SEPTEMBER 69 



Muscatine, September 14, 1909. 



Coming- down from tlie northern part of the 

 state a day or two ago, among the evidences of the 

 season observed from the car window were the 

 golden masses of partridge pea, the cutting down 

 of long ranks of corn, the fall ploughing, the 

 gleaming white of a buckwheat field. Approach- 

 ing the river from the west, w^e passed sunflowers, 

 goldenrods, arrowhead, blazing star, the brown 

 heads and foliage of a large cattail swamp — then 

 came the less poetic but characteristic extended 

 watermelon fields, with green or whitish fruit dot- 

 ting the vines so that the total effect of a field sug- 

 gested a flat, gigantic, punctate leaf. 



This town is old for this region, and probably 

 somewhat conservative. It has its share of his- 

 torical interest and natural beauty among the river 

 towns. Some of the old homes here have sent out 

 well-known scholars and writers to the great 

 world. Along the bluffs are some stately man- 

 sions that in site, view, furniture, and mural dec- 

 orations would not shame an old-world aristoc- 

 racy. Eichman closes his interesting essay on 

 ''Mascoutin'' with this imaginative reference to 

 Black Hawk and his great rival: '^Here, doubt- 

 less, on many occasions has he stood upon the 

 commanding heights overlooking Mascoutin island 

 and the Mississippi river, and gazed with awe 

 upon the magnificent and extended prospect. 



