The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1876-11-11
LETTER FROM KANSAS.
Fr. SCOTT, Kansas, Nov. 1st, 1916

utensils, and all things necessary for a
complete camping and hunting outfit. We
went west from this city about 15C
miles, and "pitched our tents " on beau
tful spot on the banks of the Neasho river.
1t was certainly the most charming place
ever saw You know that sometimes in
life we chance upon some rare, noble friend,
whose rich gifts of mind and heart sur
prise even as they charm us: surprise, in
that the world has never learned to prize
them Alright: SO in localities it sometimes
chances that our feet may stray to some
nook of beauty the world knows not of,
and with little of the enthusiasm of the
discoveIer, we wonder and enjoy.
There is no doubt but camp life is the
great restorer of health to physically de-
moralized men and women. Didn't the
Lord start Adam and Eve out in life in
this way, aud didn't they get along finely
until they began fooling with apples and
snakes? Doctor Holmes says, in view of
our Inherited characteristics, live people
are only dead people warmed over. -
However many times we may have been
warmed over" since our monkeyhood
days, and however well civilized we may
boast OF being, yet there is enough OF the
savage iii the composition of nearly all OF
US to find a relish, a sense of keen enjoy
among the mountains of our far Western
country. There is the fine, bracing air.
the wild, free life, the keen relish of exist
ence which must be experienced to be APP
preciated, and which is found no where
else. The very horse you ride becomes a
companion you learn to love-if he isn't a
baking mustang, but a good Christian
horse, and as you 60 racing along, the
eXhllerating exercise, the broad views of
plains and far-reaching mountains all tend
to impress you with the truth of Emerson 5
assertion that amounted on a good horse
and alone, man is as far above the world as
corporeal things can place him Then
there is the luxury of returning health,
free circulation, good digestion, and once
more possessing an appetite which enables
one 10 calmly contemplate mule steak, if
necessary. You begin to wonder how a
dyspeptic can be a Christian, or get to
heaven at all, and whether it is not true
that the stomach is the seat of the soul,
for it is the president of pleasure and dis
gust"
The Summer climate of Southwestern
Kansas is, of course, warm enough for all,
except socially wicked people: but every
where upon the prairies or elevated plains
the dryneSS of the air and the almost con-
slant delightful Southern breeze not only
renders the heat tolerable, but the climate
very attractive. The depressing days and
Sitting nights common in the East during
the Summer are almost unknown in South
cool wherever one can get Southern
breeze. Here, and more particularly in
the hilly region further West, they are
simply delightful. No noxious vapors take
marsh or low land and instill their poison
into the system, and no mosquitoes sing 4
requiem over murdered sleep. The invalid
who is not too much Of an invalid for out
door exercise, or one worn down almost to
the verge Of chronic disease by overwork
and the many foolish habits of life common
to our bua>ted civilization, could scarcely
find a more favorable cline or better pro
mise for restored health than is afforded by
camp life i'll Southern Kansas or the Indian
Territory.
After about ten days of delightful and
successful hunting and fishing, we folded
our tents like the Arabs and quietly stole
away TO Meas no Falls, a pretty little town
situate on the line of the NJ, X. & I. rail
road in the great Neasho Valley of Kansas.
Here one of our party and your cores
pondent took the cars for Cawker City,
Kansas. My object in visiting this point
was to see the Great Spirit Spring, situated
near that place, and which has been the
subject Of more letters and editorials than
any other natural curiosity in the State of
Kansas. The spring is located just east of
the city, on mound some thirty feet in
height. the base of which will cover an
acre of ground. In years gone by, the
Indians of the plains assembled there peri
the waters OF the spring, which then, as
now, contained wonderful medical proper
ties. An old tradition has it that on the
summit of this mound, and on the very
edge of the Spring, which is twenty feet in
diameter and twice as deep, once occurred
the bloodicst haud-to- hand encounter be-
tween two Indian lovers that the savage or
enlightened eye ever beheld. The hand of
tine beautiful Indian Princess, Wahcondah,
was sought by Two braves, and while the
lovely dark-eyed maiden permitted her
affections to go toward the younger, her
stern parent desired her to wed the elder
One beautiful Spring morning, as the
sun peered over the far-distant bluffs, it
beheld the gentle Kansas zyphers toying
with the lovely maidens hair, making it
tumble and simmer about her rose col ored
neck like golden fish in net struggling to
be free, while she, all unconscious of her
beauty, was listening in virgin bashfulness
to the vows of her favorite. The elder
lover approaches the spring to bring his
morning sacrifice, when the scene met his
gaze. The eyes of the braves met, and
they resolved at once to kill each other
we'll knowing that neither father nor
daughter would consent to a wedding
with a dead one. With true Indian stoi
csm, Wahconday silently embroidered a
new brse,h clou while the lovers desper-
ately fought for her hand. At last, rs the
end was drawing near, and the battle
seemed likely to terminate in the triumph
of Wahcondah's favorite, by an uulucky
mister, both were plunged into the spring,
and too weak from loss of blood and con-
tnued exertion, sank to rise no more this
side the happy hunting ground. Wahcon-
hall gaze for moment into the limpid
,vater fast heinr cn1orpd nv the blood of