and People's parties, and Kansas cast her electoral vote for Bryan and Sewall, and the following Populist State and Congressional tickets were triumphant:

John W. Leedy, Governor; A. M. Harvey, LieutenantGovernor; W. E. Bush, Secretary of State; D. H. Hefflebower, Treasurer; L. C. Boyle, Attor

ney-General; W. H. Morris, Auditor; Frank Doster, Chief Justice; William Stryker, Superintendent of Public Instruction; Congressman-at-Large, Rev. J. D. Botkin.

The Congressmen elected were: First District, Case Broderick, and Fourth, Charles Curtis, Republicans; Second, Mason S. Peters; Third, E. R. Ridgely; Fifth, W. D. Vincent; Seventh, Jerry Simpson, Populists; Sixth, N. B. McCormick, Democratic.

The Bryan electors received 171,810 votes; McKinley, 159,541; Palmer, 1,209; Levering, 1,921; the vote for Governor stood, Leedy, Democrat-Populist, 168,041; Morrill, Republican, 160,530; Hurley, Prohibition, 2,347; Kepford, Independent-Prohibition, 703; Douthard, National Prohibition, 752.

421. Natural Gas at Iola.-In the matter of resources the chief development in Kansas was in the line of natural gas; the Iola gas field coming into line with the Neodesha oil field. Natural gas was first discovered at Iola in boring for coal to a great depth in 1871. Fifteen years later came the discovery of the gas fields of Indiana and Ohio, and the grand results which these States achieved in building up manufacturing centers, proved the incentive by which the

people of Iola were induced to make efforts to test the prospects shown in the "Acers well."

Near the end of 1895, the first great natural gas well was opened. The gas rushed upward with a roar as if a hundred locomotives were letting off steam at once. The gas territory has since developed over an area of some eighty square miles. Great flows have been struck at LaHarpe and Gas City. Twenty-nine wells have been drilled which furnish fuel for zinc smelters, many manufactories, and fuel and light for the city of Iola.

When Thomas Watson, the middle-of-the-road Populist candidate for Vice-President, visited Iola in September, 1896, ten million cubic feet of gas were consumed in honor of the event.

422. Severe Storms.-The State was visited by severe cyclones, costing several lives. The most fatal in their effect were those at Clifton in April, and Seneca in May. The month of May again seemed the month most subject to these storms.

423. George T. Anthony.-George T. Anthony died at Topeka, on the night of August 5, 1896. He was born in Fulton county, N. Y., in 1824, belonging to a family famous in the history of political and social progress. He came to Kansas after the close of the Civil War, in which he served as a captain of artillery. It was in Kansas that he entered upon a public career. He is said to have made his first public speech after he was forty years old. In Kansas he was almost continuously entrusted with official responsibilities. He was United States Collector, President of the State Board of Agriculture, in which capacity he contributed to the success of the State at the Centennial Exhibition at

Philadelphia, and in connection with George A. Crawford and Alfred Gray, compiled the third annual report of that Board, said by competent authority at the time, to be the finest agricultural report ever published in the world. He was elected Governor of Kansas in 1876, serving in 1877-79. He was afterwards Railroad Commissioner, and at the time of his death was State Insurance Commissioner. His funeral occurred in the State Senate Chamber at Topeka. seventy-two years.

He lived

SUMMARY.

1. Kansas stands for prohibition.

2. John L. Waller was released from a French prison by the efforts of his fellow citizens of Kansas.

3. On May 30th a monument was unveiled at Topeka, in memory of the men of the Second Kansas militia, who were killed at the battle of the Blue.

4. Judge Thacher and Professor Robinson died in Lawrence. 5. Lucien Baker was elected United States Senator in 1895.

6. Among the Legislative acts were the establishment of an Appellate Court, a commission on irrigation, with an appropriation of $30,000 for experiments; aid to Western settlers; resolution to place statue of John Brown in Capitol at Washington.

7. The year 1896, a presidential year, was largely given up to politics.

8. Kansas cast her electoral vote for Bryan and Sewall. John W. Leedy was elected Governor, and Rev. J. D. Botkin, Congressman-at-Large.

9. George T. Anthony, ex-Governor, died at the age of 72 years, at Topeka, August 5, 1896.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

THE YEARS 1897 AND 1898.

424. Legislative Session.-The Legislative session of 1897 lasted sixty-seven days, being the longest on record in Kansas.

January 26th, the joint session of the Legislature elected Honorable Wm. A. Harris United States Senator. Mr. Harris had previously served in the House of Representatives. J. S. Parks was elected State Printer.

The Legislature repealed the Act which established the State Board of Irrigation, and consolidated the duties assigned it to an officer styled the Commissioner of Irrigation and Forestry.

425. Accomplishments of Board of Irrigation.— The Board, during its existence of two years, instituted an extensive series of experiments, mostly in the western portion of the State, boring thirteen wells to different depths, and testing various pumps and motive powers. The wells were sunk at likely and unlikely places to find water, in the low grounds and on the high plateaus, and in the sand hills. One result of the operations conducted under the patronage of the State was to encourage the efforts of private parties. In the county of Sherman 150 reservoirs for irrigating purposes were constructed in the year 1895. Both northwestern and southwestern Kansas were included in the State's experiments, and a great stimulus was given the cause of irrigation in those sections.

426. First Successful Irrigator.—In histories of irrigation in Kansas the credit of being the first successful irrigator is usually accorded a settler named George Allman, who, in 1873, near Fort Wallace, constructed a ditch about a mile long, taking water from the Smoky Hill river. He succeeded in raising garden vegetables in plenty, which he sold at Fort Wallace. Since his time there have been thousands of irrigating plants established by individuals, corporations and the State. The Arkansas has been the stream most drawn upon for water, and the town of Garden City, which derived its name from the irrigation gardens early established in its neighborhood, has become the center of the largest and most compact body of irrigated country. Kansas possesses an irrigation law modeled on that of Colorado. The appearance and even the climate of Kansas it is believed is to be greatly changed by irrigation.

The search for an underground supply of water for domestic and irrigating purposes has resulted in the discovery in central Kansas of what seems a subterranean river, with a slow but defined flow in a certain direction, and apparently exhaustless in quantity.

427. Agricultural Reports. The carefully collated and very conservative statistics collected by the Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture, showed that the farm products of Kansas for the years 1897-98 amounted in value to $288,259,056; which was a gain of $43,506,301, or nearly eighteen per cent over the preceding biennial period. The reports show an increase in the value of farm products in Kansas Kansas for every biennial period from 1877-78 forward, except for 1885-86, and 1893-94. In