New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-07-25
AMONG THE HOOSIER FARMS.
VIEWS OF MAN AND NATURE IN INDIANA.

-RosEATE VIEWS OF POLITICS AND PoLIrI-
CLANS.
IRON AN OCCASIONAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRIBUNrI
INDIANAPOLIS, July 21.--The hall hat-rack has
burst into blossom of straw hats the tulip-tree
has lowered in the woods and summer has come to
the bosky valleys of Indiana The farms in the
woods are pleasant dwelling-places. Works and
days 90 on prosperously this year. " In plenty came
the white spring after JOves three days rain
topped with water the oXs footprint" Pan. the
liearkener to the Loud Clappng Shears has bless
ing for the sheep-shcarng. The wide amphtheatre
OF the Indiana pasture, with the circling boundary
OF woods, pierced far the horizon by creeping
railway train, everywhere shows that nature has
multiplied the sheep this spring. The soil
before so mellow for ploughng; last winters frost
mellered it up" The long, crumhly, soft, cloco-
late slope of the plouged lends stretching far up TO
the woods again now shows tnts like young pea
pod One can't say what is going to happen TO the
Hoosier farmers in the future they depend on
Europe for market, where prices cannot go up, yet
labor is going up, and frcights are going up still
just at present all tlourishes with them
A HOusIER COTTAGE HOME.
Every snug little home landscape shows deep beds
of Lrge-eaved clover above the colts fclocks. and
wide, rich, bowing fields vi CIV nv shade of light
green known to a farmers eye. O homes! What rap
ture 1t must he to escape from the dread privaiOns
and deSpairs of the Old World your quiet comfort
Schwab ought to come out to Indiana; he needs to
see place where men are not tearing the bread from
each others mouths The Car should he invited to
Inmigratc to this place; perhaps he would enjoy
living i'll a region that is not sick with the flavor of
blood and old wars, and has history but natures
story. What concentrated friendships and ailec-
tons, what delight i'll small meIrymalings. what
careless hospta lties. what a treat in a few old
books, what undisturbed chimney corner peace, he
might possess here in IIoosicr log-cabin! and he
would have picturesque dwelling too The lamcn-
aions that heard about the LACE, of picturesque
ness in American humble life is "all bosh" People
who cry chow beautiful" at the sight of low
dark, musty, earwig-haunted English cot
tage perhaps, could not much to admire about
"a Hoosier log-cabn; nevertheless as it exists in
the prosperous counties nothing coud be
more picturesque. This habitaton has a large
Kitchen In the centre a bedroom at each end, and
porch III front of the kitchen, running from
one bedroom to the other and recessed between the
two. On the porch churning is done and meals are
eaten. Behind the cabin are sheds, wood-houses
"wattled cotes." "hurded pens" and so forth
The cabin is whtcwashcd and it's ward is decked
with roses neatly tied to stacks and with ilacs and
spicy fir trees, and has aiurcment peculiarly its
own.
The cabin lies on " dirt road far back from
" the gravel" where the grand farm houses stand
a willowy, bushy, recdy little road having small
baSOuS stlllng across It's track from unknown
streams within the woods, unbridgcd or bridced
with rough, rustic structures. The Car might well
bulld him hut ON certain road of the for the
sake of drinking all the rest of his life from sprinp
'o1 soft water that trckes through frcc-stonc rock
at the waySide. Alongside of this road are
braided blooms unmown," broad fcnccless spaces
of thick, wild grass, where the whole court mcht
Craze their horses and welcome such is the opulcncc
of food and land.
LIVING i'm n woody countr,- otl,or +ron+, Io1
bare. THIS whole State seems shadowy with green
trees this summer. Down into one Verdant hollow
AFTER another one drives the forest roads every
mile splashing through the streams that profuScly
water the region. Sometimes the ford is found AT
the bottom of "A woody gulch among sycamore trees
almost equal in size to the of CALIFORNIA;
sometimes it Is among elms and thOrns crowded and
twisted together i'll gigantic tanges: at other times
it expands into greenly lighted river. There is a
dash of danger about the wider forls. especially in
spring when Jupiter Pluvius is in the habit of sud
denly assuming the role Of "a celestial "Brdder
Bones" with his fists full Of thunderbolts
a FORD IN FLOOD TINE.
Driving through the woods sharing the still low of
the trees i'll flower their thin wells of wedding
white make envious of the happiness that lasts
from rosy dawn to rosy sunset every day for CEN
turtles. All at once the fur begins llv from the
buff branches of the willows, clouds of pollen from
the fOwery woods blow before the wind shcaths of
the bursting beech buds fiji the air the increased
and lately folded young leaves stretch themselves
in the moisture and the rustic of coming rain is
heard drowning the nearer rustic of the leaves it.
self a noise like falling waters. There comes with
thunderbots for accompaniment, q great sluice of
silver rain, lasting but few minutes and followed
by light blue sky, bluc of Charles Lambs
" watchet hue" and sunshine strikes down the wet
black tree trunks once more The ford, still dappcd
by a few last drops is swollen little. You rather
like the ford, You like to hear the horses hoofs
strike the water and the corriagc wheels crunch on
the pebbly bottom. In midslream you like to look
up and down the wacry floors and to smell the lib
era fragrance of leagues of forests in blossom and
the streaming odors of mints and herbs it is
a strengthening odor, that of old, old woods the cs-
sence of their ages of rest
But the wheels are sinking deeper in the stream
the water is above their hubs is rising to the car
riage windows the carriage swings around and is
being carried down with the current. Courage,
The shore is at hand. The driver leans forward on
his seat, intensely silent. You reach the bank
You are up-you are out Now the tired horses are
letting the carriage roll back again into the water
no-they brace-they drag you up the wet road and
so you are safe on dry land O
THE FARMER AND HIS son.
Nothing exhibits the unspeakablc " smartncsso
of the American people the faces that are seen ON
solitary roads in the timber The Ioosier farmer
cracking his blacksnake whip like a rifle on the
forest road, and then hanging it around his shout
ders, has keen glance that mclts into yours as if he
knew your thoughts. Noticeable in him is n nom
chalant cOmpOsure "rock-hke Indifference to
sorrow and Joy having become indifferent to hard
ships in early life he finds himself in his prosperity
Indifferent to luxury and pleasure. The Hoosicr has
the friendly tolerance found so much in the wheat
belt OF North America The Indianan cares nothing
for " abroad" He is the master of Il comfortable