100 years ago
In traveling around over Kansas we have made a great many comparisons, and learned some things we didn't before know. Among them, we have learned that the hotel business in most Kansas towns is a pretty hard proposition. We could name one of the best towns in the State, where the hotel accommodations are very poor, and yet no hotel man came to accept a bonus of five or even ten thousand dollars to invest in a hotel there. This is but one of many evidences that hotel property, as a rule, is not counted very valuable property in this State. We know another good town where a fine hotel which cost fifty or sixty thousand dollars was recently sold for less than four thousand dollars. We could name a dozen hotels in good Kansas towns which are having a hard time making ends meet. Take the hotel history of Florence and of Peabody, and you will find it has always been a hard matter to make them profitable property. Kansas hotels are like Kansas opera houses, in this respect. We are moved to say these things as a basis for a few words in behalf of our own town hotel — the Elgin. We challenge any town of its size in Kansas to show a finer or more attractive house than the Elgin. The town ought to be proud of it. Mr. and Mrs. Boyd, the owners, have run the house with as little criticism as any one ever did — much less than most of the former proprietors. They deserve the encouragement of the town. One trouble with all of us in these town enterprises is, we are awfully anxious to get institutions established, and then seem to care but little whether or not they are successful after we get them. Fellow citizens, let's rally to the support of the Elgin hotel and make it a greater success!
Newt Smith, of Antelope, denies the recent statement of the RECORD that he was married. The statement was given us by one who affirmed the truth, but Newt says it isn't true, and as he knows, that settles it.
Rev. Mr. Johnson, pastor of the Evangelical church, is trying his hand at editing while Mr. Buschlen, of the Headlight, is away having a good time. Bring on your yellow leg chickens, you Headlight subscribers!
Reports from the wheat fields are coming in. Fred Williams threshed eighteen bushels per acre from one hundred acres, and the insurance companies whacked up considerable for hail devastation, besides.
You will have to travel far and hunt long before you find a town the size of Marion with as good sidewalks on Main street. And you never can find a town of this size with as many well kept lawns — not in Kansas, as least!
Mr. Jerry Forney had a narrow escape from death Tuesday. While crossing the Santa Fe track with his covered ice wagon the vehicle was struck by the passenger train and badly smashed. Mr. Forney was thrown out but fortunately was not seriously hurt.
There was no band concert in the park last Tuesday evening on account of the Uncle Tom show. By the way, the attendance at the weekly concerts is not as large as the merits of the entertainment warrant. Show your appreciation of the band by coming out.
Mrs. Phillips, a widow lady, from Wisconsin, has been here the past week, the guest of Mrs. Shambaugh. Mrs. Phillips was on her way home from California, where she has been visiting for six months. Mrs. Phillips is the daughter of the Mr. Daniels who inherited an estate in Scotland which has realized eight million dollars, and is being divided among twenty-seven heirs. Mrs. Phillips expects to spend next winter on the Pacific coast.
Mr. T.P. Burkert, of Wilson township, has rented a part of his farm to a certain young man for the coming season. Mr. Burkert says he will build a little house for the tenant. And his son John has stacked his oats nearby so the tenant's cow can feed on the straw this winter. Mr. T.P. is as accommodating a gentleman as one would wish, and this certain young man will be fortunate in renting this farm.
Mr. Beebe, the night operator at the Rock Island depot, had a basket of the finest peaches, Tuesday, we believe we ever saw. They came from Texas. Now as Mr. Beebe doesn't care very much for that kind of fruit, we wonder what he did with them.
The hay stacker invented and patented by Mr. R.C. Coble was in operation last Tuesday in Mr. John C. Watson's alfalfa field, just south of town, and we had the opportunity to go down and see how it worked. It certainly is a splendid machine. It does the work for which it was designed without a "hitch." A number of farmers with years of experience, who have used or seen in use all other stackers in the market, were there to see this machine work, and without exception they declared it the finest thing in the line ever made. When we were there three go-devils were kept busy bringing the alfalfa to the stacker, and the stacker did its work and had time to spare
The writer spent Sunday and Monday at the Ottawa Chautauqua. It was a mighty nice place to spend a few days. Blessed are they who can put in the whole ten days there. But beautiful and attractive as is the Ottawa Park, it is not as beautiful and attractive, relatively, as Central Park in Marion. It is much larger, of course, but it lacks many of the advantages of our Park. It is not nearly so well located to the town as is our Park. It lacks the surrounding banks or hill sides, and rustic rocks. It lacks nature's perpetual fountain, the ever-flowing spring of pure, sparkling water which gushes from the hill side in our Park. It is far away from the town, proper, while ours is right in the heart of the town. Relatively, we repeat, it is not to Ottawa what Central Park is to Marion. Nor is it any better adorned, relatively, than ours. Our lily pond is larger and prettier. Our seating far surpasses it. Our flower beds are much more beautiful. Our fountain is as good and our vases far better than theirs. But Ottawa has spent hundreds of dollars on their park where we have spent dollars on ours. They put more than two thousand dollars in some stone and marble pillars in honor of the Twentieth Kansas boys, and as an ornamental gateway to the Park. They have built an open tabernacle which seats five or six thousand people — just a plain board affair. They have also erected several smaller open halls for department gatherings. But nothing they have done, except the soldier memorial, is very expensive. Marion, with its present start, could easily do it all, and have a Chautauqua here every year which would attract great crowds, and be of incalculable benefit to the town, intellectually, socially, morally, and financially.
Compiled by Joan Meyer
from the 1902 microfilm files
of the Marion Record
