The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-10-24
PICKS OUT LOOMS
National Tribune Says He
Should Be Governor.
Magnificent Display of Kansas
Products Discussed.
OTHERS LEFT BEHIND.
Corn, Wheat and Fruit Puzzled
the EasternerS.
M0d0cs Termed Greatest Sing
ing Club in United States.


Tribune, published at Washington, D.
c., under the date of October %:
Kansas got a great advertisement
through the magnificent turnout of her
veterans and the display of her prod
ucts. The latter was certainly the CEN
ter of attraction in the nations capital
for about seven days-Sunday not ex-
cepted.
The Kansans got into Washington
some time in the night, Saturday and
set to work at once to surround them
selves with a Kansas atmosphere. For
hours. big vans deposited from their
cavernous depths boxes and more boxes.
From some there came delicious
aroma that made one think of the Old
home orchard. From others luscious
purple grapes were peeping, and yet
others filed the air with suggestions of
pears and other fruits There were
long, narrow packages which the bag
gage men were ordered to handle with
greatest care. and shorter bulkier pack
ages which carried the same caution.
The Oxford hotel began to look like
fruit packing establishment. The side
walks were piled to the top of the first
story windows with the cases, and still
they came. Crowds began to bunch
pedestrianism. When the cases began
to yield up their contents under the
blows of the hammer, the crowds grew
vaster, and they simply kept on growing
I I'LL the last GXn1DlI was 1nauy ISCdSSO
and loaded into the creaking wagons 1t
was week of wondering comment from
almost incredulous callers
| Kansas, bleeding Kansas, for whom
| thousands of the encampment guests
would very readily have raised funds
on the spot to save her citizens from
starvation by drouth, or to rescue her
from the redskins, had actually had the
audacity to place before gaping world
apples so big and juicy and luscious
that New York can no longer hold the
palm for the finest apples in the world.
Kansas grapes, too, have no rival on the
continent. and Kansas pears have
yanked the blue ribbon of par excellence
from all competitors in the union.
1t sounds incredible, but it is true.
Colonel Henry Lcomis commander of
the department of Kansas, to whom the
4 name and good fame of the great Prai-
RE state is as dear as his own. tired OF
the miserable carping criticism of cast
ern know-it-aH people, made up his
mind that the trip of his department
to the national encampment should be
one vast object lesson. He entered upon
preparation for it with determination
| to let the world know just exactly what
Kansas can do. when she wants to be
very good, In the way of 'growing"
| things He advertised in the Kansas
papers for samples of the best fruits,
grains and grasses to bring with him,
and the result of these advertisements
Is something that has astonished and
confounded the theorists of the east,
who believe that the 'semi-arid" region
OF the United States, which has Kansas
for it's center. is fit only for prairie dog
towns and sandhill plums.
The Oxford hotel was pre-empted by
Kansas people, and nobody undertook to
contest the filing. Two big parlors held
was in charge of William H Barnes,
state secretary Of agriculture of Kansas.
who was assisted in placing and lectur-
ing on his display by S. ]. Churchill and
| = both 0f Tox These
gentlemen showed the big, juicy beauties
that made your mouth water to look at
| them. and told the interested people who
crowded about him that Kansas has
the largest and finest apple orchards in
the world" They didn't believe it, but
it is true, and that is what jars the en-
pire state
High above the heads of pedestrians
around the Oxford, ropes were stretched
from telephone pole to pole, and upon
these were festoOned corn The Kan
sans called it corn, but it looked like
stove wood at that height and it was
millionaire eyed it lOngingly, thinking
of the coal famine, and the glorious
blaze those gigantic "nubbins" would
make. When that corn was finally taken
down. people stood in line for blocks,
Just to secure in turn a few grains of
the Kansas cereal.
Propped up against the trees in front
Of the hotel were some "step-Iadder''
the stalks near the tip. A IS bill was
offered the man who could hang his hat
on the lowest ear of corn, ard the
oreenback yet repOses in the depths OF
Commander LoOmis' pocket There
were fine quartered oak cabinets lining
the Fourteenth street side of the Oxford
in which glass boxes of grain, good
bad and Indifferent, was shown. The
best grew in Kansas. of course. One
case was filed with the most beautiful
ly spun silk thread, the Kansas producl
of the silk worm, said to be among the
finest examples in existence. People
looked on the tall wheat stools, simply
pulled up and brought along, and de.
; clared the immense heads must be artf.
fetal, but examination convinced then
that not even California could produce
ANYTHING equal to the specimens.
{ Lined up outside were pumpkins which
l would make good washtubs or drinking
troughs If followed out, and watermelon
: like hogsheads. There were onions tha
7 would burst the bard of a hat an,
! so one might go on with the wonder worl
which the department commander of Kan
- sas planted in the midst of the nationa
: | capital. for the half has not been told.
= These magnificent products viii be tn
talk of the country for the next year
|, And when it is remembered that Kansa
is the state of high winds, furnace blasts
horrible billiards. and soul-scorchin
; drouths, according to history, the wonde
grows.
And then there was Kansas in the pa
rade The Kansans could not be mistaken
The Sunffower state. proud of its sunshin
: | emblem chose to march down Pennsyl
!, vania avenue on that historic day unde
umbrellas painted to represent the fiowe
- of the sun god They were unique, an
" Instructive. For half a mile they file
the avenue from curb to curb. They wer
headed bv Col. Ed. B. Jones. chief of stai
to Department Commander Loonis. VII
4 was half covered by the huge sunhowe
= which he wore upon his breast Ever
= man of the Kansans in line wore the twi
? to it Col. Eugene Ware. commissioner c