Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1895-02-28

the simmer of that year the great raid
of the grasshoppers came. The tide OF
men and plows had then reached near
ly half way across the state. Wichita,
Eldorado, Abilene. Winfield and Nc
Pherson marked the outposts-
For 100 miles east of this
line the settlers had been
on the land but few years. They
were fighting the fight which the
pioneers had fought on the eastern
line of the state in go. They had no
reserve fofve. There were no bank ac-
counts, no leftover crops, nothing but
debts and new land and hopes and a
pluck that could not understand de-
feat any more than Columbus knew
the meaning of the word. The race
instinct for rowing westward had
driven them there. It forgot to teach
them the way back. So the grasshop-
pers came. and the hot winds blew in
the latter part of the summer, and
when the insects lifted their wings to
fly away in the fall, it was to look for
something to eat. They left nothing
not even the grass. For a few months
Kansas tried to care for her own needy.
The jewellers on the eastern boundary,
and in the counties 100 miles west OF
the Missouri line, remembered their
suffering fourteen years before, and
they were generous beyond their
ability. They had money in the
bank. They had few debts. They
thought they could take care OF
quarter of a million sufferers.
But the task was too great. In the
winter of 1874 the laid rooms moved
west. They were no longer at Atchi-
son, Topeka and Leavenworth, but
at Abilene, Eldorado, Wichita and
Winfield. To these towns the suffer
ers came in greatest numbers. The
suffering among these poor people was
terrible. Many and many family has
broken the family bureau-the last
relic of the old home 'back yonder"-
for fire wood before coming to the laid
room" for help.
After the ''grasshopper year" Kansas
went on fourteen-year boom. There
was little local drought in eastern
Kansas in 'S1-droughts come every
seven years in Kansas-but that did
not impede the growth of the state. In
those fourteen years the tide flowed
westward 40 miles. There was, in
deed, a floating population in towns
clear to the Colorado line. The last
Kansas county was organized by Gov.
Martin seven years ago. In 1887 the
population of Kansas might be said to
be staple as far west as Hutchinson.
From Hutchinson in" to the Missouri
river the people had been on their
farms and in their towns long enough
to make some Roadway against the
desert. They had paid for their houses
and the implements and their farms.
There was little residue left over
every year after harvesting the crops.
But in the boom years of 1SS5-6-7 spec
| ulation bad driven the tide of
humanity further west. The land
was settled, after a fashion, along
the railroads built in those
years, as far as Scott City. Tree claims,
| which to-day do not bear tree, were
taken. The soil was plowed. The
water which pours in floods over this
country was caught in the ''breaking.''
But in the three years of the new set
Element nothing had accumulated so
rapidly as debts in the new country
beyond the big bend of the Arkansas.
| Then the drought of 1887 came-which
swept over the entire state of Kansas
only the frontiersmen felt it. The
greater part of Kansas, which had been
sending train loads of provisions to
Ohio and Mississippi flood sufferers
in the early sos, came to the rescue
of the people out on the high prairie.
A special session of the legislature was
called, and Kansas took care of her own
needy.
The drought which came last year
| came on time. It was seven years
after the one before. According to the
weather records at the state university
last year was the driest on the twenty
| five years record. Yet Kansas did not
feel it. The state of Kansas, from Ar
gentine to Garden City, is in better
| condition than any of the western
states. Seven years ago there was an
laid room" at Garden City. This year
| the people there are getting up relief
committees to help their neighbors
still west. It is the western fifth OF
| Kansas this time which is suffering. In
| another seven years it will be the east
| ern Colorado. Year by year the tide
| moves on. 1t will not stop. 1t has
conquered a desert, literally made it
blossom as the rose. Nothing can
stop it.
| In the old days there were all sorts
of people at the laid room" One
woman in Junction City in ''grasshop-
per year." after looking over the cloth
| ing on the counter in the laid room"
| turned to go, saying she guessed she
would't take anything to-day, as she
| had plenty of every day dresses, but