The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-12-12
ROAST BY COBURN.
Mr.. Walden Ought to Be Good
After This.


of agriculture, has no patience with
people who make their living off of
Kansas and then say mean things
about the state away from home. His
latest is to call down G, NJ Walden,
president Of the Kansas City Live Stock
Exchange, for address made by
Walden at the recent national live stock
convention in Chicago, in which Wal
den drew picture of Kansas which
would tend to the injury of the state.
The address was published in the
Drovers' Telegram of Kansas City, and
in a letter addressed to that publication
Mr.. COburn says:
1 note in your issue of December s
what purports to be an address m ade
the day previous at the national live
stock convention in Chicago by one
&c. M Walden, president of the KAN
Sas Oity Live Stock Exchange, upon
the subject of THE Late Drouth."
As is customary with cheap would
be wits. and men of small minds con-
gested with misinformati ton, who wish
to paint a calamity picture which by
its vivid coloring shall rivet attention
upon the supposed coruscating bril-
fancy OF the artist, he of course uses
Kansas as the background upon which
to depict his ideas of the CHASTITY horri-
BILE. This is their ono Unusually idea of
making a hit and tickling the ears
of the groundlings. AS a preliminary
they usually spread upon their canvas
a more or less thi&k coating of glucose,
which gives the after coloring sharp
erwise possess. In Mr.. Waldens pic
ture he deftly puts in his drouth"
touches like this:
THE balmy Kansas zephyr no longer
greets US perfume-laden, but is now
hot, whitening wind. Mark the sickly
white yellow of the corn, the stunted,
and withered, white with dust; gaunt
and starving cattle walking the trail
along the fence. Only a scum of green
ish yellow over the bosom of muddy
70 faT n n q M
ly so proud in their strength, but
would not now float Johnny's tiny play
boat. Look at the abject, despairing
farmer, perched dejectedly on the barn
yard fence, smoking an old clay pipe
Look at the housewife moving listlessly
about the house, with unkempt chill
dren playing about her. Even nature
seems to wear a look of despair and
Woe"
Now my guess is that this Mr.. Wal
den lives in Missouri; that if he is in the
live stock trade about three-fourths of
the business he does and of the living
he gets are furnished by the state of
Kansas-his caricature of which he so
lovingly drew, and, neglecting his bust
ness, journeyed to Chicago to put on ex-
hibition, with himself as it's easel. But
why should he have gone out of his
way to label his picture kansas?
Why not Missouri, or Texas, or Okla
homa? Would he have the world sup
pose they were immune while Kansas
was enduring such grievous Affections?
We had a spell of dry weather, as
would naturally be the case when adj
drouth, the worst in fifty years, held
sway for months. and where. any time
since July, except in the Missouri river, |
below the kaWs mouth, water enough |
to yield the fsscum of greenish yellow
he describes would have furnished occa-
sion for a week of thanksgiving and
prayer. This was well understood by
most people, and twice I went to CEN
trail and eastern Missouri to buy cattle |
because, to prevent their starving, Mis-
sourians needed to sell them on almost
does Craze them knee deep in succu-
lence. In the matter of drouth in the |
summer Of 1901, compared with Mis-
souri,, Kansas, too wet to pillow, was
spending large sums for drain tile.
On the other hand If Mr. Walden wished |
to put agricultural Kansas on exhibition |
haye shown ne q th e yea lo Was Tas e
eulturally. the greatest in all her history. |
the '7stunted., dwarfed wheat he thought |
largest and at the same time the most |
valuable crop ever grown in any state in |
ever had such han an acreage Of wheat sown |
or of such a great promise as Kansas had |
picture li Of "abject despairing;;'' that the
state had more horses, more mules, more |
Worth Wort NOR more money than ever before and
that her hay, sorghum, wool. dairy. poul-
never before brought so much, and that
her people never before SO generally wore
silk underwear nor had so much money
in banksEan amount per capita. such as
has seldom If ever been equaled by the
people of an agricultural community any
where
Of course he couldn't have said these
pleaSanter things about his own state be-
cause there wasn't much in that line to
say; there doesn't seem to be much of
thing unless it was his ''abject. despair
ing farmer, perched de1ectedly ON the
ard f6r1aa
pipe where 'teven nature seems to wear
a look of despair and woe
What a plight such outside humorists
and artists as, the sprightly Mr.: Walden,
who lives off her, would be in if Kansas
should really conclude to put up the shut
ters and let herself dry out for year
or twOI They would indeed be wearing
a ''sickly white yellow that Kansans
would make automobile journeys of many
leagues to see.