The Globe-republican., 1895-03-08
The Proud Kansan.

The Proud kansan.
Logan county, Kansas, is out on
the high prairie, only few leagues
from the Colorado and the Nebraska
lines. It is the very center of the
drouth area in Western Kansas, and
the town of Winona is one Of the
principal towns in the county. If
any place in the entire northwestern
portion of Kaneas where want and
suffering are reported to be most
painful, is i'll distress, Winona and
Logan county should be the picture
of misery. Yet the very reverse OF
this seems to be true. According to
the local paper, printed at Winona, a
car Of "aid'' from some over sympa
thetic friends of Kansas in the East
came to Wionona, and after it was
unloaded, the contents of the Car,
which consisted mostly Of clothing,
stood almost untouched. and is today,
so far as the clothing is concerned,
Just as it was when it came in. The
local paper says: ''Of the seventy
five men who were in town Saturday,
looking over the aid, there was not
one who wore clothes that was as
poor as those that were sent ont here
i'll the "aid car.
The local paper probably tells the
truth. The good people OF the saw
ing and "scrimping" East do not
realize that the Kansas farmer is one
Of the best dressed, best kept, best
housed and fed farmers in the world,
if not the very best. The Kansas
farmer does not know what home
made clothes look like. He buys a
suit of 'store clothes at least once a
year, and wears them for Sunday,
one year. and for every day the next.
After that they disappear. Every
Kansas farmer boys wears "bought-
en- clothes, and the old fashioned
custom of cutting the clothes down
from the father to the eldest boy, and
from the eldest, in stairsteps down to
the Youngest, has almost gone out Of
vogue. A necktie is not an uncom
mon sight at a gathering of Kansas
farmers, and the absence OF some
sort of a collar upon fairly pros
porous Kansas farmer is rarked in
the most forlorn neighbor. The
farmers wife, too, in Kansas, and
the farmers daughters especially,
keep up with the fashion. When
the train stops at small station out
where the unburied dead of the
famine are supposed to be littering
the ground, the girl who gets Oh the
train will wear just as big sleeves
and as wide skirt as the girl who
gets on at KANSAS City or Chicago.
When the Commercial club train
went down into Arkansas and South
western Missouri last December, the
members, Of the club remarked that
the old fashion knit, tight fitting
Jersey jacket and the zephyr hood
were prevalent among the women of
the Ozarks, The times had been
hard for the past three or four years,
and the country people were saving
to meet the eXiSencies of the times
But when the train crossed the Kan
sas line for Il day or SO, away went
the Jersey and in came the big
sleeves. And it is thus from the
eastern line to the western line of
Kansas. Kansas men and Kansas
women will dress well if they starve
They will be in style if they SO with
ont ccal
The men at Winona who fumbled
over the second hand laid" clothes
and left them untouched because per
haps the, were home made, are
typical of the Kansas race. Kansas
must have the best or nothing.
Kansas grows the biggest crops,
makes the biggest failures, makes
the greatest strides, has the greatest
backsets, SAWS the most woodland
she's prairie State-cut the most Ice
for a waterless State-wears the
brcadest smile, has the highest hopes,
pays the highest interest, and upon
the whole is prouder of everything,
and Apologies for more. and is as
named of less than any State in the
sisterhond. In the meantime, while
Kansas does really need help, out on
the high prairie, she doesn't want
anybody's, home made duls, nor
warm over victuals. But few car
loads Of spiked tailed coats, and club
steaks would be highly acceptable in
this TIM If need. In case the club
steaks are out Of stock, porterhouse
OF rio roast will do.-kansas City
Star.