The propitious beginning that Atchison had as a commercial and transportation center should have made the town one of the largest and most important railroad terminals in the West. That was the hope and aspiration of its original founders, and for many years afterwards it was a cherished idea. But Kansas City was subsequently selected as the point of vantage, and the builders of this great western empire have since centralized their activities at the mouth of the “Kaw,” and it is there that the metropolis of the West will be built. However, a marvelous development has taken place here since the day of the Holladay and Butterfield stage lines and slow-moving ox and mule trains across the plains. We no longer marvel at the volume of trade and freight tonnage and the multitude of travelers that pass through Atchison every year. We take these things as a matter of course, and make no note of the daily arrival and departure of the fifty-six passenger trains at our union depot every day; we marvel not at the speed and the ease and comfort with which we can make the trip to St. Louis or Chicago, over night, or to Denver in less than twenty-four hours, or to New York in two and one-half days, and to San Francisco in less than five, surrounded by every luxury money can buy. We have accustomed ourselves to these marvels, just as we have learned to make use of the telephone and the telegraph, and a little later on will begin to use the air ship and the wireless. Nature has a way of easily adjusting mankind to these changed conditions. CHAPTER XII. REMINISCENCES OF EARLY PIONEERS. D. R. ATCHISON—MATT GERBER—J. H. TALBOTT—WILLIAM OSBORNE—JOHN W. CAIN— W. L. CHALLISS—GEORGE SCARBOROUGH—SAMUEL HOLLISTER—JOHN TAYLOR— JOHN M. CROWELL—LUTHER DICKERSON—LUTHER C. CHALLISS—GEORGE W. GLICK—W. K. GRIMES—JOSHUA WHEELER—WILLIAM HETHERINGTON—WILLIAM C. SMITH—JOHN M. PRICE—SAMUEL C. KING—CLEM ROHR—R. H. WEIGHTMAN—CASE OF MAJOR WEIGHTMAN.