Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1909-01-15

OF Kansas. The great tawny,
yellow, gold and bronze disks ris,
from all the Kansas hills and va
leys upon long, slender, green
stalks. A search through trav-
Ell tales reveals a description of
the flower as it was found in
1920 by Stephen LOng-an explore.
II. j. Farnham has an account of
it in the notes of his travels
across Kansas in 1889. Maxi
millian's accounts mention this
STORY, whichis as follows:
An Indian chief ordered his
braves to go out on the plains
and kill a lot of bull buffaloes,
and make shields out of their
hides.
ANY further ordersi" asked
the braves.
Yes" said the chief, paint
a trophy sunflower on the shields
He meant it for an amulet.
Then the chiefs sister butted
In" You are FOOLS she exclaim-
ed. Paint a bean on it, for
what is smoother than a bean
to ward off arrowsi" Boston
papers please copy
The Indians gathered the sun
flower seeds and made an oil out
of them, which they used in
their paints, and for seasoning
food. In time of famine they
also used the seeds for food.
this day an oil is still manufac-
tured from the seed. A paper
mill at Salina proved one time
that sunflower stalks will make
good paper. The Salina Daily RI
publican printed its issue on o.
tober '27, 1863, on paper made
from sunflower stalks. This may
be interesting to the white pa
per investigation.
There is an old Grecian legend
a pretty stOry-of the sunflow-
er's origin. A fair young maid
en- loved the sun-god. Day af-
ter day, from early morn until
night, she stood out upon a great
plain, watching the sun-god's
flaming car go across the skies.
But the proud god never noticed
her The maiden was constant,
and kept up her watch day in
and out. Finally her feet be-
came rooted in the ground. Then
Magic came in and cast her wand
and pronounced a spell, and the
maid was transformed into a flow
er.- That is why the sunflOwer
turns on its slender stalk to
face the sun in its daily travel
across the skies.
There is a scientific claim ex-
tant that the sunflower was orig
inally brought to Kansas frol
Peru-but romance will lay all
of its belts on the Grecian myth.
It's prettier.
Awayback in 1880 Noble L.
Prentis made a suggestion that
the snnflower be adopted by the
state as it's floral emblem. This
| is what he wrote In the Atchi-
son Champion: "The capitol
square is surrounded by a dense
growth, rods in width, of ram
pant sunflowers. They grow as
big, rank and yellow as if they
were forty milesfrom a house.
The sunflower ought to be made
the emblem of our state. Nothing
checks it or kills. 1t is always
happy as a big sunflOwer; grass
hoppers have never held the
age on it; and in drOuthy times,
when everything else willis and
throws up its hands, the sunflow-
er continues business at the old
stand. 1t probably has some
private arrangement with nature
for securing aid"
But it was twenty-three years
afterwards before the sunflOw-
er was by law declared the state
flower. The legislature of 1903
passed the following law )chaptei
479):
An act designating and declar-
ing the helianthus or sunflower
to be the state flower and flor
al emblem of the state of Kan
sas.
Whereas, Kansas has a native
wild flower common throughput
her borders, hardy and cOnspicu-