The independent. [volume] (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907, 1903-10-22
VINO GOT IT,


feelings, once Il a while tackles an
question. When he does
that he is always excruciatingly funny,
but he was never more SO than when
lie attempted to reply to an article in
The independent and was moved to
talk after the following fashion:
1.-The dispatches say that e. M.
Sparhawk recently sold his farm
near Columbus for $4,000. He
: homesteaded there in 1873, start
ing in ahead of the grasshoppers.
He had to struggle for several
years to get start, but things be-
gan coming his way after while
and he has no reason to complain
of general results. The Indepen-
dent would have us believe that
his thousands of bushels of corn
and his bins full of oats and
wheat, his herds of cattle, his
hundreds of chickens in stock ev-
cry fall were all disposed of by
spring, and not a thing to show
for it but three pairs Of denim
overalls, two flannel shirts, a pair
of buckskin gloves and three
spoOls of barbed wire. Half of his
live stock absorbed by the rail-
roads and the balance turned over
to the trust, save the small equity
required for eking out a misera-
BILE existence during the year. At
the age of sixty-odd, Mr.. Spar
hawk retires from the non-re-
munerative slavery of the farm
to subsist as long as he may on
twenty-six thousand dollars, then
over the hill to the poor-house.
The downtrodden farmer is in
deed to be commiserated.
Mr.. Sparhawk, according to Bixby's
account, has toiled for thirty years,
and with the exception Of the grass
hopper times and the years of hot
winds has raised thousands of bushels
of corn, wheat, oats, potatoes and i'm
mense numbers of cattle, hogs, horses,
sheep, chickens and turkeys, besides
his garden and other crops. The genial
poet does not tell us what became of
all that, but at the end of thirty years
this man, who has spent his working
life in this sort of toll, sells his land
for $4,000. That land was given to
him by the people Of the United
States, for Bixby says that he home
steaded it. For all his toll Mr.. Spar
hawk has nothing except what was
given to him when he started to spend
his life in tOiling on a Nebraska farm.
Still The Independent asks, What has
become of the wealth that Mr.. Spar
hawk created? Who got those cattle,
hogs, horses; all that wheat, corn and
oats? 1t disappeared every spring.
Mr.. Sparhawk never had anything left
on the first of April except his land.
He had nothing left when he grew too
old to work except his land, and that
was given to him. That is the condi-
ton of every farmer in Nebraska. The
time is past when land will rise in
value at the rate it has in this case.
What will the farmer of the future
do? Will he go onto a quarter sec
ton, toll for thirty years and then sell
the land for the same price he gave
for it, having at the end of a lifetime
of toll of himself and family only as
much as he began life with? Some
body got the wealth that Mr.. Spar
hawk created. Who was it? There
are many millionaire railroad men
who have gathered their millions
millions which they never created
since this old homesteader located his
claim. Did they get the wealth that
Mr.. Sparhawk dug out of the ground
He evidently created enough wealth
every year of good crop to feed and
clothe his family for ten years. But
he began every new year with moth
ing on his place. Now, Bixby, tell us
what became Of that wealth.
&>SS&>S&
REPUBLICAN TREASON
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