Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1910-07-23

5 that spring and planted it to beans
There was as MICA stand as | evel
saw. Every leaf showed rich green
healthy growth. and felt sure l had
! made great strike by planting beans
One day dark cloud appeared. hid
ing the bright sunshine from the face
; Of the earth. and gradually settled
down just east of the city of Bis
: marck | knew what it meant, for
, | had been through the grasshoppel
years in southwestern Minnesota
; when the whole country south and
: west Of Mankato was devastated. The
late Farmer Wallace, then living al
Mankato, Mimi, was commissioner
| appointed by Governor Austin to re-
lieye the distress that followed, and
Minnesota was compelled to make a
loan to the farmers not only for seed
but for bread to carry them through
those years of famine. That is what
it amounted to, for every vestage of
green was destroyed in some places,
and the grasshoppers laying their
eggs gave horde Of young the next
spring that again destroyed every
thing before them.
|
done to my beans. There was not a
green thing left on that five acres.
They had gone to the roots, even,
leaving little hole where the stalk
stood. They went away with the
wind, and drifted over into the Red
River valley and settled down about
Fargo. They rested on the track,
were blown against the sides of build
| ings, sometimes making a drift foot
or more in depth. and in some places
they were on the track in such a mass
that the trains crushed them, oiling
| the track so that the cars could not
be moved until the track was sand
ed.
The records show that they had
visited the valley before that The
first visitation was in 1918, and the
Selkirk colonists were the sufferers.
The season of 1917 had been a fruit
full one. The return had been from
forty to sixty fold for the seed plant.
ed and the next year opened with
great promise. I'm waves of silver,
drifting on to harvest rolled the
grain" but one bright day the sun
was darkened, cloud resting over ,
the whole land. 1t was from the my
RAIDS OF grasshoppers. They stripped
the trees Of every bit of green and
the fields and gardens were laid to i
waste.
The country was left barren of seed
which had to be brought in the next |
spring from Prairie du Chem, up the !
Mississippi and the Minnesota to Big
Stone Lake, making a portage into
Lake Traverse and then into the Bots
de Sioux and thence down the Red
river, arriving June 3. There were
five weeks in 1852 when there was
canoe communication between the
Red river and these lakes, and canoes
made uninterrupted trips from Pembi.
ma to St. Paul. The lower Red river
was sea some twenty or thirty miles
wide.
From the far distant Philippines !
have an alleged joke on a senator who
got pension bill through for one of
his constituents because he had his
retreat cut off at Gettysburg, quite
equal in importance to the man who
went to the hospital for his wife who
left note telling him that she had
|
OF the 2,213,365 of the boys in blue
who fought in the Civil war only
about half million now remain. Last
year the grim reaper removed 3d..
300 from the pension roll, at the rate
If ninety a day.
In the revolutionary war, fifty-fve
battles and skirmishes were fought
Turing a period of eight years. In
he evil war during four years of
lostilities there were fought 2,235 bat
les, or an average of $50 year,
against eight year during the revo-
utionary war. In the Civil war on
he union side, 81 1862 were killed in
'attle and 183,267 died of wounds.
During the revolutionary war the
Tiled in battle were 1,735, including
he losses on the frontier in affairs
With the Indians.
In seventeen battles the losses we're
II. A Lexington fifty were killed:
t White Plains 300 were missing: at
Princeton 100 killed and 300 missing:
t Brandywine 300 killed and 1000
Missing; at Saltwater, killed, wound
d and missing, 425; at Monmouth, 81
illed and 1870 wounded and missing;
t Eautau Springs, $50 killed; at Gull
ord court house. 10 killed; at Savan.
all Is; at Norfolk. killed, wounded
nd missing, $50.
There were many battles in the
'ivil war where the losses were|
reater than the entire loss of the
evolutionary war period.
1t cost much to establish this gov.
eminent. 1t cost very much more
0 preserve it. l am sorry to say
lmost every man who opposed the
rosecution of the war for the preser-
alton of the union, was a democrat.
ONE were brave, true, patriotic and
ought with the true patriots from
tart to finish. But there were 9TH
RS. Sunset Cox at the democratic
at1onal convention in 1864, said:
Abraham Lincoln has de1uged this
ountry with blood, created a debt of
4,OOO.OOO,O0O and sacrificed two mil
on OF human lives. At the November
lections We will damn him with eter-
al lnfamy. Even Jefferson Davis is
o greater enemy of the constitution