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Land of the Burnt Thigh By: Edith Eudora Kohl (1884-) |
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by EDITH EUDORA KOHL Drawings by Stephen J. Voorhies New York, London, Funk & Wagnalls Co., 1938.
TO
THE MEMORY OF
IDA MARY CONTENTS
A Word of Explanation xxxiii I A Shack on the Prairie 1 II Down to Grass Roots 16 III "Any Fool Can Set Type" 36 IV The Biggest Lottery in History 46 V No Place for Clinging Vines 64 VI "Utopia" 83 VII Building Empires Overnight 99 VIII Easy as Falling Off a Log 120 IX The Opening of the Rosebud 143 X The Harvest 164 XI The Big Blizzard 185 XII A New America 199 XIII The Thirsty Land 214 XIV The Land of the Burnt Thigh 238 XV Up in Smoke 253 XVI Fallowed Land 268 XVII New Trails 282 [Illustration]
A WORD OF EXPLANATION
I have not attempted in this book to write an autobiography. This is
not my story it is the story of the people, the present day pioneers,
who settled on that part of the public lands called the Great American
Desert, and wrested a living from it at a personal cost of privation and
suffering. Today there is an infinite deal of talk about dust bowls, of prairie
grass which should never have been plowed under for farming, of land
which should be abandoned. Yet much of this is the land which during the
crucial years of the war was the grain producing section of the United
States. Regiments of men have marched to war with drums beating and
flags flying, but the regiments who marched into the desert, and faced
fire and thirst, and cold and hunger, and who stayed to build up a new
section of the country, a huge empire in the West, have been ignored,
and their problems largely misunderstood. The history of the homesteaders is paradoxical, beginning as it does in
the spirit of a great gamble, with the government lotteries with land as
the stakes, and developing in a close knit spirit of mutual
helpfulness. My own part in so tremendous a migration of a people was naturally a
slight one, but for me it has been a rewarding adventure, leading men
and women onto the land, then against organized interests, and finally
into the widespread use of cooperative methods. Most of that story
belongs beyond the confines of the present book. Over thousands of acres today in the West men and women are still
fighting to control that last frontier, and wherever there are farmers,
the methods of cooperation will spread for decades. It is a good fight.
I hope I shall be in it. E. E. K. LAND
OF THE
BURNT
THIGH [Illustration]
I A SHACK ON THE PRAIRIE
At sunset we came up out of the draw to the crest of the ridge. Perched
on the high seat of the old spring wagon, we looked into a desolate land
which reached to the horizon on every side. Prairie which had lain
untouched since the Creation save for buffalo and roving bands of
Indians, its brown grass scorched and crackling from the sun. No trees
to break the endless monotony or to provide a moment's respite from the
sun. The driver, sitting stooped over on the front seat, half asleep,
straightened up and looked around, sizing up the vacant prairie. "Well," he announced, "I reckon this might be it." But this couldn't be it. There was nothing but space, and sun baked
plains, and the sun blazing down on our heads... Continue reading book >>
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