The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-01-28
PINE FOR KANSAS
Cold Weather Here Doesn't
Ruin Farmers Crops.
Kansan in California Writes
HOmesick Letter.

Kansas man, who had left sunny
/ Kansas for the golden west OF Cali
fornia, is now wishing he were back
in Kansas again.
So writes 7. A Bigger, who is spend
/ ing the winter in California, and VINO
was in Los Angeles two weeks ago
vastation along the southern Pacific
slope.
/ In a letter home Mr.. Bigger writes:
Ever since our arrival glib tongues
have poured into our ears joyous tales
of July weather in January. the
therm ON eter registered rs, 81, SO de-
grees, until white duck and panama
hats were as necessary here as at
Palm Beach. Then pingi with SICK
ening thud the same thermometer fell
to IS degrees. The orange grower
well knows what that temperature
means 1t means destruction to ms
golden crop. Boasts of a fruit yield
worth $500 on each and every acre
suddenly ceased.
The Disaster of Frost.
''Cold weather in January means
nothing to a prosperous Kansas 1arm-
er. His cattle fatten better when the
frost is on the pumpkin. But to the
grower of fruits and vegetables on
the Pacific coast, frost means a dis
aster as great as graSshoppers ana
drouth combined 1t is not good form
another mans country, especially
when he is kind, hospitable and con-
Siderate.
But many of our we'll to do Kansans
sigh for a change to pastures new,
and they need occasional warning that
they risk walking with their all into
the jaws of uncertainty Wnen they
drop themselves and their fortunes on
the golden sands of sunset land. L
doubt not the wintry sunset of yester-
day evening shone on the sobered
face of many man VINO Wlsned MINI
self back in our land OF sturdy y p low
perature is just a little too much Tor
subtropical flora.
Worse Than Kansas Wind.
"Only a day or two ago loyal
Californian had said to me, Just
think, our average wind pressure is
only six miles an hour, b me! o my!
how can you Jayhawkers endure 1t to
live in the cyclone belt?'
Eat this very moment gale was
tearing down the Santa Barbara chan
mel, head-on, due here an hour later.
Such a wind is apologetically called
a Santa Anna but in spite OF the
suave name it carries dust and COB
blestones just as briskly as an old
fashioned Kansas dust storm. Hats
went flying, signs creaked and rat
tied and threatened to join the hats,
and the wind whipped around corners
in regulation Arkansas valley style
meanwhile the temperature kept
dropping, dropping: Next morning
icicles hung pendent from roofs and
garden walls. The oranges were
frozen solid as a baseball. A fifty
million dollar crop of fruit and pro-
duce was in jeopardy. The scarlet
poinsettias dropped as If ready to weep
tears of blood. The narcissus hung
limp and sorrowful, its beauty gone.
Geraniums with their gay scarlet
flowers and green leaves sank to
earth, helpless under Jack FTost's re-
morseless pinch. Many home whose
chief beauty lay in the clambering
powered it was barred of all that made
it lovely.
Freeze All the Talk.
''In this tall Hotel De Family of
ours parlor and reading room re-
sound with stories of distress to come,
of fortunes vanished in a night, and
of imprudent investors who have put
their eggs all in one basket, that
basket an alluring orange grove, the
basket now upset. The guests discuss
the situation with animation, though
not one of us has lost cent. But
other peoples business is so very in
teresting,' so said the specialized old
lady of the Rice party across the
table.
when weather talk gives out the
tariff repeal on citrous fruits has the
right of way. Then congressman of
the worn out east and south will hear
unpleasant comments until their ears
burn. Free trade has no footing. in
California. Yet in two moonlesS
JACK fTOSC mas dCCOInpl
what tariff for revenue statesmen
could not do with years of oratory-
destroyed California's prosperity for
the present.
Everyone out here is shivering-
not with cold, for it is pleasant again
but with the thought of payments
coming due. That's a SILVER only one
who owes can understand.
Let no KanSan imagine there is a
happy hunting ground away off some
where in the golden west, free from
heartacheS and immune from dis
aster.'