The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-04-29
As NAN TO NAN.

uSWSpopeE man GOWN 10 M URN ~
Jefferson county. Yes, McKeever has
a farm He makes living from the
practice OF law and gets anxiety. care
and recreation from his farm. The
newspaper man has three friends who
make money in town and spend 1t In
the country. Besides McKeever there
are Tom Doran and Dick Hodgins.
These three will talk corn. potatoes,
cows or subsoil with you any. time. day
or night, street or home or Office. They
come around once in awhile and take
the newspaper man away from his
desk and steer him through a barnyaEd1
and across an alfalfa field and talk
crops to him until the cows come homo.
This McKeever trip was q delight
Mrs. McKeever drove the car and m q
.'chauffeuress'' she has few equals and
no superiors- She twirled that steer
steering a yacht. She got out and got
under when the engine reversed itself
She pumped up tire A. quick ana
easy as another woman could powder
, her face She Is also an inventor and
has a patent attachment ON the car
for boiling coffee without time or trou-
BILE or fire-but that has a place to
itself later In this narrative.
The AcKeever car sailed down the
country lanes Of Shawnee and Jener-
son counties like a ship on painted
ocean. The newspaper mans heart
was glad as he looked at the Kaw
valley and the meadow lands and the
hills After awhile the car slid by q
plowed field that looked to be as big
as a township.
"My land" said McKeever with an
emphasis not entirely free from pride.
Planted in alfalfa last week. Let's
stop and see if it il coming up"
| The newspaper man got out OF the
car but he did not believe that any
alfalfa that was ever brewed could
come uD SO quick as that.
! McKeever crawled through q barb
wire fence and left q piece Of his Ice
cream clothes behind him. He poked
up the soil Of that field and uttered
through he shouted.
| The newspaper man looked closely
but he could not see any green spear
heads poking through the ground. II
was only the man who looked through
the microscope Of enthusiasm who
&C uld see that baby alfalfa.
i After travelling about two miles along
the fences of McKeever's farm we
came to McKeever's farm house. And
| it was something to have come to. A
his summer days could not be imag-
ined. There are hills behind the house
/, and fields to the right of it and woods
to the left of it. And down the hill a
little ways there Is a spring Of cold.
lclear water.
The newspaper man wanted to ad-
Tnire the Landscape but McKeever
seized him by the hem Of his garment
and dragged him down to the barn
yard to see the red pigs. There were
thirty sows in that yard and each SOW
had thirty little pigs The yard was
red with red pigs. Looked like 1t had
been painted red by a careless painter
who sought a speckled effect
Then McKeever took the newspaper
man through an old stone barn and
I-l, vAA MIC
Climbed a stairway in that barn that
went straight up. Bumped head on a
rafter. Went outside and saw more
red pigs walking in a solemn process
stsion Endian file from an alfalfa field.
(. Looked over into a little grove and saw
some more pigs. and these pigs were
i as red as the hair Of the man who
married Joe Bowers sweetheart.
The newspaper man did not think
there were that many red pigs in the
! world.
j McKeever went on to tell his little
story about that farm. IT covers q
couple of townships and overlaps the
borders Of a third. He was going to
plant it in alfalfa, he said. II he does.
and has a good crop. his harvest will
; down the price of this grain twelve
!cents on the pound, or bushel, which,
ever way they sell it.
# All the McKeever boys were raised
OH tulS anu ING uSW 8R0PcE 1udlA
tried to get Ed to tell him about their
boyhood days, but this Topeka lawyer
who runs a farm on the side was in
terested in the present, not the past.
/ He talked to his tenant about repairs
and improvements. The newspaper
man has noticed in the case Of Tom
D0ran and of Dick HOdgins, when Wis
iting their farms. that these town
farmers are full OF wise saws and tech
nicalities and demurrers about running
farms. Every time they climb aboard
|. their automobiles and go to visit their
: fields OF corn they leave behind a
truckfoad of advice for the hired men,
the tenants and devisees.
| McKeever. in q five minutes con-
versation, changed an oat field to corn
and a smokehouse to a hen roost and
!, a creek to a pond and a meadow to a
. feedlot 1t was quick work and full
Of science and legal observation.
: The party started home in the gloam-
ing oh. my darling. Last thing they
| saw as they left the uttermost con-
| fines of the farm was another flock OF
. those red pigs in a clover field. Stopped
+ by a grassy bank and had lunch. II
l was at this time and this place that
) Mrs. McKeever unlimbered that patent
= electric, self-Starting, ball-bearing, au-
t tomato Misunderstanding coffee boiler
: affair. She produced percolater coffee
pot from under a seat and set It al
= the second speed forward Then she
unfastened two or three valves on the
car and turned a set screw and dug
out a coil OF electric light wire. She
{ poked one end of this wire into a hole
in the car and fastened the other end
to the coffee pot and then turned ar
electric switch and every one stepped
back out of harms way and waited FOL
that coffee pot lid to blow OF undel
the pressure of boiling water an6
: steam.
A half hour later the newspaper mar
. approached the coffee pot with caution
and touched it's side. It was as colo
as an icebox. Mrs. McKeever. however
4 explained in terms that bristled witt
kilowats and ampheres and tungsten