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Union. °«likthe saintikSrt!He starts— BY —LANNK8 G. McMANUS.A WEEKLY REPUBLICAN PAPER OP NEWS.Address all communications toTHE HI.ACK IIIl-L-i UNION, Rapid City, South Dakota.RAPID CITY, S. D., AUG. 14, '03THE CUP AND IT’S DREGS.Last week “Calamity Jane noted detni monde went (o her rest and ever since nearly ery paper in the Black Hills has evoted columns of space telling of her charity, her goodness of heart and her glittering career. Much has been said about this woman that would have better been unsaid. “Let the dead rest” is an old maxim and a good one,but the Union believes in this that purity and virtue of the com ing generation is much more im portant, and holds greater sanctity than the grave of such a character “Calamity Jane’s” whole career was one of wanton waywardness and debauchery. Her home surroundings were no better nor no worse than thousands of girls today who are struggling for a livilyhood that is honorable and virtuous. Calam ity Jane is held up to these girls as a woman who was brave, when a matter of fact she was most cow ardly. To work for an honest living is bravery. The girl who toils and denies herself to secure an educa tion is doing a brave thing. To teach, to clerk, to sew; that one may live a virtuous life; these are brave acts. Could “Calamity Jane lay claim to any such heroism as this? She could not. Her‘-bravery consisted in exposing herself to the perils of pioneer life, so it is said But what were those perils to woman. Was she not guarded and cared for as any woman would be who cast herself into a semi-wild country. Our pioneers were like other men and any man would protect a woman under such cumstances. “Calamity” choose the unknown life of western mining camps not because she was brave but because she was a coward. She had not the “nerve we hear so much of, to apply her self to honest work for an honest living. She was not brave enough to walk the path of virtue so many of our girls are walking today, and she hadn’t the nerve to live a de cent life. The newspapers say she was brave because she cared for sick miners. Thousands of virtuous girls go forth to the battle fields and hospitals and fight dread diseases that are just as contagious as the small pox, which we are told “Calamity Jane” exposed herself te, too aid sick miners. They do not pervade the fact that they do these things because they aretxuly good, because they are noble creatures at heart. They toil for the real love of doing good and not to boast of it.ted Calamity this:This remarkable woman was noted as a deadshot and scout, who dressed and acted as a man. She associated and operated with the most noted scouts and Indian fighters during the early Indian wars of the west; nor was she ever behind them in deeds ol daring and danger, whether on the trail or m camp. Jane now lies beside Wild Bill” Mickock, one ol the squarcst and bravest of western men. The two graves are historical and require constant pro'.ection from relic hunter.-'.Ask the honest pioneer what Jane was famous for and he will tell you she was noted for the amount of bad whiskey she could getaway with and for being so low and debased that she was fit company only for dogs. Her noble escort, Wild Bill'very was amounte bank, a “tinhorn” gambler, a good for nothing lout whose handsome person and cleverness at murdering innocent people gained him some dime novel notoriety.These are the sort of scum that are held up to our girls and boys as being noble-hearted and heroic men and women whom unavoidable circumstances compelled to adopt the lives they lived. What rank falsehood! What puerile and nauseating stuffgreat pract Th rearii take to thlt; daugl perso the 1 tural utmo all ac possi study shoul incre line Th the e eis o schoi lecte have the t that longlt; the c to seOne would really think to read our press lately that the lives of our “Calamity Janes were enjoyable ones; that these people are free from cares and trouble and above all, free lrom work. Never was there a more rank misrepresentation; never was there anything more false or foolish. Thetinsel, the flashing jewel,the jaunty flimsy screen that hides the mosthorrid and debased condition that one can immagine. Their only moments of enjoyment are when the wine cup or the opiate makes them forget the life they lead. Their finery is ill begotten and ill begotten things are ever unwholesome and unsatisfactory. To paint such a life in any other than Jts true color is not only false and foolish, but liable to result in untold misery to those who may be easily deceived.The worst sample of the silly slush being published just now about Calamity is from the pen of gome water-brained ninny by the aame of George Walter Hale, of Central, who is so. overcome with “hero worship he must dedicate an alleged poem to the memory ofAGRICULTURAL COLLEGEHow many people in South Dakota realize the importance of Agricultural college to the chief industry of this state says the Argns-Leader. How many realize that this institution maintains an experiment station which has for years been watching closely the conditions of our climate and soil and the adaptability of certain profit bringing grains and other plants to it? How many realize that the college studies constantly the best possible way to make the largest possible profit out of the soil under South Dakota conditions and spends thousands of dollars annually in the interest of making farming more and more profitable to our people?How many people know that every winter, at the time when farming is dull scores of farmers and farmers’ boys attend this institution. hear tne lectures, see the experiments, learn the improved methods and thus fit themselves to make their broad acres produce more wealth for their labor? And how many farmers know that they can attend these winter sessions and learn ways which will be worth thousands of dollars to them?South Dakota is an agricultural state. The entire base of our prosperity depends upon the amount of product we can induce our prairies to yield. A general improvement in farming methods, a general increase in the yield per acre of the staple products, the introduction of new profit bringing plants and the acclimatixation of old ones, is a matter which appeals to *very single person living within the confines of our territory. And it is precisely, to bring about this improvement in method, this increase in yield, this introduction of more profitable crops that the agricultur-a colleg e is founded. That it has been a great success no one who is familiar with its graduates can doubt. That it would be a still greater success is equally beyond question. And that the best way to make it a greater influence for good in the community is to in • crease the attendance is quite as clear.South Dakota farmers ought to take more interest in this institution. They ought to investigate its equipment, its faculty, its actual work. They ought to ponder the question whether they cannot make it directly useful to themselves. They ought to consider whether it will not pay to send their boys and girs :o attend the winter sessions, to pick up the most improved methods, to study th* experiments with new crops and with the way to increase old ones. The classes are taught by men who have long made a practical study of farming, who have made a thorough exhaustive examination of the soils and the varying climate of South Dakota, who have experienced with various grains and grasses and know which ones will thrive best under our conditions. These men speak from practical experience and their teachings are of theA. ord: tribi drafl extc, caus tion, is a: men Ft mak Tha the 1 be p they orad as d do c hare also and hinc qual mak fortl cut whii the A ing est ; the mak in d that on t Thi hau In c cenl met A wag of d surf to n Thi: line will if di ing this It do r roat ally has an i dral clini as tl leas T the war a gc lead a wl the low roat beir the the for pre part
Newspaper Details
The Black Hills Union
Rapid City, South Dakota, US
Fri, Aug 14, 1903
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Joplin P.
MO, USA 14 Mar 2024
Other Publications Near Rapid City, South Dakota
Rapid City The Spectator
The Black Hills Union and Western Stock Review
The Black Hills Union
