Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1905-12-22
when the GrasshOppers Answer
cd Prayer.


OF June. proximo. is hereby appointed and
set apart as a day OF fasting and prayer that
Almighty God may DE invoked to remove
from our midst these impending
and to grant instead the blessings of abund-
ance and plenty. and the people and all the
officers OF the state are hereby requested to
desist during that day from their usual en-
%ployment, and to ASSENT, at their places Of
worship for humble and devout prayer and
to otherwise observe the day AS one for fast
ing and prayer.
lSignedl G.. III. Hardin. Governor.
Several newspapers in Kansas and
Missouri ridiculed the governors
proclamation. A st. Louis paper
said:
ut is generally conceded that the
days of miracles have past
A newspaper in Kansas City said:
Governor Hardin means to be the
only man in Missouri who thinks
Providence car be relied on to de-
stroy the grasshoppers."
Other newspapers commented the
proclamation. The LeayenwOrth
Commercial contained the following
editorial:
"We cannot see that it is any more
out of place to invoke the blessing
of the God Of Heaven, in order to
conflict the army of grasshoppers than
it was in 1776 in III contest with
Great Gritain."
May 81, a mass meeting was held
in the courtroom in Independence,
this county, and a resolution was
adopted calling upon all the people to
respond to the governors prOclama-
ton and to meet in prayer upon the
appointed day. The resolution con-
tanned the following:
A MASS MEETINGS RESOLUTION.
1t is with a feeling of sadness that
we behold u bare fields and pas
lures. All efforts to seed II farms
are futile. All means resOrted to to
destroy the pest, although thousands
of bushels have been buried and
burned, make no perceptable differ
ence in their numbers. Myraids of
locusts still cover our land, stripping
it of every green blade, and myraids
are still Matching. Our stores, both
for man and beast, are about ex-
hausted, and many among us are
verging upon the point of starvation.
This was the condition of affairs
three days before the appointed day
of prayer. There was no sign of an
abatement of the plague. Instead
the grasshoppers were increasing at
a terrible rate. 1t seemed that no
human agency could stay them.
AS the proper day drew near the
newspapers of the state urged the
people to observe it as the governor
had suggested. The morning Of June
3 The Kansas City Times said: I'VE
hope that every gentleman who fails
to attend church today will fine him
self a just sum and honestly pay ovel
the money to some relief committee
tomorrow
The day was generally observed
throughout the state as n of fast
ing and prayer. In st. Louis the
merchants and cotton exchanges were
closed, business was suspended anC
all religious denominations held ser
vices in their churches. In kanSa:
City is was the same. The papers o
Kansas City said the next morning
"Seryices were held in all the
churches at which great humility wa:
manifested
While the people in the churche.
and in their home prayed for the re
moval OF the grasshoppers, those in
sects. as if in direct answer to the
invocation, arose from all over the
land and flew away. Before night
they were all gone. In ar editoria
in the Kansas City Times the mex,
morning, June 4, this appeared:>
"All day yesterday the face Of the
sun was almost yelled by the swarm
of flying locusts. Their sun lit wings
looked like falling snow flakes an6
were visible as far upward as the eye
could reach. At times they seemed
to be fitting hither and thither, as
if seeking their places and waiting
their orders in a great forward move
ment, but the general direction seem
ed toward the Northwest"
THE FULLFILLMENT.
The Kansas City Journal of the
same day said:
yesterday the air was thick with
them all day long along the line Of
the Fort Scott road from Fort Scott