The Omaha Sunday Bee
PART III.
Advert I lm
THE OMAHA DEC
Best West
HALF-TOIIE SECTIOil
PAGES 1 TO 0
VOL. XXXVII NO. 21.
OMAHA, SUNDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER
SINGLE COPY FIVE CENTS.
W. W. LATTA WHO FOUND GOLDEN FLEECE IN NEBRASKA
Energetic Young Man from Ohio Proves that Fortune Smiles on Him Who-Ploughs Deep and Hu?band3 His Crop with Care from Year to Year in the Antelope State
TuvoE ncuutmrn who can increase your salary u you aro
making less than $25 a week" need not talk to Nebraska
farmers. W. W. Latta is a fair example of what the
wonderful Boil of Nebraska did in half a century for those
who had faith in it. Mr1. Latta had about $200 when he
arrived In Burt county in 1837. Today ho owns more than 4,000
acres of the most fertile land in Burt county and nearly a thousand
acres elsewhere, beside great herds of stock and buildings in the
town of Tekamah. Ho is worth upward of $500,000. In other
words, the labors of this Nebraska farmer have netted him more
than $10,000 a year and every dollar came out of the soil of Burt
county. , . -
Jason's quest of the golden fleece celebrated in Grecian mythol
ogy has a parallel In the story of Mr. Latta's life. At any rate, so
declares a man who believes implicitly that history Is repeating It
self every day and that there is nothing new under the sun. This
man points out the remarkable similarity between the adventures
of Jason some fifty centuries ago and the adventures and experiences
of Mr. Latta some fifty years ago.
Jason, It will be remembered, was a young prince in Greece. Ills
father, tho king, had left the scepter in the hands of one, Pelias, on
condition that when Jason became of ago It should be placed in his
band. When Jason arrived at his majority, Pelias suggested that
it would be folly for a young man with his wholo life before him
to settle down to the prosaic duty of sitting on the throne of a
troublesome and peeviBh people and held up enticing visions of the
glories of travel and adventure. The young prince was of rather a
roving disposition and, as a number of other princes had gone In
search of the golden fleece he decided to have a try at it himself.
Greek facilities for travel in those days were not very advanced.
Canoes and small boats made by hollowing out trunks of trees
marked nearly the extent of the ship building art Therefore when
Ihe young man gave an order to Argus for a ship to hold fifty men
the world was considerably surprised, and his friends pointed him
out as a determined man and said that he might succeed In getting
the fleece. He set out with his forty-nine companions, touching at
Lemnos, Mysla and finally stopping at Thrace to visit the sage,
Phlneus. This wise man instructed Jason how to pass the Symple
gades or clashing islands, which lay in their route at the entrance
to the Euxine sea. They succeeded in getting through safely,
though the islands in coming together after them actually razed
the stern of the beat.
Jason's Exploit as Farmer
They arrived finally In the kingdom of Colchis, which was a
rich and fertile country and the place where the 'golden fleece was
kept guarded by a dragon. Jason hastened to pay. his respects to
Aetes, king of the country, who consented to give up the fleece pro
vided Jason could get possession of it. And having made this
remarkable concession the kind hearted monarch made one other
small condition, namely, that JaBon should yoke two fire-breathing
bulls with brazen feet "to a plow and should, sow the teeth of a
certain dragon which Cadmus had slain. 'It was well known that
from these teeth armed men would spring up and would attack the
man who bad eown the teeth.
Undaunted, Jason accepted the condition, and a time was set
for the sowing of the fearsomo seed. Jason wisely used the Inter
vening time to woo the daughter of Aetes, the Princess Medea, and
before the time of sowing the dragon teeth they had plighted their
troth, taken out a license and been married.
On the appointed day Jason bravely yoked the fire-breathing
bulls with braien feet to the plow and sowed the teeth. The armed
men sprang up as per program and Immediately rushed upon Jason.
He thereupon threw a Btone Into their midst and they turned their
words upon each other and Boon were, all slain. It was his wife
who had taught him this charm. It only remained now for Jason
to lull to sleep the dragon which guarded the fleece, which he did,
not exactly by putting salt on his tall but by sprinkling over him a
few drops of a preparation furnished him by his young wife. Then
ae took the fleece, hurried with his forty-nine companions and
Medea to the boat and returned to Greece.
Where the history of Mr. Latta does not correspond with this
(t Is so exactly opposite that, says the roan who draws the parallel,
It proves the truth by the law of contraries. History does not re
late how. Jason got his education. Young Latta got his in a log
ichoolhouse In Ashland county, Ohio. This was the county of his
birth. The date was September 6, 1832. At the ago of 22 years
the young man struck out for the west In search of wealth. He
wasn't particular whether It was in tho form of a golden fleece or
tome other form. He, like Jason, found transportation facilities
rather primitive. He went by rail to Freeport, 111., thence by stage
to Savannah, 111., and thence across the Mississippi river to Van
Buren, la. There he remained as Jason remained at Thrace. As
fa son received Ma advice from tho sage, Phlneus, Mr. Latta received
bin from the great editor, Horace Greeley. It was: "Go west, young
man, go west." .
i
Out West for the Fleece
Mr. Latta decided to go west and he did so In a wagon drawn
by five yoke of oxen. The end of Jason's Journey was the land
of the golden fleece. The end of Latta's journey was the land of
the golden corn. Jason yoked fire-breathing bulls with brazen feet
to his plow. Latta yoked plain, ordinary bulls to bla plow. What
use is there in fire-breathing bulls or bulls with brazen feet any
way T Jason sowed dragon's teeth and Latta sowed corn and wheat
and other grains. vOf course. Jason had to sow dragon's teeth in
order to get the golden floece, while Latta had to sow corn In order
to get the golden grain. Jason's wife was a sorceress, and she
knew all about charms and magic and all that. They were useful
to her under the circumstances. Mr. Latta's wife knew quite as
much about good common sense and industry as Jason's wife did
about charms and magic and It is to her that Mr. Latta ascribes
much of his marvelous success iu securing the golden wealth from
tho fertile soil of Nebraska during his fifty years of residence here.
One point in which the two histories do uot,tarallel Is in the
fact that Mr. Latta was not, like Jason, the son of a king. He was
the son of a hard working niau, whose business was the building of
bridges. In this work the young mau helped a great deal during
his boyhood. They built the old fashioned wooden brides, some
times as much as 700 feet long and covered with a shingle roof
and sides. He soon became an expert in drlvins horses and then
his ambition soared to a seat on the box of one of the big stage
coaches which were then the chief means of travel between the
towns and cities of the east. He was only 16 years old when he
took the reins aud proudly played the loug whip for tho first time
over the backs of four horses thnt drew the big coach, over the
roads of Ohio. He continued In this occupation six years, during
which time he had some of the bis men of the countrty riding Iu
the bounding vehicle behind hiiu. He finally see u red a route, one
end of which was Niagara Falls. This brought him out of ihe back
woods country and into communication with the busy world. He
saw eouie of the tide of emigration already sotting out across the
great lakes toward the west and l.' determined to join the argonauts:
Married in Iowa
He reached Van Buren, in tho eastern part of Iowa, ar.d there
he remained three years on a rented farm, before ho resumed his
journey in the summer of 1S67. Shortly before setting out for
Nebraska he married Mis Mary A. Mason in Lyons, la.. May JO,
1857. The trip across Iowa in the wagon drawn by five yoke of
oxen was without social Incident aud they arrived in Sioux City
In the early part of July. Mr. Latta, who was accompanied by his
brother, had brought a plow with him and at Sioux City they se
cured a contract for breaking forty acres of prairie land for "Doc"
Yesoana, Their old twenty-two-inch plow did noble service biting
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W. W. LATTA'.
the crust off of the primeval land and with the ten oxen the task
was completed in eighteen days. The pay was $5 an acre and $5
looked pretty big in those days.
One'day Mr. Latta secured a horse and rode away to find some
permanent location. He went down the Iowa side of the river to a
point nearly opposite the present town of Tekamah. Across the
river in Nebraska he could see a broad stretch of bottom land,
with plenty of timber and covered with a wild growth of vegetation
that bore witness to the fertile soil beneath. He crossed the river
on a skiff owned by a settler named Hendricksen.. and then rode
up the trail which ended In the embryo city of Woodsvllle. The
town then consisted of about bIx small houses made of cottonftood
logs, but 160 acres was laid out in streets, public squares and build
ing lots. It was a typical "paper town" of the kind that became
so plentiful in the early days. "Doc" Woods was the chief baomer
of Woodsvllle. According to this optimistic individual, there was
no "ville" but Woodsvllle and ''Doc" Woods was Its prophet.
"Doc" Woods received Mr. Latta with much ceremony. 'ltlwas
a true case of "welcome to our city." Woods was not the man to
blufch for his houseless municipality. He believed in it as thor
oughly as though it was a reality. He conducted Mr. Latta through
the "streets," pointed out the "postoffice square," the court house
square," "the main street." He showed him the "residence district"
and a place where factories and wholesale houses could grow and
be out of the way of the finer part of the city. It was true, indeed,
as "Doc" said, that all they needed was the people. The Woodsvllle
bubble burst soon and tho hopeful builder of cities returned to the
cast.
Mr. Latta ou this trip rodo out beyond tho suburbs of Woods
vllle aud looked over tho country. The wild grass grew so high
and so thick lhat even mounted ou his horso he could get but au
Imperfect Mew of the country and tho grass was bo thick as to
impede progress through it. But ha determined without any hesi
tation to locate there. He returned immediately to Sioux City,
crossed, with his wagon and oxen and plow to the Nebraska side
and drovo down to Burt county, whero ho arrived with $200 on
July 30, 1S57. .
Gold in Nebraska's Soil
Many men in those days saw llttlo more chanco of getting gold
out of Nebraska than Jaaon had for gettlug tho golden fleece
guaaded by the nevcr-sleoplug dragon. W. W. Latta from the first
believed that tho gold was in that magnificent soil. True, tho gold
whs guarded, not by a mero dragon which could be killed by
sprlukliug a sleeping potion on it, but by several dragons
which it required years of courage, Industry, hope and frugality
to overcome.. The first dragon which they encountered was the
money panic of 1S57, which burst-over tho young country Just after
Lut la had built his first cabin on a quarter-section of land south
east of Tekamah. Later came tho dragons of Drouth, Grasshoppers
and Low Prices. All these were overcome by tho strong qualities
named above.
"The first year I was In Burt county I broke up about forty
acres of tho prairie," says Mr. Latta. "Tho ground was bo hard
I had to chop tho kernels of corn Into It with an ax. I bought Iron
harrow teeth in Omaha and put them into a home-made harrow.
We worked sixteen and eighteen hours a day, but we got good pay,
for. we had a fine crop. We started right into the stock raising
business, too. Wo had to have hogs and cattle to eat up the corn.
A fellow came up from Omaha with two pigs In a wagon and I
bouaht them from him. Another fellow drovo a herd of hogs over
the river on the ico and I traded a horso for fifteen of them. This
was the start of tho tens of thousands I have raised sluce then. I
got my start with the cattle from the oxen. I drove out from Iowa
and a few cows I bought. I have raised tens of thousands of them,
too.
"Wo had no railroads, of course, anywhere near here for
years, and we sold most of our produce and our stock and did our
trading in Omaha. It was a three days' drlvo down and back iu a
wagon. My wife used to make 100 pounds of butter a year from
the milk of each of a dozen cows. This I hauled to Omaha and
sold to the emigrants going to Pike's Peak. I also sold a number
of oxen to the Mormons. at $75 and. $100 a yoke. '
Slow but Steady Wins
"It was slow work until we got started, but we never suffered.
We never went barefooted and we always had plenty of good corn
bread and beef and bacoa and chicken to ,eat even In the hardest
times. ' We didn't dissipate like people do nowadays. Occasionally
we'd go to a dance in the blockhouso, but that was about the ex
tent of our pleasures."
Mr. and Mrs. Latta remained on the farm only seventeen of the
fifty years they have resided in Burt county. By that time Mr.
Latta had acquired so much land that ho needed all his time to
look after it. They built a handsome home in Tekamah, where
they have lived since then. They bad four children, one of whom,
Bud Latta, survives and lives in Tekamah.
Mr. Latta is Btill very actively interested in his many farms
and is kept busy throughout the year in visiting them and directing
the work. Ho rai3es many hundreds of head of stock and thous
ands of bushels of grain on the farms which ho manages himself.
Others are rented out to tenants.
"I took everything I havo right out of this soil hero in Ne
braska," he says proudly. "I never lost faith in the country, and
I never let much money lie around in the bank. I might have
$5,000 or IV3.000 loose money at a time, but as soon as it got
above that I'd buy another farm. I guess I was a little more of
a trader than somo of tho others, which was usoful to me also.
But thero were hundreds here who got discouraged and left the
, Btate. They would be rich now if they had stayed and farmed even
what they had. There is no better land anywhere than right here
in Burt county. The geologists tell us the substratum is from
twenty to seventy feet thick and that gives a fertility which in
inexhaustible. Nebraska land will continue to go up for years to
come. Of that there can bo no doubt."
Aerial Warships of at Least Five European Nations
A
France, Gerniar.y, Austria, Italy and England Have
T-least five of the great powers of Europe will carry a weight of more than 2,500 pounds.'
now possess more or less efficient dlrgl- All the framework la made of Bteel tufci-g and
ble war balloons, and these machines the under side has a Bheathinn of light, touch
Built and Equipped Balloons for War Purposes
muy play an Important part In the next
great conflict. France has La Pa trie,
the first and perhaps the most practical of all.
Germany has tho Parseval, not called after the
hero of the Wagnerian opera, but after an army
mujor; the unnamed Gross balloon and the Zep
pelin airship. England has the Null! Secundus,
and both Austria and Italy have war dirigibles
which really sail the air, though very llttlo is
known about them.
Franco was the first country to develop an
aerial engine of war which was a distinct advanoe
over the old-time balloon, such as did good service
as far bade as the siege of Paris in 1870-71, aud
which was used for observation Jn the recent
Russo-Japanese struggle. On July 14 of Mhls
year, at tho review of the garrison of Paris at
Longchamps, La Patrie made its first appearance.
The note of a siren in tho air drew the eyes
or the great crowd aloft and there was a sure
enough dirigible, looking like a great whale, sail
ing over theh1 heads, now with, now against, and
again athwart, the wir.d, ascending and descend
ing and changing iu course at the will of its crew.
The later dolng3 of La Patrie how it sailed
around the Eiffel tower on July 2C, with Premier
Clemeuceau as a passenger, called on President
Fallieres at the Elysee palace ou August 9, and
made various ether flights under test conditions
are well known. The French consider it oue of
the most important features of the national 'de
fence. Their confidence lu the present airship is
sufficient at any rate for the construction of three
more upon the same ruoJel.
The main body of La Patrio lvsembles a huge
bologna sausage, except that at oue end It Is
pointed like a cigar. It is nearly 200 feet long
and about thirty-five feet in diameter. It has
two screw propellers, each of about eight feet
diameter, which give it an average speed of about
twenty-seven miles an hour.
The car Is suspended from the body of the
balloon and. besides fuel for a tun-hour flight. It
armor plate calculated to resist rifle bullets.
Equally like a sausage, but shorter and
thicker, is the latest German balloon, which seems
to have put both the Parseval and the Zeppelin
Inventions in the shade, at least for the present.
It made its first appearance on July 23, sailing
to Berlin from the artillery school at Jungfern
heide and. back again, remaining iu the air three
hours and twenty-five minutes.
It Is the Invention of Majdr Gross of the Tegel
aeronautic battalion of the German army, and it
is understood that a whole flotilla is to be con
structed on the same general pattern. The Ger
mans continue to bdek Count Zeppelin also in his
experiments.
He has actually cqnstrucUd an airship of
aluminum 600 feet long, which rose to a height
of 2,500 feet and made a journey of thirty miles,
flying over Lake Constance in 1906. The enor
mous weight and bize of this machine render it
hopeless as un adjunct to an army in the field and
the count is now busy trying to tulld a more
managcaLle one.
Tho Austrian dirigibles were first heard of oa
August 1 last. Three of them made a flight that,
day over the fortifications of Crucoria. They re
mained in the air a considerable time and the
other governments believe that they are servicea
ble. The secret of their construction has boen care
fully guarded, as has that of tho Italian war bal
loon. Little or nothing ia known of the latter
except that in the autumn field maneuvers of tho
Italian army this year it was in constant opera
tion and staff officers, so fur as they would talk
about it at all, expressed satisfaction.
England i3 the latest power to give a demon
stration of military aeronautics. The voyage of
the Null! Secunda3 to London and its failure to
get back iu tho teeth of a btiff gale were recently
told by cable.
So certain are the war experts that the bal
loon is to be a prominent factor iu the strategy
of the future that they aro all forming largo aero
nautic establishments. Franco baa no actual
school for ballooniuts, but there are several bal
loon clubs, whoso employes acquire a certain
amount of skill. '
These when they perform their military duty
are drafted into the Battalion d'Aerostiers, which
has Its headquarters at Moissons, and they upend
their entire term of service learning to navigato
and fight and do scout duty In the air. The post
is uuder a commandant and it occupies tho old
zoological garden of St. Cyr. There is another
station at Chalals-Mendon, also near Paris, where
there is a largo balloon factory.
Germany has a private school for aeronauts
at Chemnitz. The military school and experiment
station i at Jungfeniuelde. . Tho head of the
service is Major Gross of the Aerostiers of Tegel.
England has experimental stations both at the
camp of Aldcrshot and at Farnsborough in Hamp
shire, whence the NulU Secundas started cm Its
memorable flight. Probably every country In Eu
rope has a busy corps of experimenters at work.
Activity even in little Belgium was shown re
cently by the report of experiments in firing from
balloons with artillery. This illustrates the new
problems that the dirisible balloon )s bound to
introduce into the art or war. '
In the primary stage, of couise, their utility
for B(outiu is most obvious. With the present
rauge of firs the prjiue requisite of every com
mander in the field Is somo means superior to
cavalry rcouts in locating the enemy aud. gaining
tome idea of hU defences.
The dirislble balloon keeping tho air for ten
hours Jnd traveling at the rate of twenty-seven
miles an hour plainly solves this problem. M;icy
hundreds of feet in the air, the enginetVs of each
army can trace tho fortifications of a city, sketch
the earthworks of an army arrayed for battle,
count the gun3 and the battailous, estimate rein
forcements coming up aud form a fair idea of the
contemplated plans of attack.
Much of this information can Le conveyed by
flashes direct to headquarters and plans, sketches
and photosraphic films can be dropped within the
friendly lines without wasting time to descend.
But It Is not merely information that can be
dropped on one's own side. It is hoped that
havoc can bo spread In tho enemy's lines by drop
ping explosive upon him. Carrying a crew of
four moil, Lo Patrie is said to bo able to lift more
than 2,000 pounds of dead weight to a height ot
1,000 feet and remain aloft two hours. What ia
to prevent it, he French experts ask, from hover
ing over the enemy's camp or works aud dropping
wholesale destruction lu selected spots.
As these possibilities are open to both sides
alike, the means of countering to the war balloon
are eagerly discussed. At a height of 1,000 feet
the balloon is safe from artillery fire. No guns
now existing can be elevated sufficiently to fire
at it.
The rifle bullet lu futile against the balloon
iUclf. The hole which it bores In tho envelope
practically closes itself like a puncture In a rub
ber tire. Of course, there Is a leakago, but It is
so trifling in proportion to the volume of the bal
loon that it would not affect its buoyancy In a
whole day's flight.
Even Bhrnpnel has failed to bring down an
old-fashioned balloon which was riddled with it
for many hours. Shell aro equally useless. They
pass through the envelope without exploding and
the chances of their striking the framework and
causing serious harm are trifling as things are
reckoned iu war.
Finally, there is the prospect of encounters
between tho war balloons themselves, and this is
what some students of the subject look forward
to as tho characteristic feature of future war.
Each army will bo obliged to send out fleets of
airships not merely to attack the enemy on land,
but to defend itself.
Here arises theoretical estimates of future
balloon fleets, their armament and their tactic.
Whether they will fight with light cannon at long
raugo or will attempt ramming and boarding,
whether great battleships will be built with nu
merous crews or whether the fighting will be con
flucd to skirmishes between light craft these are
the questions that soldiers in Europe are asking.