The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-10-12
FALL IN KANSAS.
Charles Nj. Harger Writes of
GlOries of Autumn.
Reign of the SunflOwer Is
Described.
THE "HARVEST HOME .
How Farmers Celebrate the
Close of the Season.
Best Part of the Year on the
Prairies.
[F,rom the New York Times.l

The days that intervene between the
torrid heat of summer and the coming
of winter in earnest are often spoken of
by jewellers on the prairies as the poe
try season." 1t is not that it is the time
of flood of verse, for on the plains, as
we'll as amid more settled surroundings,
the early spring holds that honor, but
because it brings to the broad land
scape its fullest beauty, and fills the air
with more delightful temper.
Perhaps there is som ething due to
contrast. The summer of the west is to
a degree life-sapping. Its long-contin-
ued heat, the intermittent winds, the
burning sunshine, make men nervous
and women complain of injury to their
compilations. The summer ends usual
ly with d few storms that serve to
clear the atmosphere. The easterner
does not realize what this means. There
is nothing to compare with 1t among
the hills. After long, wearisome, heat
laden days, when the skies show scarce
ly cloud, when the leaves of the flow
erS curl and the cannaS and caladlums
are turning brown at the edges of the
broad fronds, then comes the wind. 1t
gathers dust from the streets, picks up
the lose paper, the odorS, and the tum-
ble-Weeds, and makes the windows rat
tie for y hours. That, theoretically, is
the length of time that must elapSe be-
fore there is relief. Sometimes it does
not stop that soon.
But one afternoon there is a bunch
ing of the clouds in the northwest, the
wind roars in the same direction, and
then out of the horizon roll the heaped-
up masses. At the front is the feather
edge; behind, and under, the green, vic
ious, frightful rain and hail Merchants
hurry home from the stores, farmers
make haste to the dwelling, cattle sour
ry to cover. 1t sweeps with breath of
northland cold across the plain; it fills
the cutters and the sloughs; it tears
the flowers leaves to ribbons. When it
has passed there is a freshness in the
air and every one knows that summer
is over-autumn has come
The color scheme of autumn on the
prairies. as of other seasons, is not
vivid. The great forests are the places
for high colorings. The vista of a prai-
RE when the frost has touched the blue
stem or has swept over the buffalo
grass is not remarkable. On the lat
ter form of vegetation there is practi-
cally no change at all This Succulent
food that covers the earth like blanket
for hundreds of miles without a break
survives all the cold. Even in winter it
furnishes pasture. The ordinary prai-
RE is green in early fall The crop of
hay has been taken off, or the cattle
and sheep have eaten off the ranker
growth The rains have started the
new blades, and the green shines in an
undertone through the old stubble.
1t is in the valleys, on the roadside,
that the glory of autumn is SEEM Here
the goldenrod holds sway. No one has
seen it during the summer, but sudden
ly the beautiful adornm ent is IA evil
dence on every side. But far more
striking than this, a distinctive feature
of the west, the most homeli<e sight
that a westerner sees in the long year
round, is the nodding, smiling, CHEEKY
sunfiower.
The sunf1ower is the inspiration of the
western poet. More verses have been
written about it than any other blossom
whatsoever. 1t has been abused
robber of the soil, an enemy of the far
mer who is trying to raise a corn crop,
a clogger of commerce, and nuisance
generally But after all that, when
autumn comes, the sunfiower is greeted
with delight. 1.-The sunfiowerS are shin
ing" say the settlers 1t is an apt
phrase and expresses the situation and
their appreciation of the beautiful pic
lures presented. Sunfiowers grow from
the Mississippi to the Rockies, but they
reach their full glory on the wide river
bottoms along the tributaries to the
Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska. 1t
is here that they reach such a breadth
of disk and such strength of stalk that
sometimes the farmers are compelled
to surrender and leave the field to their
possession. The sunf1ower is king, and
his subjects are rather proud of their
vassalage. They call Kansas the Sun
flower state,'' and write verses with a
Riley Tilt, ending with: