The Topeka state journal., 1899-09-11
HISTORY OFKANSAS.

OF all the states. but three will live in
Old Massachusetts with her Plymouth
And old Virginia with her noble stock.
And sunny Kansas with her woes ana
These three viii live in song and oratory.
VIII only be remembered as mere names
Eugene Ware
These lines were written twenty. years
ago, midway between the time Of John
the Virginian of noble stock" William A.
Harris Of Kansas; who is bravely work
building of the Nicaragua canal and the
patriotic expansion of the great nation
that lives in song and story
Wares line have not given offense to
the young men and women who were born
from All ousrters of the globe as soon as
they could walk. And 50 Kansa ms keep
hut Kansas remains the new state. the
heroic state, the peculiar state, the state
that all other states tax ABOUT from
morning till night. the state that doesp,
only state that IS the true child and equal
of the heroic states of the Revolutionary
and Independence period.
In this little book which a Kansan buys
for sixty-fve cents and the rest of man
told the history of Kansas-talked 1t of
ren sitting around the chimney corner.
He cOmeth unto you with tale which
holdeth children from play and old men
from the primary meeting. Prentis was
printer before the war a sure enough
soldier during the war and has been a
Kansas editor ever since. Prentis was an
editor during that happy period in the
passes on all the railroads. If George
Peck of the Santa Fe, Len Smith Of the
Katy or Colonel Dawes of the Bur
lington met a Kansas editor anywhere
he would say: How are you fixed on our
line? Write to me at any time. Have you
got a pass home nOW2'
Our. historian has seen the places he
describes-the early Catholic mission, the
Indian school, the dugout on the prairie.
man who has taken part in the history of
that state during the last third OF cen
tury. He has heard them tell stories and
has paid them off by a thousand times
better stories of his own manufacture
stories told with a marvellous art that
Lincoln himself did not surpass.
The narratives Of all OF the early ex7
plorers of this land between the river and
the mountains are known to Prentis, who
stant surprise to his friends for Prentis
is a working man, doing days works and
any Of US have known him, and never
once thinking Of striking because the day
long. Zebuion Pike, of Pixies Peak. and
the Lewis and Clark men are the favor
ite with this-our home explorer and
author.
The Fourth of July was first cele-
brated on this soil on the site of Atchi-
son in 1904. beginning the entire 1ndepen-
dence of the future denizens at very
early day; planting it in the prenatal
the Spanish flag in Republic county, and
raised the stars and Stripe4s-the Kan
form for all the future-the first G. A. r.
reunion; the expansion flag that nobody
has been able to haul down The Indians
and the missionaries and the soldiers who
shot the Indians I'LL the usual Christian
and the un-Christian record OF pioneer
periods.
The territorial infancy of Kansas, less
order i-ci brought out of anarchy, is told in
sixty of these papers, and is the hrst
chapter of the civil war. MI trentls.
here and elsewhere, is not the assailant of
kindly, good natured throughout the book
but he does know, what some writer's have
overlooked, that Kansas. was a slave ter
ritory when the troubles began and
was free when they We're done. and that
the crisis ended when Abraham Lincoln
was elected president on the issue tlaI an
national territory must hereafter be free-
nave said TINS IN l a Par9lsah ana OF OF n
S1Ve form; Prentls don [ 90 thls. put ne
knows what happened between 1904 and
1861, and all or his tens OF thousands OF
philosopher without being mushy. A fair
in these few short words; w nile Pardee
Butler was going down the river his
raft John Brown was moving, along me
road to Kansas with his rifle The
river and raft and road and rifle, -
with the whole crisis behind them. oc-
CURED to the man who wrote this book
in thirty days, with never a second to
has the vision OF poet, ana the rev lines
of poetry in this volume are happily Sc
The little speech of John Brown when
he stood up in court at Charleston. Va,
to answer why sentence OF death should
not be passed upon MN IS given mere, ana
fills less than a page. 1t is not longer
than Lincolns speech at Gettysburg
Think of the long, long centuries to come
through which these speeches of two un-
letterel Americans will be read-everyone
Of the literary man forty volumes
thrown into the sea of time-these speech
es living eternal in human hearts and read
in all the languages OF the peoples: II IS
the fadeless glory Of Kansas that John
Brown went there to live and that Lincoln
was the champion, the greatest champion
! of the Kansas cause from the day 1t be-
gan until it ended. One martyr shot, the
| other hanged.
On page SO a brief record is made of the
raising of the flag of the United states
with the added star OF Kansas in the field
/ in 1861 The star OF kansas was raised
! above the birthplace of independence on
4 the birthday of Washington by the hands
of Lincoln, the emaneipator."
| The greater part of the Prentis his
| tory, is given. of course, to Kansas since
| it became a state the settlement of the
! the people from ali OF the states and many
| foreign lands; the building of 1000 miles
/ of railroads, and the thousand school
/ houses; the starting and building of great
institutions of learning; the raising OF
! great crops OF corn ana wheat; the dig
| ging of mines for coal, salt. lead, zinc and
| hand. The book tells all this story and
tells 1t in an attractive manner, while
/ II does not IoIgeL 70 pIesatsaaintIy report tne
/ heavals. In a live state politics is ex-
/ ceedingly lively. 1t always will be in
The best productions of a state are the
/ men and women born on the SOIL. You can
| find them too, ''over there in Kansas
| and in all the islands of the sea over
which We write U. s. A., now. and for
ever. The boys in Manila, in Cuba, and
! Porto Rico were born in Kansas, L. s. A
The history Of the Spanish, war. of Fun
/ all along here in 1899. The noble sons
have indicated the nobility of their
J lives. What the old men claimed the
young men have proved-and a good deal
more. This is the first state that has
| produced a state history with the expan-
! sion in it. A noble book, an honor to its
[ author and a perpetual glory of Kansas