The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1913-10-30

She clapped her little brown hands.
l"Done come! Michigan, 1 reckon we
found some OF them states and coun-
tries with the music names. We-an
come to the land o'joy!"
CHAPTER II.
WHEN / WAS A KID.
In September, looking from the court
house square Of Rome, n sees the
ripening corn like a bronze shield on
the hills which close every street Y
beyond the arcbing sugar trees. The
bottoms, too, are choked by the lust OF
the corn, and the church spires and the
ragged sycamores along the roadstdes
rise out OF this opulent sea from the
river to the bluffs as IL drowning IN
the perfume OF the tassels. These
west bluffs alone seem to evade the
conquest; one sees a road winding up a
rcd gap among groves of oak, hickory.
walnut: with the crimson n
alders showing q lighter soil, y up
land groupings OF shale, clay and stony
ridges. Here one has glimpses OF
clover and oat stupble, rounded stacks,
barns, windmills, white farm homes
and wire fences about shaded pastures.
But beyond, the triumphant sea OF the
corn stretches north and west across
the Iowa midlands, for there Is no trace
Of the virgin soil. h short grass as the
Indians rode IL when the settlers OF the
forties came.
II is O land fat to bursting with
numberless rich, and complacent little
cities. The county annals show you
that the people never have hungereu,
every man had his bag Of silver
under the puncheop floor of his cabin
and went forth to buy the acrNs 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 butt before
the oak 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 Rome's main street ano
indicted q territorial commissioner Tor
malfeasance. II was significant; tne
FIRST Midlanders were insurgents OF
conscience and not hunger rebellious'
for never had they felt want or
sacrifice. =,
The Indians called 1t, THE Land OF
Beautiful Rivers" and few towns there
are which have not a stream lettering
near. over clear pebbly bars and along
blue stem margins. where the WHO
grapes and crab apples lure the Gnilo-
rem 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, h oak and maple
leaves drift deep so that, by Halloween
all the own Is filled with the pungenI
smell Of the smoke. 49, X" ,
Rome is in a continual grandmother
ly quarrel with Sinsinawa creek; new
err has Il been able to reason sobr1ety
into the laughing jade, which tymoles
it's June freshets down from the bluffs,
fills every hollow of the wandering
streets and vacant lots, plays miscnlef
with fences and walks and goes Its way
to the Mississippi across h bottoms.
leaving It's mirrored pools to taunt the
ancient dame Of q town with its will
fuIness. Yet Rome so loves the want
on that when iEarlville wanted to d.
vert Its 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 n expect OF
Earlville7
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 n the best
families were q tradition as venerably
intertwined as the Ivy and bricks Of the
walls Rome knew its position.i 1t
would have sat with dignity On its
hills, only Skunk creek--I beg pardon
Sinsinawal kept pushing 1t off.
Yet none In Rome more han mildly
censured Sinsinawa. Not even Wiley
T. Curran. Of the Rome News. VINO
was always bothering the town board
about street improvements. He ought
to have known better. Every one hav-
ing county business bad to come to
Rol1e. II me didn't like the streets
one could 60 to-Earlville.
Wiley T. Curran used to retort that a
good many had. Rome contained not
nearly so many people as 1t did when
the war closed. Earlville, then, was
merely. one of Thaddeus Tanners COW
pastures. Earlville welcomed any one
who would hustle" rs h Boosters
club put It. Rome did not care to have
people about whose families nothing
In Rome since 1880 at least. Even the
obnoxious Mr.. Curran's progenitors;
and some Of the old families tolerated
the News solely because Pat Curran
founded It before the court hou was
built. But those families were few
for Pat Curran had been one Of the
lighting abolitionists, and southern
the Kentucky and Virginia migrations
during the secession prelude. To this
day these lower counties are known as
THE Reserve" and have ever stood
aloof from the rampant republicanism
Of the militant north n west. In
Rome still exist dim traditions Of Tul-
ly's raid and the copperheadlsm that
was smcthered In the triumph Of the
northern arms. 1t lends a political
conservatism and a best family" air
to society. and accounts for the tum-
BILE down fences, unpaved streets and
Arcadian corner lots. 1t also furnished
Curran. Of the News. with editorials.
But nc one who was n n minded
Curran. In Rome everybody who was
anybody had money. In these rich and
mature days, having the static order
Of the 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. NOV
ing into town for the schools and free
dom from stock feeding. did not com
pensate for the drain Of younger blood.
Curran lcmented this. But Curran him