USA > Kansas > A history of Kansas > Part 17
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494. Rain and Wind .- The Kansas man has always felt, as did Pike, the uncertainty of the rain supply. He has attentively measured its yearly, monthly and daily fall. There are accurate weather journals in Kansas that have been kept up since 1854. The record at the State University has been kept, sinee 1867, three times a day. All the State institutions may be said to be weather bureaus and observa- tories. It has been said that the wind "bloweth where it listeth, and whither it goeth and whence it cometh ye can not tell." That is not the literal truth in Kansas. Every wind that blows over Kansas is noted in its course and its velocity. And it is known that there have been years with a less "run of the wind" than was eustomary in the early settlement of the country, when the hurrying, worrying blast was one of the greatest troubles of life in the new region.
495. The Underground River .- The quest for water, for wells and springs beneath the surface, has never been given up in Kansas. At first, the boast of the country was, the "water within twenty or thirty feet"; but that has not been entirely satisfactory. In no country has there been a more constant search for artesian water, for the waters under the earth unaffected by surface variations or circumstances. The tradition of the "sheet water" has been followed, as the Spanish adventurers followed the story of El Dorado. The search has not been in vain.
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HISTORY OF KANSAS.
The secret of the "underflow" has been penetrated. Flow- ing under central Kansas, from north to sonth, is the "underground river," and it has been platted and mapped quite as carefully as any surface river in Kansas, the Kansas or the Arkansas, the Blue or the Neosho. For man's use it means no one can tell how much. As far as called upon it has proved exhaustless.
496. Oil and Natural Gas .- Kansas has not always succeeded in finding on the first examination. How many "burning wells" and "oil springs" were noted in the early days, and yet it was necessary to wait for the finally great developments of oil at Neodesha, and the natural gas at Iola, and the salt at Hutchinson. But they were found finally, because the hunt for them never gave over.
497. Arbor Day .- Pike said the timber in the best timbered part of Kansas would give ont in fifteen years. Pike supposed that the proper business of a pioneer and a settler was to ent down all the trees as fast as he came to them, and pile them up in heaps, and burn them. Pike had never heard of "Arbor Day." He did not suppose that the forest of an inhabited country could increase. Kansas has proved that it may. To make trees grow where once was the smooth and wearisome waste, is the great Kansas speculation and calculation. Some of the largest artificial forests and orchards in the United States are in Kansas.
498. Kansas is Studied .- Kansas is a great book, every page of which is studied every day. The earth and the air and the water are examined every hour, and every change, every movement is recorded. Great museums are already filled with specimens of everything that has ever
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MAN AND NATURE.
walked or crawled, or spread a fin, or wing or claw in Kan- sas; of everything that lives in Kansas now, of everything that was here millions of ages ago. Kansas continually "makes discovery."
Kansas maintains for this work of discovery many insti- tntions and societies, the Kansas State Medical Society, organized in 1859, and the Kansas Academy of Science, founded in 1868, and doubtless springing from organiza- tions yet older than themselves, are probably the present seniors among what may be called societies of research.
499. Chancellor Snow's Discovery .- Not only are the Kansas beasts of the field and the fowls of the air an object of ceaseless study and report, but the insects of Kansas, especially those noxious and harmful to the hus- bandman, are under constant surveillance. One result of this is historical.
In 1888, Professor Snow, of the Kansas State University, learned that the chinch bugs of the State were dying of a disease characterized by the appearance of a white or gray fungus. This was the first discovery. He next discovered that the disease was infectious, that it might be communi- cated by infected to healthy bugs. This was the second discovery, and a Kansas newspaper volunteered the infor- mation that Professor Snow would send the infectious material on application. Within a few days Professor Snow received requests from nine different States.
The discovery was followed up with true Kansas ardor. Thousands of packages of the infection were distributed over the State, and reports received from thousands of experimenters. The Legislature of 1891 made an appro- priation in aid of Professor Snow's experimental station
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at the University. In 1894, 8,000 packages of the infection were sent out to individual farmers in Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. In the meantime the States of Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, and Illinois had followed the example of Kansas, and had established their own distributing stations. The general result of the labor and investigation kept up for years, was, that the farmer may possess a partial, if not entire, protection against one of the most destructive of the enemies of his fields. This much was demonstrated in and by Kansas.
500. Climate and Cultivation .- In Kansas, man has believed, and has most studiously searched to discover if the fact be true, that the cultivation of great areas of ground may affect the climate.
If, to slightly change the verse of the Kansan, "Ironquill":
Man may bid the climate vary, And awaiting no reply From the elements on high, May with plows besiege the sky, Vex the heavens with the prairie.
If this secret of Nature is ever fathomed, it will be in Kan- sas, because here man perpetually makes inquiry of Nature.
501. The Great American Desert .- In the beginning, when Kansas was transferred from the scattered, scanty and uncertain residence of Indians to the hands of white and civilized people, it was still represented on maps as the "Great American Desert;" this, of course, did not mean a scorched and sandy waste like the Desert of Sahara, but it meant an open, and for the most part uninhabited country, and destitute of the resources, as timber, which had belonged to the country previously settled in the United States.
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MAN AND NATURE.
The task of man, and which he has successfully accom- plished, for the most part in less than forty years, has been to overcome the apparent deficiencies of Nature. He has, to use Pike's phrase, "made discovery." Where the old fuel, wood, was wanting, he has found coal; where there was no timber for fencing, he has found other material for fences, as wire, and has even gone without. Where there were no trees he has planted them. He has made a great fruit and orchard State, without any example or encourage- ment from Nature.
502. Kansas Records .- Of all that has been done in Kansas, careful record has been made. All labor has been accompanied by observation. All that the past generations have accomplished has been written in an open book for the guidance of generations to come. In Kansas there is pass- ing what may be called the procession of Nature-the succession year by year of the grasses, the flowers, the wayside vegetation. In single seasons, the country has been covered with some vegetable invader which, in another year, was gone. In Kansas, thoughtful and observant eyes have watched all this, and written down the order of the march. Kansas had among its earliest settlers an unusual number of highly educated people. It is recorded that the town site of Manhattan was laid out by a party of five graduates of Eastern colleges. This element in the early population of the State not only insured the stability of the educational institutions of the new community, but it gave to the State a body of competent scientific observers, it may be said, in all departments. What might be known by the use of instruments of precision was ascertained and recorded. In Kansas nothing rests on the "traditions of the elders" or
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the broken recollections of unlettered hunters. The younger generation has followed in the footsteps of the pioneer scientists and scholars. The higher schools of Kansas have been remarkable in the number and attainments of the young naturalists they have turned out. To young Kansas scholars and students the State is greatly indebted for the study of its climate, its geology, its fauna and flora, its earth and water and air. These have not confined their researches to Kansas, but have explored the neighboring States and Territories and have been especially brave, en- during and intelligent investigators of the Rocky Mountain region. Kansas naturalists have been from the far North to the far South, from the Arctic Circle to the mysterious and overgrown cities of Central America, have threaded the forests of Cuba and the tropical wilds of Yucatan.
SUMMARY.
.. The early explorers and the Government of the United States did not believe Kansas an agricultural country.
2. Successful efforts by man have overcome the difficulties of Nature.
3. The discovery of coal and the growth of forests.
4. The obliteration of the desert and the finding of waters under the earth.
5. Every phase of Nature in Kansas is the object of observation and record.
6. Man in Kansas contends with success against every natural enemy, including insects injurious to agriculture.
CHAPTER XLI.
KANSAS LITERATURE.
503. First Printing .- The first printing press brought to what is now Kansas was for the use of an Indian mission. The first books printed were Indian books. But few copies of these books now exist; the readers long ago departed.
504. Kansas and the Modern Press .- The begin- nings of the modern daily American newspaper press were almost contemporaneous with the beginnings of civilized and enlightened Kansas. The use of the telegraph, in those days called the "magnetic telegraph," for newspaper work, was, in 1854, becoming general. Power presses were first considered necessary, and another newspaper adjunct, first developed in Kansas Territory, was the "correspond- ent." Several of the greatest papers of the country maintained "special correspondents" in Kansas. Many of these young men possessed much ability, and made a national reputation, as William A. Phillips, the corres- pondent of the New York Tribune. Many of these were not merely writers, but doers of the word, and took part in the battles of the Territory.
505. The First Newspapers .- Kansas had newspa- pers as soon as it had a population. The first newspaper was the Leavenworth Herald. Its first office was the shade of a large elm tree. Lawrence had newspapers very soon after. John and Joseph Speer and George W. Brown
291
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HISTORY OF KANSAS.
became "toilers of the pen and press" at Lawrence, in October, 1854. The newspapers were all political, either for freedom. or slavery. In the case of the Free State papers, their names often indicated their principles, as the Herald of Freedom, or Freedom's Champion. A great deal of talent found its way into Kansas newspaper offices of that early time. Napoleon said that every French soldier carried a marshal's baton in his knapsack; in Kansas, future governors, senators, chieftains and ambassadors carried printer's rules in their pockets.
506. Early Observers. - The ferment in Kansas brought to the scene interested observers, writers of present or future eminence; these wrote books about Kansas. Some of these were guide books, some histories, some narratives of personal experience. One of the first writers on territorial Kansas was Rev. Edward Everett Hale, since those days famous in the literary history of the country. Mr. Hale's book was published in 1854, and was entitled "Kanzas and Nebraska: the History, Geographical and Physical Characteristics, and Political Position of Those Territories; an Account of the Emigrant Aid Companies, and Directions to Emigrants." Mr. Hale's publication was not intended as "elegant literature," but to direct Northern emigration to Kansas. Much that was written in the early days and since has been with the same purpose.
507. Some Early Books .- The missionaries who lived and labored in Kansas while it was still Indian country, wrote their books of their charges and their efforts. To these belong the narratives of Isaac McCoy, and Henry Harvey, who wrote a "History of the Shawnee Indians, from the Year 1681 to 1854." The "correspondent," of
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KANSAS LITERATURE.
whom' mention has been made, collected his letters into volumes. Such were G. Douglas Brewerton's "War in Kansas," Mr. Brewerton being a correspondent of the New York Herald, and supposed to be impartial. Other books were not presumed to be neutral in sentiment, as "The Conquest of Kansas by Missouri and Her Allies," by William A. Phillips. Neither could the imputation of lack of feeling be charged upon "Kansas, its Interior and Exterior Life," by Mrs. Sara T. L. Robinson, wife of Governor Charles Robinson. This book ran through six or more editions, and was favorably noticed by the London reviews, and, speaking of British opinion, a very readable book about Kansas was, "The Englishman in Kansas, or Squatter Life and Border Warfare," by Thomas H. Glad- stone, a Kansas correspondent of the London Times, and a kinsman of William Ewart Gladstone, England's great statesman. These and many more books were written in and about Kansas in the days of the "troubles," and largely inspired by the "troubles." They are, generally speaking, rare books now. In some cases the "visible supply" of them is reduced to one or two copies, but they were widely read when new, and the events of which they spoke were fresh in the public mind.
508. Literature Affected by Environment .- The cultivation of literature in Kansas was affected by the cir- cumstances surrounding the country. Days of drought and famine; "domestic quarrel" and "foreign levy," Indian raid and border foray were not favorable to the pro- duction of books. But through all existed a vigorous and powerful newspaper press; as alert as a sentry on a post dangerous and beset. The pen as well as the sword was
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HISTORY OF KANSAS.
tendered Kansas in the later fifties. In those years there came writers who remained, D. R. Anthony, D. W. Wilder, T. Dwight Thacher, Sol Miller and John A. Martin and others, and thrust in their sickles in the field, where in a way, the pioneer editors, and John Swinton, and Phillips and Albert D. Richardson and Richard J. Hinton, and more had reaped. But these last "came to stay," and to leave a permanent impress on the life and literature of the State.
509. The Kansas Magazine .- After the wars were over, and the piping times of peace had come, and the sword had been shaped into a pruning hook, the literary genius of Kansas was mainly devoted, for awhile, to exploiting the resources of the State. Seldom in any country have the efforts of the land agent been more powerfully aided by the pen of the ready writer. Yet it was in these days that appeared the Kansas Magazine, the most brilliant experiment in our literary history. The Kansas Magazine secured a corps of contributors (without money and without price), the larger number of whom were Kansas men and women; and much that was written referred to Kansas. The contributors who secured the largest number of readers were John James Ingalls and "Deane Monahan." Both held their ascendency through the same merit, it might be called charm, their familiarity with the locality, with outward and visible nature. Mr. Ingalls revealed, as it had not been before, the secret of the spell of natural Kansas over the hearts of her children. "Deane Monahan, " (Captain James W. Steele, ) had been, before his magazine days, an officer in the regular army of the United States, and had been stationed at posts, and
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made many weary marches in the far West. He made familiar to Kansas readers the desert earth and the vast sky, the cañon and the mesa, of New Mexico. It is prob- ably true until he wrote of it, that few had ever seen a picture of the "Jornada del Muerto," the "Journey of Death."
While the Kansas Magazine had but a comparatively brief existence, it made a lasting literary sensation. Bound vol- umes of it are now deemed valuable, and odd numbers are eagerly gathered up.
510. Two Books Invaluable .- After the magazine period, appeared two books of incalculable value to Kansas; Wilder's "Annals of Kansas," and Andreas' "History of Kansas"-the latter known to Kansas people by a much more commonplace name. Neither of these books was written with any attempt at literary ex- cellence, they are merely collections of "facts and figures." The "Annals"' represent the knowledge and industry of one Kansas man; the "History" was the work of a great number of persons. They form in Kansas the basis of history. D. W. Wilder. So complete are they in their field that Kansas history can not be written without them.
511. Local Histories .- It will be found that, in the brief time allowed, Kansas has "celebrated herself." In addition to the "Annals" and the "History" already men- tioned, there have been written many local histories. In 1876, the Centennial year, special interest was manifested in the preservation of the chronicles of Kansas counties,
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HISTORY OF KANSAS.
and many volumes were written. They were of mueh present interest, and will serve as helps and guides to future annalists. Most valuable, too, are the biennial volumes issued by the State Historical Society. They eon- tain what may be called history "at first hands," the stories of actors and eye witnesses. In these are supple- mented the few "war histories" written by Kansas anthors, as Burke's "Military History of Kansas," Hinton's "Army of the Border," and Britton's "Civil War on the Border." The story of life on the great plains, and the mountains beyond them has been told in the volumes of Colonel Henry Inman.
512. A Kansas Library .- The Reverend J. W. D. Anderson made a collection of Kansas books. Mr. Ander- son was a native Kansan of literary taste and feeling, and the gathering together of all the books of or about Kansas, was with him a labor of love, which he performed with great fidelity. Before Mr. Anderson's death his collection passed into the possession of the Kansas State University, and now forms a part of the University library. Many additions have been made in all departments since the day of the "Anderson Collection," but the best and most suf- ficient estimate of the literary work done in the first thirty years of the life of Kansas may be formed by an inspection of its volumes.
513. Poetry of Kansas .- Of poetry, Kansas may be said to have produced much. No great epic poem has yet appeared; no single song with the assurance of being sung forever, but much of graceful, and sometimes of inspiring verse, which has been preserved and cherished as the poet has been faithful in two things, to life as it is in
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Kansas, and the human heart as it is everywhere. This has kept in mind Mrs. Allerton's "Walls of Corn," and Eugene Ware's "Washerwoman's Song." Kansas verse has been gathered in modest volumes, as in Miss Horner's "Songs of Kansas," and the sheaf of verses by members of the State Uni- versity called "Sunflowers." Nearly all has been in the first instance given to the newspapers, and often has received no more permanent form. The tender and graceful poems of the brilliant Josie Hunt, of Kansas, have never ceased their newspaper journey in nearly, or quite forty years. The poems of Richard Eugene Ware. Realf-earliest of Kansas poets, and whose life was a tragedy-were given, with scarcely a thought, to the press. Recently, Richard Realf's friend in the old Kansas days, Colonel Richard J. Hinton, has gathered up the poems from far and wide, and given them to readers in preservable form.
Kansas poetry, so far as it has been affected by Kansas, has reflected the infinite quiet of the great wide land; of the immense blue arch of heaven. When the storm and stress of the first days is remembered, there seems to be little in our verse of the stir of confliet, and the ring of steel, or the gaiety that valor knows. An exception to this rule is preserved in Wilder's "Annals," written by an unknown hand. It will be understood that K. T. are the initials of Kansas Territory. The verses originally appeared in the long deceased periodical, Vanity Fair, in September, 1861.
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K. T. DID.
From her borders, far away, Kansas blows a trumpet call,
Answered by the loud "hurrah" Of her troopers, one and all. 'Knife and pistol, sword and spur!" Cries K. T .-
'Let my troopers all concur, To the old flag, no demur- Follow me!"
Hence the song of jubilee. Platyphillis from the tree, High among the branches hid,
Sings all night so merrily- "K. T. did, She did-she did!"
Thirty-score Jayhawkers bold, Kansas men of strong renown, Rally round the banner old, Casting each his gauntlet down.
Good for Kansas," one and all Cry to her: Riding to her trumpet call, Blithe as to a festival, All concur!
Ilence the revel and the glee, As the chanter from the tree, High among the branches hid,
Sings all night so merrily- "K. T. did, She did-she did!"
514. Other Kansas Contributions. - Kansas has contributed in many ways to what may be called the literature of the country. Many Kansans, going abroad,
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have written books of travel; many books have been written on social questions, mostly embodying "advanced views," but what may be termed the literary bent of the State has been in the direction of sketch writing, news- paper and magazine writing, which, in time, may grow and gather into books. Of course the myriad-minded Shakespeare has been remembered. Kansas has produced Wilder's "Life of Shakespeare" and Randolph's "Trial of Sir John Falstaff." Both treating the great dramatist originally and profitably.
No Kansas author has as yet written a "great" or "standard" work on any subject, for the reason that no Kansas writer has yet found a lifetime to devote to such. A large number of Kansas writers, usually young men and women, are contributors to the leading magazines, reviews and literary journals of the country. The story-teller is the coming man in Kansas; the people will gather about him. Of later years, among those who have attracted attention may be mentioned Edgar W. Howe's "The Story of a Country Town"; the newspaper sketches of Harger, Morgan, Albert Bigelow Paine, and William Allen White. The widest circulation ever attained by the works of a Kansas author, has been by the stories of Rev. Charles M. Sheldon, of Topeka, "In His Steps," and the succeeding volumes have been sold in many thousands, and translated into various modern languages. These books are of a deeply religious character, and are visions of the "good time coming" hoped for. Many of the Kansas men and women are equally facile in prose and verse, and it is remarked that John James Ingalls, whose prose illuminated the old Kansas Magazine and has been an attraction to
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Kansas readers always, has written the most perfect single verse in Kansas literature:
OPPORTUNITY.
Master of human destinies am I;
Fame, love and fortune on my footsteps wait. Cities and field I walk. I penetrate Deserts and seas remote, and, passing by Hovel and mart and palace, soon or late, I knock unbidden once at every gate. If sleeping, wake; if feasting, rise, before I turn away. It is the hour of fate, And they who follow me reach every state Mortals desire, and conquer every foe Save death; but those who hesitate, Condemned to failure, penury and woe, Seek me in vain, and uselessly implore. I answer not and I return no more.
SUMMARY.
1. The printing press first brought to Kansas for Indians.
2. The opening of Kansas Territory was nearly contemporaneous with the advent of the modern daily newspaper.
3. The Territorial period was the subject of remarkable books.
4. Kansas from the first possessed a vigorous, powerful and alert newspaper press.
5. The Kansas Magazine a brilliant literary experiment.
6. Two fountains of Kansas history.
7. The varied efforts of Kansas writers cover largely the field of present interest in poetry and prose, and Kansas and Nature.
APPENDIX.
THE STATE OF KANSAS.
ORIGIN OF NAME, LOCATION OF COUNTY SEAT AND DATE OF ORGANIZATION OF EACH COUNTY .*
Allen .- Organized in 1855. County seat, Iola. Named in honor of Wil- liam Allen, of Ohio, who was for many years a member of the United States Senate from that Common- wealth, and also its Governor. He favored the doctrine of popular sov- ereignty on the opening of the Terri- tory of Kansas to settlement.
Emerald
Greeley
Amiot . . .
Scipio
MO
Harris
Hecla
Glen loch
Sugar Val. .
Mineral
GARNETT
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