Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1912-02-27


to Dallas, Ore. The following let
ter gives her impression of her
new home:
Dallas, Ore, Feb. 9, 1912. I'm
getting so | loathe the west, and
want to get back home, so don't
be surprised if you hear from me
one of these days that we are head
ing east again. This is no country
at all Nothing doing, except by
real estate dealers. And where
they find all their suckers, I'm
sure | don't know The farmers
places look worse than the shacks
on the Dakota prairies, and the
people themselves are twenty-five
years behind the times in many
ways Why, just think, the whole
this county of Polk has less autos
than our little 2 by 4 town of Haw-
| ley back there. And there isn't an
elevator in the state, l don't think.
Think of using sacks all these
years, to handle their grainl
Give me the Dakotas and Min
nesota! Aberdeen, Is. d. News.
The above clipping is sent The OBJ
server by friend of Dallas and Of
Polk county, who resides near Sa-
lem. In the letter accompanying the
clipping he says:
Il lived in Dakota for over 25
years and have been in Hawley many
times. / was on the road as a col
lector. Hawley was one of my towns
and believe me, / earned all / got
there never saw such poverty in
my life as / saw there. The idea of
her comparing Hawley, the remains
of town that never amounted to
anything, with a live, growing town
like Dallas"
The principal trouble with the au-
thor of the epistle printed in the
South Dakota newspaper, appears to
be a well-developed case of plain
homesickness. She evidently longs
for the bowling billiards and the
frost and snow of the wind-swept
winter prairies, the heat, the dust
storms, and the cyclones of summer,
the blighting drouth that saps the
life from the crops and places the
mortgage on the home The Arctic
blasts Of winter which tear across
the bleak expanse, forcing the shiv-
ering mercury down to 40 degrees
below zero would bring joy again to
her heart, and the blighting hot
winds, that sweep up from the south, |
the thermometer climb to |
the dizzy height of los and more, in
the shade, would be lovely bill
liards." Oh, that's a great country,
all right If the season is just right,
II there just enough MOISTURE just
enough sunshine, just enough cool
weather and just enough heat; If the
hail storms fail to come and the hot
winds to blow, the poor, plodding
hardworked farmers may, perhaps,
rejoice in a bountiful harvest and, If
they succeed in selling their crops
for a price sufficient they may be
mortgages The one crop that never
fails in the Dakotas is the mortgage
No. dear lady, Polk county hasn't
I great number of elevators. 1t
Doesn't need 'em. But it has a few
orune dryers and hop dryer or two
md the fellows who own 10 acre
)rune orchard or a 20 acre hop yard
'an gather more of the golden shek-
lis in one year than the hard-work-
ng tiller of the soil in Dakota can
Imass in three, and he won't have
o work more than half the time
ither. Under the circumstances, :
ven try and worry along without
he elevators. We never could see
where a big elevator. owned by
wealthy Minneapolis or Chicago firm,
members of an iron-clad corporation ,
rganized for the primary purpose :
f controlling the price of grain, ,
rought prosperity to any water-tank :
own on the windswept Dakota prai- 1
les. Don't talk to us about Dakota, :
'e have lived there and we are next ,
0 the whole proposition.
Now. about the autos This is in
eed a serious question and demands q,
attention. Wen make an q
Wen blow the dust
rom out government agricultural re-,
orts furnished us by our liberal con-
ressional delegation. and il it shall :,
e found the lady's statement is :
ne, wen have the people buy some =,
lore machines instantly The idea 4,
that little by town" having :,
lore autos than the whole Of Polk :
That's the blow that shat >,
red the camel's vertebrae. :
OF course the Eastern newspapers =,
nd much JOY in a wall like the above :
nd they gleefully print every scrap
ley can discover rejecting upon the
'est Too many Of their good citi-
ms have pried themselves loose =
ON unsatisfactory conditions. and u
ave come West where they are en- n
wing life and making more money =
an they ever thought possible while -
orking a rented farm in the power y
haunted. drouth ridden. mortgage -
Tested plains. "
For the good of herself ana be- VI