Birmingham age-herald., 1895-02-24

ruSSlc for himself in the snow, an then when tn spring rains come, hell go all to pieces unless he gets good nursin' and feedin'. But we won't have nothin' to give 'em."
 Horses are, us usual thing, cheaper in this country than good saddles, but at this time there is fair proportion of men who would willingly give away their favorite horses if they could thus insure the animals good barns and plenty of feed.
 But the people cannot afford to think now of these minor affections of their hearts.
 The writer rode forty miles through the country, recently. The air turned the driver a dark shade, until he resem- bIcd some kind of purple Indian from Brazil, and the team became complete ly coated with snow and ice, as if their little brown bodies were in quaint ulsters. They became dull and stupid in the storm. Under the drivers fog ging they barely stirred, holding their heads dejcctcdly, with an expression of unutterable patient wcariness. Six men were met upon the road. They strode along silently with patches of ice upon their boards. The fields were for the most part swept bare of snow, and there appeared then the short stumps of the corn, where the hot winds of the summer gnawed the stalks away.
 Yet this is not in any sense type of Nebraska storm. It is phenomenal. It is typical only of the nisfortunes of this part of tho state. It is commen- surate with other things, that this tempest should come at precisely the time when it will be remarkable if cer- tain of the people endure it.
 Eddyville received consignment of aid recently. There were eighty sacks of flour and dozen boxes of clothing. For miles about the little village the farmers, came with their old wagons and their ill-fed horses. Some of them blushed vixen they went before the local committee to sign their names and get the charity. They were strong, fine, sturdy men, not pended like the eastern farmer but erect and agile. Their faces occasionally expressed the subtle inner tragedy which relief of food and clothing at this time can do
 
 again lively, but there was an clement al mournfulness in the little crowd. They spoke of the weather great deal.
 Two days afterward the building where the remainder of the relief stores had been put away burned to the ground.
 farmer in Lincoln county recently said: No, didn't get no aid. had ter drive twenty-five miles t git my flour, an then drive back agin an didn't think tn team would -stscd it, thav been poor fed so long. Besides, I'd had ter put up dollar to keep tn team over night an didn't have none. l hain't had no aid!"
 "How do you get along?"
 Don't git along, stranger. Who the h. tol' you got along?"
 In the meantime, the business men in the eastern part of the state, particu- larly in the splendid cities of Omaha and Lincoln, are beginning to feel the great depression resulting from extraor dinary accounts which have plastcred the entire state as place of woe. Wis itors to the country have looked from car windows to see the famine-stricken bodies of the farmers lying in the fields, and have trod lightly in the streets of Omaha to keep from crushing the bodies of babes. But the point should be emphasized that the grievous condi-. tion is confined to comparatively mar row section of the western part of the state.
 Gov. Holcombe said to the writer: ''It is trie that there is much misery in the state, but there is not the universal privation which has been declared. Crop failure was unknown until 1890 when the farmers lost much of their labor, but at that time, and in 1893, when partial loss was experienced, the eastern half of the state was able to take care of the western half where the failure was pronounced.
 ''This year has been so complete a failure as to reduce many to extreme poverty, but I do not think that there are more than twenty per cent. in need. Great irrigation entSrprfses that are Eow being inaulgprsfsd wifi, do doubt, elimi9ate the conrse of failure in large distriots ot the west6rn paft of the state. The grain that Is prdduced and stock tKAt IS raised ih this sfatS put it in the front of the great agricultural commonwealthA have no doubt that