Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 57, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 March 1907 — THE PEACEFUL KANKAKEE. [ARTICLE]

THE PEACEFUL KANKAKEE.

Where the Cheerful Bullfrog Croaks in Ghoulish Glee. During the debate in the legislature ou the pas a age of the bill to buy the old homestead of William Henry Harrison, there was .a clash of oratory between those representatives who were moved by semi ment and those who were guideo more by commercialism. The representative from Miami county got off a great speech telling of the noble red men who roamed the forests of his county when Repre sentative Kelley of Knox perpetrSted the following: “I look upon this bill as a good one,” he said. must admit chat I come from a country where semi ment is not despised, where something more than commercialism fills our thoughts and guides our ac tions. “I do not come from the land of the Mi amis, wheie Chief Godfrey was wont to sit at eventide by the side of nis dusky squaw nd gloat over the scalps of white men, taken during the day. “I come from near the placid waters of the peaceful Kankakee, where the cheerful bull frog croaks in ghoulish glee. I come from the land of ditches and of of pretty girls and husky swains. The land where by day the wheat locks the golden sun shine within its bearded sheaf, and by night the corn ripens beneath the stars. Where in the same field the clover sips the fragrance off the wind, and the catnip catches the quick aroma of the rain. Where the silks hang from the ends of the long ears of corn like whiskers ou the the lace of a Kansas Populist legislator. Where the wire grass, touched I y the gentle zephyrs make sweet melody for the Indian sleepers for all the days and nights that are to come and go.” Despite this poetical effort of Repres ntative Kelley the bill was lost by a vote of 42 to 41.