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Show THE HAWKEYES. 21 region rich with orchards, white and red with clover- tops, or yellow with heavy- headed grain. Then there was but one railroad across the State; now there are four from the Mississippi to the Missouri all stimulated by the completion of the Union Pacific. Then Iowa had one acre in seventeen under cultivation ; now she has one in ten, and a population of nearly two millions. With less waste land than any other State, except possibly Illinois, Iowa could sustain a population of fifteen millions, not merely in comfort, but in affluence. What American realizes the prospective greatness of that tier of States just west of the Mississippi ? Minnesota has 30,000 square miles of wheat-producing soil; Iowa has more arable land than England; Missouri has more iron, coal, timber and water- power than Prussia ; Arkansas in extent and richness fairly rivals the Kingdom of Italy; and Louisiana, besides her sugar and cotton, runs two State governments, de-cides the presidential election, and has a heavy crop of statesmen to spare. The scarcity of timber through this section had stimulated the inven-tion of substitutes. The chief novelty was wire fence, usually made by fastening three wires on a row of posts with slip cleats. This was only to turn cat-tle; but a fancy article was made with six strands, which rendered it in local parlance " horse- high, bull-strong and p i g-tight." Most of the counties thought it cheaper to forbid pigs run-ning at large. In Missouri and the timbered portions of the border States, I heard this statute denounced in much the ' same terms as the prohibitory liquor law " an invasion of our liberties, sir!" Further north populai sentiment was expressed in the pithy saying: " A man's a hog that ' 11 Let a hog run." Iowa, by an overwhelming majority, had equally prohibited errant hogs and free whisky. Minnesota, when I resided there in 1859, still held many of the traditions of Maine, whence most of the pioneers had come, and had equally condemned the sale of intoxicants. But western manners proved too strong for both States, ' OUR LIBERTIES, SIK ! " |
