The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1889-11-16
MISSOURI :.

| IJoaquin Miller in New York Independent.
And how glorious are the fields
| Missouri is surely the fattest state il
NIl the union. C0rni corn corn! sea
Of corn in the billowy hills to right anC
to left, front aud rear, as far as the eye
| can sweep. And so tall and strong
and heavy! Pharoah and all his hosts
could be swallowed up in this sea o.
corn that would completely hide botl
horse and rider of modern times.
Turkeys wander in long strings and
walk the tangled grass as fat as butter.
The cattle are tat and sleek; for every.
where they are helly-drep in Glove
fields We pass several breeds of horn =
less or "mOoley" black cattle, such as
you see in the north of Scotland.
On one of the pretty oak-set hills |
saw Just now small band of tame elk.
Surely this is very rich and most
perfectly cultivated part of the world
II there is single foot of ground here
hat Is not fruitful and tit tor garden,
have not yet found il. 1t j. as rich
as the Red River region in Dakota, and
then to see how warm and no " sweet
with flowers aud "the smell OF the
praries' the larger half of the yearl
Indeed, never saw such glory OF
grass and flower, if we except Mexico
and California, as | find here to-day.
The wild sun-flDwers actually tip toe
up and lean toward us as if to look in
at tho windows of the car
AS we climb the hills and come near
er to what " as once the wide and wild
treeless prairies, the corn is turning
yellow and the harvesters are putting
It in the shock. Prairie hens fly BY
with whirr; there are puffs of smoke
here aud there. The rich aud conserv
alive gentlemen of st. Louis are pick
ing the birds out of the air as. they Il,
overhead.
On the treeless hills some sumac
bushes have set red banners, and W.
know king Jack Frost is not far ava,
with his wintry hosts Old Virginia
worm" fences are stopping low under
their loads of briers ami Virginia creep
ers, and seams and streams of scarler
twine up and down and around old
rottlng trees that the farmers girdled
or "deadened" long ago. Are these
red seams his life blood, or do they
bind his wounds and heel his broken
heart?
And now join me ont in the open
pralrle where only the osage- orange
hedge Is TO be seen on either hand fOr
10, 20, 30 milesl Yet still we have on
either hand and forever the continuous
seas of cornl
And now we begin to see how il
is that there is suCh an uproar
along the lines of the railroad in
al tlh oil ~
corn must be moved to the seaboard.
And now we can begin to see how it il
and why it is that st. Louis is $50 rich
and so respectable" as to be almost un
popular. have never,ip all my travels
around the globe, seen snch boundless
and fertile fields! We are driving right
into the flushed and falling sun, and
Kansas City Is not tar away. Still, the
continuous fields of stately corn remain
unbroken.
Again we enter the open parks Of
oak, ash aud maple trees. More cattle
with black, sleek sides, more deer in d
park, and more turkeys in the tall
grass.
And now a high marble edifice on a
far away bill before us as the car
rounds bluff of the Missouri river !;
then tall, brick sIiokestack down in
the valley, another; two, ten, forty.
We round another hill of oaks, aud
below us in the valley and all about us
lies the new -born,. the bold and the
audacious Kansas City in the remotesl
corner of the fattest state in the union
leave the car and ascend the hill to
see the young giantess of the west
What scenei [ stand on hill among
the oaks above the town till--listening
to the myriad voices of progress and
| wondering at the works OF man-til
the day snrrenders and the sun haslaid
his red sword at my feet.