San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1893-05-08
ACROSS THE PLAINS.
RIDING THROUGH THE GREAT GRAM
AIRY OF THE WORLD.

How and When and Where One Begins
to Get Realizing Sense of the Nastness
of the Grea: plains.
1t is easy enough to take an atlas ard
figure out that the distance from Chlc2-
go or st. Louis to Pixies peak Is greater
than the distance from New York to
Chicago or st. Louis 1t is not so easy
actually to realize and understand the
tremendous nature Of that fact.
We are all accustomed to say with,
the plibness that comes from repeated
iteration, that this is a great country,
but a man who sits still and reads about
its greatness, even though his magma
ton NAV be unusually lively and fertile,
cannot obtain such realizing sense of
the area and resources and boundless
possibilities of our national domain as
one who actually traverses it.
Another thing that everybody knows
in a sort of way is that the great west is
the granary of the world, but you cannot
begin to understand what that means
until you have travelled whole day on
a fast train through miles upon miles
of apparently imitless cornfelds that
stretch west from Chicago to the Missis-
sippi-west 400 miles across the great
state of Iowa to the Missouri and 400
miles more through the equally great
states of Nebraska and Kansas.
After a whole day of corntields, di-
versifed every two or three hours with
we'll built, thoroughly equipped, hust-
ling western city, and knowing, too, that
this great grainfeld reaches north and
south 600 miles, one begins to get an
idea of what it means to say that this Is
the worlds granary.
Indiana and Illinois, especially the for
mer. are rather fat, but Iowa has very
good sized hills throughout the state
from east to west; hills from 100 to 200
feet perhaps above the level of the sur
rounding plains and the valleys that di-
vide them. After you ascend the bluff
west Of the Missouri river at Omaha
there begins the real prairie, which is
not fiat country nor yet billy, but a
vast billOwy eXpanse that looks more
like the ocean than any other land ever
saw.
Nebraska and Kansas the surface soil
is black loan, which, when freshly
turned up by the plow conveys the al
most irresistible impression of having
Just been burned over, it is so black.
No wonder corn grows anywhere from
to 10 yards high III such a soil! No
wonder that crop after cropcan be raised
70 re
marvellous fertility!
The feeling that comes over one on the
prairies, out of sight of anything except
the vast expanse Of cornfelds, is COM
parable with nothing else than the feel
ing one has who is at sea, out of sight of
land. Yet it is different from that. Per-
haps it is not quite such lonely feeling
for the corn itself, and the barbed wire
fences, and the occasional little farm
house in the distance are a constant re-
minder that one is still really surrounded
by evidences Of civilization.
But the boundless vision, the absence
of any horizon-or what seems its alb
sence to one accustomed to having his
horizon bounded by hills or mountains
only a short distance away-bears in
upon the mind an impression Of the i'm
mensity of space and the ininitesimal
smallness of man that if yielded to is at
first really appalling After awhile one
gets used to it, and the feeling of oppres-
sion wears off, and instead there comes
feeling Of freedom, Of having plenty of
room, that is eXhilarating, but at first
one feels entirely overcome.
We were fortunate enough to get our
first sight of Pixies peak at sunrise, and
wonderful and never to be forgotten
sight it was. 1t was about half past {
in the morning, and just at that point
we were running southwark. On the
left hand side Of the train the sky was
afame with vivid pink. On the right
the full moon, still bright, was low down
near the horizon. On a sudden some one
cried, "Oh, there it is" No need to ash
what. Every one knew what lit" mus
be-
Yes, there was a snOwclad mountain
almost under the full moon, its ridge!
rejecting back nasCent pink from the
glow in the east, while still shining colo
and white in the food of moOnshine.
did not seem far away-not any farther
really, at first glance, than it seems
from here as look up at it from my
west window. Yet it was 81 miles from
us.
We have all read of the wonderful,
clear air Of the Rocky mountain region
and the deceptiveness of distances here
but even knowing that found it simpl,
impossible to reconcile the alleged dis
tance of the peak with what l could Sc
with my own eyes. There positivel
was not room for IL not To snr 90 milo