Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1881-05-12
A FEW JOTTINGS FROM KANSAS.

Mr.. EDiToR-I will give the readers
of your excellent paper few jottings
concerning the West. If you will take
the trouble to look up my genealogy,
you will find that | was born and raised
in Washington township, Belmont coun-
ty, Ohio.
/ will first give few jots on the Platte
river region of Nebraska, and then, on
Northwestern Kansas, where 1 now re-
side. Then, first, I will offer a few re-
marks on the atmosphere of the Platte
valley. They have rather a peculiar at
mosphere in this region of country. 1t
will tan your face and hands most miser-
ably, and at the same time won't bleach
straw stack. The atmosphere in gen.
eral seems TO possess kind of lifting
capacity, that was not inherent in the
atmosphere in Ohio. The wind here at
Grand Island will lift the grit up per-
sons troursers legs clear to his shirt
collar. The air is considerably lighter
than it is in the East, and it is seldom
you feel as bracing an atmosphere here
as you do in Ohio although you can
feel nearly as much dampness in the air,
it don't seem to have the same weight
upon your lungs here that it does back
there; so much so, that at times it does
not seem to satisfy your respiratory or
ganS. In the summer Seasoff, when the
wind blows gale, there is seldom a
cloud to be seen. 1t seemed little odd
to get up on July morning, and upon
stepping out of your door to meet wind
from the south, cold enough to make
you shiver. Thus it was at Grand ISL
and, Neb., in 1880. Those spots on the
sun, spoken of in the newspapers, made
display of their power at Grand ISL
and, on the 4th of June, 1880, from noon
till half-past P. NJ it cooked and dried
vegetation in patches. That was the
hottest ever felt the sun shine. On
June 5th we had hail storm, in which
the hail fell in all conceivable shapes.
June 10th, we had the boss hail storm
of the season. 1t lasted from to 6 P. ~,
and the largest hailstenes l ever saw,
fell here. and the like for rain l never
saw in my life. If the water that fell
here, had fallen on any of the streams of
old Belmont, the highest hills would
have been covered. | will have to give
L. B. Hammond the credit of being the
only one that has ever given me any,
thing like a correct history Of the Platte
regions Of Nebraska. have found his
statements to be strictly true, but these
of the U. 2. Railroad Company to be
false in every particular They took
the best geological reports of this State
(as well as othersJ, and sent them out as
being the true geology of this region.
So don't put any dependence in those
glowing reports of any Railroad Co, If
there ever was company that deserves
the punishmentS of never-ending tor
ment, it is the U. p. Co. They will ney-
er get half the curses removed from
their shoulders that have been heaped
there by thousands of poor people, indu-
ced to come here through their glowing
hand-bills. There is nothing grows as
tall here in the West as il does in Ohio.
There is only from 10 TO IS inches of
soil on top of bed of quartz, sand and
gravel. No wonder things have a vel
low cast. Grain does not mature here
in the Platte valley, with that degree
of perfectness that it does in Ohio, over
a clay subsOil, But it natures better In
Southern Nebraska and Northern Kan
sas. Things seem to be arranged in this
Western country to favor the animals
that live here. Generally, when il is
hot, we have brisk breeze, which an
swers in the place of shade trees,
, The alkali, in the Platte valley, is the
greatest obstacle the farmer has to con-
tend with. 1t will collect upon your
lips till you can taste il; and then, it'll
gets into the wells, and 1t acts on per-