Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1911-03-24

own eyes the very place where these
J events tranSpired we experience a
! sensation of awe, which merely read
ing of them cannot produce.
But viewing the old historical A la
mo Mission and the sights Of San An.
feeling Of hunger and although l
might stand and gaze at the ruins OF
Old Alamo during the day and dream
of the brave and noble deeds there
wrought in days gone by, | must have
some place to lay my head at the
coming Of night, where l might sleep
and dream, and who shall say what
one might dream? Not finding any
work In the vicinity of San Antonio,
although l tramped around among
the farmers for many miles around, l
!, started north for Austin, the capitol
of Texas, but not being just suited
j with the ''lay of the laDd"-that Is
from appearances it did not look as If
, the farmers in that vicinity were do
ing very much. So | proceeded lit
tie farther north to Granger, a little
town located In central Texas. on the
NJ X. & II. road Here the farming
country looked good and 1t looked as
if the farmers had been at work any
way, if they were not busy just then.
So with my suitcase and grip l piled
off the train and began questioning
every farmer looking individual whom
| could lay my eyes on, as to how he
was fixed for help, considerably Of
fering my services in case he deemed
it improbable that he could get along
without help. But there was "noth-
ing doing" A blacksmith in town
finally gave me the job of repainting
some second hand cultivors which he
had. The money which | received
for this work, together with few
odd pieces of coin which | had in my
pocket served to pay my hotel bill for
the two or three days ! had been in
town. However, the blacksmith had
no more cultivators for me to paint,
and l was scratching around on the
bottom of my all but empty money
depository. Saturday came around
and with it came farmers f1ocking in
to town. My good friend, the black
smith, arranged for meeting be-
tween me and his brotherinlaw, who
needed man, and that evening l
rode out with him to his farm, not
entirely broke either, as | had ten
cents.left in my pocket but had not
had any breakfast or dinner. Wages
are very low in Texas, especially in
southern Texas. Four-bits, the COM
mon expression for fifty cents in the
south, was all the farmers of southern
Texas could etfer for a days work,
provided they lad any work for man
to do, then the chances were that you
would have no place to sleep, and
very little to eat.
The man whom l was to work for
was Bohemian by descent. He could
speak English fairly we'll, but his wife
could not speak anything but Bo-
hemian. He was nice sort and we
got along nicely. | was offered the
choice of $l5 per month or 7a cents per
day as wages and | chose the latter.
Asking him what work he had for me
to do, he replied "chop cotton" Now
Of course did not know what chop
ping cotton was. Do you, my friend?
l found out soon enough what 1T was.
After ! had swung hoe all day, from
sun up till sunset, hoeing and thin
ming out the tender Gotten plants,
planted in rows from 40 to 80 rods
long, a blazing Texas sun beating
down on my sombrerO covered head,
and ! chopping away cutting out the
superfluous cotton plants and weeds,
and being expected to walk right
along at fairly steady gait and chop
at every step, being careful not to
leave too many plants in bunch, nor
to thin them to stand too far apart,
and at the same time, get whatever
weeds there were in the row and there
were plenty OF them, cockleburrs,
morning glory vines, etc. Yes, l
found out what chopping cotton was.
stuck to it for three weeks how
ever, rounding up SIS. My employer
raised my wages to one dollar per day
the third week in hope that ] would
stay with him longer.
Texas is of course a great state,
but l believe she is not up to the
front on schools and education. l
certainly met more ignorant people
on my sojourn through Texas than l
have in any other state which have
travelled through, and had an opport-
unity to study the people and condi-
tions. To illustrate, l will relate an
am using, yet pathetic and pitiable
incident which goes to show that
there are some people in Texas who
hardly know what school is.
My employer had secu red the help
of some neighhor boys to rush through
the work of chopping over a field of
cotton which needed attention right
away. 1t was my first day at cotton
chopping, and so naturally, l was
awkward, The boys, there were four
of them, ranging in age, from Is to
"a, saw that was green at the job,
and wondered who | was. and where