The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-12-14
He TESTIFIED
Reporter Gets Into City-COun.
try Essay Game.
He Tells Moving Tale of Hard
ships in Country.
WHEAT FIELD IN JULY
1T Was Too Hot to Be Beautiful
and Inspiring.
Wages Csc a Day-ROse at
4:3O A. NJ.

city and country. In those contribu-
lions the city received all the worst of
the argument Among a group of re-
porters who read some of the selections,
the comments concerning the big town
reflected more credit on the paved
streets and the white way than on the
shady lanes and fields Of grain. And
yet almost every reporter on the State
Journal staff was born and raised in
some country town.
| 1t was when the city-country debate
was steamed up to about IS pounds,
that one of the new arrivals from the
rural routes was given a hearing. The
new reporter brought his recollections
with him and he spoke from personal
| experiences when he prayed that he
| might never again be compelled to go
| back to the corn rows and the wheat
fields
| Spent about four months on farm
once" said the new reporter when he
was given an inning. land spent all my
life so close to the country that the
| proximity of our house in reference to
| the postoffice was the only assurance
! that we were still living in town. And
deliver me from any more OF It
A half dozen reporters who had
dreamed of the green fields, the beaut-
full dells and tassling corn, demanded
immediate explanation for any libel OF
the rural district.
Looked Like a Snap.
cit was along in the COS, about 1898
I think said the new cub, when
got my first job on a farm. remem-
Der that the Fourth of July was coming
and wanted to add to my fire-cracker
and nigger-chaser fund. When farm |
err told me he would give me 25 cents
dav and board just for riding a lead
horse for a threshing crew, it looked so
easy that I was sort of ashamed to
take the money. Well, that night
was out in the country. I went to bed |
about O'Clock. 1t seemed had just
turned over and gone to sleep when a |
big burly fellow who was foreman |
yelled in my ear and the next minute |
pulled me out of bed. Do you wonder
that I grew to hate that man? He did |
the same trick every morning at 4;3O;
and I afterward learned he was paid
SIS a month, board and washing, for
bossing about 20 farm hands.
But that first day. Say. If you never
really worked on farm, try 1T: MY
employer tenderIy told me that I was
to ride 1,400 pound CIydesdale and
guide the travel of a threshing machine
through a 120-acre wheat field. / was
barefooted At o'clock that horse
began to perspire: He perspired Freely;
too. Nv tender bare legs encountered
the perspiration and the horse flies at
tackled me in a way that I could not
fairly defend myself. Then the sun
poured down as it never poured down
before and at II O'Clock 1 grew faint
and sick Ny head began to swim
around and that 120-acre field looked
as broad as the ocean
Wanted to Resign.
'Then noon came. 1 crept over under
a shade tree and watched the men pre-
pare for lunch in the field. AS soon
as I recovered some strength 1 went
over and grew confidential with the
foreman 1 never talked so earnestly
to a man in my life. told him my
mother was sick and I just had to go
home. But he laughed at me- Then 1
lost my temper and resigned. But it
was % miles to town and he told me
would have to walk.
IF 1 were to live a thousand years,
will never forget those IT days In the
wheat fields. Then came the Fourth
of July. There was alfalfa to stack
1t looked like rain and no one cele-
brated. I was told my pay would con-
tinue to be 25 cents day and 1 con- !
tinued to stay. Months and years and
even the centuries themselves seemed
to drag by in those four months 1
stayed on the farm.
Zone day the chinch bugs came.
They came just as the grass hoppers
hordes, in battalions, through the air,
by land and by sea-thousands and
millions of them. The dusty roads
were crowded with those brown back
{
eat; and the impression they made on
that farm was far greater than the t
one that Coxey's army made on t
Fought the Chinch Bugs s
Promptly at 4:3O the next morn
ing the ranch boss pulled me out of ,
first. 1t was just sun up
when I got my days assignment In ,
vernacular, I was to do
that chinch bug convention. The gem ,
tleman with the flowing alfalfa beard
who rated my service at rs cents a
day, provided me with a bucket and
led me to barrel of crude oil. 1 was
to do sentinel duty on the outskirts of :
an so acre corn field and to establish
a little river of oil which the chinch I
bugs would decline to ford. Thus, the
farmer argued, the bugs would be-
come discouraged and pass on 10 g.
next farm. All day 1 worked. The T
sun burned my neck, bltstered my
back and again felt faint and sick G
and wanted to go home Everywhere
here were bugs. They established a
headquarters in my hickory muslin
shirt. They held conferences in my t
sars, my eyes, my nose and my mouth.
For IA hours that day 1 fought
;hinch bugs. But it was a losing fight. q
About o'clock in the afternoon,
thought I had won the battle But /.
he bugs gathered for final council /
If war. They seemed to admit, one
he river of oil. So they flew over.
And that night the farmer upbraided
ne like a pickpocket for letting the
Bugs destroy his corn.
AS crept to my supper that night,
he foreman handed me a letter. 1t :
was from a black eyer, curly haired .
ass in the town school. 1 was never
30 homesick in my life. The next day
/ neighboring farmer said 1 might
Tide to town on his load of wheat.
i 4 - Eel