Year: 1879

and you have doubtless come 10 the con


cluSion long ago that the habit is too invet


crate to admit of any hopes of cure, and


suppose you have concluded it was best t.


submit and let it run its course.


have lately returned from trip to NJ,


old home in Kansas, from which | hav,


now been absent four years, and possibl,


note Or two by the way may be wort


reading. I left here February 26ih. |


was bitter cold day. Minnesota was her


self that time in earnest. The mercur,


stood twenly-eight degrees below zert


that morning. Jack Frost was having


things his own way just then. He wa


REINFORCED by a fierce northwest wind


which more than doubly intensified tht


cold, and which penetrated every crack


and Granny of ones house, and pierced


through any amount of clothing one


might put on. 1t hardly seemed possible


then that but one day should intervene be.


fore we should see farmers with theil


coats off blowing, but such was the fact


We passed through Iowa in a zigzlg di.


rection. going first to Burlington on the
eastern side and then ninety miles direct
ly west to Creston. We had told the ticket
agent to put US over the quickest rout, and
he sent us around here. | used to hear il
said when l was boy THAT the farthest
way round was the quickest way home."
but never dreamed that railroad conpa-
nies would adopt that plan. But we made
close connections and ought not to com
plain.


We ran through a severe snow storm in
central Iowa. At Kansas City there was
no vestige of snow. The streets were dry
and dusty. All the westward bound trains
were loaded with passengers and emil
grants going to try the vicssitudes of
frontier life. Whole families, and should
Judge. whole neighborhoods. for they all
seemed TO be acquainted with each other,
were on the train. Fathers and mothers
with an almost endless number of children
were there. Young America was well
represented. One woman, who was evi
IDENTIFY short of money, passed ten year
old girl off for IN infant. She took her
up in her lap, covered up her feet with
her big cloak and nestled her down to her
breast so that the conductor might not
mistrust her age. She handed the con =.
ductor one ticket for herself and her
" baby" The passengers coughed and
the conductor himself couldn't help but
smile. He evidently thought it was too
good joke to spoil, and so he good
na.uredly said nothing and let the " baby"
ride.


Soulhward from Kansas City the fields
of winter wheat were looking green and
fresh; cattle were grazing in the fields
with vim that showed that they found
some reward for their work, though we
could hardly say that the meadows indi-
Gated much green vegetable life as seen
iioli thS Sat hiiuoN. 4NctE UdruCt on
the L. l.. |. G. road, less than hundred
miles from Kansas City. | saw some small
patches of wheat on the rich cotton lands
under The bluffs that looked rs bright and
growing as if it was in the middle of
[ could almost imagine that a
section of June had suddenly appeared.


Although the mercury stood at minus
when we left, it was only a
few days after | saw it above eighty in the
shade. 1t seemed like going from the
Arctic regions to the torrid zone. But it
would be hardly fair to leave the impress
sion that this was all accomplished by the
simple transition from Minnesota to Kan
'aS. There was II change in Minnesota too.
As when violent tempered man suddenly
becomes ashamed of his outbursts and
puts on an unusually good-natured counte-
nance, SO here the weather was unusually
line, and some commenced to SOW their
wheat. by comparing notes according to
.he best data we had, we found that there
was, as a general thing, from fifteen to
,wenty degrees difference in the tempera-
ure between southern Minnesota and
southern Kansas, in any given "spcl " of
weather in the winter The cold weather
Of the first of January spoiled the pros
oect for peaches throughout all that local
ty | passed through. The blossom buds
IRE all killed, and some are afraid the
trees are ruined also.


One of the blessed privileges vouchsafed
is by the dispenser of all things in this life
s to be permitted once more to grasp the
hands OF familiar friends from whom You
have been II long time absent. Four years
seemel long time when we were away,
but once more in the midst of familiar
scenes and we could hardly realize that
four years had flown since last we were
here. The little boys had grown to be
Dig boys, and big boys had become young
men, in that little brief space of time.
Girls, too. had blossomed into woman
lood, and some into wife and motherhood,
ind little new faces could be seen here
Ind there all through the whole range of
our acquaintance. The old homestead on
which we had spent years Of hard toll to
improve had not lost particle of its
lomelike look, though it is home to US no
onger. The orchard and shade trees we
lad planted, though they had grown
since we last saw them, Sc ,m-
I'd like old friends ready to greet us, and
ell us in their own mute language of the
oast. And how natural it would have
been to have taken up work there where
We left it off When We saw panel of
ence that was broken down there was an
distinctive impulse to go and repair it, or
. fruit tree that needed pruning, we could
hardly evade the sense of duty to put it in
shape.


The old church, too, where prayer is |
wont TO be made, how sacred it looked. II |
S not u very imposing structure, but there
re associations connected with it that can |
leVer be iorpotten The haart-touchinv NJ