Wichita eagle., 1889-01-13

4
! | could tell you of the dry years,
When the people grew discouraged,
Because the rain was slow in coming.
Some OF them got up and busted,
Went back east to see their people,
Back to see their wife's relation.
They could not bear some real privation
And become adopted Kansans,
They didn't like the Kansas Zephyrs-
They longed for trees, and not grasshoppe
They hungered for the leeks and onions,
And the black flesh pots of Egypt.
They couldn't stand prairie mamma,
Which Providence had sent them,
That would make them self-sustaining.
So they rugged their prairie schooners,
Left their claims TO lind new owners,
Who might profit by their labor.
Claims not long to lie in waiting;
Men soon came who had the backbone,
Patched up those deserted mansions"
Threw more earth upon the 'dugoUt,"
Chincked the cracks and gathered fuel,
And made ready for the winter.
Now the very ones that left US,
Often write to make inquiry;
And our best respects we send them,
Tell them what they lost by leaving,
Lost farm that's worth four thousand,
And life of independence
Wrote to friends in Indiana,
Wrote to friends in the Blue Hen state,
How | praised the skies of Kansas,
How talked about the pralries,
How told about the flowers
That grew wild around my so1-house.
How l told them corn and pumpkins
Grew without bit of labor,
And about the watermelons.
Grown on sod in such abundance,
[ told them how the wife and babies,
All grew fat with cheeks SO rosy,
As the sky before the sunrise.
1 could tell you how labored,
How l loved to plant the sod corn,
Pick the red sand plum in summer,
Catch sly shot at the wild geese
That in such great fiOcks went over,
AS the sun at times to darken.
| can tell you we were happy,
Many day in that sod shanty.
Frugal was our fare but plenty.
Best OF all we were contented,
We had no sickness, not a doctor
Ever came to feel our pulses
Could not dose us with his physic,
Nor shove an awful bill upon us.
Furthermore, I'll tell you, stranger,
got a COW, some pigs and poultry,
All the prairie was a pasture,
Tho L had no fence nor hedges,
l made shift with rope and picket,
So had milk and butter plenty,
And the pigs grew fat on sod-corn;
AS to eggs, they were not lacking.
BY and by we had some neighbors
That had come to stay like we did.
People could not miss such chances;
Homes for poor folks lying idle,
Rich land waiting for the furrow,
10 be turned by the bright plowshear;
Rich land waiting to be growing
Wheat and corn for the careful farmer;
Who in the east had been a renter,
And with all his time and labor,
Could bearly earn a scanty living.
| tell you, stranger, Independence,
Is what makes the Kansas farmer
Look so cheerful and so happy.
Think about 1t, look around youi
Here I've got quarter section,
Ali my own, and | can plant it,
Reap the crop and go and sell it,
And put the money in my pocket.
! don't have to ask my landlord
If he'll buy some fertilizer
Truck to make the land productive.
l don't have to ask my landlord
Ii | can buy an extra heiter,
Raise some geese, or d few turkies,
Like they do in eastern states, sir.
Well, it amt no beauty, stranger,
But it did its duty well, sir.
You see that pile out in the orchard?
That's the ruins of the mansion"
| have my boys to pillow around it
And let it rest for good il has done
My wife and | have lived on little
Roasted sod corn and stewed pumpkins;
Raised our children plump and hearty.
There we burnt coal of the prairie"
Gathered often by the sackful;
There we trembled for the future,
W atcEed the Kansas storm arising,
Heard the roar of heavy thunder.
The dashing rain upon the prairie,
Saw the flashing, forked lightning,
Trembled, fearful Of d cyclone;
There we watched the storm pass over,
rumbling in the distance;
Saw the splendid bow of promise
Spread its glory cross the heavens,
Shed its luster on the prairies
In the raiudrops on the grass blades.
All these things I've passed, through
stranger,
When lived in that sod shanty,
Which is now pile of ruin.
And III tell you, listen, stranger,
" hen lived in that sod hovel,
Wife and had more contentment
That you see so fairly planted
On the slope of yonder hillside.
Cares have come as well as riches.
Not but what we're moderate happy,
For we have what we call plenty
We have sheep, and hogs, and cattle;
We have gran ries full TO bursting,
We have something always growing,
4 its nothing else but cares
Taf Won laugh but / m not jokjur
could tell you something Stranger,
If this growing state of Kansas
came 10 succor her. an infant.
But she's grown a winsome beauty.
Still she honors those who belped her,
When she was weak and much belabored
She heaps riches up around them
Who stand up and battle for her.
And the more / understand il,
The more I ike 70 live in Kansas.
The more love her broad pFairies,
TO breathe the odoT OF her flowers,
see her sunsets and suniises,
r. atch the sparkling Of her rivers.
And the waving Of her wheat fields.
Hear the rustli1g % her corr.
Listen To her lowing cattle
And the sheep on killsides bIsatlDg,
Hear the clang 81 growing commerce,
listen 70 the shrieking whistle
IF the coming locomotive.
se<e her spread her iron fingers,
Bearing means to bald up cities.
Mark cut farms, 70 build the school ksuse
70 educate the Kansas children.
The men and women Of the future
Build the chur ch aud teach religion,
20 make ooce bsrreo waste 20 blossom
!: se the rose, in ancient scripture,
Ecu will fod pleasant picture.
Drawn Ia ases lar and misty.
Bat we dare claim rs ful3llneaI
Id 70 claim that land is ksasaz,
T ne idNai Of fhs nation