The money for this rapid progress was obtained by the sale of both stocks and bonds, but on the whole stock predominated. The directors rightly considered it much more conservative to issue stock and sell it at par than to load the road down with a heavy debt in the shape of bonds; and what is more, they were able to make good their word, and to sell stock at or near par in spite of the risk incident to operations such as the Atchison was conducting and the frequent bonuses or stock dividends declared. By 1884, then, Atchison had reached the Pacific coast. The next great steps were the extensions to Galveston and to Chicago. The year of entrance to Los Angeles the Atchison did not cross the southern boundary of Kansas. Certain of its stockholders were, however, unofficially interested in the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe, which ran from Galveston on the south to the Indian Territory on the north, roughly 200 miles. In 1884 a charter was obtained for the Southern Kansas Railway Company, a corporation organized solely to build south from Arkansas City. The same year the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe obtained permission to stretch north. The two roads met at Purcell in the summer of 1887.[410] In 1886 the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe was formally brought in. Gulf stock then amounted to $4,560,000 and bonds had been issued to a limit of $17,000 per mile. For the entire capital stock, subject to the above encumbrance, Atchison agreed to pay $8000 a mile in Atchison stock, par value.[411] The final move was to get into Chicago. “The Atchison Company has been much too conservative during the last few years,” said the _Chronicle_, “and thus has allowed its territory to be invaded.” The first intent was to build direct. There were incorporated, in Illinois the Chicago, Santa Fe & California Railway Company, and in Iowa the Chicago, Santa Fe & California Railway Company of Iowa. In 1887 the Atchison was able to purchase the Chicago & St. Louis Railroad, between Chicago and Streator, with a branch to Pekin,[412] and to save itself construction between these points. The whole line was opened for traffic in May, 1888.[413]