The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-09-28

Inc WORK mas ucen uone. so Iar rs n
has been done at all, by piecemeal. and
| the best state maps, If the attempt is
made to put them together after the
| manner OF a map puzzle, Will not
match"
1t is this vastness, the vague bigness
of the country, that has made us the
most wasteful and careless people in
| the world about land. What is an acre
lean? What is land in any quantity
that man should stand by it and toll
and moil over it a lifetime, possibly at
loss and disadvantage, when he can
move any day to more land and better
land? Hence, there is in America q
lack Of sentiment that attaches q man
to the acres his father and his grand
father titled. BE leaves them with
JOY. and not with grief. and goes a
thousand miles to take up" other
acres, without associations, it is true,
but just as good in his estimation. In
''the land of the pilgrims PRIDE" the
very acres titled by the pilgrims them
selves are to-day left waste and de-
serted and lapsing into the wilderness
This carelesspess about the value OF
land, the result of its abundance ex-
tends to its cultivation. There is very
little high farming" in the United
States; that laborious cultivation, that
utilization of every foot of ground seen
in the older countries-in Germany. in
France. in Belgium, etc. No Amer
dean climbs mountains and is lowered
over cliffs to cut little grass. as in
Switzerland. Every township in the
United States, east, west. north and
south, has its waste place. There is
not county in the United States that
is cultivated TO it's full capacity. 1t is
safe to say that this is true of Lam
caster county, Pa, counted the richest
agricultural county in the union. The
right of way of the railroad is no,
utilized, not one acre in a hundred. and
that one fact illustrates the indiffer.
ence, the carelessness, the wasteful.
ness, of the American as far as land is
concerned.
The American Is good and free
liver; he has natural bill of fare to
draw from unequaled in any other
country, but he is not careful liver.
He does not make the best use Of his
material, aro he throws away more
than the citizen of any other civilized
country eats OF this fact he is per-
fectly aware and is proud of it. There
is the utmost equality in the matter of
eating and drinking in this land. The.
poorest man will not eat what the
richest would refuse. We have not in
this country, God be praised. any peas
antry-and class of people born poor
and expecting to remain poor and
transmit their poverty un6iminished
to their descendants; no people who
are content to get meat but once a
week or once a month because their
forefathers thus INDUCED in that lux
ury. We have no national dish
seen and smelt everywhere-eaten be-
cause il is cheap; eaten By poor people
as distinguished from well to do peo-
pie.
These ideas about land and living
are as old as the American people;
they proceed. as has been explained, !
from the natural features Of the coun- |
try; they are results of the scenery;
they are ip the air. Foreigners COM |
ing 10 this country do not retain the |
saving old country notions, the small |.
economies, the peasant I
fashions beyond the first generation,
aud usually not that long Notwith-
standing the claim that the poor arc
growing poorer with us, that the num-
Der of the destitute and unemployed IL
there has been no percspti-
BILE change in American habits Of liy-
ing: no signs of a growing disposition
TO economy.
These conditions are merely set -orth
without Lote or comment The fate
Df the instructor in domestic economy
in this country Is not a happy one
the most universally despisei
American Is Mr. Edward Atkinson, %
Boston, who publishes recipes for
making a piece Of neck cut OF just
back Of the horns as good Is sirloin.
The American answer 10 all this Is:
We don't ca. neck" Some foreigners
hocght 20 grieve ~ by Saving that
Americans had forty religions and
,nly one soup.' but 20 this the bold /
American spake up and made reply;
We can have all The religions We
,lesse; and, as for soup. IL - cheap
,uH made 20 save waste and bones.
nd one il enough The American 10
Tot a saver nor an econosols. ia any .
ire. and for the extreme economist -
'as pretty household eo!loquisi nzn.e
or him. and that j. hog Ephrs.rn ,
5 joined 20 his expensive idols; lei hsx
City star