reminders of "the forest primeval," and certainly their location. is well worthy of all the pains they have bestowed upon its ornamentation. Until the year 1854, when the Kansas-Nebraska act passed into law, this territory was devoted to Indian reservations, upon which no white man could settle without permission expressly given by the red men, and only a few Indian traders and missionaries cared to examine the beauties of the soil, climate and position. When that bill became law there was a rush to possess the country, Missouri and the south on the one part, demanding the territory whereon to erect a slave state, the Missouri compromise having been repealed, and the eastern and middle states for the other part contending, irrespective of abolition sentiment, that Kansas should be admitted to the union as a free state only. A colony from the free state settlement at Lawrence first settled Topeka, in 1854, and an offshoot of a place pronounced "Pestiferous," by the proslavery party was naturally inclined in the same direction. From the first moment the Topeka men looked to empire as their destiny, and their expectations have been fully realized. The state house, built of magesian limestone, is the most beautiful object in the charming city, and the money expended in its erection has been very well bestowed. There is no building of its kind in the west with which the capitol at Topeka may not compare advantageously. The wants of the state for many years to come will find ample accommodation in its fair proportions, and it seems to have especial loveliness in the fact that it crowns the triumph of right principles which attained victory through manful and heroic efforts. The city rises gradually from the river, and is well drained, the roads being graded specially to secure that end. Lincoln College, one of the leading educational institutions of the state, will hand down to a remote and grateful posterity, the name of a truly great man, and assist to develop in successive generations, wealth of mind, the highest form, and the most enduring which can be assumed by riches. The Episcopal church has established here a college, known as the Topeka Female Institute, which is very highly valued and much availed of, irrespective of the religious views favored by the founders, as with the exception of only a few bigots, the men and women of to-day would not send their oppo

nents to Tophet for opinion sake, nor neglect the opportunity for intellectual and moral growth, because they cannot swallow a particular dogma. The value of manhood and effort is being read in the spirit of that catholic line written by Alexander Pope:

"He can't be wrong, whose life is in the right."

The United States land office is located in Topeka, and there are many important mills and manufactories, which exercise an important influence in the development of the city. Foundries, railroad machine shops and flouring mills are among the principal industries, but there are hundreds of profitable avocations which are building up the wealth of this prosperous commercial center. There is a large inland trade conducted here, and the fine qualities of the agricultural land in Kansas, much in advance of the average of fertile regions throughout the union, bring vast quantities of produce to Topeka for shipment. Coal and choice building stone, with deposits of kaolin and gypsum, are items in the wealth producing exports of this city and the surrounding country. The railroad lines which serve the city and district are the Kansas Pacific, and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, by which the other side of the continent is made conducive to the prosperity of Kansas. The Santa Fe trade is a very large item in the aggregate of business. As we have seen the first settlement was made in the year 1854, and when the free state battle had been won in 1860, the census revealed a population of only 750 in the city just resting from its labors. The census of 1870 showed a seven fold increase within ten years, the numbers then being 5,790, and at the present time there cannot be less than ten thousand souls in Topeka. There are numerous churches in the city, some. of them beautiful, and the practical exemplifications of Christianity afforded by their pastors during the great struggle have endeared congregations and ministers to each other. The school system is good and well sustained, and there are eight newspapers in the city, all bearing evidence of mental labor and devotion to the interests of the commonwealth.

LEAVENWORTH was a fort long before the country in which it stands was thrown open for settlement, and when the territory was

first organized a portion of the military quarters was allotted for the use of the governor, Hon. A. H. Reeder. This city, or rather this fort, for at the time it was a fort only, was the base of supply from which the forces marched into Mexico during the Polk administration, and the traders bound for Santa Fe whose caravans often numbered quite an army, devoted to commerce, found at this point a good bye and a welcome. The first band of emigrants that passed over the Rocky Mountains into Oregon had many friends in Fort Leavenworth, and Mormons and gold finders, who in succession passed over the so called "Great American Desert," could recall the civilities and aids which for the sake of humanity they had in many instances found at the fort. When the Nebraska-Kansas act came into operation and the tide of settlement began to flow this way, the commandant and officers of the fort laid out a town, on what was practically an Indian reservation as well as a military reserve, and the irregularity was not fatal to their enterprise; although a similar movement by the officers at Fort Scott, when the city of Pawnee was founded, was treated as a gross infraction of right, and the settlement was destroyed by a thousand dragoons, brought from Texas for that especial work. The site was well chosen for a fort in the first place, and as a city afterwards, as there is a natural levee of rock which forms the bank of the river Missouri at this point, and along the whole of the city front, and the surrounding country, now one of the best settled regions in the state, is remarkably fertile and productive. This region was travelled over by the French, and also by Spanish troops, long before there was any prospect of civilization, invading and possessing the land, and at several times within this century there were expeditions over the ground and the river, as well as trading ventures which kept alive the interest of all classes in the locality, but there were comparatively few persons in the eastern and middle states who knew that the country, described in the maps as a desert, was generally the most fertile area on the continent, and could easily be made one of the best watered, without further hydraulic works than tree planting. When Mr. Reeder came to Leavenworth to inaugurate civil government, he found the people about Fort Leavenworth mostly Missourians in their instincts, and they,

knowing that he was a democrat, who had been appointed to office by their friend, president Pierce, concluded that they could run the government, using the Pennsylvania appointee as their stalking horse merely. The governor could not be used in that way, and in consequence he was very badly abused by his obtrusive friends, who assaulted him in his office, threatened him with assassination, and eventually procured his removal from the territorial dignity on a trumped up charge of irregularities. The character of Leavenworth is now very much changed for the better, and it ranks deservingly as the first city in the state. The county seat of Leavenworth is located in the city and the county buildings are noticeable for their neatness. The railroads which serve the city and county are, the Kansas Pacific, the Leavenworth, Atchison and Northwestern, and the Chicago and Southwestern. The distance from this point to Kansas City, Missouri, is just thirty-nine miles. The quantity of shipping effected here by the railroads and by steamers on the river, is very great indeed, and must go on increasing for many years, as the mineral qualities of the soil cannot readily be exhausted, and the intelligence of the agricultural population in Kansas cannot be satisfied with less than the highest degree of success. The old fame of the fort as a base of supplies stands the city in good stead, and large areas of the west depend upon shipments of all kinds from this commercial metropolis. The schools of Leavenworth are famous for exceptional excellence, being graded in a manner calculated to procure the best results from teachers and pupils, and in every respect well managed by an efficient board. Besides the public schools which are located in excellent buildings, there are numerous private schools which are deserving of note, two commercial colleges, and a female seminary from which some of the brightest ornaments of the west have received their highest polish. There is also a medical college in Leaven worth, which reckons among its professors the best talent procur able in the west, for the work that is here undertaken. There is a fine theatre here, but the population is not large enough to maintain a dramatic company regularly, and the citizens are amply served with amusements by occasional visitors. The regular settlement of Leavenworth only dates from 1854, but in the

year 1860, there were 7,429 persons living in the city, and during the next decade that number increased to 17,873; the present population is probably little short of twenty-five thousand. The city carries on a very prosperous trade on the Mississippi, as well as on the Missouri river, and there is almost an illimitable field. for further growth. The city has flouring mills, saw mills, lumber yards, brick yards, breweries, a machine shop, and iron furnaces. Very good samples of brown hematite ore have been found in the territory, but although coal is quite abundant, the location of iron smelting works has not yet been thought advisable. Old lead workings have also been found, but the mineral has not been obtained in quantities to pay for working.

The churches of Leavenworth are very noticeable features, as well for their beauty of design in many cases as for the more valuable adornment which makes the pulpit and reading desk the cynosure of all eyes. Many of the preachers in Leavenworth would be still more highly valued by the larger populations farther east, but they seem to have cast in their lot with the territory, and as Horace Greeley used to advise young men, to be content to "grow up with the place." The city is not narrow and bigoted, but the wide philanthropic spirit which pervades the sects and churches here gives to the clergy a very excellent opening for their exertions, and, as a rule, the opportunity is well improved. There is a mercantile library in Leavenworth, and, of course, it is not exclusively mercantile. The realms of fiction. and philosophy, the domains of history and science, the choicest spoils from the literature of the world can be found on the spacious book shelves of this excellent retreat, redolent of Russia leather and the still better aroma of the treasured knowledge of the world. A man, desirous to enjoy life wisely and well, could hardly find a more likely location than the city of Leavenworth, where the river and the railroads offer him facilities for business. and pleasure, where the vast stores of books are open to cultivate his literary proclivities, where the hygienic conditions could hardly be improved, where the churches develop his æsthetic nature, the theatre and halls offer him amusement, and the general tone of society is such as to forbid the possibility of his recalling that twenty years ago this site was often the scene of such