The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-08-27
..WAIIs o. CORN. :,

MS is the time OF year WHSAA
walls of Corn" is due to begin its
annual round of the Kansas press
Every summer after the great Kan
sas staple has reared its banners high
above mems heads there to toss in
the breeze of morn" when the great
golden ears, rich with the promise of
comforts and joys for the farmer and
his family begin to bend earthward,
then walls of Corn" should make its
appearance in the newspapers of the
Sunhower state. It has been doing so
now for more than twenty years. and
it will doubtless continue to do so as
long as corn is the great source OF
wealth and prosperity on this tree
less desert" of ours.
walls of Corn is a Kansas classic.
It was written many years ago. by
Mrs. Ellen Palmer Allerton. a kan
sas poetess. who lived on a Brown
county farm. In such spare moments
as she could find from her homework
on the farm. and from teaching school
for she was also a Kansas school
ma 'am=1Irs. Anerton wrote consid-
cradle excellent verse for the Kansas
newspapers. A volume of her poems
was published by a New York house
in 1885, and since then a number Of
other editions have been published.
walls of Corn appeals to the
Kansas heart. It is one of the things
that makes a real Kansan homesick
when he is wandering in distant
lands. Through many publications
the original poem has been more or
less mutilated, but the version given
herewith is as It appears in the first
edition of Mrs. Allerton's poems
published in 1885,
Smiling and beautiful, heavens dome
Bends softly over our prairie home.
But the wide. wide land that stretched
Before my eyes in the days Of Mayg
The rolling prairie's binowy swell.
Breezy upland and timbered dell;
Stately mansion and hut forlorn-
All are hidden by walls of corn
All the wide world is narrowed down
To walls of corn, now seer and brown.
What do they hold-these walls of corn.
Whose banners toss in the breeze Of
morn?
He who questions may soon be told
A great states wealth these walls enfold
No sentinel guards these walls of corn.
Never IS sounded the warder's horn:
Yet the pillars are hung with cleaning
Left ali unbarred though thieves are bold.
Clothes and food for the toilinE poor;
Wealth to heap at the rich mans door;
Meat for the healthy. and balm for him
Who means and losses in chambers dim;
Shoes for the barefooted: pearls to Irvine
In the scented tresses Of ladies fine.
Things Of use for the lowlv cot.
w mere Noless the corn want cometh not;
Luxuries rare for the mansion grand.
Gifts of a rich and fertile land
All these things. and so many more.
1t would fill a book but to name them Ger
Are hid and held in these walls Of corn
Whose banners toss in the breeze of morn.
Where do they stand. these walls Of corn.
whose banners toss in the breeze of morn?
Open the atlas conned by rule.
In the olden days Of the district school
Point to this rich and bounteous land
Ihat yields such fruit to the tofer's hand
,.Treeless. desert" they called it then.
Haunted by beasts and forsook by men.
Little they. knew what wealth untold
Lay hid where the desO1ate prairie rolled
who, would have dared, with brush or pen.
As ms land Is now, to paint It then5
And y how ,. would the wise ones have laugh
Had Had prophet foretold these walls Of corn.
" muse banners wave in the breeze of nnornI