The Indianapolis journal., 1902-07-20

tered everywhere. At every town throngs
of gayly- dressed people could be seen wend-
ing their way to the grove to celebrate
Many boarded the train for the next town
to observe the great anniversary on
larger scale. How it reminded us of the
good old times, when every one who dld
not lay aside his work and go TO the Fourth
of July celebration was suspected of hav-
ing something wrong with his loyalty. A
little more of that sturdy spirit now would
not hurt us. We have grown very lax
and even disrespectful towards many things
that should be held forever sacred. Other
nations make a great deal of their national
days, and they have many. Why shouldn't
we keep a few of these altar fires burning
brightly to show the oncoming generations
how our God and our forefathers made us
a free people and gave US for a heritage
this great land, the fairest beneath the sun?
At Drayton a circus celebrated in its own
way and multitudes swarmed to that town
But this poor pen can never aspire to the
honor of writing up a circus crowd. Let
our inimitable Hoosier humOrist paint it
in the strong coors characteristic of his
Fables in Slang"
In crossing Dakota one cannot help no
ticing the healthy. vigorous, prosperous and
contented look of the people. With this
type the Northwest is slowly but surely
being settled. What contrast it presents
to our many overcrowded cities, where
countless thousands scarcely know how to
keep up, and countless thousands utterly
fail. But in those congested centers the
masses live and starve and suffer, and sin
and die, while Uncle Sam has more than
100000 acres of good. unoccupied lands
in the Northwest that he freely offers to all
who will comply with the simple conditions.
Every man who has snap enough to pack
his traps and go can have 160 acres of fer
tile land for the nominal sum of not over
500. To be sure he must live on the land
and cultivate it for five years. But
wouldn't that be heaven compared with
those gloomy, overcrOwded, ill-ventilated,
foul-smelling, disease-laden blocks where
they huddle together like sheep in a pen?
These hints are not for people who are
doing well and are healthy and happy but
for those who are just getting
on by the hardest struggle and
for such as are not getting along
at all. If these unfortunates can
manage to scrape together a sufficient
amount for transportation and a small be-
ginning common sense certainly would urge
them to take advantage of these beneficent
homestead laws before the chances are all
gone. Others have tried it and are sue
ceedng, and still there's room, vast room,
for more; and that, too. without passing
the United States bondary line. Whatever
you do to better your condition do not ven
ture beyond old glory's protecting folds
not while she floats over many millions
of unoccupied acres of as good land as the
sun shines upon. 1t is only a question of
time when these lands will all be taken
up; and why should not the people of In
dianapolis Cincinnati and Chicago have
share in them well the old world emil
grants who are pouring in from every ship
that crosses the Atlantic?
Volumes might be written on this topic;
and yet people, like other animals, love to
herd together and perhaps will continue to
do so, however strongly a better course
may be suggested. Only a few will venture
out on the great lonely desert to help make
it bud and blossom as the rose But the
few who do will be blessed indeed for they
will not have lived unto themselves, but
for all time and for a whole nation the
greatest and best on Gods footstool. What
the pioneers of Indiana and Ohio are TO us
will these heroic settlers of Dakota and
Montana, Idaho and Washington be to the
rugged peoples that one day shall fill to
comfortable fullness all these mighty
plains and mountains and valleys The
very determination to go there and win in
a great battle will make men and women
out of material that otherwise would not
amount to anything. Try it, somebody!
Z. L. G..