Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1913-10-30

Done come! Michigan, I reckon we
found some of them states and coun.
tries with the music names. We-al
come to the land o'joy!"
CHAPTER II.
WHEN I WAS A KID.
In September, looking from the court
house u a of Rome, one sees the
ripening corn like a bronze shield on
the hills which close every street end
beyond he arching sugar trees. The
bottoms. too. are choked by the lust OF
the corn, and the church spires and the
ragged sycamores along the roadsides
rise out Of this opulent sea from the
river to the bluffs as If drowning IN
the perfume Of the tassels. These
west bluffs alone seem to evade the
conquest; one sees a . winding up a
red gap among groves Of oak, hickory,
walnut; with the crimson sumac and
alders showing a lighter soil, the up
land groupings of shale, clay n stony
ridges. Here one has glimpses OF
clover and oat stubble, rounded stacks.
barns, windmills, white farm homes
and wire fences about shaded pastures.
But beyond, h triumphant sea or the
corn stretches north n west across
of the virgin soil, the short grass as the
Indians rode 1t when the settlers OF the
forties anne.
1t is a land fat to bursting with
numberless rich and complacent little
cities. The county annals show o
that the people never have hungered,
fought nor suffered. From the first
every mar had his bag Of silver
under the puncheop floor Of his cabin
and went forth to buy the acres as the
Sacs and Foxes moved away. The sec
ond year they ate their own corn with
the venison and prairie chicken; their
schools and churches were built before
the a in their own cabin homes was
dry; and the first grand jury OF this
Iowa county sat in the>untrodden grass
of what is now Romey main street and
indicted a territorial commissioners for
malfeasance. 1t was significant; the
first Midlanders were insurgents OF
conscience and not hunger rebellious,
for never had they felt want or known
sacrifice.
The Indians called it, THE Land OF
Beautiful Rivers" and few towns there
near. over clear pebbly bars n along
blue stem margins. where the wild
grapes and crab apples lure the child
ren autumn long. Through. Rome
therefore flows Sinsinawa creek, sleep
ing the summer in leaf lined. sweet
smelling pools, along the shady streets
: where the boys fish for sinners with
their hats; and where. in October. the
water having dried. the oak and maple
leaves drift deep so that, by Halloween
all the town is filled with the pungent
smell Of the smoke.
Rome is in a continual grandmother
ly quarrel with Sinsinawa creek; new
er has it been able to reason sobriety
into the laughing jade. which t.mbles
its June freshets down from the bluffs,
fills every hollow of the wandering
streets and vacant lots. plays MISCHIEF
with fences and walks n goes its way
to the Mississippi across the bottoms,
\ loo vino tic p,irrorod nno1o tn <a11nf the
ancient dame Of a town with its will
fitness. Yet Rome so loves the want
on that when Earlville wanted to di-
vert it's waters In the uplands, to run a
factory for that aggressive metropolis
Of the county, the protest that went up
echoed for years in local politics. Earl
Williams called it "Sin Creek" or Skunk
Creek but what could one expect Of
Earlville?
In Rome when a tree interferes with
a sidewalk the walk is not built; in
Earlville the tree is cut down and the,
cement laid. That is why Earlville has
the railroad, the furniture factory and
the Elks' club, while Rome has only Its
memories. Its rusty fences and its best
families. And the county court house.
The court house offices and the best
families were q tradition as venerably
intertwined as the ivy and bricks OF the
walls. Rome knew its position. It
would have sat with dignity or It's
hills. only Skunk creekII beg pardon
Sinsinawa! kept pushing it off.
Yet none in Rome more than mildly
censured ~Sinsinawa. Not even Wiley
T.. Curran. of the Rome News, who
was always bothering the town board
to have known better. Every one hav-
ing county business had to come to
Rome. If n didn't like the streets
ore could go to-Earlville.
Wiley T. Curran used to retort that a
good many had. Rome contained not
the war closed. Earlville, then. was
merely one of Thaddeus Tanners cow
pastures. Earlville welcomed any one
who would hustle" as the Boosters
club put it. Rome did not care to have
people about whose families nothing
was known. Every one there had lived
in Rome since 1850 at least. Even the
obnoxious Mr.. Curran's progenitors;
and some of the old families tolerated,
the News solely because Pat Curran
founded 1t before the court house was
built. But those families were few
for Pat Curran had been one of the
fighting abolitionists, and southern
the Kentucky and Virginia migrations
during the secession prelude. To this
day these lower counties are known as
1.-The Reserve" n have ever stood
aloof from n rampant republicanism
of the militant north Inc west. In
Rome still exist dim traditions of Tul-
ly's raid n the copperheadism that
was smothered in the triumph Of the
northern arms. It lends a political
conservatism and a best family" air
to society, and accounts for the tum-
BILE down fences. unpaved streets and
Atcadian corner lots. 1t also furnished
Curran. OF the News. with editorials.
But no one who was any one minded
Curran. In Rome everybody who was
anybody had money. In these rich and
mature days. having the static order
OF h east and a stationary population,
more than a generation Of young men
had gone off from the priceless corn
lands OF the county to the cheaper
acres OF the Canadas, or the irrigated
valleys Of California and New Maxico,
or to the cities. Retired farmers,
Ing into town for the schools and free
dom from stock feeding, did not COM
pensate for the drain Of younger blood.
Curran larnented this. But Curran him
self had gone Off to swing the circle OF
the e for a decade and come back
g beggar to take up the News on his
fathers death. And now the News
could cackle as 1t pleased about pro
gressiveness and keeping the young
i man IN tho nA,1~k~v e. AL.a- l.... c-i~a