pew for citizens of Kansas had been secured forever in the Metropolitan M. E. Church, in Washington, D. C.

The largest individual land owner in Kansas is said to be Mr. James P. Pomeroy, of Atchison, who owns 60,000 acres. 282. Explosion Near Fort Scott.-An explosion on the 25th of January, on a Missouri Pacific train near Fort Scott, caused probably the loudest and most frightful noise ever known in Kansas. Two hundred cases of giant powder exploded at a single blast. But one man, a brakeman, was killed, but houses were shaken throughout Bourbon county, window panes were broken in Nevada, Mo., twenty-five miles distant, and $10,000 worth of plate and other glass was destroyed in Fort Scott.

283. Remarkable Fossil Discovery.-Mr. S. S. Hand sent to Chancellor Snow, of the State University, a fossil fish, found in Hamilton county, and Professor Snow wrote: "My view about your fine fish is, that it lived and died when what is now Hamilton county, Kan., more than 3,000 feet above the present sea level, was under the salt water ocean. Remains of fishes, sharks and great sea monsters are found abundantly in the rocks of Western Kansas, especially along the banks of the Smoky Hill river and its branches. In fact, the ocean covered the entire western portion of the United States. The Rocky Mountains were not upheaved when your fish lived and died."

Kansas is an attractive field for the labors of the paleontologist, especially in the Niobrara formation in Rooks, Ellis and Trego counties. Of the thirteen fossilized birds of the North American continent and Europe, catalogued. in 1873, seven species were found in Kansas. Of saurians, or lizards, thirty-one are found in the small strip of the

Niobrara in Kansas to four in all of Europe. In the ocean which covered what is now Kansas, sharks swam numerously, as many as three hundred of their teeth having been found in a space of thirty inches square. The fossil beds of Kansas have been intelligently and diligently searched for many years, and invaluable specimens have been preserved in the collections of the State University and other Kansas institutions of learning, and of Yale University, where they have attracted the attention of the scientists of the world.

SUMMARY.

1. Governor Martin advised the repeal of laws authorizing the creation of municipal indebtedness.

2. In 1887 the "Kansas Boom" was at its highest.

3. Snow Hall was built, the State Reformatory was completed, new buildings were added to the Deaf and Dumb Asylum and the Imbecile Asylum; State Capitol remodeled.

4. Large number of colleges established and 812 schoolhouses were built.

5. On February 14, 1888, the municipal suffrage bill became a law. 6. Two amendments to the Constitution were submitted.

7. The center of population was announced to be in Marion county.

CHAPTER XXVII.

A PROSPEROUS YEAR.

284. Recovery.-The year 1888 was a year of recovery, in an agricultural sense, from the disasters of 1887, a year of drought in Kansas and throughout the Western States. These periods of recovery have often been noticed in Kansas history. The "bad years" in the first thirty years of Kansas, viz., 1860, 1868, 1870, 1874, and 1887 were followed by seasons of uncommon fruitfulness.

285. Mexican Pilgrimage.-The passage through the State, by rail, of a party of 250 Mexican people on a pilgrimage to Rome, was a reminder of the changed order of travel and transportation. Such pilgrimages had not been unknown in Mexico before, but had been undertaken entirely by sea from Mexican ports. These pilgrims recognized the opening of a great continental route through the United States via Kansas, eating, drinking, sleeping, and assembling in the cars for their devotions as they journeyed.

286. Disappearance of the Buffalo.-It was announced that the last buffalo remaining in Kansas was sold by Mr. C. J. Jones to a party in New York, and was to leave the State. The event created but a sentimental regret. The disappearance of the buffalo, which existed in Kansas in such numbers, even after the settlement of the State had begun, as to delay the passage of railroad trains, was regarded like the vanishing of the Indian, as inevitable and

not to be deplored. The buffalo served a purpose in earliest days by furnishing his meat, hide and bones for the temporary uses of the pioneer, but the latter found no difficulty in subsisting without them after the supply was withdrawn. Much more of a loss than the buffalo himself was that of the buffalo grass, which formed the pasturage of countless thousands of these animals both winter and summer. This began to give way to a coarser and less nutritious herbage with the disappearance of the tramping herds. On the other hand, it was claimed by competent observers that the earth became more absorptive of moisture and responsive to cultivation. The disappearance of the buffalo wallow, the prairie dog town, and the botanic family of the cacti, marked the surrender of the land to fertility and civilization.

287. Death of Judge Samuel D. Lecompte.—In April, 1888, died in Kansas City, Mo., Judge Samuel D. Lecompte, first Chief Justice of Kansas Territory, appointed by President Pierce, in 1854. Judge Lecompte's name was prominent in the angry discussions of that troubled time, yet he lived in peace in Kansas for many years afterward, in the midst of the quieted disputants, and died at the age of seventy-four.

288. Thomas Carney.-On the 30th of July, Thomas Carney, second Governor of Kansas, and the first to fall out of the line of Kansas chief magistrates, was buried in honor at his long-time home, Leavenworth. Governor Carney was born in Delaware county, Ohio, August 20, 1827. He came to Leavenworth in 1858 and became immediately engaged in extensive mercantile business. He was elected Governor in 1862, in the midst of the Civil War, and was one of the Kansas "War Governors." At a critical

period in the financial history of the State he pledged his private fortune to preserve the public credit.

289. Stevens County Difficulties.-In July, 1888, Governor Martin issued his proclamation organizing the county of Greeley, with Tribune as the county seat. This completed the organization of Kansas counties, 106 in all. Subsequently, the county of Garfield was attached to Finney county, and the number reduced to 105.

In the last days of July, information reached Topeka that the troubles in Stevens county had again broken out in an aggravated form. Brigadier-General Myers and AttorneyGeneral Bradford were sent to the county and learned that Sheriff Cross, of Stevens county, and a party of four men belonging to the Woodsdale faction, had gone over into the section known as No-Man's Land, and coming to the camp of some parties making hay, had asked permission to lie down and sleep. While thus reposing, they were surprised by a party of fourteen men from Hugoton-Woodsdale and Hugoton being rival towns-and Sheriff Cross and three of his men were killed and a fourth wounded.

290. Militia to Preserve Order.-The county was found in a State of great excitement, and the Second Regiment of Kansas militia was ordered to the county to preserve order.

Six men were arrested at Hugoton by the United States Marshal, who accompanied the troops, on complaint of Samuel N. Wood, and arraigned before the United States Commissioner, at Topeka, and released on bail. It was decided that No-Man's Land was not within the jurisdiction of Kansas, and they were subsequently brought to trial at Paris, Tex.