Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1913-09-05
AS AN FASTENER SEES US.

u
many eastern eyes have been focused
on that 'garssy quadrangle which geo.
.graphers call Kansas
A good many eastern lips have
fearfully framed the words, what do !
you suppose they will do?'
Being fairly we'll acquainted with
the brand of humanity that has made !;
the Sunflower State center of pro- !
gress and prosperity, having felt the ;
freedom of its arid stretches which
produce billions in crops and been ,
lost for half day in one Of its
forests of corn, think | may under
take to answer the query.
Before doing so, | wish to remark
that through no fault of mine | fail
ed to be born in Kansas.
What IL they do about it?
Well, if the old schorcherino in the
sky burns their corn to husks as dry
as those with which the prodigal re-.
called himself after he had wasted his
substance in the New York Of that
day, they II get together and invent
a new breakfast food.
Thay'll call it Sunrise Soother or
something equally tempting, and be-
fore long the whole world will be one
big Olier Twist holding out an empty
bowl and asking for more.
And next summer they will have
found a way to grow corn that pro-
duces a patent moistener at the roots
and a sunShade on top. You needn t
laugh at this, for folks who have
made young Saharas more fruitful
than the Garden Of Eden and have
managed to turn ridicule into emer-
aid envy can do things!
If the heat dries up all the loose
, water in Kansas, they'll bring the
, Colorado river to the surface-it flows
under the western end of the state,
you know, and already has been tap
ped in several places-and dig an in
land sea ON a poor plat that ism Z
worth more than 500 an acre.
None need to worry over what
they II do.
A people that has plOwed aridity in
to an asset that makes Wall street
: sit up nights; that has proved the
hen is mightier than the sword;
that has grown miloodles of gold dol
lars out of sand that used to sprout
only prairie dogs and sage brush, are
not going to frown in the face of
few advance blasts of the celestial
subway.
What'll they do about it?
First of all they'll ask Coburn, the
man who put the CAN in Kansas, to
9 figure out how much this hot spell
has been worth to them-yOuu never
hear them pipe about the damage, for
they have weathered SOckless Jerry
and Carrie Nation-and then they N
relieve the pressure on the bank
waits by drawing out a little of their
reserve surplus and set out to make
next year the biggest crop year ever
known in Kansas or this country or
this world for that matter.
And when they We got all this fix
ed up they'll begin blowing where
they left off when the drought sort
of dried them UP and when the sun
began to get the best of them for hot
air.
y They'll prove to anyone that if the
heat hadn't granted them this hiatus
they use the choicest diction i'm
| Kansas-many Of their barns and
n silOs would have burst and some of
their best citizens could have found
no room for their profits
s They never yet have yet got dis
n couraged out in Kansas. They are
). not acquainted with the word. Unlike
e their neighbors in the east, they
f don't have to be shown.
q Kansas shows you!
And it will be a bright and happy
i morning for this Observation-Disclosures
B.. ed old world when enough Of the Kan
+ sas spirit has spilled over the edges
/. Of that extraordinary state to baptize
the rest Of us with the same brands
of crankiness, courage and common
sense that have made her a mighty
fortress Of real Americanism.-Leigh
Mitchell Hayes in Philadelphia North
d American.