The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1900-08-31
INGALLS, ON KANSAS.
One of the Best Things Written by the Late John Igs

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tendency to exaggeratiOn in dwelling
upon the development of the state and
the benefits and burdens Of its citizen
ship.
Censorious scofers, actuated by
envy, jealousy, maliRnity and other
evil passions, have limited that he IN
duly vaunteth himself; that he brags
and becomes vaingIorious; that he is
given to bounce, tall talk and magniIo-
quence.
There have not been wanting those
who affirm that he magnifies his Gala
mites as we'll as hi, blessings and de-
sires nothing so much as to have the
name Of Kansas in any capacity always
in the ears aud mouths Of men.
Such accusations are we'll calculated
to make the judieious grieve. They
result from a misconceptiOn Of the
man and his environment.
The moral condition Of the genuine
Kansan is that of shy and sensitive
difhdence. He suffers from excess of
mOdesty. He bushes too easily.
There is nothing he dislikes so much
as to hear himself talk. He hides his
light under a busheL He keeps as
near the tail end Of the procession as
possible. He never advertises. He
I bIOweth not his own horn, and is in
different to the band wagon.
He is oppressed by the vast respon-
sibiIity of being an inhabitant of a
commonwealth so immeasurably su-
periOr in all the elements of present
glory, in all the prOphesies of future
renown, to its inferior companions.
To be a denizen of a state that sur
passes all Of her communities as Mia
CARA excels all other cataracts, as the
sun transcends all other luminaries,
! imposes obligations that render levity
impossible.
The every day events of Kansas
would be marveIs elsewhere; our pIati-
tudes would be paDegyrics; the trite
and common place are unknown. 1t is
impossible to overestimate the value of
citizenship in a state that sent more
soldiers into the union armies than it
had voters when Sumter fell; that ex-
ceeded all quotas without draft or
bounty; that had the highest rate of
mortality upon the field of battle.
That a state so begotten and nurtured
should be as indOmitabIe in peace as it
was invincible in war, was inevitable.
Its CESSATION was heroic. 1t repre-
scented ideas and principles; conscience,
patriotism, duty, the "uncOnQUerable
mind and freedoms holy flame"
No other state encountered such
formidable obstacles Of nature and
fortune. Our disasters and catas-
trophies have been monumental.
Swsrms Of IOcusts ecIipsing the sun in
their flight, whose incredible voracity
left the forests, and the orchards, and
the fields Of June as naked as Deem
Der; drouths changing the sky to brass
and the earth to iron; sirOccOs that in
a day devastated provinces and re-
duced thousands from comfort to pen
ury-these and the other destructive
agencies Of the atmosphere have been
met by g courage that no danger
could daunt and by a cOnstancy IN
shaken by adversely.
Notwithstanding the mishaps Of hus-
bandry and the fatalities Of nature, it
is a moderate and conservative state
ment that no community ever in
creased so rapidly in population,
wealth and civilization, nor gained so
great an aggregate in so brief a time,
as the state Of Kansas. There is no
other state where the rewards Of in
dustry have been 50 ample, and the
conditions Of prosperity so abundant,
so stable and 50 fecure as here.
And this is but the dawn We stand
in the vestibule Of the temple. Much
less than one-haIf the surface Of the
state has been broken By the pillow. It's
resources have been imperfeetly ex-
plored. It has developed at random
Science VIII hereafter reinforce the
energies Of nature, and the achieTe-
msnts Of the past wiz pale into insig-
niHcancs before the completed glory
Of the century to coma