Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1911-05-13


lation, what painter can picture the
scene; what yesterday was garden,
today is barren waste: the toll, the
expense, the care of an entire season
annihilated in few short hours.
Be it remembered, the people of
this section of the country at that
time were not as we'll to do finan-
cially as now. They, up to this time,
while not lacking the necessities of
life had few of the luxuries, surely
nothing as compared with today. The
people, for the greater part were ag-
riculturists many of whom lived on
rented farms, paying the rent in
percentage of what was raised. But
many more were trades people, car
penters. brickmakers, brickmasons.
StonemaSOnS, ETC., whose livelihood
and prosperity depended almost who'll
" on crop conditions; so it can at
once be seen that failure of crops
meant a failure of all conditions.
Such was the case that by Septem-
ber l not a spear of living vegetation
of any kind was in evidence, and for
a fact l have seen the grasshoppers
eat the plants down into the ground
several inches.
Many people, in fact all who could
do 50, left for places the ''hoppers"
had not visited, for business of all
kinds was now almost ruined. Mon
ey, which had been scarce, was now
rarely seen, and winter with its addi-
tional demands for fuel and clothing
was drawing near, starvation seemed
almost inevitable.
As there was nothing left for cat
tie and hogs to eat, they were killed
or sold as quickly as possible, and,
while our fowls yet remained, their
flesh and eggs were so rank with the
':hoppers'' which they waxed fat up
on, that they were nauSeating in the
extreme Those who lived near the
rivers caught fish and turtles, but
soon they, too, had chopper" taste.
In those days we knew no such
thing as refrigerator car, conse-
quently could get no fresh meat from
the uninfested district, until the
weather was cold enough to ship
without spelling
Noting these facts you can readily
fresh meat (unless it was fish which
we sometimes caught uncOntaminat-
ed} from some time in September un-
til about Christmas; what meat we
had was picked and salted meat, left
from the winter before. some of it
over year ago.
OF course this terrible calamity
was soon heard of all over the coun
try. Relief committees were organ
lied, clothing, fuel, food, etc, asked
for, and be it said to the everlasting
glory of the great American people,
they responded most literally. Many
foreign countries, too, preferred aid.
Not only great quantities of the
necessities of life were furnished.
but many of the luxuries also, with
instructions Telegraph at our ex-
pense anything you need and at any
time"
So, while we had to forego the
pleasure of eating fresh meat for
awhile, we had an abundance of such
things as they eould ship at
that season, and many things were
shipped US We had never even heard
& VI. pl1 OCAi1S
vegetables. what few vegetables we
had~for winters use heretofore had
been such as could be dried: corn,
peas and beans.
/ PREPARE TO EXTERMINATE
The grasshoppers, not yet satisfied
with the havoc already made, now be-
gan preparations for future depreda-
tions, by laying eggs in the earth to
hatch when warm weather should
come again. They chose for this pur-
pose, firm, dry ground, the roadside,
meadows, pathways, etc Immedi-
ately the people began preparations
for exterminating the pests. Great
trenches were dug, with the expecta-
tion of driving the young into them
as soon as Matched, cover them with
dirt, thus smothering them. Roads,
fields and many pastures were plowed
up as soon as the eggs were laid,
thus exposing them to the frost and
cold and killing the germ But be-
hold, when spring came, the young
hopper was in evidence by the mill
lion.
One day the wife of one of our
farmers, while out doors, filling her
lamp with kerosene for coal oil as it
is commonly calledl spilled some on
1 thn ground of cOurSe Master s.HOn-