Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-06-19
Says Prospect for Crops is Excel
lent as He Observed Conditions.
STORY OF HISFIRSr TRIpIONEWYORE
Walked From Burlington to Chicago
and From Erie to Allegheny Coll
lese-Nlade the Trip DIFF
terently This Time,

| Courier very entertaining letter from
| New York City, where he now is, con-
corning his trip. While in New York
he met gentleman who had just re-
turned from India and other lands.
This man told Mr.. Bonnifield that he
did not understand why it was that the
Bryanesque idea of government should
i even be advocated in America. Fur
THEREFORE the gentleman from India
had been around some and evidently
was man who observed conditions
and people and his Judgment when he
said that we do not realize what par
adise we have in this country, should
be given due weight.
Among other things Mr.. Bonnifield
tells of his first trip to New York after
having graduated from what he calls
high" school near Fairfield. The
| high" part of the school was the
wooden benches, to which Mr.. Bonni-
field refers entertainingly. Following
is the letter:
| Ed. Courier-In response to your re-
quest that write something of the in
teresting things might see on my trip
to New York, | submit the following:
s'The most pleasing SIGHT and uplift-
ing thought to kind Providence was
caused by the grand prospect for good
crops all the way to New York. / am
told by others that it is equally good
all over the country. Do you think the
All Wise One had design in giving us
such good things on the eve of a pres-i
identia1 election? A French-bofn.
American citizen, who was returning
from a trip to India and other places
abroad remarked to me that the peo-
pie. Of this country did not realize what
a paradise they had in this country and
what a grond government as admins
tered by President Mckinley. He said
he could not understand how any one
lcould want to- jdisplaeeo iti with, such
Ifeolishness as that agitated, by Mr..
Bryan. But Issdid NOT intend to say
1anytliing ahnut politiesgin this letter,
lyet it would SEEM sproPer in referring
to the good things in this country to
give credit first to kind Providence
and second to republican administra-
ltion.
".Fifty-one years ago last May, two
younger brothers and / after we had
graduated from the high school near
\ Fairfield, Iowa, concluded we wanted. to
see within the walls of a.college. Our
i high school was made of dogs with
mud plaster between the cracks and a
fire place about four feet wide. The
high part of the school had benches
with long legs to enable the pupil to
turn on his feet with his feet dangling
in the air and write after copy made
by the teacher placed on board
resting on pegs driven slanting into the
Hogs. The. pupils swera 16ll ,janito rs in,
turn. The boys brought in the back
sleds. and filed in between with smaller
wood; and the girls did the sweeping.
Our school only embraced the winter,
months. Our curriculum went as far
| IN mathematics as the. study Of The,
double rule of three and tin grammar
until able to parse such sentences as
John is good boy Talk about your
| glorious pampered and steam-heated
system of today! A boy now knows
nothing about the ecstacy of going one
or two miles thru the snow to high
school and then after he gets thru the
double rule of three in arithmetic, to
| go back in triumph and show the less
er kids how to cipher in the single
rule of three.
ss"sWhen we arrived at Burlington on
Eour way to- Allegheny college man
Ihad died the day before in town witt
1.-The cholera. Our friends advised us
lnot to go on the river but to go to
Peru. Illinois, and thru to- Chicago by
icanal, There We're no railroads iii&Il-
linois then except one into Chisago
from the east. We getaway from Bur
Ilington afoot as soon as we could, eN-
Ipacting to take the hack 'whensit came
up to us, but by some means it did
not arrive and left us to walk and car
ry our grips. We soon learned that
they had the cholera in Peru also, SO
we continued afoot to Chicago with. an
occasional ride rendered by some good
Samaritan. At Chicago we took a
steamer down the lakes to Erie, but as
our means were limited and we could
get no reduction in fare on account of
meals thrown overheard, and feeling
the necessity of having the benefit
from our meals we landed at Cleveland
and went afoot again with an OCCASION
al market ride to Meadeyille, Pennsyl-
vania. Here, at Allegheny college, we
found number of flaxen-haired boys,
who, at that time, were destined TO add
greatly to the fame of Iowa in after
years. Among the number was our
own Major Hamilton, Senator Allison,
John T. Duncomb, of Eft. Dodge;
Lawyer Cummings, of Fairfield, and
a number of others now in Iowa. Pres
ident Mckinley was also educated there
a little later.
| Reverting to Chicago and the vast
Improvements made since this memo
rable visit of Mr.. Bonnifield, he says.
"Chicago was then small place
partly under the mud and
partly above the mud. Today
lit has the famous drainage ca
nal. Its engineers seem to have been
Ivying with the Great Engineer of the
! Universe who commanded the waters
of the Jordan to pass and allow His
children to pass between on dry land.
The Chicago engineers just tossed a
/! few millions of dollars into the Chica-
go river and commanded it's waters to
\ RIM I'm sfrpa1n If oheypd and tn,lox,