Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1881-10-20
THE SUNFLOWER STATE.

Kansas has gained the name Of the Sun
flower State, because her piains are covere'
with masses of flowers in every hue.-Phila
delphis North American.
The State Of Kansas has not yet gaine'
permanently q pet name. The 'Centra
State" has been proposed, and some peopl
have called it the "Jsyhawker State" bu
neither these or any other name has stuck.
The North Americans statement is not |
bsd suggestion. The sunfower is conspicu
Gus feature in the Kansas Landscape, an,
there is something in the gay old flower it
sell, which reminds the Kanssn Of the Stat
Of his affections.
The sunflower does not "cover the plains
a. the North American rtates, nor is it o
'every hue" but wears the snowy yellow
uniform Of the sunfower family evyrywher'
the same. The origin of the sunhower il
Kansas is a mystery, and it's spread is as won
derful a. the creation and growth of Kansas
1t comes with man, and j. only found il
masses where, in some way, man with wager
wheel or plough or spade has stirred the soil
Today the rolling prairie spreads, uniform
level or undulaiing surface, to the horizon
you may traverse the country Tor miles snc
not discover root or leaf or blossom Of the
sunHower. Tomorrow wagon road is laid
across the prairie, or a settler comes and
makes his little "breaking," and the fire.
you know the road on either eide is lined
with battllions of sunHowers, growing rank
and green. and turning their round, yellow
faces TO the sun. II the settler abandcus his
bit Of prairie, the sunfower Immediately
takes possession and covers the raw evidences
of failure with its useless gold. The old
Santa Fe trail and the military roads, were
not broken in upon by the farmer, are clear
ly marked by the lines OF sunfowers, stretch.
ing away for miles and miles.
The sunnower does not share in the unpop.
ulsri,y attached to mos, weeds. There il
something taking in the cheerful impudenc,
with which it appears. "Ab," says the suu.
flower, 81 see you have broken up III,
ground. You wish something to growi
Very well, will grow" And so the sun.
flower spreads its coarse leaves and open,
out its unrivslled stock of big, yellow bloc
SONS, Is if it felt in the very marrow of id
stalk, that it Was not only the handsomesl
but the most useful vegetable in the king
dom.
"Hsppy as big sunfower." must have
been written by some body who had seen tbs
sanilowers OF Ksnsas. millions of unblinkine
eyes fixed upon the sun. Drouth does not
affect il; it rejoioes in all the water that eau
fall upon il; the erasthopper does not devoul
il; nor doth the busy chinch bug make j
afrsid All 1t asks is n little start. Give i
a little loose earth for charity, and up i
comes. 1t has never failed TO blossom YET
nor has j, asked for "aid" Corn, wheat,
rye, and oats giveup the ghost, while the
sunAower, standing by the roadside, witness.
es the exodus Of the discouraged grain raiser
with not shadow On its hrszen face.
Kansas il much the same. The plough
share Of the Kansas Nebraska act struck the
Territory and an empire grew up. Border
rufiisns, civil war, drouth, liars at home and
abroad; politicians; grasshcppers. and hot
winds and other calami;iss have come and
gone, yet Kansas, the snnhower State Is still
happy, with her eye or the sun. Some day
when the present State seal with Its ss;rono-
mical lain IS abolished, rev coat of arms
of X ansas will be suspended on the walls OF
the capitol, to-wit: "on field, green, Gun
flower, yelloE, rampant. "-Atchison Cham
pion.