The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-08-06
A GOOD YEAR TO FORGET IN.

! There is little of the f1ictlonal bombast
or inflated and unreal enthusiasm in the
wonderful things that are said of Okla
homa at present. Very frequently there
is an exaggeration assumed in newspaper
columns which, while its aim IS lauda-
bic. the people of whom it is said feel
that it is fictitious and at best much of a
sham. When thing is said with view
to the betterment of their condition, the
people will not deny the overdrawn
prosperity, however much they feel that
they are without it. But in great
measure this is not true of Oklahoma.
Here is the bare soil; there is nothing to
lose, no burdens to carry, no mortgage
Indebtedness, no heavy taxes to pay;
here is the loan, stir it, plant you sim
gle grain of corn, in three months time
pluck your ear of corn; every grain has
yielded five hundred grains. This is
what the Oklahoma farmer has done.
His four hundred and ninety-nine grains
is clear profit. There are no circum-
venting barriers; no procrustean exac-
tons; no devil-tish principal to blind his
happiness; no interest tentacles to suck
the vitality of his prosperity. That is
not prosperity where happiness is not.
The Oklahoma pioneer has this.
But he has endured great deal in the
past year. He has been beset with
troubles; his land has been contested; his
first crop has failed; he has arisen from
his meal hungry; he has been shorn Of
his own coat to keep his babies warm in
winter; his wife has, in great many
instances, lived on the bare ground with
a rickety shack her only shelter He has
borne a world of trouble on his shoulders.
1t is something for the millionaire to
lose his million; it is something for the
monarch to lose his kingdom. But there
is no pain like that of the heart and the
physical system. The Oklahoma farmer
has undergone that.
But here is glorious year-a year to
rejoice in and year to forget in. To
forget the toiling and wailing of the two
initial years; to obscure the trials and
tribulations of the pioneer life; and
dOONc dIl " IOOh IOI W dlO W al NOIIlItOI-
wealth, which it is Oklahoma's function
to perfect-a commonwealth of homes.
If a man has lost his claim
in a conteSt-forget the bad feel
ing it has engendered and cease to
mourn the i'll luck New lands are com
ing in and new chances offered. You
will get land IN the new territory, for it
is not the purpose of God, who whIrls
the great universal wheel of fortune, to
let a man go forever in despair. He
never has and never will.
Forget the rubS and bumps and
scratches and tears you have received,
and 60 in like a new warrior who does
not know wound or the pain of hurt.
Work your woes off by blowing your
fields, and pillow deep. There never was
a better fertilizer than worked off woes
and thorough determination. Hide your
discouragements at the bottom of bin
of corn which came to you at forty bush
els to the acre; bury your past disap-
pointments and above it stack the wheat
that yielded twenty-five bushels to the
acre, and let your happiness be as I'M
spotted as the cotton blossom. In all
the human race there is nothing more
than a pioneer in his strength,
and the Oklahoma pioneer is there.