The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1888-07-06

$1,000 -
on my rcturn TO Klnball and Dakota.
After all, there is nj place like Dakota.
find this impression growing upon me
year by year. and the more frequent
my trips to the East the more strongly |
am convinced that the mar who has
cast his lines in the Great West las
dropped them in pleasant places. If
can feel this while visiting at the home
of my boyhood days-in this beautiful
little c~i.y-surely there must be some
thing i'll Dakota, something about the
magnificent territory which wears, and
wears well. For in all this broad land
there probably can not be found Fl more
delightful place of residence than Paiues-
Vile. nesting nearly upon the shores of
Lake Erie, forty minutes by rail east of
Cleveland. The little city is upwards of
so years Of age and its inhabitants en-
Joy all the comforts and Injuries of city
and country life combined. There are
water works, electric lights, gas, miles
of paved sidewalk, sewerages, a paid
fire department, etc, etc. 26 express
trains daily go and come. Many of the
handsome and elegant houses here are
owned by men who transact their bIsi-
ness in Cleveland. What Youkersis to
New York City, gainesville Is to Clcve
land. 1t is q city Of elegant houses,
wealth, and retincment-but the wealth
has to be made elsewhere, 1t is too
near Cleveland to make any business
profitable except business at the har-
bor-business which consists of the re-
ccipt OF ore from the Lake Superior re-
gion, and the shipment Of coal. With
dcnces, lovely ponds and lawns and at
fractions as a whole, one ought to be
contcnted in such a place, bnt couldn't.
| don't believe any man could-that is
any yeung mGn-who had ever lived ia
Dakota for any length OF tune. There
is a namcless charm about Dakota which
cannot be described. a charm which
oil the advantages of the East cannot
shake off. What it is, 1t is difficult to
say. But that it exists al! know who
have been in Dakota for any length of
time. Possibly its the air, the ozone or,
that the fascination lies in the ruStling,
busy, generous and ~wide-awake poodle.
Anyway, its there and there for all
times to come. For years and years
this Western Reserve OF Ohio has been
acknowledged rs the garden spot of the
United States-"God's Country'-as
Garfield called it. whose farm lies a few
miles out of town-but, my friends, the
time is coming when the states Of Iowa,
Nebraska and Dakota will contain
patches of country which will make the
famed Western Reserve of Ohio look
dim. 1t may net come in your time nor
in my time but it viii come, nevertheless.
On my way East | couldn't help but be
struck with the marked contrastbetween
sections OF Dakota and iowa now aud
five years since. Tho growth and i'm
proved appearance in that time has been
wonderful. The Ohio man, or any other
Eastern man, who has never Travelled
through Illinois and Iowa does not know
what a iine farm looks like. This may
seem an exaggerated expression but it il
true, nevertheless. The $3.50 an acre
farms of tins section nc more compare
in looks OF soil with the magnificent
fnrpNc of thu Atnct than wall flN,'
what. These farms here are valuable
simply from location and access to mar
ket. The country is so thickly settled
that every farm almost adjQins atown OF
city aud the farmer is therefore sure OF q
ready sale for all his products At q good
price. Bnt bless youi he must work to
make both ends meet. If he but had the
Dakota soil his life would be all easy
one. But he hasn't. Unless he Is the
fortunate posscssor of a fine farm cleared
by his great-great grandfather he cult,
Yates soil that a Dakota farmer would
not pasture a spawned jack-ass on. He
manures it and fertilizcs it and grubs II
and monkeys with it until he makes the
soil raise a fairly good crop. Coming
from Chicago here | saw hundreds OF
acres of corn growing among stumps-
partially cleared land-and in which
every Hill of corr has to be hoed by
! hand. It's the poorer class of farmers
Of course. that W such farms. An(
the poor cusscs will work and work unC
slave and toll and he no better off wheI
hey die thar when they commenced
They haven't the sand to pull out fol
Dakota where the same energy woult
make them independent in ten wears
All, well, it's a free country and a MAJ
can be q blankety blank fool if he wantt
10, The West is growing more rapidly
chan the East in the ratio of 10 to /
The magnificent stretches of country
now seen in portions of Illinois ant
Iowa were fifteen years ago bare prairie
ike Dakota now appears. Within III
same length of time South Dakota vii
bear no resemblance to its former self
The open prairics will then be trans
formed into cultivated ana improve,
farms covered with u fine growth o
trees, and the towns and cities win ad
vance in looks and Importance proper
tionstcly. But 1t will take work, tim
sud patience to accomplish it. Tina
work iilconsist mainly Of tree plant
ing. It's All old story know, but on
nat can not be sung TOO often-plan
trees. 1t is we'll known to many VIII
read this, that the pleasant and prettil,
shaded places iii Iowa on Illinois from
which they came to Dakota, were fiji
teen or twenty years ago bare of shrub
berry of any kind. Take n ride frolI
Mitchell to Gankton some day and Sc
what %alittlc iuIicious tree planting I'm
done in that section for the past lei
years. Don't expect to accomplish j
five years what has taken other section
nft.y years TO complete. Work and wait
Egcrything comes to Tie liau who waits
r