Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1880-09-09
WHOLE NO. 1862.
NEBRASKA LETTER.
Grssshoppcrs-Dfouth- Poetry and Yankees
All by A Greenbacker.

Arapshoe. August q, 1850.
| Mr.. EDITOR :-Presuming that
few lines from this land of "Squatte
Sovereignty" sunflowers and buffal,
grass might not be altogether disin
teresting to some OF your many read
ers / will avail myself of the oppor
tunity and discharge an obligation Il
many friends to whom | had prom
ised to write concerning this country
First would say that the perma
nent prosperity OF this region is ye
in the prospective and future. Al
though there has been q great dsa
of money made land easy too) BY
grazing in this country in former
years; but since the B & NJ. Il. r
has been creeping up this valley the
lrrepressible "squsiter soveign' ha,
Kept pace with the great enterprise
aud in asserting his homestead rights
has vanquished the ranches, and
compelled him to Ego west" not "tc
grow up With the country" but ul,i
mately to seek refuge in company
with his red skinned nomadic breth.
rem in the deep and inhospitable re
cesSes of the Rocky mountaios.
l have seen considerable OF Ne.
braska, and some of Kansas, and
from my observation for general az
ricultural purposes this Furnas Co.
and part of Gosper afford the best
opportunity for beginner of all this
arid region. Lands can be obtained
here now for the cost of improve
ment decided lands) and homestead
Improvement and right may be had
for half what the improvement cost /;
from $4,000 to 5000 90 each not
because they are worthless, but be,
cause of the necessity Of the poor
homesteader who had been hero
from two to three years and spent all
he made in his Improvement, aad
had just got ready to raise a crop
when the great drouth set in.
While this is theicaso with the new
conner, the old settler and the more
intelligent have not lost confidence
and believe this is yet to be the best
part of the State; and that is my
humble opinion too. Notwithstand-
ing the terrible drouth that has con-
timed for about year, cattle, sheep
and horses are in good condition
feeding on the brown buffalo grass !;
and corn fields are yet dark and
green but q thin stand, and but little
of it is earring well the most re
markable feature of the case is that
there is a green herb or tree left in
the country.
The ebb and flow of population
into and out OF this State, first the
ranchero, then the grssshopper and
drouth victims, have precipitsted
upon this section th, best GLASS OF
citizens to be found in my country
have ever been in yet A class OF
young, healthy, sober, intelligent,
moral and peaceable, we'll behaved
western raised men aud women who
expect to make their living in an
honest way. They are healthy with
out doctors, honest and peacesble
withou; lawyers, and moral without
preachers. Over in Beaver City the
County Seat, there is no saloon and
but one lawyer and he has to depend
upon land agency business princi
pally for his support, no litigations
outside of the land office business
His name is Frank Taylor, of Clifton
We have no Carmogins, no Bohe-
mians, and best of all no cultured
Yankees. Thcre has been all classes
in here but have left the country for
the country's good. What the next
tidal wave may bring remains yet to
be oonjsctured. It may be a florist
who would find wide field of ope.
rations where he could dilate upon
the beauties of the wild sunflower -
AS it may evolve a poet, imagine,
Mr.. Editor, or rather shut your eyes
and behold mounted upon his Pegas-
us da,hing up to the very helicon OF
one of our broad canon cleft divides
holding in his right hand a stray
quill dropped from the pinion OF
some wild goose while on his peri.
odic fight or plucked from the wing
of his Pegasus, and all enveIoped in
a poetic halo-bona fde J Allen
Coombs dispensing bis poetic effu
sions on this sun burnt region to the
hot winds to be waited beyond the
bounds Of the great Mississippi Oh
how he could dilate upon the poetic
beau.iss of the green foliage OF the
box elder that marks the serpentine
courses of the muddy streams
down, down the broad brown
valleys until lost to even the
poets vision 10 the dim distance,
then turning his eye falls upon q
grand swell upon the broad breast oil
some brown oolored divide there to
muse upon the beauties of the vel
vernal corn, the two scenes taken to
gether, how they would suggest to
his musings this beautiful thought
fructiterous summer negligently
dressed in autumnal robes.
There is another class-the scien
tist-wss needed here all the tore
part of the summer until DR.. Tanner
at last solved the great question Of
this country by demonstrating the
possibility OF man living forty day.
and nights without food. 1t now re.
mains for Congress to enact a sta,
of forty days more and it will carry
US through the winter until wild arti
chokes can be dug.
If any of your readers contcm
plate going west and desire any spe.
citic information in regard to thi;
country and will write to me at this
place | will furnish it cheerfully and
would recommend this Republican
valley as affordiug the bost opportu'
mites OF any part Of this state.
A. l.. BURKE