Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1886-02-06
TIE Development OF Kansas.
BY GOVERNOR JOHN A. MARTIN.

BY GOVERNOR JOHN A. MARTIN.
Mr. Chairman, and Lddues and Gentlemen:
In Grecian mythology it is related that
IeIs, warned by an oracle that the son of
his spouse, Metis, would snatch supremacy
from him. swallowed both Gletis and her
unborn child. When the time of birth ar
rived, Zeus felt violent pain in his head,
and in his agony requested HephestuS to
cleave the head open with an AK. His request
was complied with, and from the brain Of
the great god sprang Athena, full-armed,
and with mighty war shout. She at once
assumed high place among the divinltles
of Olympus. She first took part in the dis
cussions of the gods as an opponent of the
savage Ares. She gave counsel to her father
against the giants: and she slew Fnceladus.
the most powerful Cf those who conspired
against Zeus, and Hurled him under Mt.
htra. She became the patron of heroism
among men. and her active and original
genius inspired their employment. The
aGrlculturlst and the mechanic were under
her special protection, and the philosopher,
the poet and the orator delighted in her
favor. The agiS was in her helmet, and she
represented the ether-pure air. She was
worshipped ut Athens because she caused the
olive to grow on the bare rock of the Acrop
oils. She was also the protectress of the arts
of peace among women. She bore in her
hand the spool, the spindle, and the needle,
and she invented and excelled in all the
work of women. She was the goddess of
wisdom and the symbol of thought; she rep
resented military skill and civic prudence.
In war she was heroic and invincible; in
peace she was wise, strong, inventive, and
industrious.
THE ATHENA OF AMERICAN STATES.
Kansas is the Athena of American states.
Thirty-six years ago the slave oligarchy ruled
| this country. Fearing that the birth of new
states in the west would rob it Of its suprem-
acy, the slave power swallowed the Missouri
compromise, which had dedicated the north
west to freedom. The industrious north,
! aroused and indignant. struck quick and
hard and Kansas, full armed, shouting the
war cry of liberty, and nerved with lnvinc-
IDLE courage, sprang into the Union. She at
once assumed high place among the states.
She was the deadly enemy of slavery: she
gave voice and potency to the demand for
! its abolition: and she aided in burying Sc
cession in its unhonored grave. The war
over, she became the patron, as she had been
during its continuance the exemplar, of
heroism, and hundred thousand soldiers of
! the Union found homes within the shelter of
her embracing arms. The agriculturiSt ard
the mechanic were charmed by her ample re-
sources. and inspired by her eager enter
prise. Education found in her a generous
patron, and to literature, art and science she
| has been steadfast friend. Her pure at
mosphere invigorated all. desert disfig-
ured the map of the continent, and she COW
cred it with fields of golden wheat and tas-
selling corn. She has extended to women the
protection of generous laws and Of enlarged
opportunities for usefulness. In war she
was valiant and indomitable, and in peace
she has been intelligent, energetic, pro-
gressive and enterprising. The modern
Athena, type of the great Greek goddess, is
our Kansas.
THE CHILD OF GREAT ERA.
1t is not long lapse of time since the 29th
of January, 1861. boy born during that
eventful year cast his first presidential vote
at the last election But no other period of
the worlds history has been so fertile in in
vention, so potential in thought, so restless
and aggressive in energy, or SO crowded with
sublime achievements. as the quarter-cen'
fury succeeding the admission of Kansas as
state. During that period occurred the
greatest war the world has ever known. AL
industrious. self-governed, peace loving PEG,
pie. TRANSPORTED by the inspiration of pa
triotism and freedom, became, within 8
twelve-month. nation of trained and dis.
ciplined warriors. Human slavery, en-
trenched for centuries in law, tradition
wealth. and the pride of race, was annlhl'
lated, and 100000 slaves We're clothed with
the powers and responsibilities of citizen.
ship. The continent was girdled with rail
road and telegraph lines. In 1860 there were
only 81 1S6 miles of railway in the United
States; there are now fully 10000 miles
Less than $1,000 miles of telegraph wire:
were stretched at the date of the admission
of Kansas; there are now nearly 800 600 miles
The telephone and the electric light are
fruits of this period and the improvement:
and inventions in farm implements, in book:
and newspapers, in all the appliances of me-
chanical industry, and in the arts ane
sciences have revoiutionized nearly every de
partment of human activity.
When this marvellous era dawned upon tht
world, Kansas was fiction of geographers
On the map of our country it was marked n
a desert, and the few explorers who had pen
: etrated its vast solitudes described it as al
| arid and sandy waste, fit only for the wll(
!, bison or the wilder Indian. There it ha,
lain for centuries. voiceless and changeless
waiting for the miracle of civilization t,
touch and transform it.
The passage of the Kansas Nebraska bill
made Kansas the central figure in a tremen
: dous conflict. 1t became not only the chill,
= of marvellous epoch, and heir to all tn
, progress. the achievements and the glory o
; that epoch. but it stood for an idea; it repre-
, sented principle; and that idea and princi
2 pie thrilled the heart and awakened the con
q science of the nation. That state cradle
: amid such events. schooled during such
y period, and inspired by such sentiment:
> should, in its growth and development. illus
: trate these mighty energies and impulse:
q was inevitable. The Kansas of to-day
$ only the logical sequence of the influence
and agencies that have surrounded, shape
!. and directed every step and stage of til
= states material and administrative progress
: NOT THE HISTORIAN.
i. I am not, however, the historian of th
e occasion. Very properly the committee a
4 governor of the state-who has been with an
!; of it during all the lights and shadows I