the broken recollections of unlettered hunters. The younger generation has followed in the footsteps of the pioneer scientists and scholars. The higher schools of Kansas have been remarkable in the number and attainments of the

young naturalists they have turned out. To young Kansas scholars and students the State is greatly indebted for the study of its climate, its geology, its fauna and flora, its earth and water and air. These have not confined their researches to Kansas, but have explored the neighboring States and Territories and have been especially brave, enduring and intelligent investigators of the Rocky Mountain region. Kansas naturalists have been from the far North to the far South, from the Arctic Circle to the mysterious and overgrown cities of Central America, have threaded the forests of Cuba and the tropical wilds of Yucatan.

SUMMARY.

1. The early explorers and the Government of the United States did not believe Kansas an agricultural country.

2. Successful efforts by man have overcome the difficulties of Nature.

3. The discovery of coal and the growth of forests.

4. The obliteration of the desert and the finding of waters under the earth.

5. Every phase of Nature in Kansas is the object of observation and record.

6. Man in Kansas contends with success against every natural enemy, including insects injurious to agriculture.

CHAPTER XLI.

KANSAS LITERATURE.

503. First Printing.-The first printing press brought to what is now Kansas was for the use of an Indian mission. The first books printed were Indian books. But few copies of these books now exist; the readers long ago departed.

504. Kansas and the Modern Press. The beginnings of the modern daily American newspaper press were almost contemporaneous with the beginnings of civilized and enlightened Kansas. The use of the telegraph, in those days called the "magnetic telegraph," for newspaper work, was, in 1854, becoming general. Power presses were first considered necessary, and another newspaper adjunct, first developed in Kansas Territory, was the "correspondent." Several of the greatest papers of the country maintained "special correspondents" in Kansas. Many of these young men possessed much ability, and made a national reputation, as William A. Phillips, the correspondent of the New York Tribune. Many of these were not merely writers, but doers of the word, and took part in the battles of the Territory.

505. The First Newspapers.-Kansas had newspapers as soon as it had a population. The first newspaper was the Leavenworth Herald. Its first office was the shade of a large elm tree. Lawrence had newspapers very soon after. John and Joseph Speer and George W. Brown

became "toilers of the pen and press" at Lawrence, in October, 1854. The newspapers were all political, either for freedom or slavery. In the case of the Free State papers, their names often indicated their principles, as the Herald of Freedom, or Freedom's Champion. A great deal of talent found its way into Kansas newspaper offices of that early time. Napoleon said that every French soldier carried a marshal's baton in his knapsack; in Kansas, future governors, senators, chieftains and ambassadors carried printer's rules in their pockets.

506. Early Observers. The ferment in Kansas brought to the scene interested observers, writers of present or future eminence; these wrote books about Kansas. Some of these were guide books, some histories, some narratives of personal experience. One of the first writers on territorial Kansas was Rev. Edward Everett Hale, since those days famous in the literary history of the country. Mr. Hale's book was published in 1854, and was entitled "Kanzas and Nebraska: the History, Geographical and Physical Characteristics, and Political Position of Those Territories; an Account of the Emigrant Aid Companies, and Directions to Emigrants." Mr. Hale's publication was not intended as "elegant literature," but to direct Northern emigration to Kansas. Much that was written in the early days and since has been with the same purpose.

507. Some Early Books.-The missionaries who lived and labored in Kansas while it was still Indian country, wrote their books of their charges and their efforts. To these belong the narratives of Isaac McCoy, and Henry Harvey, who wrote a "History of the Shawnee Indians, from the Year 1681 to 1854." The "correspondent," of

whom mention has been made, collected his letters into volumes. Such were G. Douglas Brewerton's "War in Kansas," Mr. Brewerton being a correspondent of the New York Herald, and supposed to be impartial. Other books were not presumed to be neutral in sentiment, as "The Conquest of Kansas by Missouri and Her Allies," by William A. Phillips. Neither could the imputation of lack of feeling be charged upon "Kansas, its Interior and Exterior Life," by Mrs. Sara T. L. Robinson, wife of Governor Charles Robinson. This book ran through six or more editions, and was favorably noticed by the London reviews, and, speaking of British opinion, a very readable book about Kansas was, "The Englishman in Kansas, or Squatter Life and Border Warfare," by Thomas H. Gladstone, a Kansas correspondent of the London Times, and a kinsman of William Ewart Gladstone, England's great statesman. These and many more books were written in and about Kansas in the days of the "troubles," and largely inspired by the "troubles." They are, generally speaking, rare books now. In some cases the "visible supply" of them is reduced to one or two copies, but they were widely read when new, and the events of which they spoke were fresh in the public mind.

The

508. Literature Affected by Environment. cultivation of literature in Kansas was affected by the circumstances surrounding the country. Days of drought and famine; "domestic quarrel" and "foreign levy," Indian raid and border foray were not favorable to the production of books. But through all existed a vigorous and powerful newspaper press; as alert as a sentry on a post dangerous and beset. The pen as well as the sword was

tendered Kansas in the later fifties. In those years there came writers who remained, D. R. Anthony, D. W. Wilder, T. Dwight Thacher, Sol Miller and John A. Martin and others, and thrust in their sickles in the field, where in a way, the pioneer editors, and John Swinton, and Phillips and Albert D. Richardson and Richard J. Hinton, and more had reaped. But these last came to stay," and to leave a permanent impress on the life and literature of the State.

509. The Kansas Magazine.-After the wars were over, and the piping times of peace had come, and the sword had been shaped into a pruning hook, the literary genius of Kansas was mainly devoted, for awhile, to exploiting the resources of the State. Seldom in any country have the efforts of the land agent been more powerfully aided by the pen of the ready writer. Yet it was in these days that appeared the Kansas Magazine, the most brilliant experiment in our literary history. The Kansas Magazine secured a corps of contributors (without money and without price), the larger number of whom were Kansas men and women; and much that was written referred to Kansas. The contributors who secured the largest number of readers were John James Ingalls and "Deane Monahan." Both held their ascendency through the same merit, it might be called charm, their familiarity with the locality, with outward and visible nature. Mr. Ingalls revealed, as it had not been before, the secret of the spell of natural Kansas over the hearts of her children. 'Deane Monahan," (Captain James W. Steele,) had been, before his magazine days, an officer in the regular army of the United States, and had been stationed at posts, and