The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1904-11-18
GOODLAHD IN NEW YORK sun
WRITER TKLLs THE EAST OF TIE SHORT
GRASS COUNTRY.
Article Dated Prom GOodland, Kan, and
Reoounts History, Speaks Well Of Our
People, and Predicts Success for
the Plains.

1t is no extravaganza to say that the
name of GOOdland has spread its repu-
tatiOn far and wide, and Sherman
county as q spot in the great west, has
been seen Of men now living over the
greater part of the United States. The
most amazing thing is that people even
of the Atlantic coast have begun to find
as on the map. And in this connec-
ton it is that Goodland has reached
New York city by reputation, and the
failings and the fame of the short grass
country have appeared in the New York
Sun. S9me mysterious wanderer on a
journalistic mission doubtless passed
! this way and carried US away in his
mind. The article, g Short Grass
Picking Up" written from Goodland,
Kan, was copied from the New York
paper by the Denver Post in its issue Of
October p. Among other things the
writer says:
"a new era is coming to the short
grass country. The high plains that
make up western Kansas and western
| Nebraska and reach far down into the
Panhandle are experiencing a develop
ment that means much for their future.
"a facetious legislator named all this
region. He was urging a bill that
would benefit farming countries of east
ern Kansas.
&C But the people out west who are
not benefited will not like It, was
suggested.
g What does it matter what the short
grass country thinks about it?' he re-
I Piled"
1.-The title stuck, and to every west
erner the buffalo grass area is the short
grass country.
Riding into Goodland from the
north the driver called attention to the
fact that we were near the village, which
sits on plain as level as a floor.
g How far do you think It is?' he
said casually.
Zone passenger was somewhat versed
in western distances and made calcu-
latiOn by fences and wagon trails.
About a mile and a half to the
first house
1.-The driver smiled and drove on. A
section was crossed and yet the village
was as far away, apparently, as at first.
Another and another and finally diagon-
ally across a third a good four miles,
and yet the first dwelling was still a few
rods distant
Here and there is a binder running
/ in field of barley. Alfalfa is cut on
the creek bottoms, sPelt and kaffir corn
are sown in these bottomlands and
stacks of hay, cut where blue stem has
worked into low ground, are heaPed up
in preparation for the time of need.
when blizzard comes the cattle can
be rounded up near some Of these feed
supplies and their lives saved. Never
again will the range know the Old-time
losses. The cattlemen have learned
that does not pay.
''Then there IS the water supply ques-
ton. One may reach water at a depth
of twenty feet, OF of 200, depending on
whether you start from a low-lying sur
face or from the top of a hill. On one
ranch are forty-fve mills, and none of
! them has been able to lower the water
in the pumps. Day and night they
whirl, lifting steady streams to the sur
face for the thirsty cattle or to irTigate
some tenants garden
/ Strange are the meetings of tie
old and the new civilizations. Riding
one evening up the Beaver creek road,
we came on a 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
i prOgressiyeness- telephone. Thirty
two miles from a railroad, almost as
far from a store, the family of the set
tier yet was IN touch with the world.
The jewellers Of the western iprairIes
mp near the breaking of the hills into
the first marking of the mountains pre-
u sent a revelation IN simplicity, good
cheer, content and prosperity to one IN
, familiar with the manifestations of that
sort of western development. They are
J [ working out their destiny under cOnd1-
tons and BY methods that promise a
continued success and mean permau-
/ ence IN the control Of their possessions.