Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1903-06-04
THURSDAY EVENING, JUNE 4. 1909
n KANSAS HORROR.

INE NTtN0N0 vSNsAss0vt
The wide prairies OF Kansas were
once the bottom of the sea. But in
the course Of eon the waters re-
ceded, and only In the tawny Kaw,
the turbid Arkansaw and the great,
lazy Missouri did they retain their
sway. Men took possession Of the
rich. deep soil. Where can the world
show anything equal TO the illimitable
alluvial plains where a boy with a
mule can turn mor burrows between
sun and sun than a New Highlander
with his oxen can pillow In a fort
night? Is 1t any wonder that Kansas
City, perched on the bluffs at the june
ture Of the Kaw with the Missouri,
should have become SO great-that
more railways extend from her linn
Its than from any other city on the
glubeg Just a few days ago this opulent
city smiled upon a phenomenal prospect
of peace and plenty--of wide leagues
Of wonderfully developed and produc
tive lands on which the nations of
the earth fed, Today those wide
leaugues are Is drearya wilderness.
as the California desert, and gaunt
famine menaces those who held the
keys to the worlds biggest granary.
The Missouri and the Kaw have re-
asserted themselves. Once the
Missouri was the great sea between
the Rocky mountain region and the
Missouri highlands. Once at d later
date the little Kaw, as marked by the
bluffs now far removed from IFS
banks, was many miles wide. Man,
believing that he was master Of the
forces which fllled and emptied that
great basin between the central and
western hills, planted his home in the
bed Of the almost forgotten gulf. Ma
!. ture has reasserted herself. n rained
and rained for more than forty day
and forty nights. The sleeping kaw
assumed her mighty, ancient role, and
thousands fled for their lives. leaving
all their possessions to be swallowed
up. And the proud city on the bluffs
looked across an impossible gulf
where railroads and stockyards and
factories--all that man had built up il
the old bottom-had disappeared from
view. They builded better than they
knew. who laid the foundations ol
the sovereign city upon the rock.
heights.
To those who have In brighter days
beheld the fruitful farms and lovely
homes that dot the m%easureless prai
ries, Imagination does not serve te
convey the picture Of the desolatior
and havoc wrought by the floods
Those few trains that made their way
slowly and p~erilously over the plains
before the worst came travelled all
day amid a raging sea-, water as far
as the eye could reach In every dircc
ton, floatsam and jetsam on the wind
driven tide. waves that dashed against
the windows OF the ship and made ths
inmates verify believe they were aloa|
In the great deep. The passenger.
say the experience of crossing thos,
submerged plains was beyond an.
power of words to describe.
Ia there no gain from all this? Il
there to be no return for the hundred.
of lives. for the millions OF property
for the sorrow and suspense and mis-
cry that has reached 10 every par
OF the republic and even to othe
shores? The loss is great and mucl
OF II ir%reparable. still there is gain
There are lessons TO be learned |
man will heed. There is gain In Til,
spirit of broad and sweet sympath,
That has swept Yer our borders an,
70 every part Of the civilized earth
the spirit that more than the toucl
OF nature makes the whole world kin
Mankind is drawn into closer rela
lions. TO a better understanding, int,
more abiding fellowship by such CA
lamities as these. Sorrow and Attic
ton are the great Jewelers.. There Ii
no caste when trouble lifts its head
The man who yesterday might. in hi,