Vol. LVIII. No. 2592. 
NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 30, 1899. 
*1 PER YEAR. T 
“What’s the Matter with Kansas? 
SHE HAS CORNED HER PROSPERITY. 
IT PAID TO STAND BY HER. 
The Old Story of Gideon Retold. 
“SNEAKING BACK.”—“They are coming back to 
Kansas, and they’re coming on the run.” That was 
the way Kansas poets talked last year during the 
great revival of Kansas prosperity. This year they 
are bolder than ever, for poets seem to grow fat 
with prosperity. The following sample of their 
verse indicates the way Kansas is getting on her 
feet: 
Fur the sun o’ tardy glory has arisen on the State, 
She is winnin’ reputation most magnificently great! 
She's surprisin’ all creation with her crops o’ wheat 
an’ corn, 
An’ her people are a tootin’ of a loud, triumphant 
horn! 
Seems that Heaven overlooked her fur a while in 
keerless way 
An’ is makin’ restitution in a most prolific play; 
Is a touchin’ up the ranches in the brightest green 
an’ gold. 
An’ they’re sneakin’ back to Kansas like that prodigal 
of old. 
Kansas people have always been good talkers. 
They praise their State, or they curse her in forci¬ 
ble and picturesque language, and eastern people 
have come to think that they swing from one side 
to the other like a weather-vane. Wait till the 
grasshoppers again clip the poet’s wings! 
PRETTY WELL CORNED.—We had a call 
from Wm. H. Barnes, Secretary of the State Horti¬ 
cultural Society, the other day, and he pulled out 
of his pocket the photograph, from which Fig. 254 
was made. It seems that, up and down through 
Kansas, big corn stalks are waving in the breeze 
at all available advertising places. In front of 
railroad stations, along the railroad track, tied to 
the telegraph poles, in restaurants, private offices, 
wherever there is a vacant corner, these big stalks 
stand, telling of the great prosperity that has 
fallen upon the State. This picture was taken in 
Independence, Kansas. The man who stands at 
the foot of the ladder is Geo. E. Barnes, a son of 
the Secretary, while his boy is at the top of the 
ladder showing where the ears hang. The elder 
Mr. Barnes is a New York product. He went West 
and “grew up with the country,” and it remains 
to be seen whether his corn-fed boys and grand¬ 
sons are of as sturdy stock as the old-timers. The 
younger Mr. Barnes had 100 acres of corn; the 
stalks averaged over 14 feet high, many of them 
16. Some of the ears are nine feet from the ground, 
and from 14 to 15 inches in length. The stepladder 
in the picture is six feet high, which gives an 
idea of where the ears hang on the stalk. These 
stalks were not picked for exhibition, as it would 
have been possible to find taller ones in the field. 
The corn crop in Kansas is said to be immense 
this year. In many cases, the wheat was plowed 
up last Spring, and the fields planted to corn. 
Probably this partly accounts for the heavy yield. 
It increases the acreage of corn, and farmers al¬ 
ways put their best work on the wheat field. 
This extra culture and care are sure to tell when 
the wheat fields are plowed and planted to some 
other crop. The greater part of this great growth of 
stalk will be lost for stock feeding. The farmer will 
cut what he thinks he needs, while the rest is left 
standing in the field. Stock will be turned in to eat 
what they like during the Winter, and in the Spring, 
the stalks are plowed under. These Kansas farmers, 
of course, are proud of their immense corn crop, for 
they have the acreage, and produce the yield. We 
can take them down into south Jersey, however, and 
show stalks just as tall, with ears just as high from 
the ground. These Jersey stalks, too, will all be 
saved, and, probably, put into the silo for ensilage. 
OLD BEN DAVIS.—Mr. Barnes is greatly interested 
in horticulture. You might call him an apple crank. 
He says that there are 7,533,358 bearing apple trees 
in the State of Kansas. It makes us thoughtful to be 
told what a large proportion of these apples are of the 
Ben Davis variety. We asked Mr. Barnes if he stood 
by the Ben Davis, as most of the western growers 
do. He said that he would not do so personally. He 
1IOW KANSAS HAS BEEN CORNED. Fig. 254. 
would like to see something better, but at the same 
time, he wanted to go on record as saying that he 
would rather be the originator of the Ben Davis 
apple, than the builder of the Brooklyn Bridge. As 
a fair share of those who cracked their brains over 
the Brooklyn Bridge have gone crazy, perhaps this 
comparison is not as strong as it might be. Mr. 
Barnes says that Ben Davis has led many people to 
put out orchards in Kansas who otherwise would not 
have planted a tree. They were discouraged with 
apple growing, but tough old Ben Davis grew well, 
and got them in the habit of eating apples, and thus 
led them to put out better fruit. Thus it is that the 
Ben Davis has been a pioneer in giving the western 
people a desire for better fruit. • Mr. Barnes is heart¬ 
ily in favor of setting up a monument to the memory 
of the originator of the Ben Davis apple. 
GIDEON’S BAND AGAIN—“Well, what is the mat¬ 
ter with Kansas, anyway?” we asked Mr. Barnes, 
quoting an old familiar question. For answer, he 
preached a little sermon which he has often given in 
horticultural meetings through the State, taking 
for his text the adventure of Gideon with the Mid- 
ianites. We have an idea that this sermon will 
appeal not only to Kansas people, but to the thou¬ 
sands of good-hearted but weak-kneed people who 
are tempted to run away from their home sur¬ 
roundings when things look a little blue. 
“As you will find by reference to your Bible, the 
Midianites used to come down during the night, 
and steal from the Israelites all the grain that 
they had thrashed by hard labor during the day. 
Gideon, an old farmer, while thrashing his grain, 
was using his brain timber in thinking what might 
be done to stop the raids of the Midianites. In 
some mysterious manner, he found that he was 
called to be their liberator from these raids. So, 
like a good citizen, he went down among the Is¬ 
raelites, and talking aloud in the streets, induced 
32,000 men of war to join his ranks, to go out and 
fight the Midianites. The Lord then told him that 
was a large band to do a small work, and that the 
Lord desired a hand in the matter, therefore did 
not need so many men of war. He told Gideon to 
stand before them, and tell all those who were 
afraid, or desired to go home, that they might go; 
22,000 of them went home; 10,000 were still too 
many. The Lord told him to lead his men down to 
the water, and that those who scooped the water 
up with their hands, and wet their parched mouths, 
were the men He wanted, and the rest might be 
dismissed. Gideon did as demanded, and found 
that only 300, the cream of the crowd, were on the 
other side, after drinking by scooping up the water 
with their hands. The fellows who hunted for 
a dry place to kneel down for water, and the men 
who spread their handkerchiefs on the ground, 
being afraid of soiling their clothes, were left be¬ 
hind, and told to go home. 
“Now immediately after the War of the Rebellion, 
75,000 ex-soldiers, the cream of the Federal army, 
went to Kansas, and they told such grand stories 
in the letters they wrote home, that others kept 
coming, and they became too many for the time 
being. So, in ’74, the grasshoppers came down, and 
the weak-kneed and fearful ones went back to their 
wife’s people. Then again prosperity was with 
Kansas, and the grasshoppers were gone, crops 
were magnificent, letters began to come from the 
State telling of the beauties of being a citizen of 
Kansas, and the State began rapidly to fill again. 
Then a cyclone was dropped in here and there 
over the State, and the weak-kneed ones again 
fled. Soon it was found that Kansas had no more 
cyclones than other States, and it began to fill up 
more than ever, even out in the western part of 
the State. The prairies were covered with new 
farms, and the emigrant trains could be seen carrying 
the people far west. Then came two or three years of 
drought, and then a great concourse fled to the East, 
and left—what? The 300 men that scooped the water 
up as they ran—the cream of the crowd—the men 
who would conquer or die. And to-day, Kansas is 
acknowledged as containing a population equal in 
intelligence, culture, refinement, energy and ability, 
to any State on the globe, of its size. She has been 
heard of in the past, and is bound to be heard from 
througnout the future.” 
