The Columbus journal., 1879-10-22

isons don't stand the test, and argu-
ments based on such fiimSy premises
fall fiat rs a collapsed balloon.
Now, as Mr.. Grisman says SO
much against people going West,
where they scan never live com.
Portable" / will tell of something
| have seen in Illinois and Iowa
when they were new states, and if
everybody had been as heroic as g.,
they would have been new to-day.
A woman who is living neal Cam
bridge, Henry Co., Ill, told me
when they first moved there the
nearest neighbor on one side was
six miles of, and the nearest in an
other direction was ten miles. For
four years she hadn't a pair of shoes
to her feet, and Chicago was the
nearest market where hogs were
$50 per cwt., and wheat % cts. per
bushel, and it took three weeks to
make the trip. Another woman in
Iowa whose husband had gone Is
miles TO get work, let her fire 90
out, and had to leave her two young
children IN bed while she went six
miles on foot to get fire of her near
est neighbor; and the snow was a
foot deep. When l knew them they
were in good circumstances, though
the chinch bugs had ruined their
wheat, and in fact all the wheat for
miles around ; bat that was nothing
new TO me, for L had seen chinch
bugs in Illinois, where they had
swarmed all over the country. They |
crawled on the tables and chairs, |
and even over the people them
selves, after destroying n good share
of the wheat and corn. Then they
had hail, and hot winds, and plenty
of cold ones-Tm very sure about
the latter. The first year we were
there the farmers almost stood on
their heads in fear of the seventeen
year locusts, as they were due that \
year, and they did come too, but
not in such overwhelming numbers
as formerly, but they sang Oh the
hill-tops and screeched in The trees,
Till we couldn't hear our own voices.
And that was the proverbial wet
season that The oldest inhabitant
said came along every sever years
and in anticipation of the drowned
crops how the folks trembled i'm
~their-boOts vas going to saw, and
would yet, only that so many of
them were barefoot and otherwise
half clad. | remember once seeing
a man come into meeting in mid
winter in his shirt-sleeves minus a
vest. Now, let Grisman trOt out his
Kansas ragamuilins, if he feels so
disposed. In those haicyon days of
Illinois the people entertained the
new corners with accounts of hurri-
canes, where cattle, and wagons, and
human beings were carried off in
the air together. ] abhor slang on
general principles, but chow was
that for high?' The next year they
had the chinch bngs before men,
TONED, and a drouth, and the ground
baked as the farmers expressed it,
and there were great crevices into
which we children made daily but
unsuccessful attempts TO insert our
pedal cN!remitieS. 80, you can't
raise fruit in this State only along
the timber, was iterated and r%eiter-
ated for at least a dozen years after
we ven there. 1t never entered
their wooden heads that they could
plant timber, and raise il at the same
time with the fruit. People coming
into the country saw that every :
other maG wanted TO sell out. aud
were therefore afraid to buy.-
Thought the old rcsidenters wanted
to spring a trap Oh them. Grisman's
howlS sound 50 Baturnal they seem
to be but & re-ccho of these heard in
Illinois in the long ago.
] only mention these things TO
show that Kansas aud Nebraska
IA fair chance 10 evolu.e out :
of The kinks in due time. The dole. F,
full notes from Kansas or any other :
place are only the chronic walls of
discomfort; the longings for the
flesh-pots of Egypt. One of our III. F;
n%eighbors was forever crying TO 60 8
back TO "lnjiany.' They had plenty (;
OF apples 10 eat and wood TO burn I,
way cen yaundcr." | saw some .
lately that were brought from ,
Illinois, and thcy looked so wither- ,
ed and woe-begone We thought they ,
must be OF the same lot that VIM. f,
Tell chose from. Those Ill. folks :
had better rustic round. and send -,
Eas. 10 get apples TO bring to Ne f,
braska, rs Grisman says they do in !
Kansas. Dob
A iriCnd who has just been out I;
here says she never saw as much
hay ii her life rs she saw ON The
from Omsha here. II stood on |
The ground so t!ick it seemed as
As though the mowers could hardly {
pass between the stacks. She