The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-01-22
SCHOOL FOR EDNANEWTON
A QUEER STATE OF AFFAIRS Nv A
NEBRASKA DISTRICT.
There Was OnIy Ose Chiid In the District.
bot the Two Families Collected School
Taxes from tho Railroad TIL They
Fell Out About the Teachers Hoard.

LINCOLN. Neb. Jan. 2O.-No proposition ap.
meals so strongly 10 the ayerape Nebraska farmer
as the statement that the railroad IL his natural
enemy. He ignores the fact that the railroads
have made him a possibility where he is, and
attributes all his ills and misfortunes to the
grasping inhumanIty OF the corporation which
exacts 10 cent. for hauling TO market the bushel
of corn which lie must sell for IL cents or less.
The Nebraska farmer is A simple. ~euileless crra.
ture. best illustrated. perhaps. by his attitude
toward corn. lilo never trie, 10 raise any,
thing else. Whom tho orop fails. as IL does
two years ont OF three. the farmer COMPLAINS
because he has no corn to sell. A failure Il
scored when the crop is ANYTHING less than forty
bushels to the acre. IL the crop does not fail.
as happened this wear. when the average Weld
is somewhere near seventy bushels TO the acre.
the farmer complains because the price IL SO
low. In either event he get. poorer. III. doesn't
comprehend exactly how IL can he ,bat with N
seventy. bushel crop he cannot get enough
money TO pay the interest on his debts. although
in the abstract the proposition that the larger
business you do at n loss the larger will be your
loss appeals 70 him.
But wbatsver the tropbl. thu cause of q,
undoubtcd,y Is the railroad. That Ia no degnItely
settled that Ia. never Ioses n ob.nce 20 heat a
railroad ont OF ANYTHING be can. nv INV mean.
he can. That ia WHY nm in Saunders county IN,
Platte bottom men are .tIl suIne the Union
Pacific for damages. r%esultinp from the over.
flow caused by the big ice gorge OF the sprina Of
'sl. which took mt eight span. Of the railroad
bridge. and the Granger juries are still giving
yerdicts against the company.
All this NAV e,pl.in ,ometbinpt TINT has been
going on out in Perkins county for the last two
v..rs I'm, oniv ,oc.r,,y cam. IN On. attention
~, 49,, - W - ~
OF men VINO are trying 10 put n stop toi IT, fer-
kins Is one OF the drought-ridden counties Of
r.s,ern Nehra.ta vb.,. no,hi,c re.iIv ,ro,y.
but bunch grass. There isn't a BIT Of black
loan In the county. There is nothing In which
to plant A CROP but sand. The landscape
w 10y 80
presents 10 the view nothing out SAND.
yellow, rlistening sand, dotted and relieved
. o' 0y 'he aark Rreeh epous Oh ounch
grass The soil Is about the color OF whipped
,or .n,,hIns hn, ,r.s,ns ana 4, n.s., lii ~
-" y. :, ~ ="
ceased to wsr and BRYAN has Quit talking Pom.
ul,s'n. Perkins county Is Just AT the angle
where Nebraska swings to the north OF Col
Sonnd y, Caio,.,n .,a hs. %, q. 49, no,,hi
ern boundary the treacherous south fork Of the
Platte. II Is forty-two miles east and west. and
varie. from twenty-five to thirty miles north
ana south.
Perkins is just as properly organized as any
have their boards of trustees. and the trustees
h.non,,S 80 a., $500 On, =, 1900 nv
the county was hrSt erected out OF the erea' un-
That wa, ten or twelve years ago. when tho
hoor, w..on nh. ,.xm,,a I.n, a. h....,.,n
counties had been sold out practically and the
settlers were pushing Westward. BY some
strange freak Of fate Nebraska had several good
years in successIon and everything doomed,
hut the boom rolled on west and drowned itself
in the Pacific ocean. and to-day Perkins county
travel through IL on the Burlington and Mis-
souri, River Railroad, the only road that
trayerses il. you will see nothing to relieve the
monotony OF the sun.dried sand levels save noW
and then. perhaps. a scared Jack rabbit scuttling
away: With his blaek;tipped ear: erect, over the
quarters Of an hour the train will stop and Won
can step out on the long station platform aud
lives, . giant windmill which pumps water into
the great dull red tank for railroad use, and tho
Where Sis wife boards the section hands.
That's about ali there is left OF Perkins
soani pr.,e Snaas, the L s0q Sos. ss"t; Is clam "a % ,sonpSed.
weather-boaten saloon whose proprietor man
ages TO scrape together the $500 NECESSARY for n
ported partly by that saloon license ana partly
By the railroad. They have learned the trick OF
county. Over beyond Grant the railroad ira
verses school District 81. District 81 10 a relic
t oh ' ssDa di Il ,n E .sSa. mSSy tn ns rni. se cosp 'er P.rsin.
county cast a considerable Populist vote then.
but Populism aud drought have driven nearly
everybody ont. Still, tho old school and tho
county corporation exist. Within the wide
stretch OF bunch-erass covered sand in District
the Hastingses, but they have maintained their
school organization ia unruf1ed serenity for
two years, and there's no telling when there
would have been n change had there not been
an untimely row betwe cen the two farmers.
Farmer Hastings Is childless. but the Newtons
have a fourtecn-year-ol daughter. Edna. who
10 the only child In Schoo, District 81. Both the
Sewtons and Mr.. Hastings have constituted tho
school Board. Newton is the moderator. his
wife 10 the secretary. and Hastings Is tho treas
urer OF tho board. The last two years these
three have held their regular meetines. Al the
stated meeting they have voted a school tax to
the full limit. ] he money thus raised was spent
for the educatiob OF Edna Newton. A teacher
was hired specially for her. As there was no