The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-08-24
The daehita Daily Eagle zaag sflorug august a. 1884

wealthy lady, ana the story goes that the
soldiers cut of her finger 10 get gold ring
thereon and tore OF the grave clothes il
search Of 4 watch which they believed had
been buried with her The oldest imni-
grants from this section told this story
with sort of shudder 10 the last of their
lives and no doubt il added great deal 10
that hatred of England which is still too
prevalent IN the west. The old font in
this church is made of a single piece Of
marble, the bowl browning so high a pc
destal that it looks like big imitation Of
a champagne glass. Ii was long believed
that this font was present from Queen
Anne in 1903 but the weight of evidence
Is that the original font was broken and
that this one was presented by friends in
England in 1875. In company with the
Rev. James /. Smiley, the young deacon
in charge, l wandered about the curious
old church and graveyard. and in noting
the names upon the old headstOnes l con
cluded that at least three-fourths of the
families there represented had vanished
from this region and were now in the
west.
have often heard my people tell of the
troubled year when the British came and
how they went on the neighboring hill
one night and saw the light of the burning
capitol ut Washington. In 1916, how
ever, came u worse trouble. II was the
famous cold summer, still remembered
from Maine TO Louisiana, the summer
when there were thousands of acres of corn
in New England and New York that never
reached height of two feet and when sleeU
and hail destroyed all the tobacco in south
ern Maryland. Then all the poorer fami-
lies, my own forebears among them. aban-
doned the struggle and struck out for the
new purchase in Kentucky.
Yet There l. Poverty.
Two things in this country surprise me
very much: One that there is so much fer
tile land and the other that a great deal of
it can be bought so very cheap. The
average crops Of corn, wheat and oats are
not much smaller than on the Illinois
prairies, all che fruits of that country can
be produced here and many more, while
fish. oysters and crabs can be had in album
dance with comparatively little labor.
And vet much land can be had for $40 per
acre, while $50 is considered pretty high
price for the best farms. Instead of going
farther west, il would seem that some of
the descendants Of the old Marylanders
i's-t lttit
selves. The summers are certainly not OPP
pressively hot if what I have felt is fair
sample, and they say it IS, and the au-
tumns are reported as very late and mild,
there being no really bad weather before
Christmas. The latter half of the win
ter, however, is very wet and chilly
much rain and sleet, with little or no
snow. To the general question about
there being 50 much poverty, the answer
of the enterprising citizen is: They live
too easy, sab. Too much fish and crabs
TO be had for the takin, and sweet potatoes
Will mighty neah grow of themselves.
Great plenty of fab wood to be had for
the cuttin, and an acre of tobacco will buy
all the clothes one of these poor families
needs in a year, and sugar and coffee be
sides. Yes, sab, that the trouble, sah-
they live altogether too easy, sah.''
j. b. PARKE.