The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-08-09
AND 1T GOES ON AND ON
Of Course Nothing Under the
Sun Can Head Off
The "Mrs. Lease Queen Of the
Festival Fake.
Chicago Times-Herald Gingerbread
Writer INDUCES In Lot of Cuff
About Harvest Homes, Etc

The following appears in yesterdays
Chicago Times-Herald:
An era of sentiment not without po-
htical significance has dawned in the
west. Mrs. Mary Ellen Lease, who
received nine votes for United States
senator, is to be queen of the harvest
and ride in a "hoaky cart waving Z
sheaf OF ripened grain and wearing q
$4,000 crown, a new feature of the har-
vest home festival, and one that will
cOntrasted with the simplicity of the
occasion. Specula ton is busy trying
to find out what will compose the tiara
which is to adorn Mrs. Leases brow
whether it will be a crown OF gold, that
metal being the traditional substance
of which crowns are wrought, or of
silver as an exponent of the wearer'S
policy-and If ii will be permitted Mrs.
Lease to keep it when her reign of a
week is over as collateral for the re-
sponsibiHties OF her position Looked
at in any connection, the wearing of it
means triumph for the clever Popu-
list leader, and her friends who origin
ated the scheme were judicious in Sc
Letting as harvest queen one who is
in the zenith of her ripened years. The
pretty girl who wore crown of flowers
and rode sideways on fat field horse
and giggled at her rustic admirers was
a worthy successor to the straw image
of the last load in the Olden harvest
fields, and Mrs. Lease will effectually
replace the insipid picture of rustic
>
full and gracious presence.
This dazzling announcement at once
con1ures up series of harvest pic
lures. Abraham among his reaperS
in the fertile land of Canaan-Isaac
musing in the field at eventide-Jacob
laboring to win Rachel-JoSeph in the
great granaries of Egypt-Ruth stand
ing breast high among the alien corn
and now Mary Ellen Lease wearing
a $4,000 crown, such as the Queen of
Sheba might have adorned herself with
CNA11
will turn this historic and poetic inten-
ton into ridicule and prevent the final
success of such a brilliant climax to
the prosperity of the west. 1t is we'll
known that Mrs. Lease cannot take q
joke. She herself says that she is alb
SOlutely devoid of any sense of humor,
which is remarkable when the fact that
she is of Irish birth is taken into con-
sideration. Possibly ex-senator In
gals might not agree with this state
ment, his senatorial position being
breathed into dissolution by a satire
that was keen and incisive with wit.
But this paper has to do with pas
torals, not politics. Mrs. Lease will
be called on to make a speech when
on that last load of grain. 1t has been
said of her oratory that while she
might evoke smiles in the classic halls
of congress, it was power on the praf-
ries when she was sowing the seeds of
the free silver propaganda. At least,
she had the courage to thank God that
-.
too, when John ]. Ingalls, had said that
women, like the decalogue, had no place
in politics.
It is to be hoped that the committee
having affairs in charge will not lose
sight of art and exchange the 'hoa6y
cart" for a landau and four horses
from the nearest livery stable. Mrs.
Lease in her new role of queen must
NOT lose SIGHT of the TRADITIONS of tba
harvest field, nor must Kansas in her
splendid prosperity let generosity sac
600 crowns do not grow on every har-
vest bush, but if the occasion is divest-
ed of its natural accessories the crown
loses its significance in mere splendor.
The harvest home is a festival that
had its origin in England more than a
century ago, and is observed in the
United Kingdom to this day. A beau
tiful maiden was queen of the harvest
the harVeSters dancing merrily around
her as she sat throned ON a cart laden
with sheaves The last sheaf was
called the neck" The man who cut
it bound it with straw and swinging it
over his head shouted:
Il hav-ee! I hav-ee! I hav-ee!"
To which another harvester respond
What hav-ee? What hav-ee? What
hav-ee?''
The first answers:
"A neck! A neckl Hurrah!"
This was carried to the queen in the
'hoaky cart and by her held to grace
the kern supper"
A word of warning to the new Ceres.
There is a small creature-the natural
enemy of her Sex-which infests the
harvest field, even building its house
in the sheaf of ripened grain. All Mrs
Leases friends know that she is as
brave as she is good and wise, and
would meet a roaring lion in his native
jungle and never quail, but let her
friends protect her from the direful
consequences of an encounter with the
harvest mouse, which is more nimble
and tricky than any of it's domesticat-
ed species.
Might it be suggested that the har-
vest festival of America be given q
definite name hereafter, as the Lease
or the Crown, to be explained to poster
ity in footnote? On the Isle of Man,
on the day when the last of the harvest
is saved, the farmer gives a supper to
his people on the farm and to his neigh
bOrS who have helped him save it. and
this festival is called the Melliah. When
the last sheaf falls under the sickle a
great shout goes up. 'Hurrah for Mel
Hahi' Then the prettiest girl is crown
ed with a wreath of corn or barley
straw and the fun begins.
Our poets must write new song for
our harvest queen. An old one runs
like this:
Harvest home! Harvest homei
We have plowed and we have sowed,
We have reaped, we have moved,
We have brought home every load,
Hip, hip, hurrah-harvest home.