Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1880-01-07
Our County Abroad.

ent of that paper who has been making
trip to California, and who stopped
on his way at Omaha, Nebraska. What
he saw and heard there he tells as fol-
| lows:
met six Pittsburghers in the hotel.
AS we were seated in circle talk
ing about Pennsylvania, some one
made remark about the Butler county
soap mines, and about crows carrying
knapsacks,' and all that, while flying
across it, when a handsome young
fellow stepped up and said, whats
that you said, my friends, about But
Ter county? l am from that part OF
Pennsylvania, and / don't propose to
hear it abused" Another county
heard FROM" said Falls, and the hotel
proprietor stepped up and introduced
| the young man as Gov. Carnes, OF
Nebraska" He is nephew of Lewis
Y. Mitchell, one of the leading law
ycrs of Butler, drifted out to this
country ten years ago and was elected
Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska last
election; owns fine estate near Sew
ard, about fifty miles from Omaha, and
is well fixed In addition to his de-
fense of Butler county he held up
Nebraska pretty well. Nebraska, "
he said, sis now ahead of Minnesota
and Kansas as a wheat growing State ;
that she raised over a million bushels
of grain last year more than Mime
sofa; that the ratio Of wheat growing
States now was, first, Illinois; second,
Iowa third, Nebraska; fourth, Min
nesota; fifth, Kansas; and that 1t is a
healthy country for hogs"
The Lieutenant Governor Carnes
above spoken of is a son Of Mr.. An
drew Carnes, formerly Of this town,
who with his family went West we
think about twenty years age. Mr.
Andrew Carnes was an active citizen,
and held, while here. the offices Of
Sheriff and County Treasurer. His
son Edward is the handsome young
fellow" who now occupies the honora-
bic position of Lieutenant Governor
of Nebraska, and all his old acquaint-
ances here are much pleased to learn
of his success in his new home His
case is another verification of the wis
dom of Horace Greeley's advice to
young men to "Go West, young man,
go West!p And it also is another
proof that Butler county is like what
the celebrated Stephen A. Douglas
said of the State of Vermont, to wit,
"that it was good place to be born
in, provided you emigrated from it as
early as possible" Butler men all
over the West prove that this is good
county to be born in, and get your
education and "broughten up" in.
But there is another side of this
subject not so pleasant. How about
this "soap mines' business? Is there
never to be an end to that? We had
hoped that after the "rivers of oil'
that have been found in our county
that we might possibly hear no more
about that useful article of soap; and
we don't know why we are still cred
tied with "mines" of it unless it is
that Butler men, at home and abroad,
are always found to be cleanly in their
person. This soap mine fun had its
origin, we believe, in joke played off
upon the late Benjamin Chew, who
used to come here from Philadelphia,
looking after what was known as the
"Chew lands" laying generally down
the creek from this place. Mr.. Chew
got it into his head that there was lead
upon some of his lands and made fire.
quent explorations to find the same.
1t was an old tradition, and from his
efforts to find the lead some wag started
the story, which it is said he for a
time believed, that, if there was not
lead, there were veritable soap deposits
upon those lands. Whether this is
the true origin of this soap slander we
will not be qualified to, but give it as
we have heard it, We were never
discomlited but once with this soap
mines story, and that was when we
were representing this county in the
Legislature The bill compelling the
Pennsylvania Railroad Company to
build the present road from here to
Freeport was before the House, and
we had been advocating its passage.
After we sat down member from
Allegheny county, who, with all the
members of that county were opposed
to our bill, got up and said that he did
not see what we wanted With a rail
road out in Butler county, as there
was nothing but soap mines out there.
This remark rather rilcd us, and the
Allegheny member, finding us indig-
nant, had it stricken from the record
The old stories about the crows car.
rying knapsacks with them when pass
ing over the county, and of the bum1
ble-bees having to get down upon their
knees when they wanted to extract the
sweet from flowers, we could stand,
but the other one was annoying.
These crow, and bee, and similar myth
ical stories, had their origin almost
with that of the county. At an early
day they were the pleasantries, it is
said, of the Pittsburgh attorneys who
came out here to attend our Courts
Being wags and full Of fun (and some
times of atronr drinkl and our early