The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1900-08-31

Kansas is the navel of the nation.
Kansas is the nucleus of our political
system, around which its forces assem-
bic, to which its energies converge; and
from which its energies radiste to the
remotest circumference. Kansas is
the focus Of freedom, where the rays
of heat and light concentrated into a
fame that melted the manacles Of the
slave, and cauterized the heresies Of
state sovereignty and disunion. Kan
is the core and kernel Of the country,
containing the germs Of its growth,
and the quickening ideas essential to
its perpetuity.
The history of Kansas is written in
capitals. It Is punctUated with excla-
nation points. It's verbs are impera-
tive. Its adjectives are superlative.
The common place aud the prOsaic are
not defined in its lexicon. Its statistics
can be stated only in the language Of
hyperbOIe.
The aspiration Of Kansas is to reach
the unattainabIe; its dream is the re-
alization of the impossible. Alexander
wept because there were no more
worlds to conquer. Kansas, having
vanquished all competitors, smiles
complacentIy as she surpasses from
year to year her own triumphs in
growth and glory. Other states could
be spared without irreparable bereave-
ment, but Kansas is indispensable to
the joy, the inspiration, and the i'm
proFement of the world.
1t seems incredible that there was a
time when Kansas did not exist; when
its name was not written on the map
of the United States; when the Kansas
cyclone, the Kansas grasshOpper, the
Kansas boom, and the Kansas Utopia
were unknown.
I was a student in the junior class at
Williams college when President
Pierce, forgotten but for his signature,
approved the act establishing the ter
ritOry Of Kansas May 80, 1854. I recall
the uncomfortable agitation that pre-
coded, accompanied, and followed the
event. 1t was an epoch. Destiny
closed one volume of our annals, and
opened another, traced with shsdOwy
finger upon its pages a million cpl
taphs, ending with "AppomattOx."
Kansas was the prologue Of a tragedy
whose epilOgue has not yet been pro
nounced; the prelude to a fugue of
battles whose reverberatiOns have not
yet died away
Floating one summer night upon a
mOonlit sea, I heard far over the still
waters light, clear voice singing:
Where the mighty Missouri rolls down to the
Where man is a man if he's willing 70 toll,
And the humbIest may gather the fruits Of the
soil"
A few days later, my studies being
completed, I joined the uninterrupted
and resistless column Of volunteers
that marched to the land Of the free
st. Louis was a squalid border town,
the outpOsts Of civilization. The rail
road ended at Jefferson City. The
Transcontinental trains with sIeepers
and dining cars, annihilating space
and time, were the vague dream Of a
future century.
OYertaking at Hermann a fragile
that had left the treacherous
and tortuous channel that craWled be-
tween forests Of cottonwood and bar
rem bars Of tawny sand, We went
onward to the frontier Of the American
desert.
1t was the mission Of the pioneer
with his pillow to abolish the frontier
and TO sUbjugate the desert. One has
become q boundary and the other an
oasis. But with so much acquisition,
something has been lost for which
there is not compensation or equiTs-
lent. He is unfortunate who has never
felt the fascination Of the frontier.
The temptation Of unknown and mys-
terious sOlitUdes; the exultation Of
to build a state; Of forming its
Institutions and giving direction to its
It has been sometimes obso1rely in I
dnstsd that the typical Kanssn lacks +
IL reserve and occasionally exhibits s