The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-10-12


Then it is that the passenger agent ar
ranges excursions to Pennsylvania and
Ohio and New York He gathers the
farmers and their wives and with the
promise of a chair car-the luxury of a
Pullman is not usually considered a ne
cessity for these trips-he induces them
to travel in a party.
One day the agent in a central west
ern town was surprised to see teams
stopping in front of the station as the
time for the noon east-bound train APP
preached. He was new to the place and
did not know there was a custom of this
sort The waiting room filed up and at
last one of the party came forward
We want tickets to Pennsylvania"
he said; how much are they?"
trip"
well, there are eighty of us; give us
enough for the crowd and he went out
to the plainly dressed men and women
and came back with s2,700 in his hand.
The agent could not understand it then,
but he did after he had gone through
the same experience several times. The
length OF these trips is usually about a
month, and the parties come back to
their prairie homes with fond memo
rfes to make the winter days pleasant.
They also bring home some heirlooms
out OF the old homestead and leave
among the people of the east pleasant
reports of the progress in the west that
in the coming days bear fruit in the
coming of immigration to the newer
lands.
When the towns start to celebrate
the harvest of the year they make the
occasion a very lively one. They give
the whole of a week, or several days at
least, to merrymaking, and the fun IS
not confined to the immediate commu
nifty Other towns send delegations.
and the time is spent in the enjoyment
of carnival features, parades showing
the biggest products of the farms and
ranches, and the novel imaginings that
are concocted by the merchants in dis
playing their wares These gatherings
are trade winners, for the crowds that
come to town are also buyers of the
things that are needed for the winter
and the whole county seems to take a
part in the occasion. Usually there is
a good deal of money spent for fire
works, and the exploitation of the
amusements fills the local papers for
weeks.
In the communities where there is a
surplus of some kind of product, this
is the basis for the autumn celebra-
ton. In one central Kansas county
this year wheat was the subject of a
carnival in mid-September. The streets
We're decorated with wheat in every
form, the parade of wagons was a YER
liable procession of wheat, several big
loads of the grain being drawn by
finely caparisOned horses. The buggieS
were covered with wheat decorations
and the queen of the carnival, the pref
test young lady in the town. sat high
on a chariot that was an apotheosis of
wheat This county was entitled to
have this carnival, for it had raised
100000 bushels of wheat during the
year, or 300 bushels for every resident
in the county. A dozen men had raised
over $4,000 bushels each. The governor
of the state and several of the state
officers attended, and the chief execu-
tive himself put the crown on the head
of the queen.
In other counties corn is the predom-
1nant feature, and again various kinds
of fruit are made the fea ture. Even the
humble potato is the occasion of a
potato day" out in the irrigated Sec
ton of Colorado
The old-fashined county fair has been
oyershadowed by these later diversions
of the people, and there is tendency
to glorify the various products in other
ways than by showing them in a tent
or horticultural hail. So too the
horse race, that was once so much in
vogue that every town had its racing
days during the autumn, is confined
to the large cities. There are now
more good horses than then, but not so
many trotters.
Out on the farms there is a great
deal to do in autumn. Wheat must be
sown; that is the large task that comes
before the rest. The great fields that
have been shorn of their riches are
yellow with stubb1e. To aid them a
fire is started, and the vast plain seems
all ablaze- For miles across the night
it shines, and the people are a little
fearful lest it may get beyond control
Sometimes it does, and then there is
hurrying to and fro, and the excitement
that is born OF danger. If it gets into
the prairie grass and the wind comes
up, as it often does, the flames race at
the speed of a horse, chasing in the di-
rection of a settlers home or the near
tectors. with all the appliances that can
be furnished up, to fight the disaster
Out on the far western plains this is
real danger of autumn.
During the late summer of this year
a commercial traveller threw a cigar
beside the road north of the Arkansas
river, and before the flames that 1T
started could be subdued $4,000 acres
of wheat had been burned, stacks and
all Sparks from passing locomotives
sometimes do damage in this way. The
drouth of last summer made this very
common along the prairie lines and
thousands of acres went up in smoke,
all of which was paid for by the rail-
way companies.
81 am afraid of fire. said a settlers
wife to me the other day. ''Once when
we We're burning off the corn stubble
in autumn there came up a whirlwind
and carried the flames to our neigh
boris farm 1t took his barn and most
of his wheat and hay My husband and
pay that loss, but we did it. During
all that time L only spent 50 for new
clothes Do you wonder that I am
afraid of fire." I did not
Then there is the corn to be cared for
The farm lad does not, as in the east,
go out and sit by the side of a corn
shock, taking out the yellow ears. In
stead he goes into the field with a
wagon, on one side of which is built
up a board guard four or five feet
above the ordinary top of the wagon
box. On the other side ne walks and as
he husks the corn from the standing
stalks he throws the grain into the
wagon, taking his full load to the barn
when he has filed the vehicle. 1t is a
rapid way of gathering the crop, and
there is much rivalry among the boys
of the community as to who is the more
rapid cornhusker. Sometimes the girls
of the household take a hand in the
work and the chattering, laughing
group makes short work of the rows of