Mexico weekly ledger., 1882-01-05


walton, enquiry and examination,
and the only lesson is, stay away from
her-she is a delusion and a fraud.
l went two hundred and fifty miles
southwest of Kansas City, on the A.,
T. & S. F. r. R., thence southwark
by carriage, fifty miles towards Med
icine Lodge; had my eyes and ears
open, read all the local papers l could
get hold of, in the localities through
which I passed, and elsewhere,
and from all saw, heard or read,
came but a single injunction, "'Come
out Of her my people," would not
trade an average section of Audrain
county land for the whole of an aver
age county in that section of the
State, through which no railroad
runs. Why? Because the produc-
tive value of that one section of land,
all things considered, is greater than
any such county, for all agricultural
purposes.
1t is true, along the railroads over
which | rode, are a series of bright,
cheerful, prosperous towns, but these
exist only from the fact, that they
are in the midst of either coal or rock
bearing regions, and these resources
build and sustain them, or upon
streams, furnishing water power to
drive the wheels Of the m%anufacto-
ries.
In these localities there is a de-
maud fol labor, and sure and ade-
quate compensation.
All over the State there is a high
regard for popular education-com-
mon schools are the special favorites
Of public concern, and made free by
public muniticence.
But as an agricultural State, Kan
sas, outside of the Missouri bottoms,
and the harrow valleys of small
streams, in the eastern and some 9TH
er portions. go where you will, is a
CHASTITY failure, having no single at
traction for the farmer. To the poor
man it is hell. Her soil, climate
and facilities for markets, or rather
the want of them, are forbidding to
hilmswho seeks to earn his bread by
the sweat of his brow. In all the
section of the State, above referred
to, there is no certain or adequate re-
turn for the investment of money. OF
intelligent toll and care of the farm,
err or laborer. The causes and rea.
sons for such condition of affairs are
not to the purpose of This article; in
others they may be.
Take the section of country south
Of Hutchison, and the whole ares OF
an hundred and fifty miles square al
least, and how much more no man
can tell, is but the tomb, a CRANE
charnel house Of capital, toll
enterprise, privations, hopes anc
ambitions, as well as the future
of as grand people as the worlC
has seen. Failure, a Ichabod i.
written upon the highways, upo1
fine farm houses vacated and goin.
to decay, but not on either tree OF
shrub, for of these, there are none
no, not one, in all that area, the AL
mighty can make this section grow
but buffalo grass, which is like fine
moss, lying fiat on the ground, bu'
YOU will find these words written OF
the faces and carved in the hearts o
the remaining people.
To large cattle dealers this section
is a bonanza. The buffalo grass is
rich and succulent food, and like tn,
grace of God, without money ant
without price, and fattens cattle
through summer and winter, as stall
feeding does here: but to everybody
else, to all other industries, it is
Sahara, without scarcely an oasis
and wherein a grasshopper wault
die of literal starvation.
There is, there can be, no farinin!
you may ride half a hundred mile
ia either direction, and see neithe
oat, corn or wheat field, while in tn,
whole distance you might not be on
of sight of a tirst-class farm house
more than half of them abandoned
however. There is. therefore. no de
mand for labor, and hence no rewar,
for begging toll, the fact being you
must be a ':cow-bov," or starve.
"a iSV I'tNS w tIIC Coit
try, seeing such houses as | have sug
gcstcd, and SO frequently, with schoo
houses everywhere. and being but
casual observer, might judge tn
country thrifty, but upon enquir
he will find the houses empty, or oc
cupied as camps by the "cow-bovs,
!, abandoned by their owners. who al
ter wasting their estates. and the bes
years of their.ife, have retraccd thei
steps to their old homes, among ,hei
old friends in Gods country, where
at least, in their last sleep, flower
may bloom and waving grass ma
grow over their graves.
How ONE about all this ship
: wreck of capital. of wears of comfort
t and ambition! The answer Is easy
and the proof of it, is clear befor
our eyes, daily, in our very midst
We now and then, in Missouri
Ohio, north, south and east, fror
one cause or another, have a partis
failure of crops, or some leadin
, crop, disappointing either the hopes
greed or necessity of the farmer h
becomes dissatisfied and embarrasse
and then berates the section wherei
he lives, and jumps to the conclusio
that for him, some where, is an Egyp
where tecming fields of corn an
t wheat become harvested and plac"
in his cribs and bins, annually, wit
the unering certainty with which tn
} sun makes its revolutions. and buy
ers stand at their doors clamorou
to be first to pay for each bushel i
gold, fabulous prices, which will en-
rich the grower. Then the mex ell
quiry is where is that favored land
He gets hold of the illustrated adveI
tisement of some railroad company
to which has been given millions Q
the public domain in aid Of the con
%struction of its road, and reads il
and all its ablc-bodied, magnif
cent and decorated lies, OF thei
lands; he drinks them I'm as nectar
dreams over them of nighte, his fan
cy adds to the picture, and som
morning he shout. as he wakes, ecu
reka! have found the delight of IN,
soul"
He makes haste to sell at a sacrific
all that he has, takes his family an
money, and removes to his new home
buys a farm, builds his house, get
comfortably situated to live, as h
thinks, and sets himself to his work
He a find no fuel-not a stick o
wood nc larua or q Wo1Ginncono with