Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1917-07-26
WESTERN KANSAS


a celebration at the town of Wa-Kee-
ney, the capital of Trego County. In
several ways that was the most re-
| markable Fourth of July celebration
/ ever attended According to the
biennial report of the state board of
agriculture, Wa-Keeney ranks as the
136th city in the state in point of pop
ulation, which is given as ,051. The
total population of frego county is
given as 1920. want you to keep
I those figures in mind when you are
disposed to question my first state
ment- The attendance at this celebra-
ton was estimated at from s, 900 to
! 1000. | think 5000 is a conservative
estimate. In short there were about
as many persons at the celebration as
| constitute the entire population of the
town and county. It was estimated
that there were 1000 automobiles in
the town that day. did not count
them, but l know the town was almost
filled with machines, and not many
| were cheap machines, either. Estim-
ating an average of four persons to a
car, and the average was probably
higher than that, 1000 persons rode
into the little town In. cars that day,
| 1t was some crowd. It was the big
gest crowd, considering the size of the
town and the limited population of the
county / ever had seen. During the
entire day-I did not hear one fire.
cracker or cap pistol. Can you beat
it? During the time of the speaking
not solitary vendor of lemonade
gave a single whoop, nor did any gent
| In loud and raucous tones invite any
| one to come forward and try his skill
IN knocking down rag babies or NOV
| ing rabbits or limitations of other
wild, shy animals. / ask you again,
can you beat it? Most wonderful of
all, 1000 or 5000 of the crowd
actually either sat or stood still and
listened attentively and patiently to
what the speakers had to offer, and
even encouraged them with discrinin-
ating applause. Did you ever hear of
the like at Fourth of July celebra-
ton ? l never did. 1 wandered about
thru the crowd both in the forenoon
and afternoon and did not see one
man who gave the slightest signs of
intoxication, nor did hear bolster
Gus or profane word.
Again, l wish to ask, can you beat
it =? Trego is one of the great wheat
counties of Kansas. The farmers of
the county harvested last year, 128, ,157
acres of wheat valued at S., ,490, ,494,
an average of more than $700 for
every man, woman and child in the
county, and / might remark in passing
that it is pretty hard to beat that. The
crop is failure this year. Naturally,
you would expect to find the people
blue, discouraged and maybe abusing
the government. IF there was a COM
palmer in the crowd I did not happen
to meet him or hear him. Again, l
wish to ask, can you beat 1t?
l have had occasion several times
to express my admiration for the peo-
pie of Western Kansas. They are not
all saints by any means. They make
no pretensions of extraordinary good
ness. IF they did 1 would be suSpic-
ious of them at once. Look out for the
man who boasts of his own virtue.
He will bear watching and nine times
out of ten will prove to be ~ fraud.
What l do claim for the people of
Western Kansas is that cn the aver
age they are the most intelligent, the
most courageous, the most law-abid-
ing and the best natured people l have
ever known. This year, you would
suppose that they would complain as
| have said, but they do not. They
exhibit cheerful philosophy worthy
of praise and emulation.
have been seeking the reasons for
the state of mind l found in Western
Kansas. A friend of mine who is
something of a philosopher himself
figures it out this way: The people of
Western Kansas are the result OF
hngs could not stand the process, and
got out of the country. Those who
are left, tried and toughened by the
hardships they are compelled to en-
dure, made resourceful by the diff
culties they have been forced to over
come or starve, naturally are re-
sourceful, self-reliant and optimistic. |
They know that there can scarcely be
anything in the way of hard luck |
ahead of them that is as bad as what |
they have already endured and over
come, SO they face the future with |
calm confidence which amazes the |
easterner who goes out there and |
sees the people facing what looks like |
almost a total crop failure, with |
unruffied spirit and mistaken cour-
age.
Go among them, talk to them and /
you will discover that there is a larg- |
er per cent of educated people than |
you can find perhaps in any other
ing in Western Kansas is a gamble,
a lottery in which Nature turns the /
wheel. Sometimes the players draw
many prizes of astonishing value and |
some times they draw blanks. Per
haps for that reason the people have |
acquired the calm philosophical bear
ing of the gambler who takes his
gains and losses without apparent
elation or dependency, always filed
with hope that when fortune frowns |
it will follow the frown with smile |
on another day. These Western Kan /
sas people have APPARENTLY acquired
the nerve and hopefulness and stole
ism of the gambler without his ac-
complying vices
There was a time when a dry sea-
son would start an exodus from West