The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1904-08-15

Kansas City, Aug. 13.-The enthusi-
asm of the people of Kansas. Missouri.
and Oklahoma for King Corn Is con-
tagious 1t is easy to understand.
Corn has paid their mortgages, fed
their cattle and horses, has even kept
them warm In times Of coal famine.
This years crop. upon which the work
of the harvesters Is beginning, may
not equal the records of one or tw~
years past. for the rains, and cold
weather OF the early spring, kept the
farmers, back In their planting, but
outside of the river valleys q fair yield
will be gathered, every bushel of which
needless to say, will be utilized.
The picturesque element in corn pro-
duction has come to appeal powerfully
to western Imagination. Corn Is not
only King, but a benign and bountifui
monarch The poetry of the prairies
is epitomised in the Kansas cornfield
At the sight Of 1t even the hard-headed
farmer Is apt to become sentimental
There is even growing up in this re-
gion of the West an amazing apotheo-
sis of the popular cereal The cele-
brations in honor of King Corn which
are becoming common are somewhat
like the, old-world festivities in honor
of the jecund grape. new sort OF
bacchanalia, suited to the temperament
of q staid Anglo-Saxon and Teutonic
population. For week or more
after the corn crop has been gathered
in, both city people and country people
in Kansas and western Missouri In
dulge in fetes. The women appear In
costumes fashioned from corn husks
and tasaels. Enterprising shop keep
ers deck forth their windows with corn
products. The restaurants serve with
oil YOaQfhla hnltna Ntoa
made from the corn kernel Orators
are secured by the local business mems
association or boards of trade to sound
the praises Of the all-puissant king
The railroad companies help on the
celebration. The entire community
goes corn mad And, madest Of ALL
the Jolly old rogue OF a monarch him
self often appears in effigy. seated on
a corn-cob throne, arrayed In robes OF
husks and silk. his arms and hands
shaped of cobs. his long beard fashion
ed of wavq silkk, a corn-cob pipe In MS
mouth. Even his face is of papier
mache made from the corn stalk.
Furthermore, there Is accommodating
throughout he corn belt a wealth OF
folk stories, always somewhat fmprob-
able, connected with the growing Of
the corn. One OF these tales-presu-
mabIy a variant on the Jack-and-the-
Bean-Stalk yarn-is to the effect that a
Kansas boy went forth one warm morn
ing in August into a cornfleld and
| fooIishIy undertook to climb one of
| the stalks. He got on all right but
| the rapid growth of the stalk carried
| him into the air faster than he could
climb down. The attention of his
| father and borthers was attracted
| to his predicament and they made an
| effort to cut the stalk. The corn,
however, continued to sprout upward
| so rapidly that nobody could strike the
sameplace twice so that his sorrowing
relatives had to leave the boy to his
| fate. The last that was heard from
| him was that for six weeks he had
| been up there with nithing to eat but
| corn and that during that time he had
| cast down four. bushels of cobs from
| which he had gnawed the kernels.
| Another bit OF Kansas fiction tells of
a traveller from the East who shortly
| after leaving Kansas City asked the
| porter how long 1t would be before
| the train emerged from the tunnel
| which II was passing. dis amt no
| tunnel. sah," replied the porter. Yves
| les passin' fru de Kansas corn belt
| and de tall stalks shuts out de sun.
| Yo' won't seen no mo daylight for 200
miles"
The uniform excellence of the corn
crop as we'll as its marvellous growth
is also one Of the proud boasts OF Kan
sas people. A leading store in town
near Kansas City last summer had a
i corn display in one OF Its windows OF
| which the most spectacular feature was
| a lone ''nubbin" bearing the following
card, 'gThis curiosity iF called nub'