Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1894-08-11

also says the heat Das Deen so intenae
as TO ripen grapes a month earlier than
was ever known there before.
Another letter from the Hawkeye
state IL from A. X. Dabney, at Winter
sett, IN the rich blue grass belt, In
which he writes to bis brother here:
MY DEAR BRoTHER:-This is the
hardest year for Iowa l ever saw. 1t
is 30 hot and has been so very dry for
50 long that all kinds Of grain and
vegetation are literally burned up.
Extreme hot winds, such as prevail in
western Kansas, have been very dis
astrous to everything here. 1 was Ia
he country yesterday and saw hun
,ireds Of acres Of corn that will not
! ield a single bushel to the acre. In
I flct IL is dried up and looks as dead as
1t generally does ebout October /. Hay
is now worth from Sl2 to SIS per ton,
old corn from so cents to go cents per
bushel, potatoes $1.20 per bushel and
80 on in about The same way for all
kinds of farm produce. This has had
very depressing effect on all kinds OF
stock-horses range from nothing to
$50 per head. Some people are offering
to give away their surplus horses and
some say they will kill what they do
not need. One man told me Saturday
that he was going to kill three. Hogs,
cattle and sheen are also very low. II
next winter il AS long and severe a.
usual. there wi | doubtless be the larg-
est loss of stock that this state ever had
All of these things; added to the hard
times, makes it almost impossible #"
collect any money. Instead Of having
money with which to pay debts the
farmers generally will be compelled to
borrow money to pay for feed which
must be shipped here from other states
4, If it can be bad. Everybody is dis
cOuraged.
A. r. DABNEY.
Them comes from Renville, MinD.,
and describes their recent cyclone. The
writer says: ut missed US only ten
rods. 1t was an awful moment. My
husband was in the yard with the
children picking up hailstones, when
he saw it coming. He grabbed up the
babies and rushed into the house saying:
Go to the cellar with the children,
quick / knew what that meant for
he never said cellar before. took one
look as I passed the kitchen window
and saw it in all its magnificence just
before it struck the first house. 1t was
coming in q bee-line for us when we
rushed down stairs. 1 huddled the
children under my wing in the south
east corner of the cellar. My husband
lay on the cellar steps and had per-
feet view of all through the cellar win
dow. About ten rods from our house
1t raised and moved out of its course to
the east, and then came to the ground
again, taking everything in Its way,
dwellings, church and school house,
barns and outbuildings too numerous
to mention. One old lady and her son
were in their house and did not see the
found afterwards some rods from the
place badly bruised and broken up.'
More details are given and the writer
| continues:
"The cyclone made up only few
miles from here and had not gained its
full strength, but further on it did
more damage, taking some iiyes,as you
have no doubt read. No one would
have known our little town ten min
utes after"
Another letter comes from Pasadena,
California, In which an old admirer of
the golden state tells about everything
being burnt up, fruit rotting aud no
grain crop to speak Of, yet he insists
that they are pretty close to paradise.
The next comes from New York City,
In which the writer says: III have the
western fever Of late, but have not been
able to impress my people with it until
now. They now say that affairs and
business are 50 dreadful that they
would gladly go west or anywhere to
get away from 1t. Since the panic last
summer there has been nothing doing
here. Noone has prospered except the
grocers and butchers.
1t Is not the. intention Of this article TO
cry down any of the places from which
these letters are quoted, and we could
give maybe more, but 1t sometimes
does people good to know that they are
not the worst of Of all mankind, aud
OregonIans are far from that condition.
On the contrary, 1t would not be boast
ful, and could hardly be contradicted,
To say that Oregon was the best oil Of
all the states. We should be slow TO
complain when all the country Is prac-
tically worse off than we.
A GOOD SUGGESTION.
The CAPITAL JOURNAL suggests that