The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-03-20
voIcELsss DAKOTA HENS.
q Plea and a Protest Against a Con-
temporary Magazine Article.


8 Plea and Protest Against a Con
temporary Magazine Article.
Prom tie Nss5 YORK Tribune.
We call the attention Of the euterprising
and iFrsprsssible citizens Of Dakota 70 the
fact tina. another enemy has taken the fisld.
Arise, ye boomers of the bounding plain
and defend your much-maligned land
True, this new attack comes, apparently
from a woman, but We doubt IL even her
sex can save her from the fury Of the
valiant landO Hners, townlOt agents, and
editors Of the sun-kssed, blizzsrd-rocked
prairies of the two Dakotas.
The lady in the case writes 70 the Con-
tributors' Club Of the Atlantic Monthly
She refers % the two grand imperial states
simply as Dakota, and says that she once
lived there for fourteen months. We will
pass over her ordinary. commonplace
charge that the winters are too cold and the
summers too hot; that the winds swirl up
the choking dust TO the heavens, and the
binding lightning flashes down upon the
dsfenseless earth; that the rain falls in tor
rents; that the hail beats out the brains OF
men and cattle; that the blizzard rushes
down the chimney and blows out the fire in
the stove; that prairie fires. started by the
fierce flashes Of the demoniacal lightning
sweep the parched plain till they are Jared
out by the earth-and- heaven~shaking thun-
der; that In winter ones eyelids freeze
together II one wicks while looking
out Of the window, and that through
it all. there Is the mighty, steady, wailing,
roaring surging, inward rush OF the deadly
wind. cold as the boreal pole in winter. bot
as the breath OF a furnace seven times
heated in summer which drives women in-
sane and causes men TO pray for death and
20 curse because 1t does not come 20 their
longing arms-we will, we say, pass over
these minor aud commonplace charges aud
come at once 10 tho worst indictment ever
framed against a state of the American
union. 1t Is this, that no hen ever cackles
or cock ever crows In Dakota, such Is the
depressing influence Of the wind. Warriors
OF the booming prairies, arise and vindicate
your chickens!
The lady treats the silence Of the hens at
some length. The Dakota hen, instead OF
loudly heralding her wonderful feat Of lay
ing an egg, seems TO seek rather not to have
the fact known at all. She will slip away
out OF the back door Of the nest and come
back TO her scratching place IN the flower
bed by circuitous route. as IL she would
convey the impression that she had simply
been walking In the back yard in search OF
a newly rumored colony Of angle. worms
IL caught coming directly from the nest she
puts on a certain Indifferent, it-wasn't-I air,
which says TO the Atlantic contributor as
plainly as words, True, have been in the
nest, but went there simply to rest"
The ever-rushing wind has crushed out
her last spark of galliUaceous vau-
ity. No rising morn in Dakota
IL greeted by the clarion note Of
chanticleer. The lady had one rooster
" hen she went there. He crowed the frat
morning-the rest was silence. The wind
blew the crow al o2t Of him. Sometimes
1t was pitiful to watch him. He would get
around behind cabbage head, or tumble
weed, or spear Of grass, or something Of
that kind, where he was somewhat pro-
teoted from the terrible wind and open his
mouth to crow, but it would only end in a
little gasp, and be would walk back aud
bear the reproaohful looks OF the hens,
while his tail feathers cracked and whipped
in the roaring wind, and his top-knot sailed
away into the next county along with the
chimney from the Atlantic writer's house
and an anvil from neighborlag blacksmith
shop. Dakota appears 10 be no country
for self-respecting rooster to settle down
in and Jock upon as home.
Our only reason for referring TO these
serious charges of the Atlantic CORE
spondent Is to call the attention Of the sons
OF Dakota to them. We do not feel that
we need to attempt to answer them-Da-
k0ta is too well able to take care Of herself
We will only add that we have not vet told
the half No dog ever barks In Dakota.
No horse ever whinnies there. Rats will
not live there. Death rides on the awful
aerial maeIsirom and desolation broods end
less Ger the hideous sceue.