Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1889-09-19
KANSAS IS ALL RIGHT.


A Railroad Travelling Agent Tells = Re-
porter About Arkansas Valley.
Every one who comes to Kansas City
from Kansas these days has his own par
ticular stock Of stories to tell about the
wonderful crops in that state. Among
the Sun1ower pilgrims who landed In the
city Saturday was Charley Barrett, the
good looking and talkative travelling pas
senger agent of the Missouri Pacific. he
had spent four or five days in southern
Kansas, and his mouth was going at the
rate of 500 revolutions a minute about
crops when he was tagged by Times
man on Main street.
"WheatI" he exclaimed "You never
saw the Iikel The farmers down in
southern Kansas had to rent the public
roads to get room enough to stack the
wheat. Wasn'troom enough in the fields
to hold the stacks. saw one"-
"How is the fruit crop?"
"Fruitl You never saw the like! Ap-
pies as big as cannon balls growing in
clusters as big as haystacks. saw one
apple that
Don't the trees break down.?
"Treesl You never saw the likeI The
farmers planted sorghum in the Or
chards, and the stalks grew up like tele-
graph poles and supported the limbs
saw one stalk Of sorghum that was two
feet
"How is the broom corn crop?"
Broom cornl You never saw the
like! There hasn't been a cloudy day in
southern Kansas for a month. Can't
cloud up. The broom corn grew so high
that it kept the clouds swept off the face
of the sky as clean as new floor. They
will have to cut the corn down if it gets
too dry. SoIle of the broom corn stalks
are so high that
"How is the corn crop?"
"Cornl You never saw the like! Down
in the Neosho and Fall River and Arkan-
sas bottoms the corn is as high as a
house. They use stepladders to gather
roasting ears"
"Aren't stepladders pretty expensive?"
"Expensivel Well, / should say so;
but that isn't the worst of it. The trouble
is that the children climb up into the
cornstalks to hunt for eagles nests, and
sometimes fall out and kill themselves
Fourteen funerals in one county last
week from that cause. attended all of
them. That is why am so sad. And,
mind you, the corn isnot more than half
grown. A man at Arkansas City has in.
vented machine which he calls The
Solar Corn Harvester and Child Pro-
tector.' 1t is inflated with gas like bal
loon and floats over the corn tops, and
the occupants reach down and cut OF the
ears of corn with cavalry saber. Every
Kansas farmer has a cavalry saber,
and
"Do they make much cider in Kan
sas?
"Cider? You never saw the like!
Oceans of It'll Most of the farmers in
Crowley county have filled their cisterns
with cider. A proposition was made q
few days ago to the water works COM
pany of Arkansas City to supply the
town with cider through the mains,
but the company was compelled to de.
cline because they were afraid the cider
would rust the pumps. They were sorry,
but they said they would have to con-
tinue to furnish water, although it cost
more. saw one farmer who"-
"How is the potato crop?"
"Potatoesl You never saw the like
A man in Sedgwick county dug potato
the other day that was so big he used the
cavity it grew in for cellar. saw one
potato that
''The people must be happy over their
big crops?"
Happy! You never saw the like! ]
know men in the Arkansas valley who
were too poor this time last year to flag
a bread wagon, and now they have pie
three times day. One fellow that
But the reporter just at this point had
apressing engagement elsewhere. Kan
sas City. Times.