The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-06-30
COLLEGE BOYS TOO SWIFT
THINGS THEY DO our IN THE
KANSAS WHEATFIELDS.
Harvesting. Complicated by Baseball, Barn
Dances and CoIege .Yeila-WeStern
Girls as Smart aS the Eastern Students
Observations Made BY Tenderfeet.

Gifle as SmaFt ~ tle Ehbtcru Dtuuehtb
Observations Made BY Tenderfeet.
NEWTON, Kan, June 27.-The beginning
~ harvest In the southern Kansas wheat
belt this week has brought the farmers to
town looking for help.
Want some college boysf' was asked OF
one we'll to do wheat raiser.
He laughed. well, hardly, not II they
are like those I had last summer.
Wouldn't they work.
sYes, they worked pretty well; but they
did 30 many other things besides.
sone OF the first things they did was TO
organize q baseball team among the men
and challenge the workers over on the next
farm. That meant that we had TO give
them a layofi one whole afternoon.
sThen they invited all the girls In the
neiphborhood to q dance in my big barn
without asking my permission, and l had 70
take a day for that. II was too much
But you got your wheat up?'
After a while. ! wouldn't have done
IL IL / hadn't thought Of a scheme.
sYou see those boys were so interested in
baseball that they demanded a morse 70
send one OF the bunch TO- town every, night
and see what scores had been made during
| the day. That cost me the use OF the animal
the next day and it made the boys nervous,
for thew wouldn't 40 to bed until the mes
senger came pack about midnight. Or
COURSE they could not do very much the
next day, getting up at O'CLOCK as they
well. I went to Hutchinson and made
arranpem ents to nave the baseball news
telephoned to my farm every afternoon.
l ran an extra line from 70 tns
wheat field and put up a big ouletn ooaro
that could be read for half a mile. -,
Then I had my BiKteen-year-olo Rlrl
take the messages and chalk them on the
board. The reapers could see the BOARD
of the field and they nearly ran the teams
to death trying to get there fast. II was
a wonderful help and it kept the boys on
the farm too
Then the college boys do other things TO
annoy the farmers. The college yell has
not made much progress out in the wheat
halt The high schools are catching on,
but they do not have the real thing yet.
So when q dozen LUIS ty young men gather
under the window OF the farmers mouse
and shout:
We are out in search for trouble.
Kansas, Kansas,
Is not Heaven
the farmer and his wife are likely to tell
The " variety Of yells perpetrated by the
college boys at the expense Of the Kansas
wheat harvest has doubtless hurried gray
hairs into the heads Of some Of the grain
producers. No wonder they do not petiaon
Tor a whole crew OF EolieSs boys cl,;nsd on.
farmer, "but when you get a bunch together
they are too swift for me-:
But the college boys bring q lot OF bright
| ness into the West. They leave behind them
a string Of good stories and the choruses OF
the latest songs. About the only intro
duction the Western farmer gets to the
latest songs is by the phonograph or when
the merry 60 rol;ad grinds out Waltz Ne
Around Again. Nl-iee,s ana no h peS sb bne
the college boys are on the farm they teach
his own young folks everything that's going
and the neighborhood Is frightened for a
long time.
smart as the college boys. They know
how to work the harvesters as well as
any one.
Tn in Saline county at the fast election
was a young woman running Tor the. ONCE
Of superintendent OF schools. She had a
hard fight and she knew it..
So she took a horse and buggy and went
across country e~lectioneering among the
farmers as che met them. One day tust
before noon she drew up to g wheatheld
where twenty men we're working at the
harvest. She was the centre OF interest
for the moment and the men gathered
around her.,
What are you going to do for us?" called
sIT be a good %oficial,' she replied.
THAT amt enough. Kin you cookr'
came back from the group.
"Yes. / can cook.
well, we've been livin' on mems cookin'
for two weeks out here in harvest and II you
want us to vote for you, cook us a woman's
meal go
aIn do It. Where's your cook shack
she replied, and alighted from her buggy.
She prepared a hearty, well cooked meal
for the harvest crew, and when she went
away they gsye three zee cheers s snd pSo mn
majority Of Is, 30 that meal was not cooked
in vain.
One thing the college boys do thet ie Of
benefit to the communities In which they
work Is to interest the yourz folk in college
Il am coins to send my boy to college"
said one farmer who had half a dozen college
boys In his harvest field. HE used to think
il was all right to get along without that.
but now he Is just possessed to go, and he
shall do IL.
Those college boys told him OF the fun
and Of the prospects they have for business
life when they come out, snd he has the lever
something Of himself yet. 1t will cost
something, but IL what those boys say 10 o.
there is little chance for loss, as he will q Y
a better salary, when he comes out than ne
Cd1 ktJ ally OlDCI Woy
The effect Of that kind Of spirit excited
on the farms Of the West is seen in the
larger number Of boys who are leaving the
prairie States to seek education in the
East. Probably IL 10 q good investment,
even II the boys with the football hair are
not quite such hard workers az some OF the
Western farm hands.
From the tenderfoots point Of view the
harvest period 10 a serious one. and he is
likely to be very much surprised by some
OF the experiences be meets One OF these
said concerning his work:
THE ten hour system seema to be in
regular use-ten hours before Dime and
ten hours after dinner, without any more
time for the meal than is absolutely needed
for the gulping town OF the food.
Il have some doubts about the Western
~friendliness we hear 90 much about. Two
%neighbors met In the road one day where !
could hear hat they were saying. After
stopping their horses one said to the other;
@'Threshing twenty-six bushels to the
acre over the corner lot
That so?'
Yep
a'Geddup.'
s'Geddup.'
THAT was all. They seem to think the
conversation ended when they have told
their own troubles. II ie always Me
drst-you after me- In the Western harvest
zone. They hurry and hustle from morning