[From the introduction:]

Wyoming.

The whole land is old. People, plants, animals, of strange appearance and size lived here when the world was new. They died. Long the land lay desolate. Centuries passed. Then came bold heroes of a strange white color, the latest of the many tribes who had crawled over its wrinkled face. They came with noise, with rhythmic shouts and yells, with the sharp talk of strange instruments that breathed smoke and fire. They ran to and fro. They hunted to death the wild men who had come to the land ages upon ages after the first strange days. They killed, in the vigor of their keen enjoyment, the shaggy beasts that covered the plains even like great swarms of bees. They dug up the ground. They dug great ditches. Their fat kine and their wool-covered beasts everywhere sur-mounted the low hills and plains and ran in the valleys, and the white men waxed fat. But ever they were filled with unrest and ran to and fro. They found vast wealth in the land and in their labors; but ever they continued to run to and fro; and, to this day, they are disquieted, seeking more gain, seeking more wealth; ever running to and fro. And the fame of this land hath encircled the earth.

JOHN PRATLEY

The able county treasurer of Carbon county, Wyoming, was born in Richmond, Indiana, on March 9, 1859, and is now just in the prime of life. His father, Thomas Pratley, was a native of London, England, and came to the United States when a young man and first located in Philadelphia, but removed to Kansas in 1870, and here he passed the remainder of his life, dying in 1873, his remains being interred at McLouth, Jefferson county. The mother of John Pratley was born in Philadelphia, Pa., and bore the maiden name of Delia Smith, she was reared and married in her native city, and is now living in McLouth county at the age of sixty-three years. John Pratley was but a lad when his parents removed to the West. The limited educational advantages of Jefferson County, Kan., a new country, was his only means of acquiring learning. When about twenty years of age he undertook the management of his own affairs, and came as Far West as Colorado and Wyoming. He was employed chiefly as clerk for various business firms, until 1900 and being a good mathematician and an accountant of superior merit, as well as a stalwart Republican, he attracted the attention of his party who elected him county treasurer of Carbon county, and this is a choice no one has ever had cause to regret. Mr. Pratley united in marriage about 1887 with Miss Cora R. Batsell, a native of Kansas and a daughter of Dr. J. C. Batsell, and eminent physician of Effingham, Kan., but notwithstanding this lady's congenial disposition and happy married felicity, she has as yet borne to her husband no children. The energy, ability and practical knowledge of affairs that Mr. Pratley, has exhibited since he has resided in Wyoming are a guarantee that the time is not very far distant when his influence will be felt for good throughout not only the immediate community in which he has his being but in remoter parts of the county and state, and the general public will appreciate even more forcibly than at present the value of his services.