The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-12-10
IT GROWS SWAGGER
NANCY YANKS TAKES TINE TO
TOUCH UP THE ANCESTRY OF
WICHITA A LITTLE.
Numerous Entertainments Make tho Week
a Lively 0ns in Local Society Cir.
cles-List of Balls, Soirses, Recep-
tons and Whist Parties

Wichita Is growing swagger. Some
times I think she is growing quite toe
awfully swagger for anything.
| At this rate we shall soon be able te
boast of our bloated aristocrats, our landed
gentry aud all the rest Of it.
Now, if we are going to be real swagger
we must be looking ~ our grandfathers
One must have pedigree at least as long
as that of a pug dog. to be strictly in it.
Alas How many of us have any grand
fathers to speak OF That is, enough tc
| amount to anything.
Better let sleeping dogs lie. 1t is a
ticklish thing, this rumaging around fol-
grandfathers, whose characters might not
| be sufficiently robust to stand the ordeal
of premature resurrection. Possibly, ii
| would also be better for our own peace oil
| mind to let them await Tue final day oil
! judgment
Mark Twain says the family trees OF
| Americans, are trees from which their an
cestors We're hung. This is draw
ing 1t tr!f1s. strong; but there Is
more truth in il than poetry.
Look at the Virginians; how proud tney are
of their English antecedents. Aud yet
! have read somewhere, or l have heard II
| said, that these same autecedentS We're
young men, often the younger sons oil
| English families who were sent to Amer
| lea to escape punishment for petty crimes
| and miSdemeanors.
The kentuckiuns pride themselves on
their blue blOoded Virginia ancestors, and
| SO it goes. Louisi mans boast OF thelr
| French descent. 1t is Il matter of history
| that when Louisiana was first settled girls
| of all sorts and conditions were sent from
| France as wives for the men. the marriage
| rites after they arrived were simple enough
they jumped the broomstick. OF course
ali this was several hundred years ago,
but 1t goes to prove that 1t won't DO tC
resurrect Qua ancestors.
| And now the great west is beginning to
give herself airs. and at the same time she
! is beginning to lose that breezy lndepend
ence which is her chief and best charac-
teristic.
! 1t is impossible to say who were
| the ancestors of the western people.
| They We're people from every state in the
| Union; from every country in the world,
The great west is made up of Virginians,
| Kent uck yians, New Workers, Pensy !vania
| Dutch, Hoosisrs, CorncrackerS, every
body.
The western people have grandfathers
everywhere, some still living and saving
wood; others dead with plain pine boards
to mark their graves.
The fathers and grandfathers OF Kansas
| followed Horace Greeley's advice to go
west and grow up with the country
while Horace remained in the east and
| viewed the outcome Of his sage advice
| through the medium of an opera glass as
| it were Many poor fellow came west,
| TO the land supposed to be flowing with
| milk and honey, and fought Indians, and
| rattlesnakss aud coyotes; aud lived IN I,
dugout and wearing the same suit OF
nj 4,
| could tell, from its style aud cut, the exact
year, and the season of the year. that he
took his claim
His wife cooked the simple meals and
kept the dug-out clean. How she ever did
it, with the dirt floor, and rattlesnakes
dropping every now and then from the
ceiling, and llttering things up, l don't
see Think of the life of one of those
| Kansas graudmothers at that period
| when she finished her supper dishes she
varied the monotony OF work by looking
out at the light in her nearest neigh boris
window, fifteen or twenty miles away.
A distance like that Is most too great to
take ones knitting and chat for an hour
or two. unless one had seven league boots;
so she gave sigh CHEESE women were very
patient, or they could never have lived
these lives) and sat down by the fire,
listened to the wind sweeping and
whistling across the broad prairie, the
wolves bowling and the prairie dogs bark
ing, and mended her old gowns.
Is it wonder that many of them lost
their minds with the loneliness OF 1t all2
Kansas insane asylum statistics show
that large per cent OF the
in-~.tes have been, and still are,
farmers wives, women who lived alone
IN the dreariness of their prairie homes.
OF course more crazy people come to Kan
sas than to any other state; but that has
nothing to do with the case. 70 return to
tie farmers wife who did not lose her
mind, and who is perhaps An ancestor of
some bowling Kansas swell. f1ourishing at
the present time like green bay tree; she
lost her dresses. sad to relate, she hung
them on the line the day the grasshoppers
happened along. and they ate them, to the
last shred. Whatever she did for dresses
after that can't tell, not being on the
spot at the time, but she would probably
cave been glad of II tenth of the wearing
apparel her children INDUCED in when the
great ives. began to boom.
She wouldn't know her children now If
she could see them, so many OF them
walk in silk attire;
And sifer ha' TO spare"
No dugouts for them with dirt floor and
matched roof.
That old ranch where the father wrestled
with grasshoppers. drouths, hot winds.
prairie hires and prairie dog towns, nap
pened 20 be in the very center of swell
little town, and his children awakened one
fine morning to find themselves aristo-
cratS.
That is the beauty of living in America.
One can become an aristocrat on the spur
of the moment 1t only requires the
chink OF gold-not always the gold. even
Just the chink. And, let me tell you,
gold is not to be despised. lt gives us
L h.. u HI
world. 1t gives US comfort and luxury
and ease 1t gives us hundreds of friends
there is no doubt about that: but about
the quality of their friendship there Is
sometimes room for doubt. In fact, it
gives us nearly everything worth having.
but grandfathers. Ii can't give us grand
fathers: but then, after all, If we have
enough gold. we can manage TO dispense
with the luxury of a grandfather.
NANCY YANKS.
THOSE IN 1HE SWIM.