Rippling Rhymes | Page 2

Magazine The Conqueror The Truthful
Merchant . . . . System Magazine Standing Pat . . . . . . . . . Collier's
Magazine The Outcast Ode to Kansas Domestic Happiness . . . . . .
Smart Set Magazine Celebrities . . . . . . . . . Popular Magazine The
Virtuous Editor . . . . . Collier's Weekly This Dismal Age . . . . . . .
Popular Magazine Boost Things The Adventurer . . . . . . . . Popular
Magazine They All Come Back Home Builders Failure and Success
The Open Road . . . . . . . . Popular Magazine The Millionaires Little
Mistakes . . . . . . . System Magazine Easy Morality The
Critic . . . . . . . . . . Harper's Weekly The Old Timer . . . . . . . . Popular
Magazine The Bright Face . . . . . . . The Butler Way Ladies and Gents
Autumn Joys The Land of Bores . . . . . . Smart Set Magazine Skilled
Labor An Editorial Soliloquy . . . . Newspaperdom Youthful
Grievances Sunday John Barleycorn . . . . . . . Collier's Weekly
Christmas Day . . . . . . . . Popular Magazine A Crank's
Thanksgiving . . . . American Magazine The Brief Visit

ILLUSTRATIONS

The Umpire . . . . . . . . . Frontispiece
The Gloomy Fan
The Buccaneers
The Sleeper Wakes
The Conqueror
The Old Timer

MORNING IN KANSAS
There are lands beyond the ocean which are gray beneath their years,
where a hundred generations learned to sow and reap and spin; where
the sons of Shem and Japhet wet the furrow with their tears--and the
noontide is departed, and the night is closing in.
Long ago the shadows lengthened in the lands across the sea, and the
dusk is now enshrouding regions nearer home, alas! There are long
deserted homesteads in this country of the free--but it's morning here in
Kansas, and the dew is on the grass.
It is morning here in Kansas, and the breakfast bell is rung! We are not
yet fairly started on the work we mean to do; we have all the day before
us, for the morning is but young, and there's hope in every zephyr, and
the skies are bright and blue.
It is morning here in Kansas, and the dew is on the sod; as the builders
of an empire it is ours to do our best; with our hands at work in Kansas,
and our faith and trust in God, we shall not be counted idle when the
sun sinks in the West.

EDITORIAL INFLUENCE

It is a solemn thing, to think when you sit down to splatter ink, that
what you write, in prose or verse, may be a blessing or a curse. The
gems of thought that you impart may upward guide some mind and
heart; some youth may read your Smoking Stuff, and say: "That logic's
good enough; the path of virtue must be fine; I'll have no wickedness in
mine." And some day, when you're old and gray, that youth may come
along your way, and say, in language ringing true: "All that I've won I
owe to you! When I was young I read your rot; it hit a most responsive
spot, encouraged me for stress and strife, and made me choose the best
in life." And this will warm your heart and brain; you'll know you have
not lived in vain. But if you write disgusting dope, that thrusts at Truth,
and Faith and Hope; if you apologize for vice, and show that
wickedness is nice, it well may chance, when you are old, and in your
veins the blood runs cold, there'll come your way some dismal wreck,
who'll roast you sore, and cry: "By heck! And also I might say, by gum!
'Twas you that put me on the bum! Your writings got me headed wrong;
you threw it into Virtue strong; and in the prison that you see, I'm
convict No. 23!"

FARM MACHINERY
We have things with cogs and pulleys that will stack and bale the hay,
we have scarecrows automatic that will drive the crows away; we have
riding cultivators, so we may recline at ease, as we travel up the corn
rows, to the tune of haws and gees; we have engines pumping water,
running churns and grinding corn, and one farmer that I know of has a
big steam dinner horn; all of which is very pleasant to reflect upon, I
think, but we need a good contrivance that will teach the calves to
drink.
Now, as in the days of Noah, man