Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-01-24

The best things are nearly always
produced at q pro0t,the average things
sometime are. and The poorest never.
Even IL 1t does take six years longer
and costs a hundred millions more to do
II, it will pay this country to construct
a sea level canal at Panama. This
work is for all time, a world building
contract, and the very yastness and
Importance of the work demands that
it should be done In the best way.
We passed by the homestead OF a
farmer last fall who had moved his
sheds and old barn to get rid Of the
accumulated piles Of manure which
surrounded them, while every acre of
his farm was pleading mutely for the
fertilizer which he despised. Not
very much can be done for this sort.
The farmers living along the lines Of
the trolley roads are finding in them al
u%nthought of source Of convenience In
LUZ OHCl otlOLo III II Use VI III sSlCC.
trio current taken from the circuit for
the purposes Of lighting the farm home
and the furnishing Of power for the
operation of farm machinery. The man
who fights the establishment of a troll
ley road through or near his farm is
fighting the best thing which ever came
to him or ever will.
There are two men in the west en-
gagged this winter on decidedly novel
work. Each is working in the base
ment Of his house and has a pile of
sand and some barrels of cement. The
one is molding handsome blocks with
which to build q nice house next sum-
mer, and the other is making draintile
same n with which to reclaim
the wet places on his farm. Why is
not this q good scheme?
The Wolf river apple seems to have
a mission in the line of giving the in
dividual and the county or state which
produces them credit for raising the
largest and handsomest apples ever
seen, Of fooling innumerable suckers
who know nothing about fruit, Of pay
ing fine prices for an utterly worthless
fruit. We have all read of the apples
of Sodom which turned to ashes on the
lips, and the Wolf river is a lineal de-
scendant of that breed. This is clear
~ a case where good looks get the
hot+ar of ooodpees
Where is the country going to put
all these Russians, Italians, Sardin-
fans, Arabs, Huns and Bulgarians
who ea1e'tute now almost the en-
tire tylsV Of immigrants which the
country is receiving? None of them
takes kindly to the farm or the soil, but
swarm to the cities and tester and
breed In the worst Of the tenement sec
tons, living as garbage collectors, ped
dlers, sweat shop workers and tramps.
A hundred times better bar these out
and invite the Japanese, or even the
Chinese, when we would at least have
a supply Of reliable indoor and outdoor
help.
A bad winter storm nowadays brings
out many thrilling and interesting rem
iniscences of life in the western prairie
country in the pioneer days. With the
snowfall greater and cold more intense
than now, with none of the comforts
and ~conveniences common to people to-
day-no warm house, no big barns, no
fur overcoats, no overshoes, no rail-
roads and the highways mere trails
across the prairies-the struggle for life
was something almost tragic. The har-
dy settlers were ingenious, however,
and soon learned how to ameliorate the
annoyance Of a winter blockade. The
snow, while putting a paralysis on all
work, was used as a means Of protec-
ton from the cold, and dugout and
shed were soon warmly packed with
the drifts, fuel and fodder for the stock
and food for the family were stored up
beforehand, and a period Of Information
followed the oncoming of the deep
snow and the cold weather; in fact,
there was less fretting and complaining
then than now, when a storm even for
n day blocks railway and highway.
Those were great old times.
The feeding Of 100, ooo, 900 people will
be the biggest problem in this country
inside Of twenty-five years. A stand.
ard Of living has been developed under
American conditions which demands
much to eat and Of a very great vari.
ETY.. The teeming millions of the old
world are content to live on the plain.
est and coarsest Of food, the English
man content with his bread. cheese and
beer; the Irishman with his potatoes