The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1916-07-14
IOWA, THE WONDERFUL STATE

Herbert Quick, In American Maya
zine: When father prepares fes.
tival for his children, he keeps back
his most perfect gift for the last.
After all the things have been pre-
sented which affection can prepare,
or filial hope anticipate, the climax Of
generosity is reached when the last
and most precious gift is discovered,
a beneficence conferred in a seeming
extravaganza Of giving. In the grad
ual ascent to the apex OF projections
In uncovering the varied regions Of
the world to his children, the All
Fathers masterpiece is Iowa.
Nothing has been left undone by
nature to complete the work First,
Destiny covered Iowa with the waters
OF the sea. and for millions Of years
there dropped to the dark levels OF
this primordial ocean the lime, the
gypsum, and the clays which form
the basis and provide for the renewal
of her soil. There fell also the sand
stones for her buildings, when man
should come to make them. Then
the scaled rose. the waters recede i,
and in the hot, moist breath of tho
carboniferOus era we're laid down the
Goals, 30 that when man came he
might find the suns heat stored for
him, Clay for that heat to convert to
brick, and lime, gypsum and clay to
combine with heat into that LIQUID
rock which pours like water and turns
to living stone.
But His hand was stretched out
still. The clays and lodges and sands
We're then no better than those OF any
other land. They would not do for
the Masterpieces So there came on
the earth great chill, and the waters
were made into a pillow, and with tina.
plow of ice the GRANTEES OF the north
were ground up that their potash
might be made soil, and the phos-
pilates were mingled with the potash,
and through all ran the lime; and the
glacial pillow passed over Iowa and
made OF her great plain Of smooth
filth, and strewed 1t with black drift
fit for the pigmy plows OF man.
Then Destiny waited while the
waters made channels for themselves.
And the swamps dried up. And for
millions OF years the forces OF nature
stored nitrogen in the black soil, and
filled 1t with vegetable mold like that
which delighted the Children OF Israel
when they spied out the Promised
Land OF Canaan, and reported tina.
is was goodly land.
/. And there it lay, a great greea
savanna, veined with tiny embroider.
les of forest along the streams, its
ground-swell the amending succession
of low and rounded hills, its ripples
the shadows made by the wind in the
waving grass. Destiny kept Iowa one
vast cleared field fit for the pillow.
Destiny laid Missouri along her west
ern border and the Mississippi as her
eastern boundary. that commerce
might find them arms Of the sea for
her future trade. And God looked on
his work and found 1t good; but in
order that it might be superlative, He
tilted the surface little to the south
so that the sun might the better work
with the rain, and both with that
matchless soil for the good of man.
And still Iowa was not yet born.
1t was not time. Iowa could not be
the home of free people Sc. long as
Liberty was obliged to remain "the
Mountain Nymph." Now the motto
"Montani SempeF Liberi" on the great
seal of our most typical mountain
state is about the only thing that
state offers which reminds us OF the
stern democracy Of Switzerland or
Norway, while Iowa contrives fairly
well-even though her great sweep
of plains would in a past age have in
yited the tyranny OF an Attfla or a
Genghis Khan-to make good in "a
middling, muddling, American way on
her heraldic declaration, Our Liber-
ties We Prize and our Rights we VIII
Maintain" Destiny covered Iowa
with her palm until Liberty could be
safe on the plains, and thus make
possible such states as Wisconsin,
Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, the
Dakotas and Iowa, where five hun
dred years ago, II the land had been
peopIed by the white race, we would
nave seen a Poland, Great Russiaa
or a Siberia.
Then the curtain was drawn aside
from the western Continent. And
still Destiny was not ready for Iowa.
American institutions had to be de-
yeloped and somewhat perfected. At
last the hour struck for the discover
of Iowa. 1t was like the unwilling OF
lovely picture-a great undulalns
green sea enameled with flowers.
Not parched by drought like the reg
ions to the west. Not sodden and
'swampy like the rain-soaked forests
to the east. Not stony and sterne
like regions farther south Not IN
the region of fugacious summers of
tho north-but just in the right piace.
In the heart OF the empire OF corn:
the realm OF wheat, the kingdom OF
the paddock, the pasture, the meaoo"
and good brown earth, where WINTER
is cold enough to rest and reviyify
tho soir ana summer warm enough
and long enough to flood the world
with produce. ~
To the unwilling OF Iowa came ail
the peoples of America. This gives
the Hawkeye the power to understand
ali America. Up along the rivers
came the cavaliers from Kentucky
and Virginia, and the woodsmen OF
Missouri and Tennessee. Inere CANT am.
a1so tho southern boosters from 1ndi-
ana and the long suckers from Egypt
Iowa was settled as southern state.
Her river cities were southern. The