The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1906-03-01
He MISSED THE "NEIGHBORS"
Why the Little Western Town
Drew Him Back, After Two
Years In New York.
Charles NJ. Harper in the Outlook.

Charles NJ. Harper in the Outlook.
"Why did you come bsck?" l ask
ed a Westerner who returned to a
prairie town after two years in New
York. 1t seemed incomprehen sible
that he should leave the excite ment
oflower Broadway for the mon ot ony
OF the broad plains.
"Neighbors!" was his resp onse.
Would you want to spend your life
where the people tive lty feet away
do not know your name or care
whether you live or die? We are
brought up with neighbors- and
when the baby died and not person
In the blessed town came near us,
when We went alone to tn, GENE terry,
1t was too much. We packed up and
started FOR home what's che use of
living thai way?"
Does neighborlness exist, like our
old geometry problems, in inverse
ratio to tho square OF the distance?
Perhaps
One day last summer away out in
the Western Kansas whea lBn3s,
where distances are msgnih ,ent and
the per capita OF population to the
square mile Is expressed in decimal
fractions, q settler became i'll. He
had fifty acres Of fine what already
turning yellow in the sun, He had
no hired m IN, nor had he the means
to engage harvesters. He had cou It.
ed on "changiag work" with 80 me
one and thus getting his grain to
market. Day after day he tossed in
pain and worried over the prosp ect.
Neighbors? The nearest was three
miles away aud the whole towns hip
had but seven families.
One morning three seli-bind ers
with full complement OF helpers ca me
rafting over the prairie. The driv-
ers did not ask for permission, but
went boldly into the field. Ro und
and round the machines hurri ed,
reaplng the ripe grain and leaving
shocks OF gold dappling the level
lands. The sick man heard the buzz
OF the reapers and tried to get to the
window-but his wife told him W hat
was happening, and he fell into a
deep, sweet sleep.
1t is no slight thing to give up a
day In the midst OF pressing harvest
that a farmer miles away may save
his crop, but it is pretty good sort
OF sentiment that prompts the &C.
tion. 1t may bs that it will count
for something sometime.
"Would the average city street
show an act such as marked a far
frontier community in which l spent
a night recently?" asked the former
New Yorker, then went on: "We had
stopped at a little town of less than
a dozen houses, and spent the even
ing listening to pioneer stories in the
dingy Office OF the only hotel. As we
were preparing to 60 to bed, In came
three men carrying violin. q banjo
and q guitar. They we're ranc hers
from the Pawnee valley, and had
been out twenty miles on the pla ins
to enllven the evening OF an old
friend who was sick and nearly bin d,
with no one to read to him and n o
music except that of the cease less
winds. They did not realzs that
they had done much-they simpl y
did what they could without think.
lag The leader Of thu trio start
ed in the West a poor boy. Now be
owns 800 acres stocked with hors es
and with registered cattle SO good
that they take prizes at every roya
stock show in Kansas City. Yet he
found time to 60 twenty miles to
cheer up sn old friend in misfortune
Why shouldn't he prospect" Why
not. indeo0?