The Columbus journal., 1879-10-22
a Word with d. VI. Taylor.
TO THE GROWING GpIsMAN.

MI. EDITOR: After Mr.. Taylor's
courteous reply to my letter, | re-
greet that / cannot accept the situa-
ton gracefully. He was moderate
in his estimation of Nebraska. II
he was not pleased with the coun-
try, Of course he was at liberty TO
say so, but after living the greater
part of my life in the West, would
naturally be somewhat wary of The
chaf that Mr.. Grisman Offers
Though he were a thousand Girls
mans and wrote ten thousand letters
TO as many Louisville Journals, the
wealth and progress of the Great
= West would still ego marching on"
/ am exceedingly sorry to say that
I haYe not been "over the State of
Nebraska and seen il in its entire
ty;" neither have 1 seen the whole
of ulinois-that blissful State where
there is so much good land lying
around loose in "large tracts" MOI
have i been in London, Paris, or
Rome, but | know something of
those places from what I've heard
and read.
That little drama-that super-sil-
ly-ous drama hat has been enacted
go long on the sands of the G.. A. ID.
(Great American DESERT and that
has for its scenic operations a "strip
of country % TO 40 miles wide ly-
ing adjacent to the Missouri river,
has now been swept away by n of
the greatest waves of agriculture the
West has ever seen. Farmers who
have raised corn in Ohio, Illinois
and Iowa declare they never saw
anything like il, and we are 80 miles
from the Missouri river. An honest
Englishman, who has lately been out
20 miles further west, says the crops
there are as good as here. How can
you expect other people 10 indorse
Mr.. Grisman's letter when you don't
do so yourself, Mr.. Taylor? You
say "that of the two States there is
more land in Kansas that will pro-
duce something than in Nebraska
and in his letter you 9llow him 10
say, "therc is no State in the Union
that has as much poor land as Kan
sas." Really now, Mr.. Taylor, YOU
and Mr.. G.. should have arranged
this little matter amicably between
yourselves, so as not 10 clash in this
slip-shod manner. Grisman's tear
ful letter would have had more
weight with me, had | not once upon
time e just such another letter
from Kentucky, wherein the writer
complained of the farms that were
set upon edge where the pillow bows,
plow horses, and all were in danger
of being pitched into chaos and
eternity, over the yawning preci-
pices, or into the numerous sink
holes that dotted the country like
holes IN a pepper-box. q did hear
OF one man who with his team was
taken in, but found his way out into
q neighboring river, though I have
always doubted the latter part of
the story. The streams and wells
were dry, and farmers had 10 resort
to blowing and scraping TO make
basins for the stock to drink from.
The grabs and crickets had given
the blue grass an extra dig. The
stake-and-rider fences were broken
down by the mules and negroes
roosting IN them with such pertina-
cious persistence. The insects held
9 ife-lease onIthe 'rgardm Truck
tobacco, cotton, castor beans. and a
few other items, and hsd watched
with Satanic smiles the planting
thereof, and, 10 use 4 western !
phrase, meant 10 go for them "
tooth and claw tie moment they
were Out of the groand.- Rnin was
rampant, and gaunt and grim she
stood gazing in at the shutterless
windows. The country was gone
10 the dogs; politics was a mass of
corruption and a failure: education
was nowhere. and rengion no better !
thah Ii should be.
i know some more things about
Kentucky, toe,Iut-won't tell them
now. We have all sect letters Of
this kind from eyerynew state, for
new States like other new depart
pres must take their turn at the
wheel We are properly lierrifed5
At -ihe disasreca6le habns OF ,the1
business men OF Wichita. Let usf
hope they learned them on Blake
street. There are smiles lurking in
every sleeve in FNebraSka,fs so far as
heard from, at the prrposterous idea
of this State being compared fot
Kansas. If states lying contiguous
are all of a piece, we might With
proPriety draw a comparison be-
IA q
tween Illinois and Indiana with its
corduroy roads, its swanips and
beech woods filled with wild hogs
where the natives in coon skin caps
gather their annual harvest of bone
set and hoop-poies. These compar-
r.
y 49,