantage over such and should be content with the advantages they have. One who does not belong to the guild will be likely to be taken for an inferior workman, and men who want good work will not be likely to employ them.

There is one thing however that members of these guilds should always remember, namely: that others have the right to work for such pay as they can get, or without pay for that matter, and any interference with that right is a crime. If one who does not belong to your guild works for less than your established rates, he is doing no wrong, and if you destroy his tools, mutilate his work or "bulldoze" him in any way, you are in the same position you would be if you should steal a horse, forge a note, or rob a man on the highway. You are entering upon just such a career of crime as culminated in the Pittsburgh riots and the Molly McGuire murders.

We call attention to this subject at this time because it is charged that on last Saturday evening some persons destroyed the tools, mortar bed, and other property belonging to a plasterer who does not belong to the guild. We are unwilling to believe that any plasterer with whom we are acquainted had any hand in this outrage. We have too high a respect for them as intelligent, high-minded men. But should anyone be convicted of this crime, whether friend or foe, we hold that he should be punished to the extent of the law.

The guild should at once take such action as will show that it condemns such transactions and has no part in them. A guild that should encourage such outrages would be regarded in the same light as a gang of horse thieves.

Winfield Courier, March 28, 1878.

It is asserted by the friends of Mr. Bancroft that he has concealed nothing; that the members of the board of regents have long known from the voluntary statements of Major Bancroft himself what they now know of the use of the funds, and that the entire board with one exception were opposed to the criminal prosecution. Winfield Courier.

Bancroft friends may, or may not, make such assertions. We have no hesitancy in asserting, however, that whoever does make any such assertion is either a fool or a wilful falsifier. It is a lie also that the board, or any member of it, was opposed to prosecution. Neither the present state officers, nor the present board of regents, are in any way blameable for the defalcation or a want of a knowledge of it sooner. If anyone other than Bancroft is to be blamed, it is the old board of regents of which he was a member, who were only cognizant of the fact of the sale of lands, and whose records fail not only to show the fact, but fail to show the fact of Bancroft's appointment as agent, which records were the only source of information of the past transactions of the officers of that institution. Wichita Eagle.

We merely repeated the story as we received it and are glad that it is emphatically denied by such good authority at the Eagle, Emporia News, and other papers that have come to the relief of the members of the board of regents of the Normal School. Mr. Bancroft's trial is now in progress at Emporia. We hope and expect that even handed justice, nothing more, will be done both him and the State.

Winfield Courier, March 28, 1878.

The Wichita Herald and the Wichita Eagle came to us last week completely illuminated with a broad grin because of "a good joke on Winfield," which they relate substantially as follows: On the preceding Sunday a Winfield minister was invited to address the children in the Presbyterian Sabbath school at Wichita, and in the course of his remarks asked the children where Winfield was. A little gamin answered: "Out in the country."

Now our innocent neighbors do not quite understand the best part of that joke. On that particular Sunday every Winfield minister was at his post preaching in Winfield, but Frank Mills was on his way to the territory with a horse he had stolen from Shawnee County, and to allay suspicion he played the role of minister and Sabbath school lecturer on the simple Wichitas. Next morning he left early, but was captured by Deputy Marshal Petrie and Constable Cory before he reached the territory.

Our metropolitan friends had better come "out in the country" and "cut their eye teeth."

[STATE NEWS.]

Winfield Courier, March 28, 1878.

Hon. Ben. Simpson has been confirmed by the senate as U. S. marshal for the district of Kansas and it is now understood that he will accept.

[NEWS FROM WASHINGTON.]

Winfield Courier, March 28, 1878.

The secretary of the treasury has authorized the mints to buy silver bullion at the market price, not exceeding 10,000 ounces in a lot, to be paid for in cold coin or silver dollars at the option of the government.

The recent mail letting aggregates a million of dollars less than the same lettings did last year.

[EUROPE.]

Winfield Courier, March 28, 1878.

England seems to have been again out-generaled in diplomacy. She has been negotiating an alliance, offensive and defensive, with Austria, but Count Andrassy has at last refused the alliance and it is believed that Austria has made a similar alliance with Russia. England therefore intimated that she would not enter the congress, notwithstanding Russia yields to the demand of England that all the stipulations of the treaty should be submitted. Both England and Russia continue to make war preparations.

[REPORTS FROM VARIOUS COWLEY COUNTY TOWNSHIPS.]

Winfield Courier, March 28, 1878.

Oats sown and most of them up. Corn planting and garden making going on.

R. C. Story lectured at Floral on the 18th, giving good advice and sound doctrine on education to teachers, parents, and children.

Miss Maggie Stansberry's school in district 108 closed March 15th, with a dinner at the schoolhouse and literary exercises. Judging from the advance exhibited by the pupils and the large gathering, her school has given good satisfaction.

Literary still running at 108 and a full house each night.

Good Templars and Patrons alive at Floral. L.

Winfield Courier, March 28, 1878.

Weather fine. Roads dusty. The country is in verdure and bloom. Farmers are in good spirits and active, seeding for crops.

J. H. Mounts has had a well drilled fifty-one feet through hard-pan. J. Duncan has had a stock well drilled.

Fairview Sabbath school was organized March 3rd; V. P. Rounds, superintendent, Mrs. Rounds, chorister. Each is well fitted for the position assigned.

District school closed the 15th, and at noon of that day an excellent dinner was served in the schoolhouse by the ladies of the district. The afternoon was devoted to recitations, declamations, dialogue, and select reading in concert. The latter was the best feature of the performances given by Misses Davis, Ella Rounds, Messrs. E. M., Wm. and John Case, Misses Hattie Rounds, Sarah Mounts, Ella Mounts, Nellie Chase, Carrie Chase, and Eva Smith. Spelling school in the evening and a pleasant time.

Miss Davis will long be remembered with the kindest feelings by her pupils.

Winfield Courier, March 28, 1878.

Farmers are very active on Crab Creek plowing and planting corn. Wheat looks fine, but needs rain.

I am happy to say that G. Bryan has given up going to California. When we have a good neighbor, we wish to keep him.

Our Sabbath school is going on with success.

If there are any extra preachers about Winfield, send them down here; we need preaching.

I agree with your editorial headed "too many of same name," as far as you went, and would go father. There are three schoolhouses in the county named "Centennial," and two named "Fairview." Your correspondent from the other Fairview appears to be a fine fellow, and I propose to settle the proprietorship of the name on the basis of senior dedication. Ours was dedicated and named in 1873.

Dexter is having a horse race.

Boat Overman's hound got "chawed up" by a wild-cat, but the cat perished after a terrible fight.

There is a lively greenback organization at Fairview. TWEN DYOLF.

Winfield Courier, March 28, 1878.

The silver bill has passed, the bridge bonds carried, and the country is saved. The wheat continues to grow all the same, and the peach trees have donned the full "bloomer" costume.

We are either to have an early spring, or we agree with the Dutchman that even nature "can't most always sometimes tell."

Rev. Platter, of your place, has a fine farm in the edge of Sumner (240 acres) which is nearly all covered with a crop of very promising wheat.

Mr. Reynolds is still very busy arranging his new nursery.

Pruden's ferry is still a complete success, and that is where you want to cross the river.

There has been a very enterprising meeting in progress at Salt City for nearly two weeks. Full house, attentive audiences, and deep interest.

The salt works under the management of Mr. John Oxley, will very soon begin the summer's campaign.

Our old county commissioner, Capt. O. C. Smith, has been very low for several days with pneumonia.

Mr. Berkey is making arrangements to build a residence in Salt City this summer. He has had a good trade during all the hard times. RUDY.

Winfield Courier, March 28, 1878.

FIRST TWO PARAGRAPHS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO READ...

Second paragraph has something about Little Thompson having troubles keeping his cattle out of his neighbor's wheat.

I. W. Edwards is helping the good cause along by putting up a tasteful little stone house 15 x 26 on his farm.

Newton Chaney, the Illinois boy, is very busy plowing hedge rows around his valuable farm.

Ezekiel T. Flint has completed a large stone corral, and respectfully announces to the public that he is now ready to take in any number of cattle for herding purposes. There is a splendid spring branch running through the corral.

Harry Beckley and John Snyder are the champion fishers of the season. They caught thirty-two fine catfish out of Timber Creek in an hour one night, and it wasn't a very good night for fishing either.

The latest thing in the amusement line of Queen Village was an old-fashioned corn- shucking bee and dance, which took place at R. W. Stephens'. The boys shucked about 500 bushels of corn, had a grand supper in the new barn, danced all night, "and went home with the girls in the morning."

John R. Thompson and J. W. Miller start soon for Kansas City with a carload of fat cattle and another of fat hogs. MORE ANON.

[ORDINANCE NO. 77.]

Winfield Courier, March 28, 1878.

An Ordinance Providing for the Construction of Sidewalks.

Be it ordained by the Mayor and Councilmen of the City of Winfield:

SECTION 1. That sidewalks of stone of a uniform width of four feet be constructed in said city, located as follows, to-wit: Commencing at the sidewalk on the northwest corner of block 128; thence east along said block to Millington street; thence south along the west side of said street along blocks 128, 129, and 130 to Twelfth avenue; also commencing at the southeast corner of block 127; thence north along the west side of said Millington street along the east side of lot 18, in block 127, in said city of Winfield.

SECTION 2. That a sidewalk of stone of a uniform width of eight feet be constructed in said city and located on the south side of Ninth Avenue fronting and abutting upon the north side of block number one hundred and twenty-nine (129).

SECTION 3. That said sidewalks shall be constructed of stone commonly called flagstone; and no stone used therein shall be of a less size than 2 feet square nor less than 2 nor more than 6 inches in thickness and shall be so graded and laid as to present a smooth and uniform surface.

SECTION 4. And that unless the said sidewalks be built within 30 days after the taking effect of this ordinance, by the owner or owners of the lots abutting upon said sidewalks, that the same be built by and under the direction and supervision of the city, and that the lots or pieces of ground abutting upon said sidewalks be assessed for the payment thereof according to the front foot abutting upon said sidewalks.

SECTION 5. This ordinance shall be in force and take effect from and after its publication once in the Winfield Courier and Cowley County Telegram.

Approved March 25th, 1878. R. L. WALKER, Mayor.

Attest, HENRY E. ASP, City Clerk.

[PERSONALS.]

Winfield Courier, March 28, 1878.

Miss Francisco, of Arkansas City, is visiting friends in