The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1866-10-12
] be Waff 9th
mB. y TAYLOR

=, !
taking its story and its promise, man ought
to be proud to live anywhere 10 Iowa.
little while ago-hardly longer than an
aloe is getting ready to blossom-thfre was q
splendid wilderness Of more than ffty thou
sand square miles, lying between the two
great rivers Of the continent II had magni.
fcent woods that stood up grandly before the
Lord. II had glorious rivers that flowed on
idly to the sea. Ii had prairies that undus
lated AWAY, dotted with great island groves,
and spaugled with jessamines, roses and vio-
lets. 1t mad valleys lair as the valleys OF
Sharon. 1t WAS q part of Louisiana, within
the domains of New France. and was laid
down very dimly upon Any map. 1t was not
n state. 1t was not territory, but just part
of Gods uninbabited globe waiting for the
coming men. Ninety years ago there was
not white man in all It's empire. In l54l
DeScto discovered ii. In 1913, a man who
could not speak the English tongue, padded
along a. river now called Des Moines-I
crossed il an hour ago-and saw footsteps in
tile sand upon The shore, aud slender trail
drawn across the wilderness, as If to score it
out from the open book of civilization. He
followed 1T and found red mans village.
And 50 this empire was re discovered. That
man Was lSlaEquelte. A
Aboa, The last year of the seventeenth CEN
was born third tune upon human vision,
and has never gone out OF sight. Seventy
eight years ago, the most gracious CsstiGan
granted TO Julian Dubuque "the mines of
SPAN, aud strangely enough, they lay in the
wilderness clasped by the two great rivers
and few pioneers borrowed ike gophers in
the mines of Spain.
And they handed this domain about the
mighty sisterAood, much as an admirable IL
FAINT about a household. Louisiana passed it
to Michigan Territory, and she took care of
il three years. She reared IL into two coun>
ties, each with one township in it. That was
thirtv.two years ago. 1t was too poor to be
named, and Wisconsin took the motherless
child and gave it few laws of her own 10
use. for the lack of better. 1t WAS the Black
Hawk purchase. In 1888 II was born Ter.
ritary, and twenty eight yearsago last Fourth
of July il was formally christened Iowa
Iowa the Drowsy some say, but not So A
band ofIndians seeking home beheld it aud
loved il and cried out 'iowaii s'lowa -
this is the placel And what splendid re-
gien All the planet between the Missis
sippi and the Missouri, north to the British
possessions 900 square miles. And
there it was, fresh from the moccasined foot
OF the Sacs and Foxes. At length, about the
last days of December, 16, an audible knock
from hereaway was heard at the Federal
door. Iowa stood upon the threshold, was
admitted and became Sovereign State.
| took up q Gazetteer the other day. true a
few summers age as the books of Moses. 10
lind whittier / was going, and read in types
very small and very contempinous:
''lowA: Boauded on the North by the
British Territory oil the Hudson Bay Cempa>
ny Thelndian title is not extnguished
learned, too, that Iowa had eighteen
counties; that three hundred aud fifty five
souls were engaged in commerce throughout
this empire; that I5i,o00 bushels Of wheat
had been growing at one time within its bord
ers, aud 2O.OO0 cows came home to the milk
ing ! looked for Clinton County, and /
found it, but no accidental dot upon the map
betrayed the existence Of one Of the towns
aud cities now strung like jewels along the
Iowa Division Of the Chicago ana Northwest
em railroad, aud fang like a necklace
across The State.
am crossing this empire to-day; have
looked upon few faces OF It's rs, 900 souls
have heard the rustic of is million vi acres !
Of growing corn have seen liz pastures
fiocked with million and half Of sheep /
! namher It's two and half millions oil swian /
and Its million cattle, whose delegations have /
gone Squeezing aud lowing across the conti> |
nent 70 the Atlantic sea-board nj the rate OF
twenty miles an hour; ! think of It's two /
hundred thousand acres OF meadow ripping (
in ,At suns It's i've millions Of broad acres
under the piow; its twelve and I. halt million /
bushels OF wheat lis fifty million bushels Of
corn: lis herd of three hundred and ten
thoasslnd cows coming home 10 the milking /
is daughters. wao made last year. amost
ftcep million pounds # butter-euough to {
lubacste she ;xics OF time-and millions 4
pounds ui cheese. ! count its seven hun
dred 4ud Fifty churches its ior,y colleges, 4
crawning ts heights like fair young queens
upon their tHtuncs; its seven thousand /
schools, aud their three hundred aud twenty>
i've thousand candidates for the kingdom Of
Heaven. treasure its hundred and twenty
thousand homes and glory in the Wilderness /
of Louisiana, this Hack Hawk purchase.
Ills sovereign state, white and aiintter, ike
4 snowy Gay. with a newspaper circulation OF
ten millions of copies. Aud so Iowa keeps /
magnificent step 10 the march OF empire /
And SO began with, "a man ought to he
proud to live anywhere in Iowa
But she has done more and more grandly,
for She has changed that step, and there in
the tore front has Kept time 70 the music of
Iui.n. Uui Of the breathing wilderness OF
ninety years ago. eighty foui thousand and /
seycnteen-i liuger lovingly on the numbers
-eighsy- four thousand and seventeen BOYS
iii sue have sweled the Federal legions
There has been precisely time enough since
1910 10 grow one man TO prime, snd in that I
year OF grace there were not SO many human
beings IN all the State BY more than forty |
thousand She had forty three thousand /
men, women and children. all told, in 1S40
and seventy ole soldiers in the army. Four
batteries have spoken for her: eleven req /
ments of cavalry have heard the bugles and !
Numbered to the charge; sixty regiments of
infantry have closed up the solid front, and /
fifteen thousand fallen. And what heroes .
they were. and how splendid the record they
have made for Iowa, Liberty and God How !
rich the meaning they have lent the legend /
Of their coat of arms :. Our ,
liberties We prize-our rights we will main
tain The grand staple of Iowa never
took root in her soil--aEs. | cannot forget
that when the call was made in December, |
1864, fors200, 900 men, there were l2,0s0
men 10 spare over all calls; that no such 1
thing as a conscript ever hailed from Iowa, |
that il raised splendid harvest OF soldiers, !
and they were all volunteers. OF truth, !
those simines Of Spain they told of are |
emblemactie of the State: they have lead |
enough in their mines TO persuade creation
TO be loyal-they hsye the lead and they al |
most take the lead.
But all these things have gone into histo-
nv . they could never be evolved III trip to
Nebraska they do not belong in wayside
letter at all. and yet. sitting here on the
bank OF the Missouri, and thinking over the
way have come-across the Fox and Rock
rivers; across the Mississippi; across the
Cedar, the Sioux, the Iowa, the Des Moines
across two States thinking of the two days
/ ratified on by raii-Chicago and Northwest
ern ell the time oil being dropped helpless
ly at the present terminus of the road. two
hundred and iiity-nine miles west ofthe Mis-
sissippi, aud three hundred and ninety seven
from Chicago, to lind my way, as best |
could, one hundred aud twenty more to the
Missouri; Of the splendid wilderness you
traverse the uutenced, unplowed, Gnparall-
elel world whose disc YOU move over; all
day to day and not house; all day tomor
row and the next. aud not an engine in hear
ing. to whistle civilization up thinking over
all this, you viii almost wonder, as | did.
how all that glorious thunder of battle could
have broke out of the clear sky of Iowa
whence came the wealth OF flock, herd, bar
vest and hest that give the State place
among the powers OF the Northwest ; puts