The National tribune., 1909-08-05

and / was frankly displeased when a mat
ter of business led the powers that De 10
order me to Florida. L had been dreaming
of the mountains that lift snow-capped
heads into the clouds, and the prairles
that lie in between ''.rhe wondrous beau,
fiful prairics ever rolling in sunshine and
shadow" and my soul was longing fof
them. Plains bred girl that L am, the de-
sire of my heart When the days. grow
longer and brighter is to seek again the
wide-spreading reaches of hill and ho.,
low, where you can breathe long and run
and stretch out your arms without hltflhg
your neighbor. Where, when you tire OF
people, you can lope over the next hull
and the world is yours, with the sky and
the sun and the clouds to make your
horizon. horizon wider than Alexandes
ever dreamed of. Where you can see
"Walls of Corn" II feet high and SO long
that the two ends like the rainbow
that you cried for when a child. only end
with the stretch of your vision. Where
You can see the cattle on a thousand =
nay the millions of cattle on millions Q,
hills, and wheatlands that give you goio
as abundantiy as the forbidding wastes
F., of far-of Alaska, when You but tickle the
!; soil with your spade and pillow.
Of course, with all this glory OF sun
and sky and jov of wild West Winds there
is q shadow : there must be or the pic
ture would be fiat and unbeautiful. The
awful white Death" which creeps out
of that wide-spreading horizon, when the
grass is brown and sere. and the millions
of cattle have gathered their Winter coat
of long hair. The biting winds that reach
10 your very vitals and cliuch your heart
with deadly grip that it is difficult to
throw off, Oh, yes, the picture has shod-
ows. dark ones. / have ridden herd in
those short, dark days of middle Winter.
out on those plains, when the siaTering
cattle punched for shelter under the high
tl,aA lob M
more, or stood in buffalo wGllows with
bunch grass for their only protection ana
If seemed cruel indeed it did, not to lei
the suffering creatures stampede as IN
stinct taught them for the warmer Hills
TO the far South. l have cut out the
calves and tried to protect theln 9nuer ID
bend in the banks where they would not DE
trampled 10 death. and l have gathered
the poor little lambs and scurried with
them to the Inadequate shelter or the
sheep sheds, only to see them die OF the
exposure from the storm that came ike
thief in the night out of the warm, SOL
heIlhvrs of the sweet morning and enfoid-
ed them with its icy breath. And have
ridden over those same prairies after the
White Death had gone on its way Jew
hours, and subtracting the snow-covered
mounds in the vast expanse OF Gazing
snow from the total number OF cattle anu
benediction to the soul of the woman
couId teII 70 p boof how many hides and
pelts we would have for sale the next
week
I Thought of California.
But the bright picture is so bright, you
know, that l always push the SHADOWS
10 one SIDE and when you throw the llgnt
on them just right they do not look Sc
black, and you hope, hope, ever, that thf
Whiten Death will hide himself in ths
eternal SHOWS of the North Pole some day
and FORGET to come hack.
No, | didn't want to go to FLORIDA ID
not weather, or any time. :.
I knew, as woman always thinks sne
knows things : that l was not going to
like FioriSa ! have been in California
where you go out to pick roses and come
back with an armioad of things that TOOL
like pink and white and red cabpages
and you put them on high mantefs an.
back in dark corners to get the. proper Ell
feet They looked out of place in daint,
cut glass vase. You wanted geraniums
and they directed you to the hedge tha'
outlined the back yard You expressed
desire for fuschias, and they sent for 9
ladder to climb to the root where the besl
blossoms were: you ordered dozet
peaches from the market and they brought
them TO you in half bushel basket art
the favor was as little as the fruit was
large Everything was that way IN Call
f0rnia; YOU got too niiSn stun Tor you
money, and all the time you were longinl
for the sweet. dainty. fragrant hypr:'
roses of the home garden, Che sweet, juicy
deiicateiy-favored fruits of the East an
North. There is too much OF everything
and it all looks ''hand-nade,' for whel
you get out of the ken of human environ
ment in California. there is nothing bu
sunshine. and sand. and rocks piled i
high and tremendous confusion. and red
woods that are as old as Noah. and darl
pinetrees that seem TO say this yastnes
belongs TO u"
Prepossessed Against Florida.
No. distinctly, did not like California
and its eternal sunshine. And ] said il
my heart. know / shall not like Floridi
lit will be just another Caiifornia-fruit
flowers, trees, sunshine, sand, rocks Ito
much of everything. and the senses vii
be paralyzed with the 'mucbness' of il
while the appetite viii cloy with the eter
nal shine of the day-god and the un
changing perspective of the picture. |
will be fat, stale. and unpleasing be
cause there win never be a SHADOW {
temper the glare and dazzle OF q sky tina
knows no clouds.
But i didn't know / was simply ie
norant, that's all. / was ordered to go q
once. / objected that while a man cOul
start to tour Europe with box of cigar
{ and bottle of snak-bite antijote, a won
an had to have clothes, and the clothes tina
were ready for a trip to the mountain
were not fitted for a trip TO the tropic
/ was told by the powers that not man
clothes were needed, but as the law o
clothes is the same in ali civilized cline
/ had 10 provide some, but L am tellin
you right now that the mountain outf
would have answered. Part of the tin
you leave a little of the heavier cl0tbin
off. that's all.
/ went directly to st. Cloud. 0sceol
County. just little short of LOGO mill
from Washington, ID. c. And mind yo
/ went. firmly resolved that l would NJ
like it down there; in fact, / diln't wal
% like it because, being a child of ii
prairies. j did not want TO desert m
first love.
Wonderfully Level Country.
St. Cloud is well named II stands 7
on about the highest land in Souther
Florida, certainly the highest for hundre,
of miles to the North, and far and ava
higher, than anything South of II.
And as for liking it Shucksi Why "
conldnit help liking il. Nay, you love
Right straight way you love it. Natu
has done her best for this section of God
Hsosstool. She has run riot over much
FYorsSh and the darkness of the growt
the 'tn2sbDsss" of water, the ever presel
odor of Jetay;ng vegetation and tire lon
long reaches OF swamp land with its swa
ing marsh grasses smack of malaria al
the quinine bottle on the breakfast tabl
ST. Cloud, Oseeola County, being hig
er than the sea. instead of lower, has mol
of these disadvantages. ] thought hi
aeon level couufrV hut I meyer realiz,