The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-08-09

real resources suitable to the cOndl-
lions of all climate and soil.
Then there are other evidences of
| failure. Up in a canon we came on
| cabin, half dugout. where had strug-
| gled for life former railroad contrac-
tor. Leaving home and friends he
sought the plains to combat the ever
shortening of breath that advancing
/ disease inflicted. He put in a little patch
of corn, he tried to increase the com
forts of his tiny home. he rode con-
stantly over the plains and breathed
the clear airs of the hilltops But ne
grew weaker, and one day after ne nad
been missed by the cowboys who rode
that way search was made He lay
in his little cabin asleep in death, a
picture of a smiling woman's lace in
the cold hand. The herders buried him
in the windswept cemetery where the
dozen graves seem so lonely and for
saken.
The era of the SD house is passing
away. Not many places remain IN the
west where are found these reminders
of the primitive period of settlement
Yet in northwestern Kansas they are
common. Situated in the shelter of the
canonS or perched high on the Mills,
they are picturesque features of the
landscape. Some are of coarse work
manship, with walls and roofs that
show rough surfaces and sprouting
grasses. Others are laid as Clearly as
could a carpenter place timbers and
with their whitewashed interiors and
we'll fitted windows and doors, give n
home that is not to be despised. They
are warm in winter, cool in summer and
the winds never shake them. Some have
five or six rooms and are floored and
decorated to a good degree of comfort
Strange are the meetings of old and
new civilization. Riding one evening up
the Beaver creek road We came on
sod house set amid struggling group
of cottonwoods that had once marked
a tree claim. The dwelling was neat
and clean and entering the living room
we saw on the wall that evidence of
modern progressiveneSs-a telephone.
Thirty-two miles from u railroad, al
most as far from a store, the family of
the settler yet was in touch with the
world and talked to other ''soddy'' in
habitants as if next door neighbors, as
indeed they were though three miles
away.
Sod school houses are too common
to attract attention. Where do the
children come from? Not many come
They tell of one teacher who when
the only family in the district having
children moved away borrowed two
children from another district so that
she could finish out the term and
draw the last months salary Peer
ing through the windows of one OF
these humble temples of learning the
only decoration on the whitened walls
was a picture fastened over the front
blackboard. 1t was a gaudy repre-
sentation of a group of milliona1res
children skating on Central PARK
lakes. The incongruity of placing this
portraiture of wealth enjoying itself
in furs and luxury before the settlers
children who ha6 braved bitter
prairie wind for three to f1ve miles to
come to the little sod school house
proba bly, never occurred to the teach-
er who allowed it,
The high plains give small employ
ment to physicians. Pure water,
fresh air-lots of it, an altitude around
5000 feet, wide reaches of grass and
clear skies, sunshine and ozone-it is
enough to make any one healthy Ihe
of a 2O-mile horseback
expressed. Little wonder that Sylvia
brought in the meals in such heaplng
pIatters and tureens. or that there was
a stampede for the cook house When
Sylvia rang the big bell at the eno Oh
the porch.
Little events assume Importance
The sight of a coyote or Wild Horse
canon, the stumbling of Pedro and
the fall of his rider. the ARRIVAL OF tne
tri-weekly mail with an account or
the condition of the herds along the
3O-mile drive-theSe are worth talk
ing about. An innovation in the ways
of doing things, the coming OF guest
is interested in all these
features of the occasion. The worlds
news is not old when it arrives, but II
seems farther off somehow tnan II
does a hundred miles eastward. A
social function. such as a dance at the
is an all night affair and
is participated in by everybody aple
to ride horseback for forty miles
around Religious services are seldom
enjoyed because it is difficult to secure
a congregation, but Sunday is day OF
cessation from labor so far as Is pos
sibIe- in a cattle country.
The jewellers on the western pral-
ries up near the breaking of the nils
into the first markings of the noun |
tains present a revelation in Simpler
tv. good cheer. content and prosperity
to one unfamiliar with the manifesto |
lions of that sort of western develop |
ment- They are working out their
destiny under conditions and by meth !
DDS that promise a continued success |
and mean permanence in the control
of their possessions.