The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1885-06-25
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Web Wilder in HiaWatha World: The
people Of Kansas have never before been
30 hungry for land as they are this year.
Men who came here at an early day, and
who are now far advanced in years, are
many of them now in the land counties
on the frontier, first exercising their pre-
emplon or homestead rights. They
have lived heretofore in the eastern
counties. have followed different lines
of business, and have not succeeded.
Their fellow pioneers who took up
claims and became farmers, are almost
universally in good circumstances; their
homes are comfortable; their farms
highly improved; they have laid up
something for a rainy day; they no long
or fear an age of poverty and want; they
have the means to educate their children
in our best schools and colleges; the
hopes of youth are realized, and they can
enjoy q serene and bllssful old age This
sight had and is having marked effect
upon the large class OF men who are still
peor, farmless and almost home
less. They have lived on our east
ern borders. and have distrustsd every
movement to q new tier of western coun-
ties. "There is no rain there, !" they have
been saying for thirty years 1.-THE soil is
thin and dry; II you go there you will
fail and will come back here disappoint-
ed penniless." The DonIphan county
man sneered at the high praIries of
Brown county; the Brown man said Ne
mahA was good for nothing; the Nema-
ha man said Washington county was
good for nothing but sheep. So we have
been talking all these years, and now
half OF the people of Kansas live in the
counties west of Washington, Clay,
Dickinson, Marion, Butler and Cowley.
These half million people have all gone
there against the advice of US old
settlers who have lived IN Kan
sas from the beginning, who have
known Kansas and all about
1t, who were the only persons who did
know Kansas. Verify there Is no fool
like an old fool. The old fools are now
marching west to the extreme frontier,
and taking up claims. On their way
out they go by the prosperous farmer OF
Jewell, Osborne and Rice counties,
whom they cautioned, only seven or
=
Kansas TO starVe.
The old settler who is the new home
steader, is very strong on timber culture
and irrigation he will make q farm if
he be compelled to irrIgate every foot of
It-and he really will make it," Thirty
years of disappointment have not caused
him TO despair. Hope is the leading
trait In the character of the true Kansas
man; 1t remains with him through life
and does not leave him in his dying
hour. The old settler. just now, is the
most enthusiastic new settler. Pretty
soon we shall hear of the Finney Coun-
ty Pioneer society, with John Speer and
Judge l.. ID. Bailey as charter members;
Col. s. s. Prouty will do duty in the
same line for Ford county. and Noble L..
Prentis for Thomas county. These men
all belong to the Kansas class who have
distrusted western Kansas, but now be-
lieve in the whole state. and are not
afraid of making home in any part
OF it.
Judge Bailey has recently told US that
he had renewed his youth in Finney
county; his last year on a claim there
was one of the happiest of his life. He
and John Speer, who came TO Kansas in
"a. now haYe adjoining clsIms a few
miles west of Garden City. Mrs. Neff,
daughter of Mr.. Speer, and very intel
ligent lady, has another adjoining claim.
The irrigatlng canal runs by the side of
their land, and these venerable home
steaders are sure of raising a good crop
this year. Judge Bailey is planting
honey locust seeds all around his claim.
His cabin cost one hundred dollars. 1t
will keep out the wind so well that he
can read by night without having his
candle blown out. His crop this year
will be potatoes-much better than we
can raise here. The soil IS very rich
and productive; give it water, and it
produces crops so great as to almost sur
pass belief. He is tall of hope and joy,
and If ten years are added to his hon.
ored life he will own a very valuable
farm--as good a one as his old neighbors
near EmpOria, Lawrence or Lyndon
the last being town named and found
ed by Judge Bailey, and which has
grown TO be the county seat of Usage
county.
Mr.. Prentls probably means to make
a stock farm of his Thomas county claim,
and, as we happen to know, already has
a small bunch" of cattle to begin with
All this is we'll. The flag of Kansas
floats over every county and protects
them all. The fear of the desert no
longer frightens men, women or chill
dren. Whatever man has done man
may do; and the Kansas man can do
| lots of things that no man has ever done
before. Pioneering is rough and hard,
but 1t is the way to get TO the stars.
Tens of thousands are travelling the
| western roads this year.