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LINCOLN, NEB., SATURDAY, OGTOBER 12 1895.
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OBSERVATIONS
The people cf Nebraska have a
dreadful disease. It ha been coming
on since the spring of 1893. It has
been fought with medicine and faith.
But its progress has not been retarded.
Indeed, it has taken on an accelerated
movement. Of late it has become epi
demic. It has taken hold of every com
munity and fastened itself to individ
uals. It has become a nightmare,
threatening, ominous. For years our
people have been gormandizing. Pros
perity held the cornucopia or plenty at
our doors, and its varied fruits accus
tomed us to luxurious dissipation. We
have stuffed and waxed ruddy-faced and
round-bellied. And now, forsooth,
comes a change. The cornucopia is
turned bottom upwards. The fruits
that came in a golden shower are no
longer visible, and the gormandizing is
estopped. The rich food; for the mo
ment, is gone, and the sudden, forced
dieting has given a shock to cur consti
tutions arid brought on disease. We
have indigestion, and the indigestion
has gone to our heads, and the result is
much depression, melancholia. With
out a doubt Adam and Eve, upon being
cast from the garden of luxury and in
dolence, into a cold and barren world,
were seized with indigestion. Too much
fruit is apt to bring on this condition.
But the first man and the first woman
went to work, and the indigestion was
soon gone, 'I ho Lord said unto Adam
"In the sweat of thy face sbalt thou eat
bread till thou return unto the ground."
And therefore the Lord God sent him
forth from the garden of Eden to till
the ground.
Nebraska, up to 1893, was a veritable
Eden. And we revelled and dissipated
in the luxuries. Tho people plucked
the fruit with scarcely uu effjrt. There
were no Sex England stone-ridden
tields; no old country barrenness; no
necessity for such labor as the husband
men of other parts have to perform. And
wealth came easily. Then Ihu change
came. Over the garden came the
blighting cloud. The ultra-favurable
conditions gave place to conditions such
as the people of other countries have
had to face. It is no longer possible to
set the table and have the good things
come to us. We have got to get up and
work like other people until the tide of
fortutin brings another period of pros
perity. The prospects, together with
the rude shock to our stomachs, is what
is making us sick. There is really noth
ing to occasion alarm. Adam went out
and sweat a little and got along pretty
well. He tilled the ground and over
came the thorns and thistles. He ate
the herbs of the field. Here in Ne
braska we have a decided advantage
over the lot of Adatu. We can stay
right in the garden, and do our tilling
in the richest ground the Lord ever
made. And the prospect ought to in
spire us with hope and faith.
w
As a matter of fact, we in Nebraska
have enjoyed exceptional prosperity.
Of the thousand and ' one tales with
which the beautiful and tactful Sclte
herazadc beguiled the Sultan Schahriar
there is none more wonderful than the
story of the transformation of the un
broken Nebraska prairie into a popu
lous and magnificent domain in tho
space of half a man's life; the advance
of the locomotive and the retreat of the
antelope and the Indian; the entry of
caravans and the settlement of great
cities; the coming of poverty-stricken
pioneers and the evolution into sturdy
millionaires; the erection of a great and
enduring prosperity out of the fruits of
tho field. Nowhere have people come to
a new country with so little and, in a
little more than a quarter of a century,
amassed so much. There is no more
wonderful story, and Schahriar, to have
heard it would willingly have given the
vizier's daughter one whole week of
life. In the great prosperity which this
state has enjoyed there have been but
two misfortunes, the grasshopper
plague, which may visit any country
any time, and the lightness of crops of
the last two or three years. These are
purely accidents. Through all these
3 ears the wealth of the people has piled
up, and the word Nebraska has been
synonymous with prosperity. And now,
after all that has been accomplished, is
a little tribulation going to discourage
us an1 are we going to succumb to tho
epidemic of depression? Are we going
to forget past benefits and deride the
state?
What Nebraska has done in the past
it will do again. Even in the last two
years, with dry weather and hot winds,
Nebraska has been preferable to and
more productive than many of the New
England states. This state will con
tinue to be a great corn producing coun
try. It will, under irrigation and im
proved farming, im-reaso its general
productiveness very miterially. To
corn will be added sugar beets, hemp
and many other substantial crops that
cin be raised at a large profit. Ne
brabka has seen prosperous times, but
the state is ealiy in her infancy, bo
far as agricultural and commercial de
velopment is concerned. All that is
needed is adjustment to tho conditions
that obtain here. Were the farmers of
Nebraska to reduce the size of their
farms to something like the size of east
ern farms, and apply themselves to the
task of getting the greatest possible re
turn from the earth, with half the en
ergy and patience of the Pennsylvania
or New England farmer, tho state would
soon be running over with wealth, even
with the dry weather wo have been
having.
Commercially, Nebraska is passing
through the experience which every
new stato has passed through. Iowa
and Kansas had the disease years ago
and got over it. Nebraska will get over
it. St. Joe, one of the most substan
tial cities in tho west, had just such a
depression as Lincoln is having now,
and emerged triumphant. It is only a
few years ago, less than six, I believe,
when the report was circulated that
Kansas City was on its last legs. The
people had lost their money and were
moving away by thousands. Half of the
town was for rent. That was the 6tory
Today Kansas City is cited everywhere
as an example of solid, substantial pros
perity. The times are hard, and there
will be failures in this city among deal
ers who are heavy borrowers; but tho
trouble will be passed, just as it has
been passed in all other communities,
in communities where the natural re
sources were not comparable with those
of Lincoln and Nebraska. Hold on and
keep up courage. Star.d up for Lin
coln. Stand up for Nebraska. Re
member that the people who 6tayed
through the grasshopper plague and
went to work in earnest made money,
and lots of it. History repeats itself.
Just now they are digging for gold in
Saline county and in Seward county.
This suggests the old story of the dying
farmer who told his sons of tho great
treasure buried on the farm. They
turned over every foot and found, not a
pile of stamped gold and silver, but
equal riches in the fertility of the earth,
tho great crops produced. There is
more money in the soil of Nebraska
than in ail the gold mines of the world.
It is going to be found, not by sinking
shafts and washing dirt, but by a per
sistent turning over of the earth, as the
old farmer's sons turned it over.
General John M. Thayer has an arti
cle on "General Grant at Pilot Knob"
in JfcClure's Magazine for October. He
says that "The population of the terri
tory of Nebraska, as shown by tho na
tional census of 1SC0 was a trifle over
twenty-eight thousand," From this
population General Thayer raised a
regiment of one thousand men, was
appointed its colonel, and reported to
General Grant at Pilot Knob, eighty
miles from St. Louis. General Grant
soon received his summary recall from
the district of southeast Missouri and
was sent into the region about Jefferson
City, which was comparatively quiet.
"Foreseeing that tho great events of
the war must inevitably take placo east
of the Mississippi and west of tho Alle
ghanies and Blue Ridge, Grant knew if
ho went further into Missouri he might
be sidetracked in that state for eix
months. If he should remain
there three months or so he would lose
the important opportunity of his life
He would be taken away from the great
theatre of the war." So Grant's spirit
was troubled. He went to St. Louis,
taking General Thayer with him. As
they were walking up and down beforo
the Planters House General Grint said
he believed ho would ask General Fre
mont to give him Ieavo of absence to go
to Galena and General Thayer advised
him to ask it. He supposed Grant
wished to aec his family. Grant ob
tained the leave, went to Galena, saw
Representative Washburn, and outlined
his plan of campaign to him. Mr.
Washburn laid the plan before Lincoln
and later at a cabinet meeting Presi
dent Lincoln asked for a communica
tion from a man "by the nameof Grant"
laying out a plan of u campaign down
tho Mississippi. After he read it the
president said: "Mr. Secretary, send an
order to General Fremont to put Grant
in command of the district of southeast
Missouri." "The desire of Grant's
heart was now accomplished. Ho was
in tho position to commence that series
ofc mpaigns, which, as they were un
folded, attracted the attention and ad
miration of the military critics of the
civilized world, and meant Cairo, Pa
duca h. Fort Henry, Fort Donaldson
Na-hville, Memphis and Vicksburg."
General Thayer's account is short,
only five pages. The story of his inter
course with the silent man is well told.
General lhayer was a good fighter, a
brave soldier and ho turns out to be a
good story-teller. The article contains
two illustrations, ono of GenenI Thayer,
taken fifteen jears ago, and one of Gen
eral Grant, the familiar one where he
leans against a small walnut tree in
front of his tent. I hope this is only one
of the first of the general's stories. Tell
us another please.
A Seward correspondent- of The
Cockier did not altogethar approve of
the views in our symposium on tho not
very sensible query propounded by
"Bible Student," of Kearney, and he
proceeds to answer the inquiry to his
