The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-02-20
Daily Eagle
NJ. NJ MURDOCH. Editor.
HOW KANSAS TALKS.

Ed: Howe sagely remarks that "the
great trouble with Kansas is that she
talks too much. If grasshopper ap-
pears in the state the story is immedi-
ately sent out that hordes of locusts are
invading the state, stripping everything
bare and leaving starvation behind
them. The people of thirteen parishes
Of Louisiana and of fancy county, Mo-,
have been almost starving for SIX
months, but the facts have only recently
leaked out. The people knew that such
talk would discourage immigration, and
kept their troubles secret We injure
ourselves in Kansas by doing too much
crying for sympathy that isn't needed"
While there is no denying the triteness
of these observations, no cure is sug
gested, nor is one possible save that
which time and experience may bring.
Kansas can out-talk the world. She has
talked herself into and out of more
things in a quarter of a century than
any dozen states, all told. We have
talked railway builders out of their
senses and capitalists and investors out
Of millions, and then turned around and
by our talk scared them TO death.
When the pinch of prevailing condi-
tons hurts we take to talking about
What is the matter with Kansas,
when there is nothing more the matter
with Kansas than with anybody else.
The only difference is that when we
have q belly-ache we call it case OF
cholera and howl until all the world
stops to commiserate or to damn. If
conditions could be strictly estimated
and properly compared, the chances are
that Kansas would be found with less
to complain of than any state in the
Union There is not one KanSan IN i've
who believes that there was any real eX-
cuse or reason for the election of a ca
iamity legislature which, in turn, has
sent To the United States senate moss
back Confederate. But talk did ii, and
Kansas enjoys the antics of that legisla
tive aggregation better than she would
the gift of a whole cage Of monkeys.
She elected new supreme judge or
the state because he talked in way
that made the hair ON the head of the
average eastern citizen stand on end.
She elected a fellow governor whose
sole claim TO distinction is that he talk
ed. He talked the civilizations of the
ictn n
ance and even talked about mythical
things. such as imaginary dogs doing
impossible barking at the pyramids of
Egypt The truth is, Kansas fools ey-
erybody with her talk and sometimes
fools herself. He who is minus the gift
of CAB in Kansas becomes lonesome
and straightway moves TO another state.
The average citizen of the communities
of other states talk as they think. The
Kansas man talks without thinking
himself. but in n way that he thinks
will put the other fellow to talking.
And long practice generally makes him
successful 1t wasn't brains which
carried Jerry Simpson into national
notoriety and into congress, but simply |
talk about his sockless feet. 1t was |
his talk not his whiskers which landed |
PETER in the United States senate. The |
Kansas idea is to open the eyes Of the |
world by talking herself blind. The |
mistake that the rest of humanity |
makes is in concluding that Kansas |
can't see, when, in fact, she is only |
'poSSuming. The Kansas farmer who |
wouldn't knock off half day in harvest |
time to go to town for a curbstOne talk |
is not of the manor born and should |
emigrate. The greatest political takers |
of the nation were sent to Kansas dur |
ing the late campaign. and every one /
of them proved a fat failure, doing |
more harm than good. When it came |
To talking to a Kansas audience they |
were not in it; muscle nor brains !
amount to little in Kansas. It's wind |
that counts; wind first, sand second, |
and brains last, and only as a conting
ency in an emergency.