The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1902-03-21

There was time when meadow. grove
and stream,
The earth and every common sight
To me did seem
Appareled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness Of dream. ''
Then everything-even the sunshine
seemed young. But, after all, so far as
we know, one part Of the earth's sur
face Is as old as any other. It Is only
We who change, shifted hither and
thither by that silent mechanism which
controls all the generations of men.
Doubtless the Kaw Is as ancient as the
Jordan; and the Missouri has flowed in
turbid majesty to the sea many weary
centuries as has the Ganges or the Eu-
pirates. The footsteps of civilization are
measured by the banks Of rivers. In
the days when I became Kansan, a
mighty host had turned their faces west
ward. seeking new homes, new sites for
their affairs and their shrines. Some
camped upon the Arkansas, that junior
Nile in whose waters haryests flow in
soluble, but sure; some seized upon the
Neosho. having the borders of fertile
fields and pastures; while others flocked
to the Solomon and the Republican-two
names which mean wisdom and patriot
ism-and soon their valleys blossomed
as the rose. AS for me, I settled upon
the Verdigris that beautiful stream,
first it was liquid emerald, under the
brilliant skies and hardly less bri liant
clouds of southern Kansas. Years have
sped away since I visited that spot,
which was my first Kansas home, but
it, is still and will ever be to me, a hal
lowed place. From it the light of other
days comes laden with memories, and
with thoughts that cannot all be spoken.
Almost every day when I lived in indie
pendence 1 used to see Asa Hairgrove,
bearing his many scars. the relics and
reminders of that fatal day on the Marias
du Cygnes, when there were
"Great drops on the bunch-grass
But not of dew"
At Coffeyville, in the same county, lived
Thomas B. Eldridge, known to all as
Tom the bright. genial, courtly gen.
tleman, who used to relate with infinite
zeSt his adventures while serving on the
staff of the general commanding in the
Wakarusa war. Time had already soft
ened the asperities of the territorial
struggles and men who had been bitter
enemies had come to look at each other
through eyes Of friendship and affection.
In my boyhood I had supposed that Will
son Shannon was the incarnation of the
slave-driving oligarchy, but when I came
to know him I found him to be- not
figuratively but actually, a grand old
man, the finest type I have ever known
of the antique Roman.
uel D. Lecompte, who had the honor Of
having had an incipient capital named
after him, and who in territorial times
was popularity supposed to be a very Saul
Of Tarsus, breathing out threatenings
and slaughter, but who was, in fact, a
gentle, kindly soul who would not have
harmed a fly.
When the Kansas struggle broadened
out and gathered into it's compass the
entire nation. 1 do not doubt that Gen.
Price. of Missouri, and Gen. Blunt, Of
Kansas. were equally sincere in their
convictions, and equally brave In MAIN
tanning them. Thank heaven! all the ha-
tired is gone, and these two noble states
gazing into each others eyes wonder
how they could have waited so long to
fall in love with each other.
have said much about Kansas, but
you will forgive me since it was my home
so long, and since it is your neighbour.
1 cannot claim to be a patriarch of the
Kansas bar, but when 1 followed those
sweet western wooings and cast my lot
with Kansas. the patriarchs were still
there. 1 hold them in profound respect
and keep them in loving memory, for
they were the guides and the lights
followed in those happy days. Wilson
Shannon was the NeStor, and the recog-
niZed leader. Everything that should ac-
company old age he had, "as honor,
love, obedience. troops of friends" And
giles and Plumb -f1oated proudly through
out the valley of the Neosho, the Cot
tonWood and the Walnut, and was rapidly
advancing along the Santa Fe trail into
the valley of the Arkansas. Mcclure and
Humphrey had taken unto themselves the
upper waters of the Kaw, and the broad
sweep of the Solomon and Republican.
w. w. Guthrie and Nathan Price from
their strongholds in Atchson and Doni-
phan counties, kept watch and word over
the northern tier, while B. F. Simp-
son and James D. Snoddy looked after
the interests of the eastern border. Clough
and Wheat exercised a general super
vision over the entire bar, with their
great library and hospitable office always
open to lawyers who needed help for to-
morrow and dissolution for to-day. I
cannot think of those June terms of the
United States circuit court at Leaven-
worth, when Judge Dillon presided-the
model of all who would have justice adj
ministered in the manner becoming
great judge-without recalling how we
used to drop in of an evening at Oaeugh
Sc Wheats office, generally catching our
also sharpening their weap-
ons.
Clough and Wheat in those days were
faithful public servants, and ought to
have been Incorporated as an annex of
the state library and made exhibit IA
in the jurisprudence OF the state.
Speaking now to the older members OF
the bar, 1 can safely admit to you-apd
confess to the younger ones-that when
we entered the profession, lawyers knew
much more about some things than they
do now. But they knew little of organi-
zation, reorganizations and re-reorgani-
cations. The word syndicate" was I'M