Iff
Conservative.
RECOLLECTIONS OP SOUTHWESTERN
KANSAS.
( Written for THE CONSEUVATIVE by WllHs
George Emerson. )
[ EDITOR'S NOTE : Mr. Emerson is a resident
of Wyoming. A dozen years ago ho was cash
ier of the Hondo National bank , at Meade ,
Kansas. In the Harrison and Morton cam
paign , ho was the presidential elector from the
Seventh Kansas congressional district , and
later was selected electoral messenger , to carry
the returns to Washington. He is a lawyer , an
orator , a novelist , and a man of affairs. Ho is
largely interested in the copper Holds of south
ern Wyoming. In the last national campaign
Mr. Emerson was vice-chairman of the speak
er's bureau of the republican national com
mittee. Recently ho was elected an associate
trustee with President McKlnley and Vice-
President Roosevelt , of the American Univer
sity of WashingtonD. 0. ]
My recollections of southwestern
Kansas are many and varied. They
coine before me in moments of retro
spection in panoramic vividness. My
remembrances are of hurrying men ,
homesteading claims ; of breaking out
prairie lands , and broken promises of
agricultural reward ; of prosperity and
panic , burning winds and blighted
crops ; buffalo grass and buffalo bones ;
the brightest prospects' , and the direst
poverty ; freighters' outfits and fatiguing
drives ; old cattlemen and new farm
ers ; money lenders and mortgage loans ,
exorbitant interest and hazardous se
curities ; county-seat fights and crushed
> hopes ; paper railroads and dreams of
paradise ; prairie dogs and prairie chick
ens ; a rainless sky and a tireless people
ple , sod houses and fragments of east
ern luxury ; old soldiers and good com
rades ; fortune and famine , meadow
larks and moon-light nights ; lariattiug
cowboys and long-horned cattle ; goyotes
and cactus ; mirages of many lakes and
bleak plains of alkali dust ; brown sand
dunes and red sand plums ; a dearth of
water and a deluge of water-melons ;
fields of sunflowers and days of sun
shine ; kingly hopes and kaffir corn ;
Indian summer days and an inland sea
of vastuess ; prairie schooners and prai
rie fires ; cattle corrals and canned
goods ; Kansas drug stores and Kansas
sufferers ; buffalo chips and centipedes ;
bucking bronchoes and baby buffalos ;
tumble weeds and tumble bugs ; brave
hearted men and noble hearted women ;
and , withal , a God-fearing people , pa
tient , industrious , tenacious , heroic and
possessed of more bravery , fortitude ,
endurance and tenderness of heart than
the people of any other community that
I am acquainted with on the face of the
earth.
Farmers vs. Stockmen.
Southwestern Kansas is the great
pasture-field of the North American
continent. The soil is rich and nourishes
a buffalo gross which is not only im
pervious to hot winds , but is cured by
them and made more nutritious for the
vast herds of cattle.
In the early "eighties" it was gener
ally believed by the people in the east
and middle west , that in the south
western corner of Kansas there had
been found an agricultural country ,
comparable to the corn belt in southern
[ owa and the Red River wheat fields of
Minnesota. A few years of test on the
part of the agriculturists who flocked
Into that section , demonstrated that the
marvellous richness of soil could not
count against two elements , hot winds
and scarcity of water. No one knows
bettor than a Kansan that "water is the
god of the harvest. "
I went to Meade in Juno , 1886. At
that time there had been two or three
years in which farming had been sue
paign of four days , it devastated the
country.
The "Hot Winds. "
I well remember the bountiful fields
of wheat and barley that were begin
ning to yellow with golden promise.
The farmers said that the wheat and
barley were almost out of the "milk"
and into the "dough , "and , while the dry
weather would prevent the kernels from
filling , as in former years , yet , after all ,
there would be a fair yield. The cattle
men said : "Wait , and you will see
whether southwestern Kansas is an ag
ricultural paradise or a cattle range. "
The farmers , however , , were not
easily discouraged. They poin ted .with
WILLIS GEORGE EMERSON.
cessfully carried on. Those years wit
nessed the raising of as large crops of
corn and wheat as were being produced
in sections that had been under profita
ble cultivation for many years. From
the time the farmer made his first ap
pearance in the southwestern counties
of Kansas , ho had been replying to the
cattlemen's argument , that the new
comers were spoiling a fine raugeto make
third-class farms. For a while it really
looked as if these arguments had been
answered adversely to the cattlemen by
the great crops produced. The follow
ing year , 1887 , was prosperous ; 1888 was
fairly so. Then one day in 1889 a hot
wind came belching up from the great
southwest , and , after a vigorous cam-
pride to the thousands of acres of grow
ing corn , and remarked to one another
about how rapidly it was growing , and
notwithstanding the dry weather , was
not even firing at the roots. Its color
was a dark , healthy green , luxuriant
and tall , and each stalk was clothed
with broad , bonding blades , so stately
that every corn-field seemed like a pri
meval forest. The corn was beginning
to "tassel" and "silk. " It was the 28th
of June , 1889. I remember it well. It
was about ten o'clock in the morning ,
when suddenly a hot wind began blow
ing , presaging disaster. As the minutes
went by , the velocity of the wind increased -
creased , and by noon it was blowing a
regular gale. It was stifling hot , and